Mountaineer Middle School

1. Mountaineer Middle School A Developmentally Responsive Middle School By: Heather Lowman, David Melton, Andrew Samuels and Tina Smith

2. Philosophy and Mission Statement: Mountaineer Middle School is a community learning institution for students in grades 6 through 8 staffed with teachers who are highly qualified to teach young adolescents. The instruction of our students will be done in a safe, family friendly, and community supported environment that is academically challenging, socially equitable, and developmentally responsive.

3. Essential Attributes and Characteristics • Developmentally Responsive • Challenging • Empowering • Equitable

4. Organizational Components • Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment • Leadership and Organization • Culture and Community

5. Grade Organization Pattern • A time of unprecedented physical changes. • Cognitive growth. • Young adolescents develop multiple ideas and can carry out their own activities for learning and moral responsibility. • The importance of peer acceptance.

6. Interdisciplinary Team Organization • Interdisciplinary team of four teachers: Math, Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. • Teams will have a common planning time each day collaborating across teaching specialties and sharing responsibilities for academic development, student advocacy, and student interest.

7. Flexible Block Scheduling

8. Advisory Program Advisory Programs organize teacher-advisors, students, and parents in a three-way partnership in order to help middle level students cope with complex personal, emotional, academic, and social issues of life. Advisory will meet Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 8:30. Schedule of Activities • Day One: Career Day • Day Two: Game Day • Day Three: Hobbies Day • Day Four: Video/Media/Music Day • Day Five: Community Service and Adolescence Issues Day

9. Support Personnel • Administrators • Office Staff • Core and Non-Core Teachers • Media Coordinator • Instructional Facilitator • Guidance counselors • School Psychologist • Speech and Hearing Impaired Staff • Safety Officers • Related Exceptional Children Services • On-Site School Nurse

10. School Curriculum • Core classes are Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies • Core classes and Enrichment classes meet for 65 minutes each day • Core classes standards are taken from the Common Core N.C Essential Standards • Homeroom and Advisory will begin the day for 30 minutes each day

11. Core Studies Core subjects in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades are: • LanguageArts • Math • Science • Social Studies

12. Studies Beyond The Core Mountaineer Middle School acknowledges the value the related arts, we offer the following for the growth of our students: • Health and Physical Education • Media and Technology Education: 21st Century Skills • Foreign Languages: Spanish and German • Music: Band and Chorus • Art: Visual and graphic arts • Clubs: Beta, Spanish, Chess, Debate, Drama clubs, Student Council • Exploratory Classes: Yoga, Cake Making and Decorating, Music Appreciation 101, Reelin’ & Rollin’ Skating • Interscholastic Sports: Football, baseball, softball, basketball, soccer, volleyball, cheerleading, and cross country track

13. Instructional Strategies • Relevant • Integrative • Challenging E. Exploratory • Integrated Studies • 21st Century Skills • Collaborative learning environments • Required Professional Staff Development throughout the school year

14. Instructional Grouping MMS will participate in interdisciplinary teaming of students and teachers. Groups will have teams that include teachers, students of four core curriculum subjects. Each team will include approximately 20 studentsTeams will include students and teachers with diverse abilities and backgrounds. • Teams will include students and teachers will diverse abilities and backgrounds • Teams welcome student input and incorporate student interests • Teams develop instruction to meet local, state and national middle level standards • Teams meet with students and parents as a unit • Teams group and regroup based on students needs, and for best instructional methods • Teams help students build ownership in their education • Teams put students first, and the welfare of the students guides all decisions and actions

15. Exceptional Learning • MMS accommodates the needs of all learners. Identified exceptional learners will be placed with the appropriate services in accordance to their 504 plan or Individualized Education Plan (IEP). • Learning Disabilities • Emotional and Behavioral Disorders • Speech and Language Disorders • Developmental Disabilities • Intellectual Disabilities • Sensor Impairments • Academically and Intelligently Gifted

16. Families and Community Supporting Students Mountaineer Middle School will promote home-school partnerships that will actively involve the families. • Newsletters • Progress Reports • Report Cards • Parent-Teacher Conferences • School and Class Websites Our school will partner with local businesses to provide new and exciting learning opportunities. • Field Trips • Guest Speakers

17. Families and Community Supporting MMS • Our school is an inviting, safe place that has a supportive community that promotes an in-depth learning environment that enhances both the students' physical and emotional well-being. • Research shows that it takes more than just a school alone to educate children; it takes the fundamental components of family and community involvement as well. Mountaineer Middle School demonstrates all the outstanding fundamentals, and commitment as being a developmentally responsive middle school that is relevant, challenging, integrative and exploratory.

18. Works Referenced Jackson, Anthony, Gayle Andrews Davis, Maud Abeel, and Anne Bordonaro. Turning points 2000: educating adolescents in the 21st century. New York: Teachers College Press, 2000. Print. Powell, Sara Davis. Introduction to Middle School. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall, 2005. Print. This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents. Westerville, OH: Association for Middle Level Education, 2010. Print.