From the Desk of the Middle School Director - 2

I hope you found last month’s message from me to be informative and will look forward to these monthly communications. I always welcome your feedback regarding life at the Middle School. The first month of school is usually pretty wild as students and teachers work together to establish a normal routine and expectations of life at Darlington. I’m happy to say that I think we’re there!

Our fall athletic programs are winding down and winter sports are gearing up. Our teams have been extremely successful this fall. Both the volleyball and softball teams ended their seasons on a positive note. Cross country finished up by winning both the boys’ and girls’ championships. Our competition cheerleaders have also done extremely well, and our football team will play Cedartown tonight for the championship. Hats off to all of our coaches and athletes!

We finished our first round of STAR Reading and Math testing. This testing gives us a quick snapshot of grade equivalency. We compare this data with the students’ ERB testing, looking for areas of deficiency so we can be proactive in administering intervention strategies. We have identified the students who need extra support, and Learning Specialist Lisa Goldin is meeting daily with these students, using Study Island as an alternative resource of instruction.

Study Island is a leading provider of online, standards-based assessment, instruction, practice and test preparation software programs for K-12 students. Since its founding in 2000, Study Island has provided schools with the most practical and effective web-based learning programs available. The program is web-based, state standards-based and research based. It is used by over a million students in thousands of schools across the U.S. All of our students at Darlington have access to this website and are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this free program. Please feel free to contact Lisa Goldin directly if you would like more information.

The Middle School faculty has started reading Peter Gow’s The Intentional Teacher; Forging a Great Career in the Independent Classroom. This book study is helping us learn more about adolescent behavior and the emotional, physical, psychological and intellectual challenges our students face. We all know that this is an unpredictable but fascinating time in their lives. I’ll forward more to you as we move through the book together.

In closing, I want to reiterate that your feedback is important to me. It’s important we build a strong learning community and we can’t do it without you. Also, I welcome you to share with me some ideas of what you might like to see included in these letters. Please call or stop by at any point.