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Advisement

What is Advisement?

  • It is the first class of the day for all of our students every day.
  • It is a chance for them to build relationships with staff and other kids.
  • It is a chance for us to build the culture of our building stressing key elements that we have identified.  These elements are called the High Five.

 

What are The High Five?

We have identified The High Five as being critical to our journey through middle school.  They help us define how we should act, what lens we need to use to see our place in the school, be our guide as to how we should treat each other, and how to be fellow travelers on this Earth.  They are…

  • Respect
  • Responsibility
  • Commitment
  • Compassion
  • Integrity

 

To support our work on The High Five we work on the following.

  • Anti-bullying - Our world is mean enough and we are not going to stand for it.  We use the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program as the basis of what we do. Being good to each other is big in The High Five.
  • SEL - Social Emotional Learning - We will take the time to incorporate elements of social-emotional learning that help our kids practice The High Five.
  • Check-ins - We take some time each week to check in with the kids as people not just students.  When we see each other as humans it is easier to live The High Five.
  • Character Education - We do some character education activities and lessons that help us foster The High Five
  • Goal Setting - We work on setting academic goals and help them build plans to achieve them as well.  Owning it and doing it help us live The High Five.
  • Flex Time for additional homework and academic support is also offered.
  • Regular old fun and silliness - Because they are still little kids and fun matters. Fun and silliness give us a place to practice the soft side of  The High Five.

 

It is also where we do lots of “business type” things with the kids.

  • Do the daily announcements
  • Collect permission slips
  • Sign up for Exploratory Courses
  • And a dozen other odds and ends.

 

All the grade level teams have been charged with making this work for them inside of these parameters.  Our dedicated and caring staff work to model what we are after.  Grade six will not look like Grade 8 because a sixth grader is not an eighth-grader.   They are different, but they bind us as a group and give us the direction that makes us who we are.