When approximately 465 students walk through the doors to start class this year at the James E. Bazzell Middle School, a new assistant principal and a new class period will be the primary changes.
“We are very excited to have Jon Porter joining us as assistant principal,” Bazzell Middle School principal Melissa Towery said. “Mr. Porter comes to us from South Warren Middle School where he was the school’s band director.”
Bazzell students will have a new time period at the start of the day---a time to prepare for the day ahead.
“We will still have a seven period schedule but we will be starting the day off with Pride Time,” Towery explained. “That will be a 25 minute time period at the start of the day during which the kids go to the same class each day as they come out of the gym. It will be a time for the kids to see what they need to do, get organized, and get their thoughts together. We will do morning announcements during that time. We will also do some instruction on test-taking skills and things like getting organized which is a big thing for middle school kids. This will also be a check-and-connect period with their teacher. The same teacher will also finish the day with the same students.”
Pride Time will also be used for special presentations to the students---presentations like the one developed by students and teachers last year which centered around the issue of bullying in school.
“Last year, we had a wonderful group of students and teachers that developed what we called NBA, the No-Bullying Association,” Towery noted. “Last year, we developed some great videos talking about empathy and dealing with conflict. We will show the videos and talk about things like this in Pride Time. I also hoping this will be a time when we can do some character developing and not take away core-content time. I think this will be good for the kids.”
The Pride-Time in the morning will be paired with a 25-minute study time at the end of the day---similar to the seventh period study time from previous years except cut in half to accommodate Pride Time to start the day. In-between will be the school’s regular six, 50-minute periods.
In terms of staff changes, only one new teacher will be coming to the school. Megan Puckett will be teaching choir, spending most of the day at the school as well as time at the high school.
Towery notes that her teachers will continue to work on literacy strategies with the students. In addition, the science teachers will be working with new teaching standards however the students will not be assessed by the standards this year.
“The state department is giving science teachers a year to develop their standards before assessing the kids,” Towery added.
Bazzell teachers---like all teachers in the district---will be evaluated on the new Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES). However, nine teachers at the school have already experienced the PGES program.
“We were a pilot school for this last year,” Towery said. “The framework is a good thing. There is a lot to this and we are still learning.”
The middle school will have a seventh grade orientation/open house on Tuesday, July 29 starting at 6 p.m. in the gym. The orientation will be a time for incoming students to get acquainted with the school, pick-up schedules and meet teachers. Eighth-grade open house will start at 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 31 in the gym. Eighth graders and parents will not only have an opportunity to meet teachers but also hear a little about what the school does to help students begin to think about college and career goals.
“Typically after your eighth grade year you can start to guide your education track,” Towery said. “Yes, there are classes the students have to take but they will get a little more of a choice. So we want to start getting the kids thinking about what direction they might be leaning toward.”
Towery pointed out that middle school counselor Pat Jackson will continue to work with eighth graders on establishing a basic college and career foundation.
“Mrs. Jackson will use ILP’s (Individual Learning Plans) and student interest inventory’s to gage what direction the students thinks they might life to go,” Towery said. “We also give the eighth graders the opportunities to go over and see what the high school and Tech Center offers. Every year we do mini field trips in which students learn about the career clusters at the Tech Center. We also have guest speakers with Operation Preparation and the Reality Store to get the eighth graders to start thinking about real life.”
School will begin at the middle school on the morning of August 6.