Meeting our School: Holt Junior High

1. Meeting our School:Holt Junior High Nikki Harrison Liz Ferry TE407

2. Mission Statement • Our mission is to ensure a safe learning community where students are challenged to expand their intellectual, emotional, and social capacities to become global citizens. We will guide students toward this goal by expecting students to be respectful, hard-working and active participants to become life long learners. All members of our school community will be responsible for modeling positive behavior, supporting one another, and committing themselves to doing “Whatever It Takes” to succeed.

3. Atmosphere • Carpet • Some posters & student work on hall walls • Different shades of blue, some brick, some beige (walls) • Common area with large plants, lots of sunlight • Benches in some halls • Large lockers (shared by two students) • Small upstairs area

4. Additional Rooms • Average cafeteria • Library with plenty of computers • Gym • Pool • Auditorium

5. Support Services • Guidance counselors • At risk counselor: deals with students with SES issues • Truancy counselor • Intern: works with assigned groups • Discipline handled in different office

6. Counselors & FL Programs • Spanish, German, French: all full-year programs (HJH is on a trimester schedule) • Encourage foreign language classes, although not yet a requirement at the junior high level • Not enough room for all students in FL classes (especially Spanish) • 7th graders must achieve a “C” or better in Keyboarding before taking FL class • For new students, counselors review their former English grades to determine possible FL potential before encouraging them to enroll in FL class

7. The Student Body • 933 students: 453 8th graders, 480 7th graders • Drop-out rate/percentage attending college unknown (as it is the junior high level)

8. Cultural Make-Up

9. Economic Make-Up

10. Mentor Classroom • Organized to facilitate student learning • Desks are placed in curved rows facing the front of the classroom. • Seating chart! Made by the teacher and is designed so that seats are boy-girl-boy-girl. This creates less chatting among boys and girls. • Wall/bulletin decor emphasizes and enhances learning. • Clean!!!

11. Mentor Classroom • Classroom is very warm and fun! • Posters on the walls (cultural, the alphabet, phrases) • Maps of Spanish speaking countries. • Bulletin Boards filled with color. • World Flags hung from the ceiling. • Technology • ELMO • SMART BOARD • TELEVISION

12. Interview with Mentor Teacher • Stephanie Barish, 8th grade Spanish I • Why she is an FL teacher: because it is different and she can show students something they have not seen before • Travel experience: Backpacking through Europe and the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico); Barcelona, Spain during the time of the 1992 Olympic Games, trip with students to Yucatan Peninsula

13. Interview with Stephanie • Does she teach the same way she was taught? • Yes; her classes were interesting, with a lot of group work and hands-on experiences • How has her teaching changed over the years? • It hasn’t much; she has fine-tuned her teaching, adding some more of the communicative approach. Some years are better than others for this.

14. Interview with Stephanie • Teaching style and skills emphasized • Role = facilitator • Emphasizes all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing

15. The End/El Fin