Forced to deal with a quickly growing township, the school district is restructuring middle schools, and the two new units are the start of the process.
By: Stacey Gorski
"I just wanted to be one of the first people. You know we’re the originators," said eighth-grader Dwayne Amos.
"Yeah," said Chelsea Lepore, a fellow eighth-grader, "I like that the originators."
These students are not part of a newly formed rock band or a new championship wrestling tag team pair. Instead, they are some of the first members of the Crossroad School’s newly formed Rho Unit, which functions with another new unit named Tau, a group which has equally excited members.
Lisa Steenstra of the Tau unit, said, "Our teachers are so good. Mr. (Steve) Matsumoto makes math so much fun."
"Yeah," said B.J. Wilson, also from Tau, before Lisa could go any further, "He teaches that it’s OK to be silly sometimes. He tells us, ‘Just play along.’ "
These are just a few of the students excited about the creation of two new units at Crossroads this year.
Forced to deal with a quickly growing township, the school district is restructuring middle schools, and the two new units are the start of the process. Next year, the current seventh-graders in Rho and Tau will be part of the new Crossroads South next year.
As seventh-graders, Crossroads students are placed into a "unit" named for a Greek letter, and they usually will stay with that unit for both their seventh- and eighth-grade years.
Crossroads has 10 units, each composed of about 125 seventh- and eighth- grade students. The students in each unit are mixed together for traditional academic classes, and the material is taught on a two-year cycle so that the students will not repeat lessons. Students gain a strong sense of pride and unity within their group of 125 students, teachers say.
Last school year, the seventh-graders were asked if they would leave their units to help start two entirely new ones.
A large number were more than willing to make the change, which meant new teachers, different friends and a strange schedule.
"My mom, who works at the school, told me about the new units and that they (school officials) were looking for students who show leadership," said Chelsea. "I figured I would be willing to go."
Several other students were excited to leave their own units in order to get a new start.
"I wanted new teachers," said Lydia Pirilli. "I try to see my other friends before or after school. Plus, I got lucky because two of my friends are in the new unit."
The biggest change for the members of Tau and Rho is the schedule. The change is part of an "action research" project, where new educational ideas are tested in real classrooms.
According to Susan Winstanley, the staff aid for curriculum and instruction, if the test goes well and the new schedule balances the needs of students and teachers, then the schedule, or a similar adaptation of it, could be put into action as soon as next year.
So far, the schedule seems to be passing the test with flying colors. The teachers have dubbed it a "tetris" schedule because the "blocks," or specified class time for a particular subject, move each day.
For example, a student may have math right after lunch on Monday, but on Friday, math might be scheduled for the last period of the day.
The rest of the school, however, has a regular block schedule: math meets at the same time every day, as does every other subject.
Tau and Rho’s new schedule also allows for longer class periods because only four of the five academic classes meet for 60 minutes on a given school day.
Anna Liptak, a science teacher for the Rho unit, said, "I have been asking for longer classes. It gives us time to do more labs."
Students have already noticed a difference.
"We’ve already done a bunch more experiments this year than we did last year," said Chelsea.
Literature teacher Rebecca Lindsay says she likes the new schedule because she can incorporate silent reading time, and she has time to complete the other activities for that lesson.
The teachers like the schedule because it keeps them on their toes; they have to be organized, and the schedule keeps them fresh because they are not teaching the same lesson five times in one day. Because only four classes meet each day, teacher’s schedules vary, and everything is not quite so routine.
Ms. Winstanley said teachers in the new units were selected for their energy and strong connections with the students. "Several of the teachers have students that had grown attached to them and made the move from the old unit to the new one to be with that teacher," Ms. Winstanley said.
The energy level of the teachers in both units was evidenced when they took it upon themselves to have "Meet and Greet," in August. The event was actually a two-morning affair, with one 9 a.m. to noon session for Tau students and teachers and the other dedicated to members of Rho.
The goal of the event was to build "a base of familiarity." Students engaged in trust activities and name games to get to know one another and their teachers. The main result was a feeling of closeness between teachers and students that will last at least the year, if not a lifetime.
"We have great young teachers that we can relate to," said Logan Roquemore, from Tau, "They make learning fun."