MILLSTONE — Christopher Huss, the principal of the Millstone Township Middle School, believes students will find a revamped electives program to be an exciting change when doors open on Sept. 3 for the first day of school.
Seventh and eighth grade students will now be allowed to match electives to their interests more than ever under the new plan.
In the past, seventh and eighth grade students were permitted to choose two related arts courses per year. The new program allows students to choose four classes per year and the courses are updated to offer more challenging and engaging classes, Huss said.
“The new elective program has been met with great enthusiasm. Staff, parents and students all have been on board since its introduction,” the principal said. “We have not compiled all of the numbers yet, but I do not anticipate the costs to be far beyond what we were offering in previous years.”
Revamping the elective program involved hiring one additional staff member to assist with drama-related classes. However, most of the new courses were created by existing staff members who drew upon their knowledge base and interests to design the new classes, according to Huss.
An assessment of the changes will be conducted during the 2015-16 school year. Findings will be shared at school board meetings in the spring of 2016, Huss said.
During the 2014-15 school year, teachers began creating the new courses and the pupils made their selections. The students will begin participating in the new courses next week, according to the principal.
Teachers were asked to think about new enrichment courses they could offer students and ways to schedule classes to make these fit into the school day. Throughout the rest of the 2014-15 school year, as well as this summer, a great deal of work was completed by administrators, Huss said.
The most popular electives were those related to drama and the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), Huss said. Courses include Playwriting, Robotics, Computer Programming and Musical Theater.
Elective programs have been shown to increase student engagement and interest in schools for decades, Huss said.
“This is something many parents, students, staff members and administrators recently acknowledged and put forth the effort to implement them in our school,” he said. “The success of the program has already been partly measured by the high level of interest and excitement the students exhibited during the rollout phase and selection process.”