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I am Bobbi Mitchell and I am a freshman 101 teacher and I am Leah McLean
and I am a freshman 101 teacher and a guidance councelor. I am also a JMG specialist
and assistant princepal. We are going to answer some questions about our
Freshman 101 program. The name of our program is Freshman 101.
We have been doing it for about 8 yrs now. Its a introductory transition class
for all entering freshman. Its required to take, not required to pass.
The structure is Mrs.McLean and I team teach the class of all freshman of all abilities
in one class together with disabilities and without. We provide projects and activities to help students
transition from elementary school to high school so our focus is on team building,
study skills, learning about themselves and how does that work into their high school curriculum.
We use lots of different types of assessments to help them with that. We do a
modified Myers Briggs with them it's not technically a Myers Briggs it's a personality profile that
helps them to see what type of personality they are. We do a value sort, a career intrest inventory
and learning styles so they have all that information about who they are as people.
We also do career prep work where they do journal entries based on given topics and create
a letter of introduction, a resume and a portfolio. In between all this we do some writing prompts
with them so they get used to writing because that is such a large part of our curriculum.
I guess that is the sum total of it. We have done evaluations with the students we have asked them
what they think, kinda like a student survey to find out whether they liked the class or not.
Our future goals for the class are trying to bring a community service component to it
and hopefully with the portfolios be able to have them continue with them through out their
high school career. The final assessment of the course students are interviewed by
either Mrs. McLean, myself, the princepal and other staff member and they have to explain
there journey through the first trimester of their high school career. So far we do feel that
it's successful. We have had a lot of other high schools model our program
so we know that it is of interest to schools, that they start this because it is
one of the transition stages as is leaving high school into college.
We believe it has been successful because we have 7 sending schools it really helps the kids
get to know each other very well and build relationships. Through the years there have been
different people who have taught the course it depends on the group of students.
The princepal has even taught the course at times. It's pretty flexible in the ways things are run
I think the kids get a lot out of it. I as a guidance councelor have found it to be extremly beneficial
because sometimes I can be in my office so much that I don't get to know the kids and a this
has helped me develop relationships which before were very hard to develop becasue I
would only see them sporadically, even though its only 12 weeks the kids get to know me
I get to know them and we relate on an entirely different level so I love doing this
and I would like to continue doing this. I think you feel the same way about it. Oh absolutly.
We really do bond with the kids. It's really interesting. This is my second year doing this
I can see within each of the classes how they relate to me differently. Generally I don't get to
really know them until they're a senior so this is really good. I really encourage it for
guidance councelors (high school). If you have any questions or want more information
give us a call or get our emails that are listed on our website at www.shed.org
www.shed.org