Pleasant Hill Middle School is helping all students develop the world-class skills and life and career characteristics of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by focusing on an education that is centered on students’ academic, social and emotional growth. The students and teachers are challenged to be self-directed critical thinkers and deep learners who are collaboratively connected to each other and their community.
World-class knowledge: PHMS has a proud history of academic excellence. The teachers are dedicated and focused on the success of each student, even through the high levels of changes this year, especially in the instructional delivery models of virtual, hybrid, and face-to-face learning opportunities. They worked to improve their instruction by attending weekly professional development sessions where they discussed methodologies, examined data progress and participated in book studies, including the school-wide study of The Distance Learning Playbook that supported growth in digital learning practices, as well as social-emotional supports for students both inside and outside of the school building. Teachers were organized into collaborative teams designed to support students and create a school-within-a-school environment.
The teacher-leadership team worked collaboratively to name instructional and communication consistencies that resulted in a more uniform use of the district’s learning management system, Schoology. Teachers communicated daily classroom agendas and instructional resources through information and links posted on each class’ Week-at-a-Glance - or WAAG - slides. Students quickly became adept at the use of Schoology and the WAAG because of this consistent practice, which supported students to get to their work whether they were in class or at home.
Teachers continued their work this year with disciplinary literacy, and the implementation of reading and writing curriculum improvements. Teachers implemented text-based and discussion protocols across multiple disciplines that enabled students to collaborate and to analyze text critically. Both in-person and online opportunities connected students and teachers through these protocols.
To continue monitoring student progress in reading and writing, the school utilized more online formative assessments to provide immediate feedback. These assessments were conducted on Schoology, Kahoot, Quizlet, Quizalize and other online platforms. Analyzing the data from these assessments impacted instructional decisions to ensure continual progress for all students.
World-class skills: PHMS focuses on helping students become skilled in the areas of critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. This is accomplished through core curriculum, as well as the innovative classes such as Musical Theatre, Yearbook, STEM Academy, and Adventure Education where those skills are taught through real-world, relevant instructional strategies.
Students are given multiple opportunities for personalized learning. While all students are required to be enrolled in math, science, ELA and Social Studies, PHMS students selected their world language and related arts classes. This selection process allows students to identify which classes will contribute to developing their own talents. World languages offered at PHMS include Spanish, French and German. Students then chose dance, drama, visual arts, chorus, orchestra, band, PE, Adventure Education, STEM and creative writing for their exploratory and performing arts classes.
Our Faculty and Student Lighthouse teams continued to collaborate, writing curriculum for the LEAD program, a middle school version of FranklinCovey’s The Leader in Me program, which is designed to create a culture of student empowerment where every child can be a leader. Since all stakeholders were faced with incredible challenges this year, having LEAD as a soft place for students to land became an important opportunity for students to learn about and to practice the 7 Habits that are a focus of the real-world skills we know students will need as they move forward in school and in life.
Life and career characteristics: PHMS has school structures and traditions in place that ensure every student, regardless of circumstance, advances on time, prepared to graduate and ready to enter college, the military or industry with certification. Since we were limited in our ability to have large gatherings this year, we celebrated school and students successes through our daily Zoom announcements. We were also allowed to continue to support students through our athletic teams. The school continued to use its Arts in Basic Curriculum grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission to provide students with performing arts experience, including the opportunity for musical theatre students to perform in a filmed version of The Lion King, Jr. that allowed for a broad audience to see their performances. As an ABC Grant Award-winning school, the arts programs have flourished to expand arts incorporation in many core classes.
Students were regularly reminded to follow the three C’s of being a PHMS Cougar: Be Committed; Be Caring; and Be Courageous. We firmly believe that these ideals serve as the foundation for students’ success in school and their development as leaders of our future. PHMS could not be prouder of our students, faculty, staff and community who lived these ideals in a powerful way this school year!
