Sangaree Middle School continues our commitment to providing all of our students opportunities that cultivate the world class skills prescribed by the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. Through this commitment, it is our desire to prepare them for post-secondary life and career knowledge. Our teachers provide high quality instruction to ensure our students are ready to meet the requirements for their professional lives. Much is expected from our students in all academic areas. Throughout the 2018-2019 school year, members of our staff have been participating in STEAM training as a way to actively engage students in developing solutions to real-world problems. All teaching and support staff have participated in training regarding the impacts of poverty on the brain and ultimately on educating students. As we enter our third year of 1:1 computing, our teachers continue to hone their skills as they enhance instruction and provide our learners with multiple media resources. Although our students have the ability to utilize technology, it became our mission to ensure that their use of technological resources was done in a safe manner; therefore, we heightened our commitment to teach students about internet safety. We are proud to say that, for the third year in a row, we are endorsed by Common Sense Media as a Common Sense Media school! In addition, we continued to review the internet safety through the help of a speaker from the Attorney General's task force on internet safety and through advisement topics. The immersion of technology is just one component of preparing our students to be successful in an ever-evolving world. We strive to offer them world-class knowledge and skills along with developing characteristics that will benefit their adult life and career.
World Class Knowledge: One of the three tenets of the Profile of the SC Graduate. Our students are provided opportunities to learn rigorous standards in all content areas through the implementation of our district curriculum units. These units coupled with the implementation of our literacy plan will help to ensure that our students have the capacity to gain world class knowledge. In addition, we have focused on the integration of STEAM practices whereby students learn the importance of their place in our world. Outside of our 1:1 initiative, our Gateway to Technology program brought engineering standards and computer programming into the classroom. This year, students were able to experience 3D printing where they designed an object using computer software and sent the file to the printer. This was an exciting experience for our students. Outside of school, our Robotics team earned a trip to the state competition and our second Robotics team also earned a spot in the state competition. Our arts department continues to impress as they garnered numerous awards at both the county and state levels thanks to the musical talents, dedication and hard work of our students and directors! For the 15th consecutive year, our band program earned the prestigious Outstanding Performance Award! With such a productive arts program, we were pleased to be able to offer high school credit for both performing and visual arts during the 2018-2019 school year.
World Class Skills: The second of the tenets from the Profile of the SC Graduate. Thanks to the inclusion of technology in every classroom, our students have multiple opportunities to use a diverse array of media for academic purposes. The infusion of technology allows for a student-centered classroom, in which critical thinking skills and creativity are built in to a collaborative process while the teacher provides resources and support to facilitate learning. Our students demonstrate teamwork both inside and outside of the classroom. Cooperation on their academics comes in the form of group projects and presentations, while our student-athletes and musical groups work together to achieve success on the field, court, or in the auditorium. In addition, our WSRM students utilize technology and teamwork to create a daily news program that shares school-related information to the staff and student body every morning. During the 2018-2019 school year, we offered a “Genius Hour” class for students to explore their passions and develop projects utilizing our “MakerSpace.” We re-designed our media center with the support of a community grant making this a world-class space where students can collaborate on comfortable furnishings and utilize interactive tables. We look forward to expanding the offerings of the media center as we continue to be mindful of the things that will take student learning to the next level.
Life and Career Characteristics: The third and final component of the graduate profile. At Sangaree Middle, you can walk into classrooms and observe students persevering to solve rigorous problems based on the state standards. They are developing their interpersonal skills as they become members of our Yearbook team, QUEST teams, Robotics team, performing arts groups, athletic teams, and so on. It is important to our staff that we help students see their value in the community so both students and staff participated in several community events including the second annual Love Gave/Yard Give volunteer opportunity in conjunction with local churches and other schools, “Trunk or Treat,” Multicultural Night, among others. Further, we hosted a local Special Olympics event for students from six middle schools in the county. This was an extension of our Unified PE program. These events showed students the importance of volunteerism and shared with them the significant needs in our community. Through these organizations, teacher-sponsors and coaches helped foster their students’ work ethic and perseverance in the face of many different forms of adversity. In an effort to prepare our 8th graders to continue their academic growth in high school and beyond, each student along side their parents met with their guidance counselor to complete an Individual Graduation Plan to choose classes leading to a career path that most suited their interests and skills. Our theme this year was “Be the Nice Kid.” We honored students through our newly added Renaissance program where students were recognized both for academic strengths as well as for just being the nice kid. It is important for us to help students understand that everyone is good at something -- it is a matter of finding it and cultivating it.
Innovation and success have become a cornerstone of Sangaree Middle School. Thanks to the on-going process of 1:1 technology, our students are learning in ways different than their older siblings and parents. It is our mission to prepare our students for jobs and opportunities that have not yet been conceived. We aspire to develop students with a growing sense of integrity, a thirst for knowledge, and a desire to make a difference in the world. Berkeley County is growing at an exponential rate. With that growth comes an increased demand for leaders and contributors. The staff of Sangaree Middle School have dedicated their professional lives to preparing our students to be the community and global leaders of tomorrow. As we move into the 2019-2020 school year, we look forward to new opportunities such as an extension of our STEAM integration and Unified PE. We want to create learners who are compassionate, innovative and problem-solvers. We look forward to meeting the needs of the next wave of Sangaree Eagles that join us in the 2019-2020 school year.
Margaret Day Jill Jones
Principal SIC Chairperson
