The faculty and staff of Gilbert Middle School are helping all students develop the World-Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by making GMS a place where all students belong, grow and serve. We have structures and practices in place to help all students develop a sense of belonging at GMS, creating an environment where students feel comfortable taking academic risks so that they can grow in knowledge and skills. We also want our students to grow as people, so we prepare our students to use the Lexington One Graduate Profile as they become active citizens who take what they have learned and use those skills to serve their community in positive ways. This is accomplished through the utilization of district-approved curriculum, continuous professional learning on best practices in instructional strategies, the integration of technology as a learning tool, and personalized support for struggling learners as well as extension for accelerated learners.
This year, we were excited to focus on bolstering high expectations for all students and engaging in working as professional learning communities. During professional learning sessions, GMS teachers worked in grade-level, content-specific PLCs to answer these four fundamental questions: What do we want students to learn? How will we know if they have learned it? What do we do if they did not learn it? What do we do if they did learn it? This caused teacher teams to collaboratively engage in the backward design process of unit planning, including the use of common formative and summative assessments. We used i-Ready diagnostics to help us track student growth in reading and math. Additionally, we reviewed classroom assessments to gauge students’ mastery of grade-level standards. These tools also helped us hone in on areas of need for specific students, so that we could adjust our instruction accordingly.
The entire administrative team returned this year and, as a school, we revisited our school’s vision statement. After getting feedback from all staff, it was decided that the collective vision for our school was effectively captured with our existing vision statement of “GMS a place where we all ‘Belong, Grow, and Serve.’” Our school counselors looped with our students. This allowed them to work closely with each other to meet the needs of students, families and staff throughout the year. We are grateful for the commitment of our counseling office to provide support and services to all members of the GMS family.
To increase students’ sense of belonging at GMS, we continued our implementation of daily advisory classes called “Huddle.” All core and exploratory teachers taught a Huddle class three days per week. These Huddle lessons were designed by our Huddle Design Team, made up of GMS teachers, counselors, administrators and instructional specialists. Our Huddle Design Team differentiated our Huddle lessons so that each grade level has a specific set of Huddle lessons. We also utilized structured learning time during two advisory periods per week. On these days, teachers worked to support students’ academic growth. This included reteaching concepts to students, having students complete work, facilitating student study groups and providing time for students to retake assessments.
This year we implemented the Lexington One Graduate Profile. The Graduate Profile is a districtwide vision of the characteristics we want all Lexington One graduates to have: knowledgeable; creative thinker and problem solver; independent learner; communicator; collaborator; future-ready literate; personally and socially responsible; kind; and Resilient. These Graduate Profile competencies were the focus of Huddle lessons specifically designed to teach students about these habits, and how they align with our vision of making our school a place where we all belong, grow and serve. Additionally, during quarterly grade-level Town Hall meetings, students were recognized for exhibiting various Graduate Profile competencies.
GMS students are provided opportunities to study and gain knowledge in other areas including STEM, iCivics, family consumer science, visual and performing arts, physical education, and outdoor education. This year we were excited to offer a new exploratory class, agricultural education, for all grade levels. This course was very popular among students, and introduced them to agricultural concepts and contributions to our community. Additionally, this year we chartered a GMS FFA chapter.
Our students also have opportunities to explore world languages. In sixth and seventh grades, students choose from Spanish or French language classes. In eighth grade, students have the option of taking one of those world language classes for high school credit. Additionally, we have a Spanish immersion program, in which students who successfully complete the program can earn up to three high school credits throughout their middle school career. We also have world culture classes available to students in all grade levels, which broaden students’ horizons by teaching them about various cultures around the world.
This year, we continued to facilitate student-led conferences. Students spent several weeks in Huddle preparing presentations that focused on their goals, strengths, areas of growth and Graduate Profile competencies. Parents came to school so that their child could present their student-led conference to them. Parents were then given a chance to ask follow-up questions about their child’s presentation. Seventy-five percent of our students had a family member come to school for their student-led conference.
In addition to opportunities in academics, GMS strives to develop the whole child by providing outstanding programs in the arts and athletics, earning consistent superior ratings in our fine arts’ state and regional performances, with our athletic teams also performing at high levels, consistently earning winning records in events.
We are proud of our students and their accomplishments. We thank our parents and community for their support as we continue our efforts to improve the achievements of our students in the classroom, on the performance stage and in the athletic arena.
Kyle Meetze, Ed.D., Principal
Megan Jaco, SIC Chair
