Ridge Spring-Monetta Middle School, home of the Trojans, is a small, rural middle school in the heart of South Carolina Peach Country with a wealth of tradition and a strong connection to our community. Our school focus was to establish a safe, caring, and academically challenging learning environment, focused on critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. This focus allowed for and promoted an environment where students developed the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. Over the course of the year, we have worked diligently to create a school-wide model that addresses school culture and enhances school performance by providing meaningful strategies to pinpoint specific academic, social, and emotional needs of our students while dealing with the many challenges faced during the Covid-19 pandemic.
None of us could have predicted the COVID-19 global pandemic and the immediate shift it caused in the way we deliver educational services. Our faculty and staff worked to create an environment where the social, emotional, intellectual, and physical needs of students are met and that every student has equal access to quality teaching and learning. Furthermore, we utilized Advisory time for teachers to conference with our students, help them check their academic progress, offer opportunities for extra help, retake a test, or set goals for the week. Fortunately, our District’s 1:1 technology initiative allowed us to provide a laptop to each student during the spring. Students and staff stayed connected through virtual learning opportunities, countless calls and contacts, and many Microsoft Teams sessions.
Our teachers at RSM Middle strive to provide an engaging learning environment to grow students' minds through critical thinking and problem-solving exercises embedded in classroom instruction. Teachers fostered creativity by providing opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning in different ways. Students were engaged in projects that encouraged them to be innovative: in Science and Math, students engaged in kinesthetic learning by creating their own models; in Social Studies, through challenging document based questions where students were able to interpret history utilizing primary source documents; and in English Language Arts, students expressed their creativity in poetry and narrative writing. Throughout their instruction, our students delved into analyzing sources, making connections, and supporting their arguments with evidence. Additionally, our Arts Program provided additional experiences for our students to express their creativity through art and band.
To increase student readiness, students with reading challenges were supported through Read 180 classes, which included targeted, individualized computer assisted instruction and small group instruction. Furthermore, throughout the school year, students developed their own S.M.A.R.T. goals in both the academic and social-emotional domains, and progress monitored throughout the Spring semester. Title I funds were utilized to develop student academic interventions by creating The Trojan Zone, a targeted afterschool program designed to close achievement gaps in ELA and Math, as well as Saturday School, which was an opportunity for students to Content Recover material in each academic area. Additionally, Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) II funds was utilized to extend our after-school, Saturday, and summer programs to address student learning loss due to the pandemic.
As we look to the future, we are excited to partner with our Trojan community to continue to help all of our students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. Even in a worldwide pandemic, we are Trojan strong!
Sidney Johnson, Principal
Christopher Roberts, SIC Chair
