Carolina Springs Middle School is helping all students develop the World-Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate through a comprehensive development program for all students. As a nationally recognized Capturing Kids’ Hearts Showcase School, we continue to help students develop effective communication and interpersonal skills throughout the 2021–22 school year. We continue to enhance our students’ cognitive development and critical thinking skills through the AVID instructional framework. In addition, we met the social and emotional needs of our virtual and face-to-face students by implementing a daily advocacy structure and the 7 Mindsets curriculum.
The CSMS faculty and staff dedicated themselves selflessly and tirelessly to making the school year a success despite many challenges. Throughout the school year, we adopted an asset-based mindset, and our students continued to learn at high levels in a safe and supportive environment all year. Our faculty and staff nurtured and developed a strong foundation that will lead to long-term resilience for our students. We collaborated extraordinarily to meet the needs of our virtual and face-to-face learners. As a result, our teachers discovered new ways to present subjects, created inviting classroom environments, enhanced our ability to provide quality feedback, and kept high expectations for each learner.
In the face of the challenges of 2021–22, we continued to refine our work with the Student Engagement Model by creating learning experiences that leveraged technology in impactful ways. We increased the use of AVID instructional strategies both inside and outside the classroom as students used their knowledge of one-pagers to solidify their daily learning, and to celebrate and honor Americans during Black History Month and Women’s History Month. We added several new opportunities to the curriculum this year including American Sign Language and ImPACT, which introduced more than 40 enrichment activities on Friday afternoons for our students. We leveraged technology to facilitate “visits” from accomplished guest speakers throughout the country who spoke to our children about post-secondary career pathways. We also celebrated the accomplishments of our AVID cohort/elective students who are moving on to high school AVID programs or to our district’s College Center.
Once again, our students represented our school in a stellar fashion. The CSMS archery team won their third state championship, the boys’ basketball team finished the season undefeated and won the Lex10 Conference Championship, and an eighth-grade student was selected as the runner-up for the National History Day contest.
We are grateful for the community partnerships that make our accomplishments possible and enable us to empower our children to design a bright future. We could not do our work without the support of Lexington County Mental Health, Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, MSRouse Insurance Agency (State Farm), Hwy55, SONIC, Marco’s Pizza, our School Improvement Council, our Parent-Teacher-Student Association and our dedicated volunteers. We are fortunate to be able to give back to our community by supporting Relay For Life of the Midlands, and by raising money and awareness of the extraordinary work being done at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
While we take pride in our accomplishments this year, we are deeply committed to making stronger connections between our work and how it impacts the lives of families and children in our community. We understand how relationships and learning are intricately intertwined. We will continue to help our children develop the strengths of character and resilience they will need in order to navigate the world they will soon own. We will embrace the coming school year with renewed commitment and unyielding confidence that we can help our students overcome any challenge that threatens their success.
Brice Cockfield, Principal
Justin Tipton, SIC Chair
