Learning new ways to teach during the COVID-19 pandemic, West Liberty Middle School teachers are having success in unique environments, it was learned by the West Liberty School Board of Education Monday, April 5, at their regular meeting.
Principal Vicki Vernon talked about changes teachers have adapted in their classroom to nab the attention and enthusiasm of students in what Vernon called an “unusual year” when students have been taught in various ways, from the present in-classroom learning to virtual education and a hybrid model that included both virtual and in-classroom teaching.
She said the teachers have utilized high tech tools like Google Classroom to help students learn, noting students in seventh grade music learned pop songs for bucket drumming through a class taught by Brenda Miller.
She called methods of teaching “very creative,” noting students in the music class were challenged to find just about anything they could around their home to participate in the class, playing tunes for Miller’s class and graded on their performance.
Vernon also talked about special instruction teachers were accomplishing in special education classes, utilizing a variety of skill levels.
Another teacher found students didn’t have a lot of interest in literacy, so Madison Edwards and Kelly Morrison combined efforts to master an “argumentative writing in literacy class,” and created an Argument Olympics for the eighth grade class that involved reading writing, history, physical education and team building for students.
Arguments on issues were dissected and gold medals were awarded to winning presentations, creating a “whole unit” of activities that students embraced. “It was really a cool thing to see,” said Vernon.
Another class, taught by Jackie Henderson, challenged students to find the location of certain places by asking questions. “The kids loved it,” Vernon said.
Eighth graders were also challenged to set up a career plan, getting advice from career educators and planning future high school classes to meet those career goals, despite the possibility of changing course along the way. “It helped students create a plan.” Vernon said.
Students at the school were also challenged in an “Engineering in Earth Science” class, creating earthquake proof designs of building models, students using psysmic measure tests to show their model would not collapse.
In the presentation, Vernon also acknowledged the success of eighth graders Seth Axsom and Cadan Laughlin in qualifying for the state Mathcounts assessment while also acknowledging eighth grade members of the FFA Chapter including an AG CSI team that included Sophie Buysse, Mia Gingerich, Daisey Kivi, Jada Maas, Ava Morrision and Madi Stultiz as well as the AG Impact Team of Seth Axsom, Ryan Cassay, Cale Daufeldt, Cole Daufeldt, Crager David and Caden Laughlin.
Vernon also gave the board a report on scholastic reading inventory measuring comprehension of students. She said students in the sixth grade have seen improvement, 27.4 percent moving to the advanced level from 20 percent in the fall survey, although 32 percent of students were at the proficient level in comparision to 38 percent in the fall. Overall, though, a leap forward.
At the seventh grade level, reading levels saw a major increase in progress, with 24.1 percent at the advanced level compared to 23 percent in the fall while 35.4 percent of students were at the proficiency level compared to 26 percent in the fall.
At the eighth grade level, 73.1 percent of students were at a proficiency level or higher compared to 70 percent in the fall, advanced students falling by 3.5 percent.
In math, sixth, seventh and eighth grade students are behind in meeting standards, seventh graders showing the best results with 14 percent of the class meeting or exceeding standards.
Transition underway
Vernon also reported that meetings have started with fifth grade teachers regarding the transition from the elementary school to the middle school for the next school year with the new 10 classroom addition.
Educators making the transition include science teacher Amanda Berquist, English language learning teacher Beth Byers, math teacher Jenny Hagens, literacy teacher Josh Levai Baird and Spanish literacy and Spanish science teacher Christine Guerra.
Vernon said the new teachers in the building are meeting with the present middle school staff for team building professional development this month.
The district’s therapy dog, Checkers, will also be coming to the middle school next year under the guidance of Christine Guerra because of her transfer.