<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4gYDdz_1GrshFiF00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4gYDdz_1GrshFiF00" width="2001" height="1334" ></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1k4jll_1GrshFiF00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1k4jll_1GrshFiF00" width="2001" height="1334" ></figure>Few people look back on their middle school years with fondness. Home away from home for children aged around 11 to 14, many choose to look over this awkward, puberty-stricken time of their lives.“Everyone’s a hot mess,” Stony Brook School seventh grade history teacher Tim Curran said. “Brain-development-wise, it is one of the weirdest times you will ever go through.”Despite the universal stigma around middle school, Westford Public Schools’ (WPS) two representatives, Stony Brook and Lloyd G. Blanchard Middle School, strive to provide a foundational education worth remembering for all WPS students.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0xezC9_1GrshFiF00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0xezC9_1GrshFiF00" width="2001" height="1334" ></figure>The bigger pictureBefore attending Blanchard or Stony Brook, a child going through the WPS system from the very beginning would attend one of three lower elementary schools–Robinson School, Nabnasset Elementary School, or Rita E. Miller Elementary School–where they would be for grades K through 2. Following this level, they would then move up to upper elementary schools: Abbot School, John A. Crisafulli Elementary School, or Norman E. Day Elementary School. “Elementary does prepare [kids] more and more every year to deal with conflict,” Stony Brook principal Allison Hammer said. “Elementary teachers are definitely building that foundation for kids [so] that they understand how to interact with kids that they know or they don’t know, and what to do if there’s a problem.”Hammer notes that the foundational skills taught to students during their elementary school years, including people skills, problem-solving, proper ways to interact with others, and baseline academic skills play a pivotal role in middle school success.“Without [the base taught in elementary], it would be impossible for [us] to do the things we do in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade,” Hammer said.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=43q6d1_1GrshFiF00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=43q6d1_1GrshFiF00" width="2001" height="1334" ></figure>A well-oiled machineStudents at both middle schools follow roughly the same schedule. Importantly, each grade is divided into two teams. According to the WPS middle school student handbook, this is intentional.“The team creates a smaller community within the school where students are well known by multiple adults,” the handbook says. Below are the teams corresponding to each grade:Stony Brook School:6th grade: Curiosity &amp; Discovery7th grade: Aristotle &amp; Plato8th grade: Valor &amp; VictoryLloyd G. Blanchard Middle School:6th grade: Blue &amp; White7th grade: Blue &amp; White8th grade: Blue &amp; WhiteIn each grade, regardless of school or team, students must attend their core four classes at some point during the day: math, science, English, and social studies. The order of these classes depends on the students and their individual schedules. Additionally, middle schoolers rotate between five integrated arts (IA) classes: Physical Education, Art, Engineering, Health, and Music/Theater Arts. They are also provided with the option to take one of four world languages offered: Spanish, French, German, and Latin. Sixth graders take each language for a short amount of time before deciding which language they would like to proceed with for their next two years of middle school. Both middle schools operate on a six day schedule, alternating between long advisory days and short advisory days. During the former, students have one long advisory at the beginning of the school day, lasting for 40 minutes. During short advisory days, students have a 20 minute advisory in the morning and another 20 minute advisory in the afternoon after lunch. No two teachers in WPS are the same, whether they teach the same grade, same subject, or teach at the same school–or even all three. However, here is a rough generalization of what a day in the life of the average middle school teacher would look like:<ol><li>Arrive early in the morning to try and beat traffic, as well as to prep the classroom</li><li>Greet students as they come up to the classroom</li><li>Teach multiple classes on the same subject, resetting for the next class whenever possible</li><li>Once school ends, excess correcting and planning before heading home</li><li>Meetings interspersed throughout the day</li></ol>“The teachers here are an exceptional team,” Blanchard principal Adam Ingano said. “They share information about the whole child, looking well beyond just test scores and homework averages. Hammer agrees, emphasizing the importance in teacher to teacher communication and collaboration. “At the team level, teachers work with each other to learn more about the kids,” Hammer said. “What’s working for this student in math class? Because they’re struggling in social studies. Yes, they’re very different subjects, but it might just be a simple change in who they’re working with, or what kind of partner, or how close they are to instruction.” This sort of collaboration between teachers of different subjects and even grades can be seen often throughout the middle schools, both principals state.“Horizontally across grade level teams, [teachers] work together to make sure students get what they need to perform their best every day. Vertically across grade levels, they collaborate to ensure students are prepared for the challenges of the next grade level and beyond,” Ingano said.The communication amongst staff members has seemed to result in a positive effect, according to current sophomore Addison Boaz. Boaz attended Stony Brook and graduated from the institution in the spring of 2025.“The teachers were so nice and prepared us well,” Boaz said. “I definitely felt ready for the workload I’d get in high school.”Freshman Hadleigh Bertmaring, who graduated from Stony Brook in 2026, agrees.“[Stony] helped grow my independence,” Bertmaring said.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=12yTTi_1GrshFiF00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=12yTTi_1GrshFiF00" width="2001" height="1334" ></figure>Curriculum and lifeSimilarly to the daily routines of staff members across both schools, the curriculums vary across teams, grades, and subjects.“Generally, we use the idea of focusing on identity,” Stony Brook eighth grade English teacher Michele Dulczewski said. “[We’re] focusing on who people want to be, because that’s something that the eighth graders are really starting to think about.”Throughout middle school English classes, students transition slowly from simply discussing the events of the story to analyzing why things are happening and how to look at the bigger picture.“We really want [students] to make connections from what we’re reading in class to real life,” Dulczewski said.In math classes, students focus more on financial and economic-related life skills rather than social and emotional ones. “I think calculations with negatives are the most foundational skills because people can use them throughout the rest of their lives. The algebra skills are great as well, because they will use them in their future math classes and the thinking involved in solving algebra is used in so many jobs,” Blanchard seventh grade math teacher Victoria Murphy said. “When we get to percents, we also try to teach them about how much of a parent’s salary they actually take home, how much is spent on expenses and how much college might cost.”However, math classes at the middle schools teach more than numbers. “I work hard to create a safe space where students feel comfortable making mistakes,” Blanchard sixth grade math teacher Siobhan Wiatr said. “Math anxiety is so prevalent in our society and I don’t want my students to be afraid of math. Mistakes are going to happen–we celebrate and investigate them in my classroom.”Murphy agrees with Wiatr’s sentiment, extending it beyond the classroom as well. “We try to make it an environment where students feel safe to answer questions, ask questions, and seek help if needed and just share something about their day,” Murphy said. “We also want them to feel that we teachers support them in their academics, but also socially.”Jodi Krampf, one of two special education teachers for Stony Brook seventh graders, teaches small group math classes for both Aristotle and Plato. “Life lessons and connecting math to real life is very important and it helps engage students, but it’s especially important for the kiddos who ask ‘When will we ever use this?’, or ‘Why do we need to learn this?’” Krampf said. “Students don’t realize that along with solving math problems, they are learning perseverance and patience, and improving their problem solving and critical thinking skills. There’s also preparation for financial management, logical reasoning, etc. The list goes on.” When considering students who require special education in order to best support their needs for their future, special education teachers like Krampf are essential. At Stony, the curriculum for these students varies based on the program they are in. For example, Krampf or her assistant often go into classes with students in her caseload who attend supported classes. Additionally, many students also attend Academic Support, which is designed to support their understanding of lessons, classwork and assignments, and to work with them in the areas identified as a weakness or challenge in their Individual Education Plan (IEP). Meanwhile, in history classes, a large part of the curriculum is ancient history–ranging from the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras in sixth grade to ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome in seventh grade. “I’ve always said that out of all the classes, math has a direct purpose, to do math, and you need that, obviously. Science, how the world works. English, well, if you can’t read, then you’re doomed in this society,” Curran said. “History is to be curious about how we got here. [It is] to recognize that there are so many different avenues that have landed us here, not just at the national level, but also at the personal level. Curiosity into the past helps explain the present.”According to Hammer, each grade has a specific role in what they teach students, even throughout all four core subjects.“They’re learning foundational skills in sixth grade, with much more structure [than elementary school]. Seventh grade, they’re continuing foundational skills, but with a little less handholding, for lack of a better word. And then in eighth grade, still foundational skills, but with more independence,” Hammer said. “Everything’s building on everything else.”The three grades are structured so that with the progression, teachers pull back more and more, giving students more responsibility as the years go on.“This [system is in place so that] when [students] are asked to do something on a much more independent level, as a freshman or as a sophomore, they have some confidence to do it,” Hammer said. “‘Oh, I’ve done this hard thing already. I can still do this,’ That’s the goal.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4NTuE5_1GrshFiF00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4NTuE5_1GrshFiF00" width="2001" height="1334" ></figure>“The first year I taught high school, no one randomly cried. I’m like, ‘Oh, you’re all calm,'” Curran said.Curran was part of an exchange program in 2016 where he taught at Westford Academy for a year. If following the regular progression of the school system, WPS students graduating from either middle school will then advance to WA for grades nine through 12.Curran believes that there are many foundational skills needed for students to be prepared for the high school environment: routine, for instance.“Executive functioning is your ability to control yourself and be like, ‘Okay, I need to do this and this,'” Curran said. “Generally speaking, most [middle schoolers] don’t have executive functioning skills. They can’t plan. They can’t figure out when things are due. Middle school is where [we teach them] how they learn and what works best for them.”Ingano wants Blanchard to help nurture self-aware, self-confident students.“I’d like students to leave Blanchard with a clear, confident idea of who they are and who they want to be going forward, along with the willingness to express that as they begin making decisions in high school,” Ingano said.Similarly, Hammer would like graduating eighth graders to remember to have faith in themselves and their capabilities.“I want the kids to know that they can do it, whatever it is. If it’s approaching a really difficult problem, if it’s managing a relationship with a peer or an adult, if it’s trying to get better at something. [I want them to think] ‘I’ve dealt with difficulty in the past and I’ve overcome it. […] I’m going to be okay at the high school. I’m going to be okay in college,'” Hammer said. “I never want a student to think ‘I can’t do that.'”Principals and teachers alike across both schools agree that the most significant difference between the middle schools and Westford Academy–or any typical high school–is the increased independence at the upper level school. “The best thing we can do is teach our students to be students,” Murphy said. “They have to learn to be good proponents for themselves.”According to Hammer, the middle school curriculum is formed with high school as the next stop in mind in order to best prepare students for their future to come. “There’s a backwards design though,” Hammer said. “Where do you want the kids to be, and how do you get them there? You’re thinking with the end in mind.”Despite this structured, planned shift, the transition from students entering Stony Brook and Blanchard to leaving them is stark.“In middle school, you come in as sixth graders who are tiny and during lunch like to run in circles for some strange reason,” Curran said. “By the time you’re leaving eighth grade, [you’re] like a completely different person.”Eighth grade teachers especially place more emphasis on preparing their students for the high school level. The transitional year is crucial in fine-tuning any skills necessary for being successful in the future.“When you get to high school, it’s scary, right? Nobody sees your eighth grade grades. But now, as a freshman, colleges, military academies, employers, they see those grades and they see what you do with them moving forward,” Dulczewski said. “So, I try to push [my students] to be more like adults in middle school, so that you can try it out. And if you fall, that’s okay. We can pick you up and nobody’s the wiser.”</div></body>

Block Source: waghostwriter.com

Misinformation

Clickbait

Old or repetitive news

Explicit content

Location not relevant

Few people look back on their middle school years with fondness. Home away from home for children aged around 11 to 14, many choose to look over this awkward, puberty-stricken time of their lives. “Everyone’s a hot mess,” Stony Brook School seventh grade history teacher Tim Curran said. “Brain-development-wise, it...

From three years to a lifetime

NewsBreak

Few people look back on their middle school years with fondness. Home away from home for children aged around 11 to 14, many choose to look over this awkwa

From three years to a lifetime

Comments