WELCOME TO APRENDE Middle School

1. WELCOME TO APRENDEMiddle School HOME OF THE JAGUARS

2. What is avid? • AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination and is a program that is in place in over 6,000 schools. • Aprende, Akimel, and Centennial were chosen to be AVID schools in Kyrene. • AVID teaches skills and behaviors for academic success, promoting college readiness through critical thinking, collaboration, student advocacy, and organizational skills.

3. What is avid? • Aprende will have two AVID elective classes in 7th and 8th grade which will support selected students in advanced coursework, while also providing organizational, efficacy, and goal-setting skills. • Next school year we start a 6th grade AVID elective. • Aprendewill begin incorporating school-wide organizational skills, note-taking, and specific strategies. • For more information, you can visit www.avid.org or contact our principal at rkory@kyrene.org

4. Our philosophy • Marcus Buckingham, a best-selling author, researcher, motivational speaker and business consultant, described this generation of students as the “teacup generation.” He stated, “They're so fragile–if you drop them, they break.”

5. We are Anti-Teacup. • We believe in strengthening your children. • We want them to become successful lifelong learners. At the heart of everything we do, we consider our students first.

6. Our philosophy • Growth Mindset • Resiliency and “Grit” • Taking Various Perspectives • Handling Controversy and Conflict Resolution • High Expectations

7. Growth Mindset • A fixed mindset is the belief that you are either “smart” or “dumb” and there is no way to change this. • Research shows students with a fixed mindset learn less than they could or may learn at a slower rate. • When students with fixed mindsets fail at something, they tend to tell themselves they can’t or won’t be able to do it. But that’s not true. Adapted from http://edglossary.org/growth-mindset

8. Growth Mindset • In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. • Students who embrace growth mindsets learn more, learn it more quickly, and view challenges and failures as opportunitiesto improve their learning and skills. Adapted from http://edglossary.org/growth-mindset

9. Growth Mindset Facts • Your IQ is not a fixed number: countless research studies have shown that it can be improved. • Learning is not determined by how intelligent you are. Hard work and effort is required. • We will praise your student’s effort and perseverance. • We do not accept negative thinking and excuses (“I just can’t do fractions,” or “I’m not good at social studies,” for example). Adapted from http://edglossary.org/growth-mindset

10. Resiliency • Psychological resilience is defined as an individual's ability to properly adapt to stress and adversity. Adapted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_resilience

11. Resiliency • Think about your child when he or she was learning to ride a bike without training wheels: although you didn’t want your child to fall, you couldn’t hold on to the bike forever. • This is probably the most important “anti-teacup” principle: your student needs to fail at times in order to learn how to deal with it and recover from it (and be stronger because of it).

12. Resiliency • Click on the photo below to watch a short video.

13. Taking Various Perspectives • Every perception a person has is based upon their own personal experience. People perceive the world differently because no two people have the same experiences, and experience makes us who we are. • Not only is multi-perspectivity part of ELA, social studies, and science curriculum, it is also an important emotional development milestone for students to reach at this age.

14. Handling controversy and conflict resolution • We expect our students to interact responsibly with others. They should: • listen and communicate respectfully • hold themselves accountable for their actions • honor diversity • Aprende uses PBIS, a system of positive reinforcement for good behavior.

15. Handling controversy and conflict resolution • It is important for middle school students to start developing self-advocacy. • We ask studentsto address problems by taking the first step: • Writing or emailing the teacher • Approach the teacher before or after class • Once the student has approached the teacher, if further action is needed thenthe parent contacts the teacher to work together towards a solution.

16. HIGH EXPECTATIONS • One of the largest shifts in modern education is the push to develop critical thinking skills. • You should expect your student to answer questions that require deeper than surface-level thinking. This means your student may struggle—and that’s the point. Without challenge, there is no growth.

17. High expectations • We have high expectations for your students’ behavior and academics because we know they can accomplish it with effort. • Students will set goals each quarter and strive to reach them with strategies and reflection. • When students are absent, they will not be excused from the work. They are responsible for figuring out what they missed and completing it on-time. • Deadlines will be strictly enforced school-wide.

18. Student Agendas • All students will have AVID agendas, which will be distributed during Advisory on August 9th. • At the beginning of every core class on Monday, students are required to write down their weekly calendar. • Ask your child to see it!

19. Student Agendas • Weekly calendars are always posted in the classroom and/or online via teacher websites. Please check this often with your student in order to: • See what is happening at school on a daily basis and get information about homework for each subject. • Make sure that your student is getting everything done and planning in advance for his/her workload (such as sports, extra-curriculars, or family outings).

20. First Day of School The staff and students of Aprende Middle School invite sixth grade students to our second annual WEB Sixth Grade Orientation 8:30 am - 2:00 pm August 3, 2017 Aprende school gymnasium Sorry, no parents!

21. What is WEB? • “Where Everybody Belongs” • 6th grade orientation program • 10-12 sixth graders are partnered with an eighth grade mentor • 8th graders will lead social and academic follow-up lessons throughout the school year

22. First Day of School • Do NOT bring a backpack on first day • Lunch box and water bottle are recommended • Wear comfy clothes: you’ll be sitting on the floor and moving around a lot too! • Eat a good breakfast in the morning: there will be no snack break!

23. First week of school • Students meet in the gym on Thursday when the bell rings. • We strongly suggest that students bring their lunches the first week of school.

24. Lunch Money • Use Kyrene’s online lunch money service to avoid delays. • You and your child should memorize his/her student number beforethe first day of school to make things easier for lunch, library, computer use, etc.

25. Meet and Greet breakfast • The Aprende Parent-Teacher organization will be sponsoring a meet-and-greet breakfast for all 6th grade parents on: Tuesday, August 15th 7:45 am to 8:25 am • Please join us for a continental breakfast and a chance to socialize with other sixth grade parents!

26. WELCOME TO APRENDEMiddle School HOME OF THE JAGUARS