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- January 30, 2009
By: PAULA KELLY/Special to The News Journal
Middletown High taking a global approach
Principal
focusing on how well students are prepared for
future
Posted: December 11, 2008
MIDDLETOWN. By the time high school students of
today reach the age of 38, they will have changed
jobs 10-14 times, according to the U.S.
Department of Labor.
Those statistics have prompted the Middletown
High School faculty to tackle the challenge head-on, said principal
Donna Mitchell, by instituting changes that will train students for
positions that don't exist.
"The
biggest single most important change is the emphasis on 21st-century skills and international education
preparing students for a global society," Mitchell said.
The three R's -- reading, writing and
arithmetic -- will continue to be taught, she said, but in a present-day context.
Reasoning skills such as problem solving, teamwork and technical
literacy will enhance those
basics and prepare future workers for job success.
Students must choose one of six career pathways --
business, finance and marketing; agricultural natural
resources; math and science technology; technology education; global
humanities studies or family consumer science; and have three
sequential credits in an area to graduate.
"The career pathways help students focus their
studies and on what they might like to do
in life," said linguistics teacher Sarah Finley.
Seventeen Advanced Placement classes, six foreign
languages, hybrid courses -- split online and classroom
instruction -- and dual enrollment courses with Wilmington University
promote academic and career development.
New for ninth- and tenth-graders is the
completion of one online course for graduation; a type of class that fosters
autonomy and time management, Mitchell said.
"Students must make a conscious course
decision," she said. "It's not about where their friends are, but the end
result."
Appoquinimink School District has adopted the
logo, "The World Is Our Campus." That global approach helps develop
tolerance and recognize diversity, Mitchell said.
In that respect, Middletown provides the perfect
arena.
When ninth-graders arrived on their first day,
Mitchell said, faculty surrounded the students and blasted them with
pieces of information. One tidbit: that 23 languages are
spoken in the school community.
Mix-It-Up Day encourages students to sit with
someone they don't know and clubs such as
Teens for Tolerance promote acceptance.
That open-mindedness unlocks the door for students
to look beyond their own backyards.
International opportunities abound at the
school. Six sister schools in Japan, France, Germany, Italy and two in China
act as locations for visits, traditional exchanges for students and
teachers and pen-pal opportunities to improve language skills.
The program enhances more than communication, Finley said, but
also business aptitude and history.
For the two-week summer German exchange, taking
the language as an academic course is not required.
"If nothing else, it let's them see the world,"
Finley said.
Senior Brittney Christopher is on board for a
global opportunity. For her senior project, she has become an O Ambassador
(O meaning Oprah) and will organize fundraising for something in
East Asia.
The international emphasis has Christopher
rethinking her future. She wanted to major in business and minor in
history in college but now is considering global studies.
"The ambassadorship got me interested in
helping other regions and how they can help us and how everything works
together," said the teen, who turned 18 on Nov. 30. "It really
interests me." She said that she hopes that handouts, worksheets and other
material from the O Ambassadors Club will be used districtwide to
teach about four key global goals: poverty, education, health
and sustainable development.
The highest contribution for student success is
teacher effectiveness. Mitchell said HEAT: higher order
thinking, engaged learning, authentic assessment and technological
literacy provides that operating framework for teachers.
Each day, Mitchell and her four assistant
principals do 10- to 15-minute class walk-throughs to ensure teaching
efficiency. The faculty gets verbal feedback by the end of the day,
and when not possible an e-mail is sent.
Homeroom has become more than a gathering spot
for attendance taking. Students receive extra life skills by
gathering into the smaller setting of about 20 students. This year, they are
exploring the topic of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
Teens".
Lastly, physical changes are taking place as
well. The school store has been enlarged; a copying center, bank and new
cafe that will serve Starbucks coffee and light breakfast fare will
open as well.
"There's a different mindset about where we want
them to be when they leave us," Finley said. "We're looking for
students to be prepared [internationally] because Americans are
not always globally competitive.
Middletown High School is really
looking at the bigger picture and not how many students graduate but how
many are ready for the real world."
Pictured above: The
Appoquinimink School District has developed a new logo for "The World is Our Campus." It features
a glove (signifying interconnectedness) in the shape of an
apple (signifying education) that is cradled in supportive hands
(signifying community). The colors reflect both of the
district's high schools: blue for Middletown and maroon for
Appoquinimink.
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