NMS School Improvement Plan 2014-2015
Last Thursday evening, May 15, Mr. Geoghegan presented the John T. Nichols, Jr. Middle School School Improvement Plan to the MPS School Committee.
He first presented this short introductory video:
The Improvement Plan Video Preview (Movie Trailer Style)
He then presented this video where he asked teachers and students to comment on some of the goals from the School Improvement Plan from 2013-2014 to help us as School Council to build our School Improvement Plan for 2014-2015.
NMS School Improvement Plan Video
Attached below is our School Improvement Plan for 2014-2015. Please read it over to see some the directions we are hoping to move the Nichols in the upcoming school year.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call or email: mgeoghegan@middleboro.k12.ma.us
Thank you,
M. R. Geoghegan
Middleborough Public
Schools
John T.
Nichols, Jr. Middle School
School
Improvement Plan
2014-2015
John T. Nichols, Jr. Middle School
2013-2014 Council Members
Mr. Martin R. Geoghegan,
Principal
Mrs. Lynn McManus,
Parent Representative
Mrs. Gina Philie,
Parent Representative
Mrs. Deborah
Walgreen, NMS Faculty and Parent
Administrative Summary
This School Improvement Plan serves as a blueprint of the
actions and processes needed to produce school improvement for the John T.
Nichols, Jr. Middle School. It has been
prepared with the School Council, staff of the Nichols Middle School (NMS), and
the Administration. As a collaborative
team, we have worked on this plan to help us in identifying what we need to
improve on. We incorporated parts of the
district’s Strategic Plan to align our
plan with the direction of the district as a whole. This plan will focus resource allocation,
staff development, instructional content and practice, and assessment on the
goals that have been established by the team.
NMS will then focus many areas of staff meetings, staff in-service,
staff recognition, and staff monitoring around the School Improvement Plan
objectives. Since we have invested time
in the development of a thoughtful, focused plan, we know this will pay
dividends to our school over time.
John T. Nichols, Jr. Middle School’s 2014-2015 School
Improvement Plan’s Goals are:
- To increase our integration of 21st
Century Learning (Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and
Creativity) into our day-to-day instruction and to continue to educate our
student body for the world they reside and their future;
- To continue to improve our
instructional strategies with our students within core classes as well as
in our support/enrichment periods of DIAL (Differentiated Instruction And
Learning); and
- To continue to advance the culture of
the Nichols Middle School by fostering more mutual partnerships among
students, families, staff, and the community.
The
mission of the Middleborough Public Schools is to prepare all students to excel
as educated, responsible, global citizens.
2014-2015 NMS School Improvement Plan
School Goal #1: To increase our
integration of 21st Century Learning, including the greater use of
technology, into our day-to-day instruction and to continue to educate our
student body for the world they reside and their future.
Connection to District Strategic
Goal #3 on Teaching, Learning
and Assessment
Performance Target: Teach
for 21st Century Learning in conjunction with implementing the
Common Core State Standards (CCSS) to have our students see that education is
boundless and not limited to classrooms, textbooks, schedules, brick and mortar
as we make them better and more creative communicators, collaborators, and critical
thinkers.
|
Action Plan/
Improvement Strategies
|
Person(s) Responsible
|
Timeline
|
Measurement and Outcomes
|
Resource(s) and/or Funding Source
|
|
Utilize the teaching and use of technology to improve
learning through more advanced usage of:
|
NMS Administration
Technology Department
Secondary Directors (STEM and Humanities)
NMS Faculty and Staff
NMS Technology Coaches
NMS Media Center Librarian
|
Summer 2014 through School Year 2014-2015
|
Wi-Fi throughout the building
Utilization of more Google Apps
Changing of the Media Center
Academic assessments
STE MCAS scores
|
Support from Administration, Technology, and professional
development
More technology in the form of tablets
eBook access
Furniture in Media Center
|
|
To continue to work with all of our classes to be
structured for 21st Century learning for our students by improving:
·
Curriculum maps as we update and modify to
reflect data, research-based, standards-driven units of study within each
core subject area of:
·
Math with our Digits curricula;
·
Science Curricula with the Discovery Education
series;
·
Social Studies with more current events and
Civics in the 8th Grade; and
·
English Language Arts (ELA) with our two
courses of ELA1 and ELA2.
|
NMS Administration
Secondary Directors (STEM and Humanities)
NMS Faculty and Staff
NMS Technology Coaches
|
Summer 2014 through School Year 2014-2015
|
Curriculum maps
Academic assessments
|
Support from Administration, Technology, and professional
development
More technology in the form of tablets
|
|
Action Plan/
Improvement Strategies
|
Person(s) Responsible
|
Timeline
|
Measurement and Outcomes
|
Resource(s) and/or Funding Source
|
|
Continue to develop our Unified Arts technology course,
“Tech Integration” to better integrate technology into our core classes of
English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies.
|
NMS Administration
Secondary Directors (STEM and Humanities)
NMS Technology Teacher
NMS Faculty and Staff
|
Summer 2014 through School Year 2014-2015
|
Academic assignments and assessments
|
Time for Tech Integration Teacher to work with core
subject teachers
|
School Goal #2: To continue to
improve our instructional strategies with our students within core classes as
well as in our support/enrichment periods of DIAL (Differentiated Instruction
And Learning).
Connection to District Strategic Goal
#3 on Teaching, Learning and
Assessment
Performance Target: Differentiated
instruction applies an approach to teaching and learning that gives students
multiple options for taking in information and making sense of ideas. Work towards meeting each and every student
where they are with their learning in all classes. Utilize the DIAL period better for support,
remediation, assistance, and enrichment.
|
Action Plan/
Improvement Strategies
|
Person(s) Responsible
|
Timeline
|
Measurement and Outcomes
|
Resource(s) and/or Funding Source
|
|
Continue to make our curriculum a more personalized,
individual exploration where the students are at the center of their learning
in all courses and classes.
|
NMS Administration
Secondary Directors (STEM and Humanities)
NMS Faculty and Staff
|
Summer 2014 through School Year 2014-2015
|
Academic assignments and assessments
Common assessments in core subject areas
Classroom observations
|
PLC and PD Time
Support from Administration, Technology, and professional
development
|
|
Develop, study,
and utilize initial and on-going assessments of student readiness and growth.
|
NMS Administration
Secondary Directors (STEM and Humanities)
NMS Faculty and Staff
|
Summer 2014 through School Year 2014-2015
|
Data Walls
MCAS and growth scores
Common assessments in core subject areas
Classroom observations
|
PLC and PD Time
Support from Administration, Technology, and professional
development
|
|
Action Plan/
Improvement Strategies
|
Person(s) Responsible
|
Timeline
|
Measurement and Outcomes
|
Resource(s) and/or Funding Source
|
|
Continue to better the utilization of the DIAL period for
remediation, support, assistance, and enrichment.
|
NMS Administration
Secondary Directors (STEM and Humanities)
NMS Faculty and Staff
|
Summer 2014 through School Year 2014-2015
|
Data Walls
MCAS and growth scores
Common assessments in core subject areas
Classroom observations
Track DIAL data
|
PLC and PD Time
Support from Administration, Technology, and professional
development
|
School Goal #3: To continue to
advance the culture of the Nichols Middle School by fostering more mutual
partnerships among students, families, staff, and the community.
Connection to District Strategic
Goal #1 on Partnership Development and
Community Involvement
Performance Target: To
increase communication and positive culture-building initiatives with all
stake-holders in the Nichols school community through better use of technology,
more advanced planning and development of our communication, the continued
development of student-led conferences and standards-based grading as well as
the aesthetic nature of the building and grounds.
|
Action Plan/
Improvement Strategies
|
Person(s) Responsible
|
Timeline
|
Measurement and Outcomes
|
Resource(s) and/or Funding Source
|
|
Emphasize technology as a tool to promote communication
with:
|
NMS Administration
Secondary Directors (STEM and Humanities)
NMS Faculty and Staff
|
Summer 2014 through School Year 2014-2015
|
Look into using other means to advance our use of
technology to increase communication home
Data collected from sites
Survey
|
Support from Administration, Technology, and professional
development
|
|
Increase family involvement in student academic ventures
with Student-Led Conferences in both sixth and seventh grade.
|
NMS Administration
Secondary Humanities Director
NMS ELA2 Teachers
|
Summer 2014 through School Year 2014-2015
|
More parent involvement in Spring Parent-Teacher
Conferences
Observation
Survey
|
Support from Administration, faculty and students
ELA2 classes
|
|
Action Plan/
Improvement Strategies
|
Person(s) Responsible
|
Timeline
|
Measurement and Outcomes
|
Resource(s) and/or Funding Source
|
|
Continue to look into more ways to communicate student
progress toward meeting end-of-year learning standards through the use of a
standards-based report card.
|
NMS Administration
Secondary Directors (STEM and Humanities)
NMS ELA2 Teachers
NMS Faculty and Staff
|
Summer 2014 through School Year 2014-2015
|
Improve our teaching toward the standards to then be able
to report out on this
Observation
Survey
|
Support from Administration, faculty and students
ELA2 classes
Unified Arts classes
|
|
Improve our celebration of positive PR (Public Relations)
with the Middleborough community.
|
NMS Administration
Secondary Directors (STEM and Humanities)
NMS Faculty and Staff
|
Summer 2014 through School Year 2014-2015
|
Monitor ways to publicize positive events at the Nichols
Middle School
|
Support from Administration, faculty and students
|
|
Advance the cleanliness and aesthetic appeal of the
Nichols Middle School building and grounds.
|
NMS Administration
District Maintenance Director
NMS Custodial Staff
|
Summer 2014 through School Year 2014-2015
|
Observation
Survey
|
Professional development for our custodial staff
|
