I read a great article this week, but I am hesitant about how useful it will be for me as I proceed on this course. It is from the National Association of Secondary School Principals and it is entitled "Freshman Transition Programs: Long-Term and Comprehensive. It makes a point to say that transition programs need to be more than a one-day orientation showing students around the building and all that. It was interesting to read that this organization advocates the implementation of a year-long course where freshmen are taught "mentoring, life skills and information about why school and learning are important."
As great as a year-long course sounds, I don't believe it is feasible in the current financial situation our district finds itself in. There were some great ideas though. The takeaway from this article for me is how important the relationship that is fostered between staff members and students is towards retaining those students and seeing them through to graduation. The top three factors for dropping out, according to Lan and Lanthier, are poor school performance, attitude towards school, and relationships with teachers. I absolutely believe that the latter can drastically alter the former. When we develop a program here at BHS, I am certain that a key component of it needs to be that relationship piece between students and staff.
The Week of 09/09/13
This week I started by trying to find an academic article that discusses a type of mentoring program. My goal with this project is to start by using the first few weeks to research different types of mentoring programs. I was so happy this week to hear from Mr. Malicke who expressed a great interest in partnering with me on this venture so we will be sharing the responsibility of this task.
The first article I have read is called "The Role of Service Learning." It discusses that service learning needs to be a large part any freshman mentoring program. They focus on the program put in to place in one particular high school. It covers the points that went well and the aspects of the program that the school struggled with. This is important for me to learn because I didn't think of any negative aspects of this, but the article mentions how it took more time to develop than they thought it would (an entire year was spent just on implementing the program). It also offers suggestions as to what this group of people would do differently.
Overall, it was a great article to start with. It has provided me with a lot of different ideas to reflect on.
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