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Middle school recognized as DeFour finalist

Thermopolis Middle School was recently selected as one of three finalists for the prestigious DuFour Award, presented by Solution Tree during the Summit on Professional Learning Community At Work™ in Phoenix Feb. 20-22.

Though TMS was not selected as the recipient, 5-12 principal Breez Longwell Daniels noted the school’s representatives, which included herself, Eric Kay, Cassie Hetzel and Jacob Strenger, were able to meet with representatives of the other nominated schools and discuss what they have in common, what they do differently and why they think they’re getting good results.

Daniels said it was fun to hear the overlap of the things all the schools are doing, such as building in collaboration time for teachers and intervention time for students, “just the idea that our teachers learn from each other to get better, but that our students can’t opt out of doing the work.” Daniels further explained in the days of getting a “0” on an assignment, many students either became accustomed to those grades or weren’t affected by it. There has been a shift, she said, to where students can’t choose to simply not do the work.

There has also been, among the three nominated schools, a focus on learning. This includes teaching what’s essential and limiting homework to the essentials. “Our teachers,” Daniels said, “have done a really great job of zeroing in on what kids need to know and just really being really focused with time and effort so kids aren’t wasting time and teachers aren’t putting time into stuff that’s not going to help kids get better.”

Dr. Thomas Many had a private conference with the representatives from Thermopolis Middle School, and went over their strengths as a PLC, including weekly collaborative team meetings, the school’s growth data, learning from each other during the Friday roundtables, and support and intervention for all students.

Dr. Many, Daniels said, also spoke of the next step and being very clear about what they want kids to know and how to define that.

Solution Tree members sought the middle school representatives out to congratulate them on their work and ask them questions. Daniels said, as education leaders, they’re advocating for the practices the schools are implementing and want to hear their stories, particularly what it looks like in the middle of Wyoming at a school with only 200 kids. Many of the school they work with, she said, have over 1,000 students and 50 or 60 teachers so they’re curious to know how the practices look like here.

Daniels noted Solution Tree is encouraging schools from across the country that would like to implement their practices to come and visit Thermopolis Middle School, and in the past few days schools from Fremont County and Billings, Mont., have reached out to her.

The bottom line, Daniels said, is to make sure students are learning. “You can do a lot of great things as educators, and there’s a million ways people say, ‘you should be doing this’ and ‘you should be doing that.’ There’s all these tangents but the bottom line is are our kids learning, and what’s the focus of the learning.”

Daniels said her goal is that when seniors graduate they should be able to, if they want to, pass a freshman level college math, science and English course. “To me, that’s what a K-12 education should ensure. If they make a choice they want to go to college, they should know they have the skills to pass a freshman level class . . . All doors should be open, and I feel like that’s what we should be able to guarantee when we exit them as 12th graders.”

 

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