High School Plus

The staff of Woodhaven Middle School just completed an amazing two day workshop with Mike Mattos.  While the name might not mean a lot to you the message he brings is a perfect fit with the Woodhaven mission of 'Learn How to Learn and Learn How to Get Along.'  Mike's message is 'all students must learn at high levels so they can achieve High School Plus.'  The consequence of us not doing that for a child is severe with the main repercussion being significantly reduced earning power and a shorter life span.

We learned that job one for the teachers in our school is to work together as a team to determine the critical learning for students.  This means picking learning activities which are critical to life long learning and/or next steps in learning.  We need to know how to assess that learning in a way that makes sense to students. Finally, we need a plan to work with a student who needs more time to do the learning and to enrich those who already have it.

The staff was enthused and daunted by the challenge of working in a true High School + environment.  Woodhaven does very well academically on Provincial Achievement Tests.  That means that in most years, in most subjects, we get 90% of our students over the bar.  What Mike reinforced in us is that it is unacceptable to 'settle' for 10% of our kids not making it.  Each student who comprises the 10% needs to make it, and their family needs them to succeed as well.

The staff was irritated by our perceived failure and began generating ideas immediately to deal with this.  That was fantastic!  It is also a problem.  Getting every student over the bar will require careful consideration over the rest of this year.  Students who struggle do so for a variety of reasons and require a wide range of intervention responses.  We will take months to study the suggestions coming forward from staff and develop a school wide response to help our kids.

I am so proud of our staff and their willingness to step up on behalf of every student in our building.  October 6 and 7 were very important days for Woodhaven.  I believe as the result of our work with Mike Mattos we will create the environment where we deliver on our commitment to High School Plus for every student.