Overview of RAUC Information Session

Overview of RAUC Information Session
Posted on 04/05/2016

For the 5th grade parents and caregivers who missed the information session, this a brief recap of the session. This was a casual meeting with parents asking questions.

Welcome to RAUC by Julie Craven - Principal, Shimika Bonds - Guidance Counselor and Erin Mears - Guidance Counselor.

Welcome to Julie. She is the newly appointment Head of School for the Rindge Avenue Upper School. Previously, she was a teacher at the King Open School and is currently a history coach for the district.

School day structure:
Every student starts their day in Advisory, from 8:55 - 9:05AM. Advisory follows the Developmental Design Curriculum, which is a progression of Response Classroom. There are approximately 15 students in Advisory with a teacher, could be a core or specialist teacher. Games and team challenges are vehicles used to get to know each other. Similar to Baldwin, the building is open at 8AM and at 8:40AM, students head to their Advisory classroom.

It is a 5-day schedule. Core classes are 55 minutes (English, Social Studies, Math, and Science). Specialist classes are 45 minutes.

Cohort size:
It is targeted to be 88. The current 6th grade at RAUC has 87 students.

Grade/Team Structure:
Each grade has a team leader. The team leader is not the contact person, however, they set up the parent conferences. Conferences occur twice a year with 5 teachers meeting with you (4 core teachers and the language teacher * ). In 6th grade, math is co-taught meaning a math teacher and a full-time special educator, dedicated to the math classroom.

* During the first seven weeks of 6th grade, the space in the schedule for foreign language is used as an Intro to Middle School class. This meets three times a week. The focus is on organization skills.

Agenda books are given to the students and students are taught how to keep their work organized. Classes reserve time to review the homework assignment. After 7 weeks, foreign language instruction begins. Students will choose between French and Spanish. They will then continue with this throughout their years at RAUC. Google classroom is used for homework. Classes are heterogeneous.

Class Location:
The four core classes for 6th grade are all together in the same area (next door and across the hall). Specialist classes are in different areas of the school. There is no formal passing time, however, specialist teachers escort students back to 6th wing.

Lockers:
All students have a locker with a provided lock. The 6th grade lockers are all outside those 4 classrooms.

School Supplies:
Students will be required to have some school supplies. It was recommended to wait on purchasing those supplies as some are provided. Items may include binders or notebooks. One item students should have is a pencil case.

Time Management at Home:
Help them make lists and then ask them to determine what is the most important or pressing item, talk to them about prioritizing their list.

Support Staff:
There are two guidance counselors and one adjustment counselor. One guidance counselor is assigned to 6th grade students, one for 7th grade students. Those two counselors then split the 8th grade.

Middle school is a time for your child to start pressing the boundaries. The job of the middle school faculty to is determine those boundaries and to stand firm to keep students safe and secure.

Role of the guidance counselor
academic, behavioral, and social emotional support work with teaching staff to identify at-risk students consultation with outside agencies and after school programs part of the student support team 504 case managers attendance tracking lunch groups peer mediation / conflict resolution communicate with families weekend backpack program 

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