Pamelia Valentine: A Renaissance for our School

Our school, like many others struggles to help kids learn and even more than that- to help kids WANT to learn. The Junior High years are fraught with tension. For many students in this rural area it is a new school, a new set of expectations and the first time they have been out of their own tight little communities and thrown into a place with so many other kids. The hormones are beginning to rage and soon their world begins to unravel. Who can they trust? Who can they turn to? How can they navigate these rough new waters? In this new herd mentality some students begin to become invisible- or so they think.

We watch this drama unfold year after year in our school and we’ve never been comfortable with the idea that kids can be made to feel so disenfranchised and marginalized. But now it’s gotten even more serious as we enter the era of posting schoolyard fights on U-Tube for the whole world to see. It was bad enough that the community perceived the Jr. High as a rough place but it creates a new tension when we invite the Internet into our building.

Luckily for us we have a new principal who really “gets it”. He wants things to change for our kids and he’s willing to put his money where his mouth is. He found out about a program called “Renaissance” sponsored by the Jostens company- yes, the group that makes the yearbook materials and graduation paraphernalia that students and schools buy. A group of our junior high school teachers went to a nearby school that has been using this program for a few years. What we saw there has totally changed our lives! We went back to our school and got down to work.

First we posted the names of all the students who had passed all of their first semester classes. Our school mascot is the Timberwolf so we started a “Wolf Tracks” recognition where we put an achieving students name on a wolf track and post it on the wall- (we are hoping to make it all the way around the school by June 17^th). Just last week, we put on a huge celebration dinner called the “Timberwolf Choice Awards” for students who were nominated by our staff as “Excellent Students”. We let everyone in the school nominate one student. The custodians, the classroom educational assistants, the librarian, the office staff and of course- the teachers all participated in this event.

We solicited funds from local businesses and they gave generously. We invited 57 students and their parents to the dinner. We began the evening by greeting them in the entrance to the school where we had laid out a red carpet (okay- it was paper but it looked fabulous!) The staff lined the walkway and cheered as the students arrived­- we high- fived them and clapped and whistled- they were thrilled! The sponsor accompanied their student inside and seated them at a head table where we honored the students by serving them dinner and introducing them with the reason they had been chosen. We gave students a “Believe to Achieve” t-shirt and we had them sign a “Timberwolf Choice Awards” banner that will hang in our school commons. It was a beautiful evening with 240 guests in attendance and a whole new atmosphere in our school.

Does that mean there will never be another fight at Oakland Bay Junior High School? No. What it means it that we care and we are working to make a change- we’re going to continue and we’re going to succeed.

Check out a video of the event below.

Pamelia Valentine is a guest blogger and teacher in the Shelton School District.

Previous Blogs:

Being a Teacher Leader--Within, Across and Beyond

Becoming a Teacher Leader

Practice Makes Perfect