Five Mathews County Public Schools’ programs were among the 102 programs from 44 school divisions across Virginia that were highlighted in the 24th annual VSBA Showcases for Success directory, the Virginia School Boards Association announced on Monday.
The focus of the 2020 VSBA Showcases for Success is “The Profile of a Virginia Graduate,” highlighting unique programs offerings in Virginia’s public schools.
“In addition to highlighting some of the best practices taking place in Virginia’s schools, the VSBA Showcases for Success directory can serve as a starting point to develop similar programs in other school divisions,” said VSBA executive director Gina G. Patterson. “It is important to highlight choices that students have at all levels in school divisions, and the VSBA Showcases for Success directory illustrates that there are excellent programs and initiatives taking place in Virginia’s public schools.”
Mathews programs highlighted included the following, with their descriptions taken from the directory.
Intensified Math Projects
Since 2016, the Lee-Jackson Elementary School pass rates on math SOLs have improved by 19 percent, including an 8 percent increase in scores from 2018 to 2019. A large part of this success is due to our focus on critical thinking skills through creative small group projects. For example, students in Delo Bloomfield’s classroom at Lee-Jackson Elementary formed groups to plan a dream vacation. They decided where they would go, where they would stay, and how would they travel, and were given a budget of $2,000. Bloomfield then engaged the students’ critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills by giving them a “glitch.” For example, how would the cost of the trip change if only three people could go on this trip instead of four? They had to recalculate the cost and discuss how the change would impact their budget. The group dynamic was fascinating to observe as students worked together to plan an amazing vacation on a budget.
Kindness Counts
Kindness Counts is the school climate program at Lee-Jackson Elementary which fosters good citizenship and encompasses important traits of having good character. The students work toward building characteristics of successful citizens by earning rewards. The program includes Tier 1 incentives such as Student of the Month, Star Student, earning “Kind Keys” (key chains) for their book bags, and leaves for the school’s “Giving Tree.” When the giving tree is full of leaves, the entire school receives a reward. The program is modeled after Shel Silverstein’s book “The Giving Tree,” which depicts kindness to others above all. The Lee-Jackson program encourages students and staff to work toward the same common goal of building leaders for tomorrow.
Lee-Jackson Coding Club
Lee-Jackson’s after-school Coding Club is a four-week program for 15-20 third and fourth grade students, led by Lauren Epling and Jennifer Hyde. This program began in 2018. Students spent the first 25 minutes working with the program code.org. Code.org is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to expanding access to computer science in the classroom. The program teaches students how websites and computer games operate. The second half of the club was spent on playing Thinkfun games. Thinkfun games are puzzles that require students to use critical thinking skills to be successful. During the spring, students had the opportunity to build with Lego Boost. They built a robot that they could code to move and complete obstacles. Students also worked with Sphero and Ollie robots. They completed challenges to code their robots to pop balloons, draw pictures, and knock down bowling pins.
Life Skills Small Group Class
As the middle school counselor in our division, mindful of Virginia’s 5Cs, Denise McCuistion created a fun program that highlights the everyday business of living and presented it to the Thomas Hunter Middle School special education resource classes. The group started with learning how to sew a simple rice bag which students were allowed to keep or give away. Once students became proficient and completed their bag they were encouraged to help each other (Collaboration and Citizenship). Many other life skills lessons followed, but the final sessions were focused on meal planning on a budget, food safety, responsible/respectfully shopping, and working together to clean up (Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Creativity and Citizenship). Ultimately, the children shared a meal that they created from start to finish. The best part of this group was hearing these children, who struggle academically, talk about how proud they felt about their success with everyday life skills.
MHS Race to Success
The Mathews High School Race to Success event allows students to gain real-world experience for all students to gain diverse experiences in learning how to be a self-sufficient citizen, explore careers, and how to prepare for a job interview (including learning how to write a cover letter and resume). This event included professionals from various fields, as well as opportunities for students to network and gain more information regarding volunteer and paid internship opportunities, according to MHS English teacher Kevin Hogge.