Bo+Manor+Academy+Visit

The Elkton High School team of 4 teachers (Mike Uleau, Jaime Menton, Nicole Hammond and Kelly O'Hara), Kristen Moore and Wesley Zimmerman visited the Freshman Academy at Bo Manor High on March 22, 2011. The team was very impressed with Bo Manor's program and we were able to observe the classes and the team plan. The team walked away with a better understanding of the program at Bo Manor and how it will help us develop our own program at EHS. The team can discuss their findings with the rest of the team at our next meeting on Monday, March 28.

The counselor at Bo Manor put together a booklet about their program. You can view it on the following link. Copies of the booklet will be made available to each team member at the meeting on Monday.



The following attachment is a form Bo Manor uses for their team planning meeting.



Here are some notes and comments from the visiting team.
 * 1) Class sizes were between 16 and 20.
 * 2) The 2 minutes between classes worked very well.
 * 3) Having classes in the same area made it possible move between rooms without a bell and it was very organized. The teachers stood a the door to monitor and move the students into the rooms.
 * 4) Classes started without a bell and the teachers taught bell to bell.
 * 5) Seats were arranged in tradtional rows. Teachers agree it is easier to manage 9th graders that way.
 * 6) Meetings were structured well, and proceedings were recorded in a log book.
 * 7) Monday: test/quiz schedule, Tuesday: Grade day, Wednesday: test make up, Thurs: SOAR day/wiki update, Friday: Saturday school prep
 * 8) Extra help: Folder/bin for Saturday school/Thursday lunch work (teachers rotate covering extra help). Documentation for students who don't show.
 * 9) Notebook for each class (different color for each)- students provided with 4 binders, 4 packs of paper, pencils
 * 10) Grading 75/25 split for all classes
 * 11) Late work- 55 is the lowest, 5 points off each day
 * 12) Student issues: issue in more than 1 class= guidance/admin calls, just one class= teacher call
 * 13) If students are failing all 3 marking periods they can be pulled out for credit recovery 4th marking period.
 * 14) Students can be switched to different classes at any point in the year.
 * 15) End of the year trip for "green zone" kids
 * 16) Freshman Academy wiki to notify students of due dates/tests/extra help.
 * 17) One Special Educator traveled with students--kept together
 * 18) Room for small group testing in area of FA
 * 19) Saturday School is an "Invitation"