Central Mountain Middle School in Mill Hall, PA | Children`s and Teens` Education | Pennsylvania Catalog

Central Mountain Middle School

Philosophy:
The philosophy behind the Middle School will be to provide:
- A quality academic core of courses.
- A smooth transition from elementary school to high school.
- An exploration core of courses to provide students with the experiences necessary to select a high school pathway curriculum.
The academic chore:
Particular attention will be paid to Reading and Communication skills. Students who need additional assistance with reading skills will receive it. Students whose reading skills are superior will advance to Literature and the Humanities and/or Foreign Language introduction to include the formal Level I. Students will also, receive instruction in Health, Physical Education, Career Education, and Study Skills. Students who excel in Mathematics will have the opportunity to complete Algebra I while in the Middle School.
The transition:
Middle School age students are passing through an extremely unique part of their young lives. Their body, mind, and emotions are changing almost daily. It is the intent of the faculty to assist youngsters through this period of their life while preparing them academically and for young adult high school life.
Students in grade six will have only a few teachers, and will be limited in their movement throughout the building. Their teacher team will provide them with the stability and support they need. Their peer group will also be somewhat limited in that they will function and move throughout the building as a group. Their teachers will be elementary teachers.
As seventh graders students will begin to move more frequently changing classes each period. This will be their first exposure to departmentalization. That is the first time their English teacher is different than their Math teacher and so on. More movement and departmentalization will be new. However, they will maintain the security of moving with their group from class to class.
Eighth grade is the final transition step and is the year where each student begins to establish him or herself as an individual. Some course selection will be available that will add to the establishment of each students individuality. Upon the completion of eighth grade students will be prepared to enter a curriculum pathway high school educational program.
Exploration:
A key component of ones Middle School education is the career exploration program. Over the three years students will explore areas such as Environment, Business, Computers, Home Economics, Industrial Arts, Human Services, Manufacturing Technology, Fine Arts, Creative Arts, Foreign Language and the Humanities.
The Library:
The librarian, Mrs. Smith is on a six-day cycle and Mrs. Ball as an assistant.
The CMMS Library offer 33,000+ books, videos, and magazines. AccessPA and AccessPA Power are also accessible through the libraries.
The library curriculum is integrated into the subject areas. When classes come to the library for projects, Mrs. Smith helps the students with the research portion of the assignment such as the Big Six method of research, search engines, Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature, and bibliographies. The classroom teacher directs the content. This puts an “expert” in each position!
English classes in grades seven and eight are invited into the library every other six-day cycle. They are also welcome to schedule at any other time that would benefit their curriculums. These exploration courses are designed to give students a good "hands on" look at all the career opportunities available in these areas. No student has the capacity to absolutely like everything. Thus it is hoped that by exploring each of these areas students can determine for themselves what they like, don't like, wish to further study or discontinue to study at the high school level.