MS Program Overview

PROGRAM DETAILS: ADVISORY PROGRAM

Advisory Program Purpose Statement

Through our advisory program, we build communities where students are known, feel valued, support others, and grow.

Social Emotional Learning Curriculum

• Culture of Care Framework

• Our Middle School employs ISB’s Culture of Care Framework to guide and ground our students’ interpersonal and intrapersonal growth. This framework is the foundation of our Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in our advisory program. The framework is broken down into the following strands: Being Cared For, Caring for Self, Caring for Others, Caring for the World

Other Advisory Learning Goals reaffirm and support students to develop the following skills and dispositions:

• HAL: Habits and Attitudes for Learning: Responsible Learner, Engaged Learner, Collaborative Learner

• Digital Citizenship: ISTE Standards (Click on the Digital Citizenship Strand)

• Executive Functioning Skills: Impulse Control, Flexible Thinking, Self-Monitoring, Planning and Prioritizing

• ISB’s Values: Care, Responsibility, Commitment, Gratitude, Courage, Balance, Respect, Integrity

• ISB’s Learner Attributes: Creative, Globally Minded, Adaptable, Value-Driven, SociallyIntelligent, Self-Managing

• Reflection and Goal Setting (HAL and/or curricular goals)

Units are responsive and are regularly updated based on the needs of the students and our community.

Other ADVISORY PROGRAM information

Our advisory program helps us break the MS community into grade-level communities, and smaller communities within each grade level. It helps our large school retain the feel of a small and supportive community. Advisory groups provide a safe space for students to connect with others, develop relationships and to grow as learners, and individuals. Each advisor serves as a trusted adult and advocates for the students in their advisory.

In groups of 9-13, students meet with their advisor at least three days a week.

• Mondays are often a day of pause, where students have time to plan for the week ahead and to engage and it is a time for advisors to intentionally check in on how their students are doing (socially and academically). This is a time to look over the week’s schedule, upcoming events, and activities, and to support students so they are able to participate in the life of the school fully.

• One to two other days of the week are also designated as times when students will engage in advisory lessons. As we prioritize students feeling known and being cared for, the conversations focus on experiences that connect with each student’s life. This is where we attend to our social and emotional learning curriculum (SEL).

• On Fridays the week typically ends with community building events, where individual advisory groups or entire grade levels get together to celebrate achievements, engage in some spirited competitions, or just have fun by playing games while learning to keep good company with each other.

• On days when the advisory does not meet, students engage in a range of other activities during the time slot allocated to advisory:

• WIN time (What I Need time); Allows students to seek academic support, make up work, or read.

• Flex classes: Exploratory activities that students select in order to try something new, be active, be creative, be mindful, or have some fun.

• Assemblies: (grade-level, or school-wide) Throughout the year, schedule adjustments are made to support ISB’s curricular and community activities.