Billinghurst in a Nutshell

• BDB is a collection of staff, administrators, parents and community members dedicated to providing a positive learning envoronment that meets the unique and personal needs of the middle school child.

• We embrace traditional values such as basic skills, personal responsibility, and decision making.

• We feel that in order for students to succeed we must consider the whole child. Emotional and academic growth go hand in hand.

• We recognize that traditional middle school methods don't always work with today's children.

Based on These Beliefs, We Have Organized Our School in the Following Manner:

• TEAMING-Upon entering school, students join a small community where they can get to know each other well, creating a climate for the intellectual success and emotional development of all students. Teachers have the opportunity to get to know every one of their students well enough to understand and teach them as individuals.

• INTERDISCIPLINARY TEACHING-Subject matter is integrated and coordinated exposing all student to a common core of knowledge. Teachers work together to standardize practices and expectations of students through cooperative planning and interdisciplinary teaching.

• TEAMS-There are currently two 6th grade teams, four seventh and four eighth grades teams in our school. The 6th grade team have approximately 120 students and four teachers per team in the disciplines of math, science, social studies and language arts. Teams for 7th and 8th grade are composed of approximately 90 students and eight teachers. The core teachers, English, Science and Social Studies, share the same students and remain with the same group for both seventh and eighth grades. The encore teachers, electives and Math, have these same students in advisory, but not necessarily in class.

• BLOCK SCHEDULING-Each student has seven classes per quarter, but they only attend five classes per day on a rotating schedule. For instance, on the first day of school they will start with first through fifth periods. On the second day they will start with sixthth period and continue on until 3rdperiod. The schedule continues to rotate in this fashion throughout the year. It takes seven days to complete this cycle and return to the 1-2-3-4-5 schedule. Since we only have five classes, we have extended blocks of 60 minutes instead of the traditional middle school schedule. This block scheduling allows the core teacher to have access to the entire team while they are in their core subjects, which enables us to do interdisciplinary units, team projects, and team builders.

• ADVISORY-Advisory is a small class that meets everyday for twenty minutes. In advisory, each student has a teacher who actively follows their progress in school. Students receive guidance in study skills, social skills, responsibility and self discipline. Advisory also provides a "base camp" for discussions on current events, student activities, student government and community projects.