Block 2, Day 1

I had a great day today, my first day at Willink Middle School in Webster. I met my SBE Andy Mitchell, who is a really great person, and I can tell already has an excellent relationship with the kids. Willink is on a block schedule, so I met 2 sections of Math 7 today, with 2 more tomorrow, plus a section of Math 7 accelerated.

It's a beautiful, new school that opened in 2001. There are about 1000 students in grades 6,7, and 8, but they are divided into a house system of about 330 each, and about 110 in each grade. I'll get to teach every one of those 110!

The students and culture are much different than School Without Walls. Not only are the kids much younger, they all seem to be age/grade matched more than the population at SWW, so they seemed REALLY young. The culture is also very rigid - 4 minutes between classes, agendas required for all students, and so on.

Another key difference is the focus on the preparation for the NYS Math 7 test that is coming next week. This is a really big deal - a lot of review is going into it, and Andy structures the lessons and assessments just like the test. Since the test is standards based, he has every question linked to a particular standard, and graded similarly. It seems to be a very rigorous and focused curriculum.