An Introduction to Eminence, Our Community

Located in North Central Kentucky there is a small rural community that often goes unnoticed by people traveling through Northern Kentucky or Ohio. In fact, when I attend a district or statewide Professional Development and other educators ask where I teach, I have to provide information relative to more sites of notable interest that help pinpoint the location of the community. The only attractions that identify the community to on-going travelers are three fast food restaurants.

Occasionally, you might meet a truck driver or someone that knows good stereo equipment that is familiar with the locally owned factory that ships speaker equipment worldwide. This small community of ours does have an economic core of light industry and manufacturing. Outside of factories and fast food restaurants, there does not seem to be much that would draw someone here unless it is the place they call home.

Yet there are some strangers that do come to eventually call Eminence home. We have Hispanic migrant workers that are drawn here to partake of the community’s agricultural and industry resources. And the population has also grown in the last ten years due to an influx of city dwellers from Louisville and Oldham County looking for a slower pace of life that they seem to find in Eminence.

This migration has caused a social force to change the community to have an increase of ethnic and cultural diversity. Suddenly Hispanic grocery stores and authentic restaurants emerged. And needs like ESL classes in the community center and a place for the Hispanic population to worship surface. The influx of city dwellers or anyone else for that matter also changes the culture of the town blending home-grown ideas with outside influences making a new culture.

The new culture with different influences has changed the overall “norm” of Moral and Values in the community, another changing social force; rural Bible Belt Christianity mentality meets Hispanic European and urban influences. Students and workers outside of home are being challenged in their beliefs and learn to accept new ways of thinking. Some people are now considering and even accepting new ideas and practices that once were forbidden. These influences are even causing people that grew up in Eminence to question their faith and seemingly innate values that once dominated the community.

The mobility that brought the new ideas and values also influences many community members to commute outside of Eminence for employment. This is due to the social factor of the changing world of work. The increase of car owners and the improvement of travel encourage people to work outside of Eminence. The local businesses have been threatened by this fact too. People seem to purchase necessities outside the city limits putting their money outside the community threatening its very livelihood.

The time and distance of parents working also contribute in two additional social factors for this small community. This social factor has created a group of idle kids that wander the street from the time school is out until parents get home. This social factor has created a change in family and an increase crime and violence, especially in youth. There is a plethora of kids roaming the street even after dark. The community and the school created a center to combat this problem, which has helped, yet not cured the problem.

The influx of people and social elements changing still has changed the charm of the community. And the changes have made life better in this small town with still a different pace of life than other communities.

The Community

In fact, according to 1990 census, there are 2,500 residents that call this small community home. Of those 2,500 residents, 70% are high school graduates and only 12% have graduated from some type of higher education. There is also a fluctuation of from 2% to 10% of the number of people that come to live for short amounts of time as migrant farm workers. Some of these migrant workers come and go very quickly, but a few do decide to stay and become permanent members of the community.

Most of the residents commute outside the town limits to their places of employment. These commuters travel west to Louisville or east to Frankfort to earn a living and to do their shopping at larger department stores. The community does have a popular drug store, a small locally owned grocery store, and a Dollar Store. Most people have to travel somewhere outside the city and even the county to get many of their necessities and luxuries. This is an obstacle for the schools too because the school depends on local businesses to support school activities. These small businesses are depended on but cannot even make it on their own causing another financial stress in the loss of a tax base. It is like the town is constantly beating a dead horse asking from resources that seem to not even support their own. There is not only a lack in business as far as stores but also a place for students and adults to find things to occupy their time. There is not much as far as entertainment and recreation to offer except for a public pool that is only in operation during the summer.

The lack of recreation does encourage a strong sense of community in the community organizations and churches. The Eminence Fire Department has many volunteers. The EFD raises money for the Children’s Crusade and even hosts the annual Jonathan Adams Run/Walk on Memorial Day. The Rotary club as well as the school Booster club also provides many community activities. The Recreational Parks also provides city sport teams for kids. Churches also create a social outlet for people of all ages. Many of the same people are involved in many community activities. This is common in the little town creating a strong sense of community that flows into the schools where many people wear many different hats. A handful of tired folks do a lot of the work in the community.

The exception of the lack of things for kids to do occurs on Friday and Saturday nights. On the weekend young people from all of the surrounding counties come to cruise Main Street and Broadway. The teenagers that are not lucky enough to drive a car or hitch a ride usually can be seen in the area walking or riding a bike to participate in the weekly community claim to fame. All the traffic and activity of the Friday and Saturday parades happens right in front of what is the nucleus of activity on the weekdays--the school.

Our School District

The single school building in the district houses students from preschool through the twelfth grade. It is in the heart of the town. The small enrollment of 490 students almost serves 1/4 of the population of the entire community of 2100 people. The Superintendent, David Baird resides over the School Board for a district that fits into one building. It is very hard to talk just about the district seeing that the district is so small, it is hard to think separately of the two. No wonder, outside of cruising circles, it seems like the core of the community's activity is the fall football games for which the principal of the high school and middle school serves as the team’s coach. Steve Frommyer is the prime example of people that wear too many hats in the small community.

Our Middle School

Football is just one of the many extracurricular activities that this small school offers its students. Having the principal double as football coach is just one of the many examples of the shared resources that the school seems to utilize. . And it also seems to go along with the school’s mission statement which is To develop world-class citizens who are prepared for all aspects of life through the cooperation of all stakeholders. With preschool through twelfth grade in one building, a community spirit must be upheld, and cooperation. There is only one music, one art, one PE teacher and one counselor for all K-12 students. These educators teach all grade levels.

Administrators handle two to three roles. Frommeyer is the head principal for the middle and high school, football coach, Director of Assessment K-12, Athletic Director, Board Member and in charge of Professional Development K-12. He even calls all the substitutes. The assistant principal is in charge of discipline, high school counselor and the Lunch Room monitor and this was only the first year we had an assistant principal, no telling what she will have to do next year! All teachers have several responsibilities, for example, Lynn is a FCA, BETA club and Drama club sponsor. She is also the softball coach, the Youth and Children’s Minister at Eminence Baptist, Sunday School Teacher and a deacon. She is just one example of the normal community member in this little community that wants to give its youth the best.

Recently the K-12 school that used to be in the accountability system as three separate schools: elementary, middle and high consolidated the middle and high school. This brought another shared resource of Site Base Council that serves the 5-12 school.

There are also many shared facilities in the school. The K-12 student body is located in one building. There is a running joke that you enter as a preschooler in the back door and go out the front as a graduate. The preschool and elementary are located in the back of the building on the first floor, the middle school is in the front on the first floor and the high school is on the second floor. There is only one computer lab, one library, one gym and one stage (the stage shares the space of the gym.) And all three schools share three full sized and one-handicapped buses. To plan any activity you compete with the entire school and (at night especially) possibility the entire community. The teachers become schedule masters to provide opportunities for the largely at risk student population.

Twenty-four percent of the community’s families live with incomes below the national poverty level. In my middle school, 53% of the students received free and reduced lunch. Approximately 20-25% of the students qualify for special education services. This percentage is a little under 1/4 of the middle school's enrollment of 148 students.

These high percentages of at-risk students can make the future of the school seem pretty dim, but instead they help to bring a lot of federal and state assistance to our school, which in turn bring us bright spots and much needed hope. For example, two years ago the number of at-risk kids and lack of community resources helped bring our school and community receive a grant for a community center. This community center was sought out by the school and community leaders to address the problem of so many children wandering around town after-school and the weekends with nothing to do.

The fact that the community is so small and so many children spend much of their time walking or riding their bikes causes a loitering problem around the school and other parts of town. A large number of students are independently mobile and do not need the use of one of district’s three buses to take them home. During the after-school hours, many of the children are “latchkey children” who have no supervision when they reach home. So instead of going home, they wander the streets. One goal of the grant for the community center was to lessen the number of children roaming the streets. The idea was to offer programs and activities to make the community center the place to be after-school.

The community center grant also provided the resources to start a middle school sports club. This club was modeled after Robbie Valentine's Sports Club in Jefferson County. The students meet on Saturday mornings to work on academics and participate in some type of sports activity. The coaches are there as mentors that try to support academic achievement through involvement in sports. They keep up with and try to make the students accountable for attendance, grades and behavior. The community center and sports clubs are very important outlets and support for the student population, especially during the frequent breaks the district has with its alternative schedule.

This district was one of the first in the state to operate on an alternative calendar. This kind of school calendar provides for two to three week breaks after every nine weeks of instruction. The kids are free to enjoy their breaks because the grading period ends and resumes when the breaks are over. The community center offers activities that are educational and enjoyable for the students during these breaks. The activities that they offer vary from basketball tournaments, arts and crafts projects, to trips to amusement parks, museums, ball games or movies. There is usually something going on every day at community center.

For students that fall behind on work during the grading period, during the first or last week of break there are an intersession classes offered. These classes give extra assistance to students that need to work on portfolio pieces, projects or remedial skills to catch-up prior to the beginning of the next nine weeks grading period.

The middle school offers many other programs to keep kids involved and motivated. Even though the school itself is small, we offer sports for every season. There are also activities such as Jr. Beta, Academic Team, Odyssey of the Mind, Newsletter, youth choir, band and drama club to engage in after school. We also offer Extended School Services (ESS) for students who need tutoring and support to complete assignments.

The middle school not only offers the typical extracurricular middle school activities, but there are other unique programs/requirements that engage student learning. One of these unique requirements is the SPREE goals contract. SPREE goals are like an IEP (Individual Education Plan) for every student. The student, teachers and parents design 10 goals for the student to achieve during the school year. The student is required to meet 7 out of the 10 goals in order to be promoted. The SPREE goals are one way that the middle school tries to individualize every child's education.

In each of the four core subjects (Language Arts, Social Studies, Science and Math), the students write two goals for themselves. An example of a content area SPREE goal is: I will receive a proficient on my personal narrative. Another example of a science class SPREE goal is: I will receive an apprentice on my science fair project. These goals also provide an opportunity for students to pursue special interests they might have in a particular area. Following are other areas and examples of goals that the students can choose to:

· Technology- e.g. I will learn how to use Power Point and use the program to create a presentation in class.

· Attendance- I will miss no more than 3 days of school.

· Extracurricular- I will participate in 4 activities during the school year.

The SPREE contract requires that the students learn how to set realistic, achievable goals and learn to use time management skills. It also provides an opportunity for parents to play a more involved role in planning their child’s education.

Another program that encourages parents and community members to share in the elements of students’ education is the Panel Review. At the end of the 6th and 8th grade year, each student prepares a presentation to demonstrate to a panel of community members what he/she has learned in relation to core content, integration, problem solving, group membership, independent-learning, self-sufficiency and communication. The students provide examples and support to prove that they have achieved proficiency in these areas. The school feels that these eight areas should be understood and met by the students in order for them to be promoted.

Another promotion requirement that also involves the community is Service Learning. The 8th graders are required to complete 15 hours of volunteer service in the community. They are also required to produce a scrapbook and a journal documenting this experience. Examples of service areas to work in include volunteering in the elementary ESS program; playing games and reading to younger children at the community center after-school program; teaching in the preschool after-school program; beautification of the public grounds; helping at the local library; and recording books on audio tapes for lower level readers and special needs students. The goal is to help the students see positive ways they can help people in their community.

The last major promotion requirement is the Integrated Portfolio. The integrated portfolio is the year-end cumulative project for the students and teachers on the multidisciplinary team. The portfolio is made up of several portfolio pieces and projects that make connections in the core content of two or more subjects.

Our Staff

The middle school is divided up into two interdisciplinary teams. The teams have one Language Arts, Science, Special Education, Social Studies and Math teacher. The 5^th and 6^th grade team has all the fifth and sixth graders in the entire school and 7^th and 8^th grade teaches all the seventh and eighth graders. We keep students for two years. This really allows us as teachers to get to know our students and their parents.

` The 5^th and 6^th grade team has two teachers, Math and Special Education, that have been there longer than five years that happened to graduate from Eminence. The Language Arts Teacher has been at Eminence for three years. And this is the Science (Lynn) and Social Studies teacher first year. Lynn is also an Eminence graduate and all the teachers except one lives in Eminence. This team has a history of loosing at least one teacher every year for the last five years. And next year is no exception with the Social Studies teacher position being open. This has made integration difficult. The inconsistency of the team has not allowed for solid curriculum mapping. Integration usually occurs in a share reading time during the day. All the teachers are involved in at least one and usually two or three after-school activities.

The 7^th and 8^th grade team has two teachers that have been at Eminence for 22 years: Special Education and Social Studies. The Special Education teacher wears the many hats of Site Base Member, ESS coordinator, BETA club State and Main School sponsor, Drama Club and Booster Club Sponsor. The Social Studies teacher is an Academic Team coach, Service Learning Coordinator and Coordinator of the 8^th grade trip. As you can see these Eminence veterans who have been in the Middle School for eight years act as leaders for the team and the entire middle school. The Science teacher has been at Eminence for six years acts as Academic Team coach, Middle School Football Coach and in charge of the landscaping and mowing of the school grounds. The Math teacher in her second year at Eminence coaches Middle and High School Basketball and Softball. And Steph has taught at Eminence for three years. She is the Drama Club director, a BETA club sponsor, a FCA sponsor, the STLP teacher and the Middle School Writing Cluster Leader. The 7^th and 8^th grade team has had more stability the last few years and meets several times a year to curriculum map and has common planning. The stability is needed in a school that is small but wants to offer many opportunities for its students and for teachers and staff that have some many roles.

The administration as mentioned earlier wears many hats. Staff meetings are held every Wednesday during the middle schools common planning. Many times they are pulled out to solve an immediate problem that falls underneath another hat, a flaw in a small system when all of your hats need a solution at same time.

There are shared itinerant teachers for the entire district. The district shares the same cafeteria, maintenance, and custodial staff. They all have the same resource center and library.

Aides serve as emergency substitutes, and study hall teachers as well as a resource for special education teachers. The 5^th and 6^th grade has the most special education students therefore that team had two aides this year. Next year 7^th and 8^th grade have the most therefore they get two aides. Each teacher either has an aide or special education teacher for every period they have special education students. Special Education teachers usually go to the math and Language Arts classes where most modifications are needed and aides go to Science and Social Studies. Aides are a blessing and because of their many hats have to be pulled al out class often.

Our Students

The blessing and curse of small numbers creates well rounded but stretched and exhausted students. With so many opportunities many students are involved in many school activities. Most students are involved in three or more activities. One student, Brian is involved in football, cross-country, basketball, Academic team, BETA club and Sports Club. This is great except that teachers share these students and just finding any time that does not conflict with some other group is a problem when you share students.

Sharing students in activities forces the school calendar to be consulted which the principal coordinates too. Teachers often time argue over a student’s available time. Sharing and open communication is so important in our small school making it more like family.

Having the students for two years and team teaching helps the school seem more like a family. Teachers usually discuss student concerns and most students are addressed in team meetings weekly. This factor helps create a safe and caring environment that can be inviting but can also be intimating at times. An example is an 8^th grader named Nikki that got pregnant this year. The 7^th and 8^th Grade Team did discuss several times that they were worried about her. She looked sick and overly worried about something. They noticed she had gained weight and several teachers did ask if she was okay. One Monday she did not show up and the speculation that the team had that she was expecting was verified. She was eight months pregnant with no prenatal care when she went to the hospital that Friday night with kidney problems. A few weeks later she went away to a school for teenage mothers. After Nathan was born she returned to Eminence welcomed back to a place where she feels safe and cared for.

The small community is a curse and benefit for the students. Word travels within town within hours, such as the case with Nikki last night. Nathan was in the crib and she stepped out of the room for a minute and when she returned the pillow she had propped Nathan on was over his head. Within minutes of calling EMS, the call came over the scanner. Donna’s, our 7^th and 8^th grade special education teacher, husband, an EFD volunteer, sped to Nikki’s home after he got the call. Donna called to tell me as Scott left the house. I called to tell Lynn, who is also Nikki’s Youth Minister. Within twenty minutes Donna called and I knew Nikki and Nathan were at the hospital running tests but he seemed fine. Ten minutes later Lynn calls me at the hospital to tell me they are going home. Today several teachers and Nikki’s friends call to see how Nathan and she are doing. Life in a small town, is it gossip when news travels that fast? Maybe for some but most were genuinely concerned for Nikki.

In this small town students see their teachers as active and caring community members. They see us in several roles outside of being a teacher. They see active members of the community that go outside the school walls.

Curriculum and Curriculum Planning

This educates the students outside the school. They see adults playing a positive active part in the community. Curriculum is teaching in and out of the school day. Curriculum is not only core content but has much individualized education. Many of the promotion requirements like integrated portfolios, SPREE goals, panel review are very individualized and have to be incorporated into the curriculum. These requirements implement the core content but have more real-world application and integration than traditional methods. They seem to push the community’s strength too of community support and are service-oriented activities.

Both teams also meet in the summer to plan integrated units. Art and music teachers also try to integrate. Both teams usually do curriculum mapping and coordinate project-based assessments together. Language Arts teachers seem to integrate the most. This seems to be an easier subject to integrate

Teaching Practices

Yet teachers practice a lot of integration a practice that seems to go naturally in all schools but especially middle schools. This practice has said to improve the likelihood that students will grasp more of the material.

When classes work together through integration project-based assessment seems to work naturally also. Students usually work together encouraging group membership skills. They usually are asked to work together to solve a problem or create a product therefore approving and practicing problem solving techniques.

These skills are two essential concepts needed in any job creating real-world application. Much of Eminence’s curriculum seems to be authentic to the real world. An example would be SPREE goals as any successful person makes goals for himself/herself for their career and life in general. Also Panel Review as the student learns how to prove to someone what they know and how to reflect on their own performance.

Chapter 1—Values and Goals

The goals of our curriculum are clear to teachers, but we need to be more conscious of making the goals clear to students. When planning in teams and individually our teachers use core content and the curriculum alignment of our school to plan activities and materials for learning.

As stated above, teachers need to be more clear with students as far as core content is concerned, but we do involve students in planning through the Spree goal process, integrated portfolios and panel reviews. In these processes students are allowed to choose goals that are related to core content, but still allow freedom to be involved in many different types of activities.

Many of our planned goals relate to our community. In the eighth grade students are required to have fifteen service learning hours. These hours can be accumulated by working in our after school program, Wee Warriors, helping teachers, picking up trash in the community, planting flowers and trees or working with the seventh/eighth grade teacher in composting. Students are required to keep a log of the hours they work and to make an album of some kind with pictures to show the work they have done.

Along with service learning, Spree goals, integrated portfolios, and panel reviews all relate to the needs of individual students. These aspects of our curriculum enable students to have some choices in how they learn and fulfill requirements. This also allows students with special needs and different interests to achieve at their level and to be involved in activities that suit their interests.

As stated in the first paragraph, the goals of our curriculum are used when planning activities to meet the needs of our students. When meeting in teams our staff plans activities that meet these goals and we use them to evaluate the validity of teaching practices in our school. Students’ willingness to choose activities that suit their interests and achievement levels helps to make our jobs as teachers much easier and fun.

Chapter 2—Social Forces

The social and cultural factors that contribute to the individual differences of learners are the blending of many cultural backgrounds that we have in Eminence such as the many migrant families, African-American families, white families (those from our area and those who have moved in from the city), the family structures such as one-parent homes, two-parent homes, grandparents who raise their grandchildren, blended families, and some students even have their own children, religious preferences, and socioeconomic.

By individualizing education we provide for individual differences by allowing students to choose their own goals through the Spree Goal process, create their own projects and choose topics for integrated portfolio. When planning for the curriculum we seek content that includes the diverse cultures that our school represents.

The values that we are teaching are the values that we hold individually. Teachers are teaching these values indirectly, but teaching them nonetheless. We teach by example. We wish to teach values that include tolerance of others’ values and morals. As white Anglo teachers our entire middle school staff holds basically the same values and morals, but we try to teach about tolerance and acceptance of our multicultural world.

The curriculum needs to provide the students the opportunity to get to know themselves as people. Middle school is a time of self-actualization and teachers must make it a necessary part of the curriculum. The curriculum should include students’ opportunities to be positive about themselves in such a negative time in a human’s development.

Students should also be given the opportunity to see how others feel about themselves and react to that. Content should relate to students where they are socially. These opportunities would allow students to role-play and to confront personal and social issues.

In order for students to learn problem solving skills they must be given the opportunity to solve problems that are related to real life. In science and math students are taught how to break down problems and this will enable them to break down real life problems. In social studies students are encouraged to look at social problems and possible solutions.

Our principal is very informed on trends in education and future planning and he keeps us involved. Through his leadership and just through our staff searching for new and improved ways of delivering instruction we keep abreast of innovative ideas. For instance, our seventh and eighth grade team has used PDA’s for instructional purposes and Mr. Frommeyer; our principal has been extremely supportive of their efforts.

Chapter 3—Human Development

At times the core content does not seem developmentally appropriate for students, but we modify the content and through instruction (Spree Goals) we allow for developmental differences of learners. I think that we are farther along than many schools because of Spree and other instructional practices that we incorporate, but the curriculum does not allow them the opportunity for each learner to start where he or she is. We cannot individualize education so much that one student is in calculus and one student is working on multiplication tables. In Eminence we do, however, have enough instructional assistants and we are small enough that we can take time to remediate as needed or make some tasks challenging.

When looking at core content the terms are not always appropriate for our students, but when planning tasks we make certain the tasks fall into the concrete operational stage and the formal operational stage. We also take into account the fact that some students, even though they are middle school aged, have not reached these stages yet, so tasks must be modified for them.

We do realize that our students are realizing that they cannot do things perfectly all the time. Our school has a safe environment where it is okay be successful and to fail. Middle school students are in the industry versus inferiority stage and the identity versus role confusion stage, so we allow them opportunities to grow and mature and to take risks.

Tasks that are inadequately achieved are not remediated except in Extended School Services, during intersession or we give students more time to complete projects. We are looking into programs that enable us to ensure students achieve tasks adequately. Most subject areas does not require task maintenance. The areas build upon each other and when one level is achieved teachers move on to the next.

Our middle school staff has an aligned curriculum and when meeting during the summer we review to make sure that the curriculum has been adjusted to the biological, social, cultural, and intellectual changes that occur in students during the middle school stages. The staff is very conscious of using developmentally appropriate practices.

We individualize education through Spree goals, choices in projects and integrated portfolio choices we meet the needs of every individual. Students are allowed freedom to choose part of their curriculum through these special components of our curriculum.

Chapter 4—Learning and Learning Styles

As previously discussed Spree goals, integrated portfolio, panel review and other promotion requirements allow alternative activities for learning. These activities allow students to choose parts of their curriculum and allow for individual learning styles. In our middle school we give students the opportunity to take a learning styles test, which then enables them to choose different activities that better meet their styles. We also are very project oriented, which gives students the opportunity to choose how they complete an assignment.

On the fifth and sixth grade team we use a system called STASH to motivate students to perform to the expectations of the school. This behavioral learning theory is therefore being practiced with the fifth and sixth grade team because the students are not intrinsically motivated. In the middle of the sixth grade year we begin to wean students away from this system so that they will become more intrinsically motivated and not have to have an extrinsic reward every time they do something well. The seventh and eighth grade team rewards students for big achievements only.

The many activities teachers use in their classrooms such as brainstorming and webbing to help students figure out how they best learn and assimilate new information. We really encourage students to figure out how they best learn. We provide opportunities for students to participate in discovery learning through experiments and problem solving.

When thinking about the mentioned behavioral and cognitive learning theories our staff has not intentionally implemented them, but when looking our curriculum we do see these theories being performed with the students, but not talked about in a formal manner. Quite surprisingly, these things have been place into our curriculum without much thought to the process; therefore, they must be a part of the learning environment. As a staff, we need to spend more time formally talking about these theories.

In contrast, though, we have spent formal planning time considering individual learning styles and approaches. Both teams conduct learning styles and reading styles test. Students answer questions regarding their preferences and strengths in learning. When the students answer the questions the test is group and clustered predicting their style of learning. Students take this knowledge and the characteristics of their learning styles and how they can better learn. Surprisingly, some of the characteristics have not been considered by the student, so they learn new styles, which they may not have been aware. Teachers and students formally discuss the learning styles and gear projects and learning to their styles.

Chapter 5—The Nature of Knowledge

As a school we do not discuss with our students key concepts, principles, and the structure of the content to be learned. We do realize, however, that this is one of our shortcomings and that we need to address this problem. We have discussed formally the necessity of discussing with our students the need to identify core content to be taught. We saw this need when identifying core content for integrated portfolios and panel reviews; the students were unfamiliar with the core content.

Because of our small numbers and because of our methods of discovery learning we can observe students as they are gaining organized knowledge that we are trying to have them assimilate. Individual conversations about how they are thinking and organizing knowledge help us to recognize discrepancies and to help them merge personal constructs and organized knowledge.

The education and learning styles dominance has also furthered the integration of personally constructed knowledge. By students and teachers discovering which “brained” they are helps us know how students learn best so they can be successful. Teachers’ observations of their students’ dominance in brain hemispheres helps teachers modify instruction and give the students insight of their own hemispheric dominance.

Again, because of the intimacy and smallness of the school teachers are able to modify for unique personal and social problems. Common planning also allows us to discuss students’ needs and to integrate subjects more completely. Our staff is very adept at integrating subject areas.

Integration also helps in pointing out in the curriculum processes of knowledge. Teachers may not formally tell students when they are experiencing the processes of synthesis, wholeness, etc., but do point out to students the connectedness of subject areas and content.

Implications/ Suggestions for Improvement

When I evaluate Eminence based upon the curriculum as a whole and specifically the curriculum bases of Social Forces, Human Development, Learning Styles and The Nature of Knowledge, I know our weakest area is communication. We naturally include all the bases of curriculum but are not proficient at explaining to the students when we are doing them in our instruction. So, the students are actually going through the processes, but have no idea when, why or how. So, we need to make it obvious by communicating with the students when we are doing the methods such as when we are working on the processes of knowing and tell the students what they are called. We also need to formally talk about the bases in staff and team meeting to insure that the bases are included on purpose with a plan, in other words not by accident.

We do have stronger emphasis on the social forces and learning styles theories bases of curriculum. These are stronger because they are formally talked about and planned in the curriculum. We have philosophical talks on a weekly basis in our staff meetings about social trends. We discuss if our students are being prepared for the future work force and receive enough technology to be prepared for the Microelectronic Revolution. This is the very reason we started and pushed the handheld computer project in the 7^th and 8^th grade. We saw that businesses and higher education intuitions where just beginning to use mobile devices. We knew our school was already behind on the desktop computer end of technology, and we wanted to get started on the new trend early in the game. When we were given a grant to get started, we jumped on it. When we had failures, we realized it was because we were on the cutting edge. Now, I think our students have learned far more about technology than I ever thought possible. And other schools and companies visit our school to see what we are doing and how we are preparing our students for the future.

Our school is small, which also allows for us to discuss when social factors such as cultural diversity, equality, changing values and morality and family need to be changed, deleted or added to the curriculum. As teams we re-evaluate every year and decide if the integrated units that we teach work for all students. Many times, social factors seem to be missing or emphasis on one group is addressed and fixed to make the curriculum meet the needs of the student.

Whole school and team planning also help us be more efficient in including the Learning styles base in our curriculum. By taking our general and reading learning styles’ tests, the students identify and discuss their learning style. Teachers discuss with students the characteristics of their learning style(s) and help the students see how to make themselves more successful in learning. The school’s unit plan design also requires the teachers to identify when they address each learning style in the unit, and it requires that every learning style be addressed in each unit. The real strength in our usage of the social forces and learning styles in our curriculum is open communication within the staff and with the students.

Our least effective base of curriculum is the Nature of Knowledge. We perform a lot of the approaches and processes on accident. We do not tell the students that we are doing them and are not even sure ourselves if and when we do them. In fact, I had to look up the structures of knowledge, but when I looked at them I realized that we did these things in class, but I was not aware of it and really did not communicate it to the students. We do all kinds of projects that require discovery learning, but I do not tell the class “What you are doing is called Discovering Learning!” Not that this is needed every minute, but the kids do need to know that they are employing the structure of knowledge. We need to talk and discuss what knowledge is and how we acquire it. We acquire knowledge in my class, but we never formally discuss how it works. We need to look at the all curriculum criterion of The Nature of Knowledge and purposely plan how to implement them into the curriculum and discuss them with the students. Again the weakness is a lack of communication to the students and an awareness of when we teach these ideas to the students.

The reason we effectively employ the trends of implementation technology and learning styles in our curriculum is because we have formally identified the trend and purposely planned it in the curriculum. I see that we need to improve on the trends of discussing the Nature of Knowledge. We first need to understand the processes and strategies and what each one means ourselves. Second, we have to formally plan them into our curriculum and teaching units. Third, we need to communicate with the students what they are and when the strategies and processes are being implemented. Our biggest consideration is just constant communication with each other and the students of when and how we are implementing the bases of curriculum. I think our school is doing a good job despite the fact that we implement many of the bases of curriculum by accident. We just need to learn to be aware and plan the bases on purpose and with greater meaning for the benefit of the students.

With this in mind, and a focus clearly planted, and a goal set, we can make this a reality in our school and not “just and accident.”