implemented for students, including RAM time— a Reading and Math time designed for intervention and enrichment— and Explore time at the end of the school day, where students could explore clubs and subjects that potentially pique their interests.
“ We wanted to see what it looked like from a kid’ s perspective, so we dressed up like kids, chose a student, went to the student’ s house and took their school bus to school,” says Smith.“ We followed that kid everywhere and spent the entire day going through their schedule and classes.” The experiment worked.“ We were able to come back and say that the master schedule looked good on paper, but we needed to tweak it because in between classes, kids were rushed to get to class on time because it is such a big building,” notes Smith.“ We had to make some adjustments.”
In that spirit of helping kids to achieve, the staff is coming up with potential plans for the 2017-2018 school year.“ We have gone through our master schedule for three years now and have been consistent,” adds Smith.“ Before you make changes you need to give things time to marinate to see how it looks and how it works. We are currently looking at schedules and taking a look at sixth grade. We know sixth grade is very different from fourth or fifth grade. We want to take a hard look at our curriculum for sixth grade, in how we structure it and see if we can make it look a little bit different so that our kids have a smooth transition from fifth grade to sixth grade, and to seventh grade.”
Another idea includes promoting EHUES’ s Positive Behavior Program.“ We want to make it more engaging for the kids,” says Smith.“ We really want to focus on the good that the kids are doing and recognize them for that.”
His proudest accomplishment is not the NDP award, but the relationships he has formed with the students, staff and parents at EHUES.
“ I always say school is focused so much on programs and resources,” notes Smith.“ We always hear principals say they can’ t do something because they don’ t have a program or the resources to do it. But I always say it’ s about relationships and people. If you take the time to build relationships with people and you have those people around you, the resources are there with the people. We have people here at EHUES that go above and beyond whatever needs to be done for kids.” ■
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