Shirley Heim Middle School

Our CWK kids here at Shirley Heim have been busy this year.  Since ours is a new school, our students are new to CWK.  The students have been meeting on a monthly basis to brainstorm ideas for helping students get connected to Heim.  Their goal is to help students feel like they are all a part of our school.  The staff is also doing their share.

We began the year with a parent informational night.  The counselors presented information on how to help students be successful in school.  This included academic and social / emotional information. 

We also began using our ambassadors.  They started working in the summer by being available the night of open house to give individual tours of our school to anyone who wanted one.  Then they, along with new ambassadors, signed up to help out with new students.  Anytime we have a new student enroll, an ambassador is assigned to help get the student acquainted with the building and make the new student feel comfortable.  Our ambassadors act as a guide and also as a friend.  They go to electives with the student and also eat lunch with them.  They also personally introduce the student to his / her teachers and help out with the locker, if needed.

Our mentor program is up and running.  Staff members and select students have been brought together to help to increase attendance and academics. 

The CWK kids decided to start a new club entitled “Club Connect”.  In order to advertise this club they created a video announcement for morning announcements.  It was a 3 part announcement and apparently was a big hit.  We had over 60 students show up to our first meeting.  Students played “Find someone who bingo” and had pizza and soda.  From those 60 students we have created sub groups to work on other activities in our school.  Club Connect will meet monthly and its goal is to provide social activities for students to look forward.

The CWK kids are among some of those students involved in our peer mediation program.  They are also going to go into the 6th grade classes in February to share the video that we all saw at the training event. 

At the end of January we have events planned for “No Name Calling Week”.  We also had an evening presentation entitled “Bully Free Living”.  Our CWK students want the students at Heim to feel as comfortable and included here as possible.

The students here at school also get to experience “Fun Friday” twice a marking period.  During these times teams take students to our forum for fun activities: a movie, a presentation, refreshments, games, etc.  The teachers give out awards during this time to highlight students in many different categories. 

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