Preparing for the future

Eighth-grade students hear about high school as teachers learn about schedules

By Carol Rolf

LITTLE ROCK — Administrators at Bryant Middle School hope to make it easier for their eighth-grade students to enter high school next year.

On April 1, Sue Reeves, principal, and her staff at the middle school worked in conjunction with Randy Rutherford, Br yant High School principal, and his staff at what they refer to as the Career Action Planning or CAP conference.

According to a printed booklet from Bryant High School, “CAP is a dynamic process where students, staff, parents, post-secondary institutions and the business community collaborate to provide every Bryant High School student with the guidance and information they need to develop an academic and career plan.

This plan should lead to obtaining the knowledge and skills they will need to be successful in a competitive global economy. …”

Two counselors from the middle school - Brenda Rodgers and Kati Squires - talked to the students about the classes they might take when they reach high school.

Vesta Holland, ninth-grade counselor at the high school, talked to members of the middle school faculty who will help the students choose their classes and activities as they plan their high school career.

“Our goal is to help the students be successful,” said Reeves, who added there are 331 ninth-grade students at Bryant Middle School. The other middle school in the Bryant School District - Bethel - conducted its own CAP conference.

Reeves said the school day at the middle school is set up on the “traditional seven-period day.

“When they go to high school, the day is a four-by-four block, meaning that they take four classes each day, each one being one and onehalf hours long,” she said.

“A lot of our kids will get a longer lunch hour, too,” Reeves said. “Lunch here at the middle school is 30 minutes long.

“Once in high school, our students will be able to choose a foreign language to study as well,” Reeves continued.

“The high school is able to offer more of a selection than we do. They offer many more subjects than we do.

“That’s part of the excitement. They will be exposed to a whole different world. Their days will be structured of course, but they will be given some independence as well. What we do to prepare them will help them feel a part of high school.”

Reeves said the high school is all one campus, but the ninth- and 10th-graders are on one side of the campus, and the 11th- and 12thgraders on the other side.

Reeves said the CAP conference is held prior to another conference scheduled later in April at the high school when parents and students were to sit down with advisers and plan the students’ schedules for next fall.

“Today was just to wet their appetites,” Reeves said with a smile. “This was just the first of two steps to get them ready for high school. Then in the fall, they will be invited to a pre-welcome back bash.”

Classes in the Bryant School District begin Aug. 18.

Reeves said there would be a survey held in the fall to see how the CAP conference was perceived.

“We will learn if it was successful or not, and if it was not, then we will work on what to do better next year,” she said.

“Going to high school is a big step for them,” Reeves said. “They will be starting something new. Coming to the middle school was a big thing, too. But they will think all of that was a piece of cake compared to going into the ninth grade.”

Reeves said Bryant Middle School also holds orientation for fifth-grade students who are about to enter middle school.

“Our feeder schools are Hurricane Creek, Davis and Bryant elementary schools,” Reeves said. “We go there and then they come here to visit our campus and see how we do things so that it’s not so foreign to them.” - crolf@arkansasonline.comat a glance Grades: Six through eight Enrollment: 935 Staff: 83 Mascot: Blue Hornets Athletics: Football, basketball, volleyball, track, cross-country Principal: Sue Reeves Address: 200 NW Fourth St. Bryant, AR 72002 Telephone: (501) 847-5651 Web site: http://www.bryantschools.org

Tri-Lakes, Pages 62 on 05/15/2008