New transition teachers help kids adjust to high school
Heading to high school can be a confusing mix of anxiety and anticipation for young teens leaving behind the comfort of an elementary school setting they’ve known for 10 years.
Kids worry about finding classrooms on time, handling increased workload demands, whether or not they’ll know anyone else in their class and who they’ll sit with at lunch.
For those who may already struggle with academics, there’s the looming prospect of provincial testing in Grade 9 and the Grade 10 literacy test.
Amy Bensette and Laura Zuech may not be able to help with dining partners, but they ’ve got quite a few strategies to alleviate many of the other stressors that come with high school.
Bensette and Zuech are the new Student Success intermedi- ate transition teachers with the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board.
As such, they move between a half-dozen elementary schools working with grades 7 and 8 students who have been identified as needing extra transitional support.
It’s a new initiative that received one-year funding from the Ministry of Education for the 2018-19 school year.
“They found there were some learning gaps in grade 7 and 8 and this position will alleviate some of those gaps,” Bensette said. Zuech said they employ an array of targeted interventions that provide a “bridge before they enter high school” with a particular focus on literacy and numeracy. The transition teachers work in collaboration with teachers and staff of the school they’re visiting. They take the handful of students in need of extra support and con- duct small group instruction in both math and literacy. Students who need help are identified by looking at provincial Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) results, report cards and attendance. The goal is to shore up the foundational skills they will use right through high school.
“It’s not easy being a teenager. If we can alleviate some of that academic worry, then everything else that comes with high school will be a little bit easier to handle,” Zuech said.
“It increases the chance of high school being a more fulfilling experience for them,” Bensette said. As they move deeper into the school year, the transition teachers will then start discussing the various pathways available to students once they reach high school in terms of academic or applied streams and specialty programs in skilled trades or science and technology.
“The kids need to feel that there’s an end goal in sight,” Zuech said. “They need to know if I study hard, I can do this as a career. It’s a motivator for them.”
Emelda Byrne, the board’s executive superintendent of student achievement, likes the new programming.
“We believe there’s merit to supporting those students who are struggling academically.” She’d like to see the initiative continue beyond this year and expand across the board. “We started small. We’ll have to wait and see if there’s funding, but we hope to be able to expand,” Byrne said.