Mount Vernon High School kicked off its new Major Time program Monday morning, and it brought all the employees in the school’s pyramid in for the event. More than 900 school workers, from principals to office staff, from teachers to custodians, gathered in the school’s main gym to hear a talk by Stanley Leone Jr. of the Flippin Group, which specializes in motivating and "bringing out the best in people."
Leone told the story of a teacher who, in his senior year of high school, turned him from a convicted felon with a violent past and a grim future to an All-American Scholar who graduated magna cum laude from college. "Without her, I would have continued to live out the cycle of dysfunction that has affected and plagued my family," he told the crowd.
"I thought, if we’re really going to make this an initiative, it needs to start in kindergarten," Mount Vernon Principal Nardos King said of the relationship-building program she is spearheading at the school. King said all staffers were included in the kickoff because "everybody in this building interacts with the kids, and I want them to know they’re part of that relationship."
Over the next couple of years, she said, the school will be contracting the Flippin Group to train teachers in its Capturing Kids’ Hearts program. She said she hopes to find some corporate sponsorship to fund the training.
MEANWHILE, NEXT MONTH, the school will open a forum for building relationships between teachers and students with the Major Time program, an extra period built into the school day, during which each teacher will supervise 14 to 18 students as they do make-up work, read silently, work on study skills or learn life skills like opening a bank account or registering to vote.
The time was created by shaving minutes off of hall time and the other class periods.
"That teacher Stanley had, we want them to become that teacher to the kids," she said of her teaching staff. Also, she said, "A lot of our kids are failing because they can’t do make-up work because they can’t stay after school." Many have to take care of siblings, said King, while others work jobs, and others are simply not inclined to stay late. Major Time will give students time during the day to do what some are not doing after school.
The teachers voted last year to implement the program. "Our teachers are excited about it," she said. She acknowledged that a few had been resistant, but she said she had not lost any teachers as a result of the program.
"I think there was some skepticism early on," said English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher Glen Peppel, noting that some teachers had perceived the period as an additional task. "But I think it’s fundamentally different from preparing for just another class. I think there will be greater buy-in by teachers and students."
PEPPEL SAID he was excited about the program. "I think it’s going to be a great opportunity to build the relationships that we were talking about this morning," he said. He added that the program would bring with it additional benefits, such as closing achievement gaps between different student demographics, better informing students of school policy, and the improved vocabulary and comprehension skills fostered by the "sustained, silent reading" portion of the period. "We’ve had some challenges with SAT and SOL scores," he said, noting that providing a chance for more academic students to work with the less-so could help raise student achievement as a whole.
Most importantly, he said, it will provide students with an "adult figure who’s on their side." The class will be graded on a pass/fail basis, so that the teacher will be more removed from the role of judging students’ performance. "I know some of these kids don’t have that stable, adult authority figure, and we’re hoping this will help provide that," he said.
Chemistry teacher and Science Department Chair Joy McManus was part of the committee that has helped to work out the details of Major Time. "This is an idea that’s been in the making for probably five years," she said, noting that teachers in the school had been meeting years ago to figure out what could be done to "take our school to the next level." Creating the program, she said, took time because staff was "trying to make sure we had a concrete plan, a schedule set and support for teachers."
She noted that the program would also help students who try to incorporate many activities into their day. For example, it would give International Baccalaureate (IB) students a chance to meet with their mentors during the day.
"The connections you make with that child can happen at any level," said Sharon Aldredge, principal at Woodley Hills Elementary. Major Time and Capturing Kids’ Hearts training will not be part of the Woodley Hills program, but Aldredge said her teachers were "all excited and very gung-ho" after the morning’s presentation.
At the elementary school level, too, she said, some of her students have troubled home lives. She said the talk was a reminder to teachers of the importance of building relationships with students and was "the beginning of a great conversation."
"We don’t get into this for the money," she said of the teaching profession. "We get into this to make an impact on the kids."