News

By Rachel Sun
Head of Middle School

Our middle school schedule is shifting. In a JK-12 school, scheduling can be a puzzle: Teachers teach in multiple divisions, middle school students enroll in upper school math and world language classes, and specialized spaces like the Live+Serve Lab and the Mac McCarty Athletic Center are used by the entire student body. 

Last year, we began exploring ways to adjust the schedule to better support students. This year, phase one of those changes is in place, introducing several updates to the middle school classes and programming while keeping the overall structure of the schedule intact. 

• Eliminating the Common Work Period (CWP): Once intended to provide extra study time, CWP had become redundant when paired with Consultancy. Removing it allowed us to build additional curricular time into the weekly schedule.  
• Introducing Mathematics Lab at each grade level: Mathematics Lab deepens students' understanding of mathematical concepts through problem-solving, real-world applications and collaborative learning. Its addition provides students with more than 16 extra hours of math instruction per year. 
• Expanding the progression of skills labs: Learning Lab 6 now flows into Writing Lab 7 and Seminar 8. Together, these courses strengthen executive functioning skills, expand writing across genres and disciplines, and extend learning in humanities through experiences such as mock trial, public speaking and historical simulations.

Mathematics Lab is team-taught, with multiple math teachers collaborating on planning and delivery. Seminar 8 is co-taught by Megan Beaudoin and Kirk Greer, who teach Humanities: English and Humanities: Social Studies respectively. In addition to benefitting from multiple perspectives, students also see what it looks like for adults to collaborate — and sometimes respectfully disagree — in an academic setting. 

Although these courses have only met once each so far, students already have dived right into the work, reviewing math concepts from last year, stretching their creative writing skills and preparing for the upcoming eighth grade trip to Washington, D.C., by researching the monuments and memorials they will visit.  

The new lab and seminar courses embody North Shore’s commitment to academic excellence. They foster engagement and curiosity by giving students space to explore beyond traditional assignments, emphasize process and growth by focusing on skill development over time, encourage critical thinking and application through real-world connections, provide balanced challenge with tailored support and enrichment, and cultivate collaboration and peer learning in dynamic classroom environments.