Highlights of Exemplary Practices Aligned with the 18 Characteristics of Successful Middle Schools
Essential Attribute: An education for young adolescents should be Responsive.
As an international school in Israel, we have been dealing with the effects of multiple wars since October 2023.
Despite the challenges, our community has grown stronger together and our teachers continue to meet the needs of students from wherever they might be learning.
This is due to the intentional connections we build between students and staff, our strong Advisory program, and our response to trauma.
Characteristic #3: Every student's academic and personal development is guided by an adult advocate.
We have strengthened our Advisory program based on core values of respect, responsibility, and compassion to focus on building community, valuing student strengths, and developing an academic, social, and emotional growth mindset.
We have been collecting data from students about whether they feel they have a trusted adult on campus.
Over the past three years, the percentage of students reporting having a trusted adult has grown from 65% to 85% as we have become a more responsive and a more connected community.
Characteristic #4: School safety is addressed proactively, justly, and thoughtfully. In 2022, we identified trauma-informed practices as a growth area.
After the events of October 2023, this became an urgent necessity.
Our School Counselor trained staff to recognize the subtle physical and behavioral signs of trauma, providing teachers with tools to assist students in the moment, and how to seek additional support. Another cornerstone of our response to trauma is the Calm Room, an alternative environment where students can go if they are dysregulated.
There, students can practice strategies related to managing stress, releasing anger, regaining focus, or dealing with anxiety related to the war.
Data from last year showed that practicing a regulation technique improved student overall readiness to learn. To sustain our focus on student mental health and well-being, we partnered with a local Educational Psychologist with ties to an English-Language University. Through this collaboration, we now host university students completing their Psychology Internship at our school. The interns help staff the Calm Room and support our SEL initiatives. This partnership is a win-win: it provides our students with more individual attention and support, while giving the interns real-world experience.
Essential Attribute: An education for young adolescents should be Empowering.
At WBAIS, we want our students to be innovative problem solvers, creative and critical thinkers, and ultimately responsible and compassionate citizens.
This occurs every day in our classes, as well as in our extra-curricular activities.
Through providing students with choice and a voice, we hope to develop their sense of agency and empowerment.
Characteristic #11:
Instruction fosters learning that is active, purposeful, and democratic.
GAIA is a hallmark program at WBAIS and one of the best examples of student agency.
GAIA stands for Global Awareness, Investigation, and Action.
This is a club that meets during lunch, after school, on weekends, and takes local and international trips.
Students participate in a range of environmental and social service projects within the school campus, in the neighboring community, throughout Israel, and internationally.
GAIA is committed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
GAIA Jr. is by far our most popular club.
Our GAIA Jr. program has always had strong connections with the community.
Whether working with the local elderly residential facility, learning from butterfly and apiary experts, partnering with food pantries in Tel Aviv, connecting with local schools engaged in citizen science, or hosting an annual symposium among many other projects, GAIA’s community partnerships and positive impact are a continued source of pride for our school.
This past year alone, our GAIA Jr. students logged more than 1700 service hours, despite the disruptions caused by war.
Characteristic #10: Health, wellness, and social-emotional competence are supported in curricula, school-wide programs, and related policies.
We have worked to align our health, wellness, and social-emotional learning standards to ensure all students get what they need to be successful not just in school but in life.
We have a quarter-long Health and Wellness class for each student at each grade level, with curriculum based on SHAPE standards including wellness, nutrition, fitness, substances, and puberty.
However, we knew this was not enough time for students to learn all the different components of well-being.
Our Advisory program was redesigned, and incorporates some of the SEL standards.
We refocused our Advisory with a schedule to balance learning about metacognition and brain science along with social-emotional lessons as well as, of course, building a strong community.
Additionally, three years ago we began a rotation of Digital Citizenship lessons taught by a Tech teacher, Media Literacy taught by our Librarian, Social-Emotional Skills taught by the Counselor, and monthly reflections about the WBAIS Learner Profile led by the Principal, on a rotating basis.
These Thursday “push-ins” ensure that students are better equipped with life skills they will need beyond the classroom.
Essential Attribute: An education for young adolescents should be Equitable
Our community is truly international, representing more than 40 countries from across the world, with most staying only two-three years at our school.
And while these are turbulent times we are living in, we know that Middle School itself can be turbulent for students.
That is why we work so hard as a faculty to learn together about the young adolescent experience, to get to know each of our students and their backgrounds, and to meet their needs to the best of our abilities.
Characteristic #8: Educators are specifically prepared to teach young adolescents and possess a depth of understanding in the subjects they teach.
Professional development occurs at our school through multiple avenues.
In addition to external conferences, trainings, and webinars, we learn from and with each other.
We have created “New Teacher Lunches,” where every month we check in and provide support to our new Middle School faculty.
Additionally, we engage in “Coffee with Colleagues” monthly, where we both socialize and think through pedagogical questions in an informal manner.
Our faculty have also helped us learn more about trauma-informed practices, MTSS Tier 1 strategies, and Restorative Justice.
All of this along with a better-defined Advisory program and teachers who focus on both the academic and social-emotional development of students has had significant positive effect for ALL students.
Characteristics #17: Professional learning for all staff is relevant, ongoing, and job-embedded.
The collaboration does not stop there.
Faculty offer “Teachers Teaching Teachers” workshops during our Professional Development Days.
Our Tech department offers training on various new tech platforms, the latest developments with our existing programs, and the ever-evolving landscape of artificial intelligence.
We communicate weekly as grade level Advisory teams, sharing what works and what needs to be updated as we move forward.
Every three weeks, grade level teams meet to discuss students of concern and also students to celebrate, share practices that work with individual students, and create plans for follow up.