The Boys’ Latin Middle School leads and fosters our students’ transition from their elementary school experience to an environment of increasing freedom and personal responsibility expected of them in a dynamic college preparatory program. We accomplish this by balancing the care and attention we commit to each individual student with building a sense of the collective responsibility of living in a shared community. We foster the development of independent learners, who are also willing and able to participate in a wide array of team activities. It is our belief that the development of sound character, civility, and grace is as important in our curriculum as are our academic offerings, and we see these two aspirations as complementary to one another. The Middle School prepares students for the academic rigors of high school as well as for the role they will play as responsible, thoughtful, courageous citizens.
We currently enroll 172 boys in grades six through eight. The Middle School is located in a new, cutting edge facility that includes an expanded Iglehart gymnasium and multi-purpose space as well as a renovated athletic field and baseball diamond. The Middle School shares a cafeteria and the state-of-the-art Carolyn Smith Library with the Lower School.
The Boys’ Latin Middle School is committed to meeting the evolving needs of students in the twenty-first century. Our focus is on the quality of our pedagogy, a continuous evaluation and evolution of content, adherence to “the proven essentials” of a classical education, and the practical and innovative use of technology.
Pedagogy
Our teachers are highly experienced, dedicated to their craft, and highly motivated to develop further their skills each year. The average seniority of our Middle School faculty is approximately ten years, and our newest colleagues have been selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants. Our faculty believes that lifelong learners make the best teachers, and Boys’ Latin offers and encourages a wide range of developmental programs for its faculty. We strongly encourage all of our teachers to pursue advanced degrees in both their subject area and education.
Curriculum
Our students enjoy a range of academic offerings indicative of a college preparatory curriculum. In addition, we instruct every seventh grader in Latin, as we recognize the significant impact which that language can have on one’s academic success in other areas. We make every effort to encourage students to make connections among the various subjects in which they are engaged on a daily basis. Furthermore, we expose our students to a range of other classes outside of the core curriculum, including art, music (choral and instrumental—all seventh graders learn to play the guitar), and decision making. Within the Decision Making curriculum, we address topics on health, leadership, civility, computer safety, and peer relations. In addition, we offer a wide range of student activities including interscholastic competitive athletics, physical education, clubs, and community service.
Information Technology - Computers and Libraries
We employ traditional print resources and the newest technology in every classroom and the library. We focus on the using both print and non-print resources to assist in teaching and learning, and in accessing information. We integrate technology into every subject area, rather than teaching technology for its own sake. All Middle School faculty members are equipped with tablet laptop computers, wireless internet connectivity, computer projectors, and screens to enhance their pedagogy. Students are welcome to use their own laptops, visit one of our computer labs, or even check out a laptop from our library. In addition, the Middle School has two mobile laptop carts for use in any classroom.
Cura Personalis
We pride ourselves on the individual attention we provide to each of our students in the Middle School and our exceptional history of meeting the educational needs of adolescent boys. Our team approach to teaching and our commitment to a range of learning styles are indicative of our emphasis on "Education on a Scale of One."
The Middle School seeks to engage its students with the world in which they live, not to isolate them from it. Student-centered clubs, community initiatives, advisory gatherings, outside speakers, and school assemblies all serve to involve our students with the world around them, enriching their academic experience and demonstrating the virtues of character and good citizenship. The formative years of a middle school student’s life are filled with success as well as fraught with the unique challenges of “coming of age” as young men. Understanding that these can often be difficult years, the Middle School faculty works hard to create a positive, safe, and stimulating environment where students can develop the skills necessary to become confident learners and productive citizens.
Visitors to our Middle School are amazed at the many exciting things that our boys are learning and experiencing. As importantly, alumni visitors are delighted to see that the positive environment which helped them become successful has both endured and evolved to meet the needs of tomorrow’s leaders.
New Middle School Building
After an exhaustive study of independent middle school buildings in our area and serious consideration regarding the best practices in boy friendly teaching and learning, we settled on a design which would maximize our ability to reach and find success educating our students in mind, body, and character, yet also harkens back in appearance to our previous home. Our deliberate location of grade classrooms to grade team offices, student lockers, mailboxes, and bulletin boards helps facilitate the building of relationships within a class and between faculty and their students. In addition, a commitment to a low teacher to student ratio in each middle school class ensures that all of our students are actively engaged in their learning.
Our thoughtful use of technology helps to facilitate interactive and boy centered teaching and learning; each classroom has high-speed wireless internet with ceiling mounted projectors; each grade has access to one of three laptop carts, including one outfitted with cutting edge tablet netbooks; and our new library and adjacent computer lab, known as our Learning Commons, have additional workstations with access to a multitude of online resources in addition to an age appropriate yet vast collection of traditional print resources (over 10,000 volumes and counting). At any given time you might find two classes working on research, another doing desktop publishing in the lab, and a forth reading for pleasure in our naturally well lighted and comfortable reading areas.
With a state of the art facility and an experienced and dedicated team of middle school specific teachers, we have worked diligently to create a new schedule and re-vamped curricula to match. For the 2010-2011 school year we will launch a seven day, rotating scheduled which is fully coordinated with our upper school to allow for cross-over classes between the two divisions. By doing so we can make sure that each student is placed in the most appropriate class and section to meet his needs or accelerate his progress. For example, we often have at least one section of 8th grade boys taking advanced math classes in the upper school each year along with Latin, French, and Spanish II.
It is an exciting time here in the middle school at Boys' Latin; please make sure to stop by and see us in action as we continue our nearly 160 year tradition of educating boys.