Day 8...Parent-Teacher Night for NGA (Ninth Grade Academy)

Day 8...Parent-Teacher Night for NGA (Ninth Grade Academy)

So, as I've mentioned before...FWCHS has the "Ninth Grade Academy" or "NGA" for short.  It seems NGA is its own micro-environment within the high school.  NGA is described as a "small learning community of approximately 300 scholars which allows more individualized instruction despite a large high school population".  Their focus points to one thing..."Success is the ONLY option".  The kids as a group have an induction ceremony, knowlege bowls, homeroom structure, weekly content area and vocabulary benchmark testing, in-school math tutuorials, after-school remediationa and credit recovery, community service projects, honors recognition and eventually a graduation ceremony. 

I have heard a lot of parents comment that it is a nice transition year for their kids to have it set up this way.  They are with the other freshman on their own floor and it seems to work pretty well.  The kids who have Honors classes may travel outside that micro-environment as well as some elective classes, but for the most part they are all together and Mr. Hicks says this has been a very successful approach to Freshman year for the kids.   

So, tonight was Parent-Teacher night.  Here are my reflections:

• WOW - I am truly, and I mean this, truly impressed with the NGA presentation tonight.  I got there a little late, but basically I walked in and was greeted at a table where I signed in as a parent and received a nice looking NGA brochure, Freshman Class Procedures page, a Scholar Expections/Grading explanation page and schedules for both the Freshman and Varsity Football teams.  I was directed to the cafeteria where I found a room full of parents, students and families.
• Mr. Hicks was talking through things when I arrived.  He answered some of the questions I still had about my son's school year, like course information, ACT testing, TCAP testing, etc.  According to Mr. Hicks, FWCHS's ACT scoring is not exactly where it should be...yet.  He is optimistic that it can improve.  He explained that EVERYONE at FWCHS takes the ACT, including those that don't care one bit about college so don't try hard on the test and those who are severly disabled.  Their "college bound" population average is more like 22 on the ACT scale.  When I called last year to FA inquiring about their ACT average I was told it was probably a 22 or 23.  Mr. Hicks also stressed that the kids won't be taking the "bare minimum" of graduation requirements.  For example, the minimum requirement for math is 3 credits, however almost all scholars will end up taking no less than 4 and maybe 5 credits (this is Mr. Hicks' doing - he pushes the kids to take more than they need) 
• Several teachers and the Athletic Director also got up to talk as well as the lady in charge of the NGA. It sounds like a successful, solid program geared to nurture the Freshmen kids to success. I am inserting the brochure so you can see what it looks like! It was actually in color, but my scanner only does black and white...


• The Athletic Director also talked about the many sports FWCHS offers (so far no soccer...yet) and invited folks to go to the table in the back of the room to sign up for the Freshmen sports.  He also mentioned that if the kids aren't doing well academically, they don't play athletically. Good plan.
• I thought tonight was an effective (but long...over an hour) way to explain to parents the ins and outs of NGA.  I certainly understand everything a lot better now.  Glad I went!

My son continues to like school.  He is super tired, however.  He came home after Cross Country the other night and took a nap before dinner.  Then he was up until almost midnight studying.  Ahhh - the good ole days.  I remember doing after school activities and being up late myself.  That's part of it - no matter where you go to high school (unless you are completely slacking).  He reports that his grades are off to a good start, HOWEVER he came home with write-offs tonight for talking in class (asking someone a question when he wasn't supposed to).  Ugh...hopefully he learned his lesson...it was 250 write-offs!

I'm pretty tired tonight (we didn't get done with NGA meeting until about 7:45pm, then dinner then showers now blog), so I think I will wait to explain all the school clubs/organizations in the next blog.  There are a lot more than I thought - I was pleased to learn that tonight at the meeting. 

Anyway...that's it for Day 8.  Remember...FWCHS's first home football game is this Friday night - maybe you/your family should start to invest a little time into cheering for FWCHS Wildcats!