Relationships

nex+gen Advisory Program Supported by New State Initiative and Tools: Carve Your Path
 As many of you may be aware, last year NMHED was awarded the __** U.S. Department of Education’s College Access Challenge Grant **__, which helps underrepresented students in New Mexico plan and prepare for college.

 One of the primary goals of the grant is to support the development and launch of the __****//Carve Your Path//****__ online system, a virtual one-stop-shop for the eleventh grade exit examinations for high school graduation, college, and career exploration. **//Carve Your Path//** will provide a secure web-based and user-friendly tool that enables students as early as sixth grade to plan for their future – in high school, in higher education and/or in the workforce.

Our partner, Tabitha Branum, principal of New Tech High School @ Koppell had the following observation when she recently read my Blog: https://sites.google.com/a/nexgen.nthls.com/nex-gen-academy-blog/

"Just some food for thought...I know you are early in your stages so this is probably already in your plans or in your coming soon file! :) As I read through the sections in your blog I didn't read really anything about relationships. You mention the importance of being a small learning community but it isn't really about the "numbers' it is really about the relationships you can build when you have a small learning community. From our experience here many of our kids were attracted to NTh@C from CHS because of our dedication to building relationships with kids, etc...anyway, I know you are all about this but I think that is just so important to get that message out early and often."

My Planning Team and I have the opportunity to plan a year out for a school that provides relationships as a core value. We have a number of areas we are working on to provide this:


 * Advisory time built in regularly to the school day
 * Each teacher serving as an advisor to a small group of students
 * Activities such as low and high ropes events that provide opportunities for students and teachers to interact and build trust
 * Other activities that provide a culture of trust and support from peers and teachers each day

What are the other areas we should be looking at? Other activities? Tools? Research? Models? that will help us build a world class school? Please provide your comments as through the **Edit** button and enter your comments below or by clicking on the Discussion link and adding your comments that way.

Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you.