Webberville Middle School Awarded Grant
Webberville Middle School has been awarded a $500 grant through the Exxon Mobil Educational Alliance Program. The grant will support the middle school Academic Personal Best program. Nadas Mobil, on M-52 in Webberville, worked with school officials to secure the grant, which is one of 4,000 available to schools across the country. Funded by the Exxon Mobil Corporation, the Exxon Mobil Educational Alliance program is designed to provide retailers with an opportunity to invest in the future of their community through educational grants to neighborhood schools.
The Academic Personal Best (APB) program instituted by the middle school team is designed to challenge each and every middle school student to achieve his or her potential. While many programs focus on helping a certain group of students achieve, the unique thing about this program is that it is designed to reach all students. Students who typically have high scores in school are challenged to find ways to extend themselves and to get more out of their middle school experience. Students who have traditionally achieved below their potential are encouraged to begin meeting that potential. In the APB program, all students are challenged to achieve their own academic personal best.
This program has many facets and requires a sizable commitment of time and energy by teachers and students. Students receive their grades weekly and spend one-on-one time with their Home Base teachers discussing their strengths and weaknesses. Are scores up? Are they down? What has a student done in the last week to achieve that result? What does the student want to do this week to either continue a positive trend or to change a negative one? Knowing weekly grades in all classes also keeps students on top of their own performance. Many of them have been able to see the correlation between what they did last week and the grade they had on their progress report at week's end.
Students are expected to achieve a minimum of 70 percent. Students who don't maintain this standard participate in mandatory tutoring, which allows students to focus on problem areas and capitalize on their potential.
The middle school staff is grateful for the $500 grant provided by the Exxon Mobil Corporation and Nadas Mobil in Webberville. The grant will be used to purchase APB awards certificates, exam support bags filled with work tools and treats, software for student recognition awards, and various support materials.
The APB program has delivered many desired results. Students are working harder, and parents are more informed of their children's progress. Overall response has been very positive. With the continued efforts of all participants, students will continue to progress toward their Academic Personal Best.