LBC Middle School is helping all students develop the world class skills and life and career characteristics of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by providing a safe, caring, and academically challenging learning environment in collaboration with the home and community. Our goal is to develop students of character and leadership who will become life-long learners and contributors to society. They will be well equipped to pursue high school, post-secondary education and careers of their choice, ready and eager to offer creative solutions to tomorrow’s challenges.
Our school is helping all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by participating in our exciting interdisciplinary activities:
- a student-driven history research project culminating in first person student presentations of people who “made a difference.” Performances were also videoed by students using 21st century Swivel technology.
- a math and geography unit in which students used Skype to meet and interact with students from classes in other parts of the country and world, using questions along with graphing and thinking skills to discover the location of their “visiting class” including: Paraguay, Sweden and Germany.
- a study of Gullah culture and art, culminating in meeting renowned artist Jonathan Green and presenting him with original poetry and art inspired by his art and created by LBC students.
- field trips to industries, museums, musical and theatrical productions, and historical landmarks,
- synergistic lab activities exploring career related skills and their application.
- student participation in CSRA Science Fair, Future City and robotics competitions.
LBC students received various awards and recognition including: First Place in state cyber security competition; First Place in the Area and regional Spelling Bee, 4th place in the MathCounts Competition, 4 SC Junior Scholars, 9 qualifying for Duke TIP, Geography Bee winner, First Place in Nancy Carson Library’s Young Adult Poetry Contest, Second Place in Aiken County Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay Contest, and 6 of 9 winners in the Middle School division of the Morris Museum’s Combining Voices Literary Competition. They served and learned in HOSA Club, Student Council, Academic Team, Yearbook, Book Club, Buddy Club, Future City, Lego Robotics, Gardening Club, and the Miss LBC pageant. Our own News Crew produced and aired daily our school news. Other character and service activities included donations to the Valley Empty Stocking Fund, the Salvation Army, socks and jeans for needy teens and toiletry items for the poor in Haiti. Our students also participated in many sports and fine arts programs. We offer teams in football, basketball, volleyball, cheerleading, and golf, as well as tennis,and 4 square clubs. We also have band, guitar, strings, chorus, and visual arts. Our students participated in school performances, USC Aiken, All-County and All-State band competitions, All-County strings festivals and have had the privilege of working with the Allant Trio of the Julliard School of Music.
In order to strengthen the literacy skills of our students, we used a Reading Inventory to identify students’ reading levels and implemented the READ 180/System 44 intervention programs to improve students’ reading skills. We continue to increase the technology available to our students and training for our teachers, incorporating the use of iPads, laptops and computers into our instruction. Our teachers participated in District Professional Learning Communities and Literacy Conference to study formative assessments and research-based strategies to improve instruction.
We used innovative ways to increase parental and community involvement and to encourage student attendance through incentives and events including Open House, Celebration Night, Book Fairs, play performances, dances, assemblies, and award ceremonies. The support LBC receives from our PTO, parents, community and teachers is invaluable. Working together, we can continue to provide the best 21st Century educational opportunities for our students as they develop into future world leaders.
Charish Saunders, SIC Chairperson
Paul M. Spadaro, Principal