New advisory period focuses on career, character
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
When Burlington High School decided it needed to restructure its homeroom period, it was done with a common goal in mind.
BHS Principal Eric Burling, in outlining the school’s improvement plan, wants every student to be college or career ready by graduation.
However, when talking to seniors, he was surprised to find out how few were ready.
“I was amazed at the number of seniors who didn’t know what they wanted to do,” said Burling Monday night at the Burlington Area School District Curriculum Committee meeting. “Obviously, our goal is to make all of our students college or career ready.”
Now, in addition to the Higher Expectation Portfolio all students must complete – a portfolio that includes a resume, two letters of recommendation, service learning and mock interviews – Burling has the new advisory period to work with.
The 20-minute period to start the day places students with a teacher. Those teachers then get to establish, over four years, a relationship that students can rely on for guidance and “outside the classroom” learning.
Two large components of that were discussed Monday night at the Curriculum Committee meeting – two assigned days per week, both with different functions.
Tuesday is now the school’s “character” day, while Thursday is “college and career readiness” day.
Burling said both days are critical in helping students achieve the kind of skills they need outside of just learning the lessons taught in math, reading and science.
“One thing we always hear from employers: soft skills, soft skills, soft skills,” Burling said. “We need kids who show up on time. We need kids who can work next to those of different beliefs.”
Enter BHS guidance counselor Tammy Albrecht, and Driven student leadership coordinators Matt Behringer and Matt Nie.
Albrecht, who said she has “the best job in the world,” said students need to make a connection between what they learn from books and “real life.”
“I see one of my major roles as a counselor to help students make the connection between what they’re doing in high school and what they’re going to do after high school.”
As a result, each student is getting a chance to meet once a year to plan for the future and then continue that process through each of the four years.
The Tuesday and Thursday lessons then fit into that “outside education” model. Teachers will get 16 character traits that need to be addressed with the students, with four being done each year. For the freshmen, those traits are “preparation,” “self-control,” “courage,” and “perseverance.”
For Behringer, taking a look at those traits will help students understand the why and the how of education. As he found looking at a national study, students want to be trusted, but many find that cheating and lying are OK.
“Student feel good about themselves and want to be trusted, but aren’t doing the things they need to be trusted,” Behringer said.
Hence the teaching points. Each trait will get a six-week period, using activities such as a movie clip and discussion, ethical dilemmas, testing and writing a portfolio piece.
By the end of the four years, students will have a large three-ring binder they can take with them.
While the advisory period seems to be well accepted by most freshmen and sophomores, Burling and Behringer both said juniors and seniors are still looking at the change with a skeptical eye.
Until, of course, Behringer points out that advisory teachers will get a chance to know students in a way that will be beneficial to them – specifically in the form of those letters of reference.
“As the kids get adjusted to it, it’s picking up momentum,” Burling said.
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