The 2021-2022 school year offered the Dixieland staff an opportunity to CONNECT with students through engaging academic activities and social/emotional learning, while injecting an element of fun into each day. As students were coming back to the school site after distance learning, our staff was committed to developing positive relationships with all students. We focused on developing relationships between students and staff as well as fostering peer relationships between students. Our instructional team dedicated time for team building activities, classroom circles, and collaborative learning activities infused with new learning. Our goal was to know and understand what each student needed while creating a climate that welcomed all, focused on each, and celebrated progress made along the way. This focus on fun led to activities such as a silly string challenge, monthly game times, and more! The teachers may have lost the silly string challenge to our 7th and 8th grade students, but fun was had by all!

Adding an element of fun proved to have a positive impact on student achievement. We continually celebrated students’ progress every Friday morning during live announcements. All of our classes participated and teachers recognized specific students for their academic progress. These celebrations highlighted academic growth demonstrated by leveling up in Lexia (Reading), skills leveled up in MAP Accelerator (Math), NWEA growth, and reclassification of emergent bilingual students. It was great to see our students celebrating each other!

It is the connections made and every school’s celebrations that make each campus unique. We will continue to connect and celebrate into the 2022-2023 school year. The tradition of our tight-knit community continues at Dixieland! Cougar pride…starts inside!