Florida Mesa Elementary School has partnered with Boys and Girls Club of La Plata County on two new programs focusing on math intervention and character building.
A program, called Math Corps under the AmeriCorps umbrella, was approved for Florida Mesa Elementary, the first school in the area to adopt the program, said Principal Shannon Morris.
The school’s fourth and fifth grades are participating in the research-based math intervention program. Each student in the program spends 90 minutes a week in groups of two to three kids with Matt George of Math Corps’ math academic interventions. The students are grouped together based on their mathematical abilities that are gauged through STAR Math and placement tests given at the beginning of the program, Morris said.
The program can take up to 24 students at a time. Morris said math is an area of study where achievement is lacking nationwide, and Math Corps is one more tool to help students catch up on their math skills.
“We’re excited to try this program, to really get our kids some extra help in math,” she said. “Our interventionists typically focus on reading intervention. We do what we can for math, but this (Math Corps) is going to be a dedicated program.”
Florida Mesa Elementary also recently partnered with the Boys and Girls Club of La Plata County on its program “Be Somebody: Cowboy Ethics.”
It is a leadership development program that focuses on honing qualities such as kindness, grit and perseverance, Morris said.
The program originated in Wyoming and was recently adopted by the local Boys and Girls Club. Jared Bussell with the Boys and Girls Club visits Florida Mesa Elementary once a week during lunchtime to meet with students about leadership qualities such as respect, responsibility and safety. Boys and Girls Club staff members will also host games during recess that are meant to develop sportsmanship.
Other times, the weekly Cowboy Ethics meeting will focus on a problem-solving activity related to the ideas the program emphasizes – respect, responsibility and perseverance. The activities always include time for reflection about how such ideas can be applied to the problem the students work on.
Morris said the program seemed like a natural fit for Florida Mesa Elementary, home of the Mustangs, the school mascot.
“It just kind of fit the theme of old-school cowboy type,” she said. “When you’re thinking about the characteristics we want our kids to have, it just tied into the work we are already doing and some of the PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) work we are doing about respect, responsibility and safety.
Morris said the partnership with Boys and Girls Club has been great for driving more kids to get involved in extra school activities.
“These are skills they can take with them to middle school when they do leave us and continue to be beacons of leadership, hopefully, and be able to work with other kids on how they can show and exhibit these characteristics,” she said.
Cowboy Ethics is a voluntary program and started at Florida Mesa Elementary in October. It has about 20 students who participate regularly.
The Boys and Girls Club is also lending support for Florida Mesa Elementary’s Kids Camp, an after-school program, with some club staff members serving as camp coordinators this school year.
cburney@durangoherald.com
