Affective Learning at BMS

As a first -year teacher at Benavente Middle School, I have witnessed many exciting initiatives that are taking place at my school. For example, an Advisor-Advisee Period (AAP) has been implemented as a course that replaced home room. The focus of AAP is not academics. Instead, teacher and student work intimately within a small classroom setting in order to improve and build positive characters. Students engage in a myriad of activities that highlight our school ESLR's. Every month a new theme is introduced and taught to the students using a structured lesson plan that is distributed school wide and created by teachers. Examples of past themes include: Peace, Giving Back to the Community, and Preventing School Bullying. In addition, students participate in Exploratory Day (initially called AAP Fun Day) in which a variety of courses ranging from intra-murals to cooking to Anime are offered and taught by teachers. Students have the option to change their Exploratory Day course every quarter, thus allowing them the option to explore and participate in activities that are of interest. So far, the AAP program at BMS has proven to be a success among the students because of its focus on personalization and building stronger relationships.