- Description:
Holland is continually striving to support students where they are at emotionally, mentally, and behaviorally. Children act out due to a variety of factors, and instead of punishing students, we are committed to TEACHING students through literature and understanding. Our goal is to provide ways to foster empathy, understanding, and compassion while reognizing the very real experiences our students encounter. Teaching through literature provides a way for students to recognize similar feelings characters have, and provides additional exposure to great literature.
- Need Represented: During the 2021-2022 school year, Holland had over 100 behavioral incidents. Our goal is to continually find better ways to support our most struggling students so they are more successful in the classroom emotionally and behaviorally. Students not only struggled with a variety of conduct issues, but we had families who experienced the death of a loved one, fire in the home, divorce, moving, loved ones incarcerated, abuse, and violent family members.
As educators, we cannot fully unpack the luggage students bring in with them every day, but we can strive to have a better understanding ourselves by teaching with understanding and awareness. - Academic Impact: When students are removed from the classroom, they miss out on fundamental learning skills. They miss out on rich conversations, and effective problem solving. We want students IN the classroom learning without disrupting others, yet when students need to be removed, we want them to have the opportunity to learn from the experience. The proposed book list includes a variety of topics, reading levels, and diverse authors
- Student Population: Holland is a wonderful, small, neighborhood school with 245 students. 70.61% of our students qualify for Free and Reduced lunch, 14.69% of students qualify for special education, 5.71% are English Language Learners, and 3.27% qualify as Gifted students. Holland also houses the Deaf and Hard of Hearing program with 20 students throughout the district. Additionally, 11.84% students are Hispanic, 9.89% are Black, 4.49% are Multiracial, 4.08% are Asian, .41% are American Indian, and 70.2% are White.
