Ezra Chan, Center Spread Editor
This year, Mills High School is implementing a new program in an effort to provide interdisciplinary support to students at the start of their high school careers. Lead by English teacher Mr. Hudelson, SAIL, which stands for Student Achievement via Interdisciplinary Learning, aims to support freshmen as they transition into high school and improve Mills’ D and F rate among underclassmen.
In the SAIL Academy program, freshmen share the same teachers for their core academic subjects, which include Math, English, History, and Science, allowing teachers to better collaborate with one another. Teachers hold weekly meetings and regular check-ins about how to best educate and encourage each individual student and constantly share and discuss student progress. This allows teachers to tailor student’s learning experience to their different needs and learning style. According to Mr. Hudelson, “it gives students… an ability to reflect and gives them a chance to develop the skills to navigate high school.”
Having many of their classes with the same people also allows students to become closer and more comfortable with their peers. “It’s a really cool program because you see the same people in all your classes and you can get to know them,” said freshman Addison Kuang. Peer teaching has been proven to be one of the best ways for students to achieve mastery and students who are open and comfortable with each other have been shown to reach greater levels of academic understanding as well as social and communication skills. A goal of the SAIL program is to build a sense of camaraderie among the students participating in it and enable them to work with each other as much as with their teachers.
Students were chosen for SAIL Academy based on their performance in middle school or could elect to take the class when they were choosing their schedules. There are currently only two classes of freshmen participating in the inaugural year of this program. However, Mr. Hudelson is “excited and really positive about what we’ve been doing so far” and hopes to continue to expand and grow this program year by year so that all freshmen can benefit from it.
