by Journalism Student, Jasmine T.
After using the “IMPACT Hour” model for three years, NLA is restructuring their Thursday morning after chapel time for high school to be more like the middle school community group model.
Each Thursday after chapel, there is a roughly 45-minute time period until sixth hour begins. In previous years, middle school has spent this time in community groups, and high school has spent this time in IMPACT hour. This year, every upper school student will be in a community group.
Upper School Principal, Jed Moseman said, “Each high school student will be assigned a community group. Each grade is split into four grade-level community groups, each mixed gender.”
Moseman continues, “One of the great things about community groups is that grade advisors have flexibility with how they can use the time. Students can do team building, games, have academic check ins, and talk about what we went over in chapel.” He added, “They allow each grade to talk about things relevant to them. So, for example, when sophomores go on sophomore retreat, they can come back and talk about their retreat during community group time.”
The time after chapel is not only limited to community groups. Each quarter, students will spend roughly four weeks in their community group, and about four weeks in their clubs.
Clubs are groups of fifteen students or less, led by a teacher, gaining knowledge and experience in a certain field. Teachers will lead clubs that align with their passions. Moseman said, “Clubs give students the opportunity to follow a passion and connect with other teachers and students who are like-minded.”
There will be a large variety of clubs that students can choose from. Grant Lilly is planning a worldviews club, where students can gather and discuss current events and ask each other relevant questions. Mrs. Haukedahl is planning to start a crochet club, Mrs. Fredrickson is starting a film club, Mrs. Kortuem is planning a journalism club, and Dr. Butler is starting a disc golf club. Each teacher will start a different club, so students will have a wide variety of options to choose from.
Students also will have the option each quarter to either stay in their current club or switch their clubs. Moseman said, “At the end of the quarter, after being in the club, you would have first right of refusal to stay in that club, or you could switch clubs and go in a different direction. So, each student could do one club for the whole year, four different clubs in one year, or anything in between.”
Although students can frequently switch their clubs, community groups cannot be switched. Moseman said, “One thing that we’re going to try for at least the first couple of years is that once you’re assigned to a community group and a community group leader, that’s who you stay with through high school. The freshmen potentially could have the same group and the same leader for four years. Seniors will only have it for one, juniors for two, etc. As people graduate, that group of advisors will just cycle back through to ninth grade and so on.”
The goal of the new community group/club model is for students to feel excited and eager to participate.
We are hoping that students will really buy into this new concept. We tried to take all of the things people loved about IMPACT, and carry those over into the new model, and get rid of the things students and teachers weren’t a fan of.
Principal Moseman
Community groups are a model that middle school has been using for many years. Although they are very similar, high school community groups have a few key differences.
Middle School groups rotate and pursue different topics proposed by different teachers, but Middle School students can’t choose a group based on their own personal interests. Moseman said, “They have their home group, and then they rotate every couple of weeks to a new teacher assigned to their grade level. Each middle school grade also has four teachers assigned to them, that students rotate through throughout the year.”
In previous years, Middle School teachers have led a variety of community group classes. Mrs. Hansen did a cooking class, Mrs. Rupp did a global missions class, Mr. Hoaglund did a prayer group, and Ms. Baur led a service class.
Ms. Baur said, “The goal of my community group is to be student-led and Spirit-filled. They pray and look for ways their group can serve and decide on a project to complete. We have done treats for teachers, worked with preschoolers, cleaned the locker room, cleaned New Life property on Bailey Road, made encouragement rocks, assembled bags for the homeless, and more! It is wonderful to see the kids get passionate and serve others in creative ways.”
New Life staff is hopeful that high school students will enjoy community groups and clubs and that it will provide an opportunity for students to grow in a variety of areas.
Moseman said, “This is all just a pilot idea, but we think having community groups stay the same will allow for students to really grow close relationships and form a trusting community with one another.”