Frequently Asked Questions: This page contains answers to common questions of students and parents.

1. What are the essential Needs/Requirements for healthy Adolescent Development?
2. How Does Villa's Middle School program meet these needs?
3. Essential Components of a Montessori Middle School
4. What is the best way to contact a teacher?

What are the essential Needs/Requirements for healthy Adolescent Development?

*Find a valued place in a constructive group.
*Learn how to form close durable human relationships.
*Feel a sense of worth as a person.
*Cultivate inquiring and problem solving habits of mind for lifelong learning
*Express constructive curiosoty and exploratory behavior.
*Find ways of being useful to others.
*Master social skill including the abilityto manage conflict peacefully.
*Become ethical persons.
*Respect diversity in our plurlistic society.
*Believe in a promising future with real opportunitie

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How Does Villa's Middle School program meet these needs?

Along with a dynamic and challenging core middle school curriculm desinged 
to meet all State Standards, we accomplish the following:
*We create a small, safe, stable, enliving learning community.  Each middle 
school campus has only 48 students, which break into 3 groups of sixteen.  
Each group is lead by a trained Montessorri middle school teacher.
*We emphasize support of the whole person.  We seek to meet the physical, 
social, emotional,cognative and spiritual need of each student.
*The school year begins with a goal setting conference with the student, 
parent, and teacher, followed by a four day team building course held in 
Prescott, Arizona.
*Every six weeks students and teachers live together out on "The Land," 
where students develop thericreative problem solving and team building 
skills by participating in eco challenges and art activities.

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Essential Components of a Montessori Middle School

*Emphasis on development and support of the whole child, which includes 
social, emotional, physical, cognative and spiritual growth, in balance with 
academic achievment.
*Stable, small, supportive, real community provides physically and 
emotionally safe environment where respect and responsibility are modeled 
and reinforced.
*Multi-age grouping. Peer and cross age tutoring.
*large blocks of uninterrupted, in-dept learning time.
*Clear expectations, time frames, and consequences.
*Student-Parent-Teacher goal setting and review at student lead conferences 
three times per year.
*Focus on teaching personal learning styles, communication skills and 
organizational stratagies, along with academic areas.
*Studies in human developments, especially adolescent development.
*Interdisciplinary learning themes based on the adolescent's "Big Questions."
*Frequent involments in school and community service projects.
*Week lond internships and student led classroom business.
*Outdoor Educational Curriculm including a week long community building 
ROPES course using low ropes activities, Land Labs and Adventure Trip.
*Individualized adaptations of curriculm as needed.
*Non-competitive physical fitness and education programs.
*Student-Parent-Teacher community partnerships-incorporating the "It Takes a 
Village" concept.
*Specifically terained staff to work with early adolescents who believe int 
he potential of this age groups and want to be with them.

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What is the best way to contact a teacher?

A quick email is the best way to contact a teacher for information about a 
class or a student's progress. If it is an emergency please contact the 
office at 602-954-9891.

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