The Gurian Institute is proud to welcome Burlingame Intermediate School (BIS) to our family of Gurian Institute Model Schools!  BIS is a public middle school located in Burlingame, California, in the heart of high tech country.  To visit the school online, please click: https://bi-bsd-ca.schoolloop.com/.   Michael Gurian visited the school and reported, “There is no doubt, BIS provides leading edge education to its students and families.  I am so proud to be associated with this multi-faceted educational approach to student development.”

Principal Pam Scott provided this testimonial.  “Our work with the Gurian Institute has been instrumental in improving our instructional strategies.  Due to Mr. Gurian’s research and the Gurian Institute training programs provided in 2018 – 2019 by Master Trainer Dakota Hoyt, we now have a better understanding of how both boys and girls learn best, and we use this training as a focus when reviewing and redesigning our practices and policies.  Simple shifts have increased engagement and helped all students to learn at high levels.  We look forward to continuing this work with the Gurian Institute over the next many years.”

Today’s blog features Principal Pam Scott’s vision of the school and teacher testimonials that include strategies employed with students.  To learn more about our Gurian Model School program, please visit https://gurianinstitute.com/becoming-a-gurian-model-school/.  We would be honored to discuss this possibility with you and your school or district administration.

From Principal Pam Scott:  

All of our elementary roads lead here and we strive to create a rich and inspired educational environment that brings out the very best in every student. To that end, we cultivate an academic curriculum that is challenging, innovative, and differentiated so that each student simply loves to learn. Additionally, we are proud of our forward thinking emphasis on social emotional learning. We believe in educating the whole child by helping them deal with all the challenges they face during this transitional period of their lives.

At BIS, we embrace a mindset that always looks at ways to become better – we adopt early, experiment often and adjust when necessary – because we believe that these are truly the 21st century skills that children need to become the best they can be. Our vision is that our kids develop a true “real world education” where they accumulate knowledge, confidence and resiliency.

But, what is BIS’ “secret sauce”? What makes us really amazing? It is our unique community – the bonds that incoming students have formed from their neighborhood elementary schools combined with the community building focus that is a hallmark of our school culture, gives students the security, confidence, and social support to thrive in this big environment full of opportunities to grow – and move forward from BIS as well adjusted kids with limitless potential.

Here are some testimonials from our staff:

“I have been using the Gurian strategies when setting up my room for different activities: Stations for review with a horseshoe format and an area on the outside to do roller derby walking discussions, pushing desks to the front of the room to use the back of the room for kinesthetic simulations where students need to find a partner standing across from them, gallery walks, floor space to work on group projects.”

“In my class the students use the think dots to engage with annotated evidence cards and a populations and resources sim. For tests I am going to try doing the Okay, Go! strategy beforehand.  I have used the Gurian Gotchya! activity before a test and it seemed to lower student stress.”

“In class I have noticed more engagement in activities among the boys after using these strategies–less of them off task or needing to be redirected to complete their assignments. They are excited to participate and in return share their ideas more willingly.”

“In math, we used the Gurian rotation-style review, where learners had 3 minutes at each station to try some problems reviewing material from the trimester, then moved on to a new topic to review.   I notice very high engagement with all learners today, and after I told them it was their second to last station, one boy said, ‘Why only one more station? Do we not have enough time?’ and one girl said ‘This is way more fun that sitting in our spots!”

“We tried a similar style review in science a few weeks ago that Patricia made and it was similarly awesome and engaging!  Kids were focused the entire block day, were actively using their notes to help them review, and were having focused discussions about the topic.”

“The Gurian strategy that is my students’ favorite is ‘joke time.’ We’ve started setting aside a few minutes for jokes before assessments and I ask the class for jokes before we start our tests. The kids don’t let me forget. The jokes aren’t very good, but the students like the ritual even if they don’t really laugh.  It’s a community-building technique that works well and increases student engagement and success.”

To Learn More

If you or your school would like to explore GI professional development and Model School programs, please reach out to us at info@gurianinstitute.com or gail@gurianinstitute.com.  Michael Gurian and our team would enjoy starting a conversation with you.  To see more success data and testimonials, please visit www.gurianinstitute.com and explore the Success page.