Transition to Teel

Guiding Growth, Building Leaders

READY. SET. GROW.

A critical part of the Severn Middle School experience is the learning foundation that is established in sixth grade. Recognizing how important it is to provide an enriching and engaging environment to the students facing this unique adjustment, Severn established Transition to Teel, an impactful series of courses designed to cultivate a smooth transition to Middle School life.

With the influx of new students from different schools, neighborhoods, and learning environments that happens at the start of Middle School, Transition to Teel levels the playing field and ensures that every student has a rock-solid foundation from which they can grow. It’s a time when students develop time management and organizational skills, learn how to study, and embrace accountability and self advocacy. Most of all, it’s a time for confidence-building, as students become more independent and begin the important work of figuring out what they find interesting and inspiring.

Transition to Teel is where the seeds of academic and personal growth are planted, allowing adolescents to grow.

Transition to Teel courses are offered during 8th period three times a week and sixth-graders rotate throughout the enrichments throughout the year.

Transition to Teel Course Descriptions

List of 8 items.

Study Skills

This course focuses on maximizing learning by making the best use of: our minds, our habits, and the resources available at school. Students will cover topics such as strategies to study and remember information effectively, how to prioritize and plan in the short and long term, and routines and habits for organization.

Students will learn how to make the most of the support available at Severn, such as regular study halls and extra help sessions with teachers. Students will also practice advocating for themselves by communicating confidently and appropriately with their teachers. Throughout sixth grade, we will arm students with the tools and knowledge they need to move into the independence of middle school and take charge of their education.
Digital Citizenship

Digital engagement is a pervasive and unique source of stress. As such, Severn has partnered with The Social Institute (TSI) and will engage in interactive, game-based lessons designed to promote positive, healthy, and high-character choices that fuel their health, happiness, and future success. Lessons are grade specific and updated with relevant content.
Critical Reading of Nonfiction

This course focuses on developing a critical and skeptical mindset when reading nonfiction texts. Students will practice looking for new, surprising information to compare with previous knowledge. They will identify extreme and absolute language that reveals the author’s purpose and question the inclusion of numbers and statistics. Students will also determine the use of ethos, logos, and pathos in advertising and learn common logical fallacies in flawed arguments.
Introduction to Innovation and Design Thinking

Design thinking is a creative approach to finding meaningful solutions using logic, imagination, and reasoning. This way of thinking is applicable to all classes, disciplines, and life. Students will explore and utilize the design process (Ask, imagine, Plan, Create, Test, Repeat) through short challenges. They will learn the value in collaboration through developing a plan to solve a problem, testing out their ideas, and revising them. Students will also get a brief introduction to Tinkercad and Adobe Illustrator to help prepare them for working through a design-thinking project in the next semester.
Design Thinking Project

Using the design engineering process learned in the introductory course, students will take on the role of an engineer to apply their knowledge and creativity to define, analyze, and solve a problem that will help society. Through a hands-on culminating project, students will further develop their critical thinking, creativity, and teamwork skills.
Human Development

Understanding our growing and changing bodies is an integral part of the middle school experience. During this course students will review concepts from elementary school and layer in new important concepts to help them understand how their sexual health will evolve over the course of their sixth grade year. We follow a curriculum by Advocates for Youth called 3R. The core values of the program are Rights, Respect, and Responsibility. The program highlights a student’s right to honest sexual health information and offers them respect and ownership over the policies that affect their health and well-being. It also highlights the adult’s responsibility to provide students with all of the tools they need to safeguard their sexual health and young people’s responsibility to protect themselves.
Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the practice of acknowledging your feelings without judging the emotions. Students will learn strategies for recognizing their emotions, discuss the effects of stress on the mind and body, as well as engage in different techniques they can use to calm themselves during stressful situations or as an everyday practice for relaxation. Techniques explored in this class include visualization and guided imagery, progressive muscle relaxation, and guided meditation. In addition to learning and practicing the techniques, students will regularly discuss how they see each practice being beneficial in various areas of their lives.
Wellness

Wellness gives our sixth graders an opportunity to learn factual information about the emotional and cognitive changes that are associated with adolescence. Sixth graders have varying levels of knowledge and comfort regarding these topics, wellness provides an opportunity to make sense of it all. Students begin by learning about different personality styles, approaches to conflict management, and social patterns and concerns specific to the grade level. In this discussion-based class, the middle school counselor uses thinking strategies and humor to encourage participation and create a supportive environment where emotional safety and respect are paramount.

In this Section

Rowan '27

I feel like Severn prepared me for the transition from both Lower to Middle and Middle to Upper School. Whether it was the accountability, developing good study skills, or practicing mindfulness … every part of my experience in Middle School set me up for success going into the Upper School. Severn has been by my side for every transition, helping me to be my own best self.”