BEVERLY — Andrew Pitman remembers walking into his first class as a freshman at Beverly High and feeling very small next to his math teacher.
"He's the biggest teacher in the school," said Pitman, who's now a junior. "It was a little scary."
With the help of upperclassmen like Pitman, school officials this year are trying to ease the apprehension that ninth-graders often feel when making the big jump to high school.
More than 220 of the school's 350 incoming freshmen showed up yesterday for an orientation designed to introduce them to what school officials are calling Freshman Academy.
Under the new arrangement, freshmen will take most of their classes on the top floor of the new four-story high school. They will be divided into four teams of about 90 students each. Each team — which the students have named Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins and Celtics — will include teachers for English, math, science and social studies, as well as a special education teacher.
Guidance counselors, school adjustment counselors and a group of "peer mentor" upperclassmen will also be assigned to the teams. Each team will have its own Moodle page, an online course management system that students and parents can access.
"We're very excited about it," said Assistant Principal Elizabeth Taylor, who will oversee the Freshman Academy. "Freshman year is a tough year for kids. It's a big transition. Beverly has been pretty good at rescuing them, but we want to be proactive instead of reactive."
The concept of the academy was made possible by the construction of the new building, which allows freshmen to have a "home base" on the fourth floor, although Taylor emphasized that ninth-graders will also take classes on other floors and will not be isolated from the rest of the students.
The other impetus for the project was the awarding last year of a $756,000 Smaller Learning Communities Program grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Beverly used some of that money to hire trainers from Brown University to instruct Beverly teachers on the practice of team teaching, which is also used at Briscoe Middle School.
Taylor said the team teaching, peer mentoring and grouping of ninth-graders on one floor are all geared to creating an environment in which each student is well-known by four or five people in the building, from teachers to counselors to peer mentors.
"It's the personalization of learning," she said. "'We know who you are. You're important. The work here is important, and we're going to help you.'"
Yesterday's orientation began with a performance by a student rock band in the auditorium. About 45 upperclassmen, wearing orange T-shirts with "Peer Mentor" on the back, then led groups of freshmen on a "scavenger hunt" to identify and explain different areas of the building. That was followed by a picnic in the field house.
Freshman Chris Ottinger said the scavenger hunt was fun and familiarized him with the new building, which opened last November. His friend Brendon Sutherland said the presence of the upperclassmen as peer mentors should be a big help.
"If we need to catch up on our work, we can ask them because they've been there before," Sutherland said.
The freshmen will be back for good on Aug. 30, their first day of school. Senior Sky Cowans said she and her fellow peer mentors will be there to greet them.
"Freshman year is a nerve-racking year," she said. "All we're doing is geared toward making it as comfortable as possible."
Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2675 or pleighton@salemnews.com.
Raw Video: Hail Storm Batters Oklahoma City
California's Foie Gras Ban About to Begin
6-Year-Old Going to National Spelling Bee
Video Essay: Funky Winkerbean Comic Turns 40
On Thailand Trip, Suu Kyi Visits Migrants
Raw Video: Pink Diamond Auctioned for $17.4M
Hurricane Andrew Remembered, 20 Years Later
Sister Says She Reported Brother in Patz Killing
Patz Suspect's Sister: I Went to Police in 1980s
Diplomatic Expulsions Follow Fresh Syria Report
15 Dead in Northern Italy's 5.8-magnitude Quake
Witness Describes Fla. Face-chewing Attack
Man Falls Off Crane, Dies After Police Standoff
Russia Condemns Ally Syria Over Massacre of 108
Dairy Farm Uses Chiropractor to Help Cows
Unexpected Smog in Pristine National Parks
Air Canada Plane Makes Emergency Landing
New Ticks Spread Across Southeast, Diseases Rise
Bring Your Own Tech Programs Charge Up Students
Service Dogs Help Wash. Soldiers Battling PTSD
