Using Montessori and the Teaching Artistic Behavior (TAB) approach to the Visual Arts, Middle School Students are exposed to an authentic art experience. This allows students to become self-directed artists and internalize their creativity.

    This special provides students with the opportunity to explore their creativity. Students may read for pleasure or set aside a regular time to write or use the computer paint program. Students use this time to read or write or paint for their own enrichment.

    The opportunity to learn about basketball, basketball terms, team sports, cooperation, physical conditioning, and just have some old fashioned fun. 

    Problem solving using a spreadsheet is an important technique that can be learned by upper elementary and middle school students. 

    We also learn how to describe a process using flow-charting techniques.  Students also write small programs using object oriented and procedural programming languages.

    Fine-arts twist on crafting.  Projects may include paper, fabric, found objects, collage, sculpture,and other arts/crafts media. 

     The projects will vary from one quarter to the next.

    Students learn to work as an ensemble and experience the importance of movement. Students learn different styles of dance from adding to their understanding of culture. It is also good exercise.

    Our students enjoy learning to manipulate digital images.  We work on digital photos, learning to improve the quality and crop the subject matter. 

     Students also create their own digital pictures by creating many layers of different shapes and colors.

    Rosetta Stone is a language software that is used by the milatary and foreign service to teach adults a foreign language quickly.

    It also works very well for students as it follows the Montessori principles of concrete to abstract and oral language to written language. Students can learn Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, German, Russian, and more.

    The Gardening Special begins right after the holiday break in January and continues until the last week of school in May. We try to take advantage of the best growing temperatures while avoiding a possible chance of frost.

     Our garden plot is small but we maximize it by utilizing square foot gardening and companion planting in order to be able to share it with all of the learning environments at Island Village. During the 4-5 months of this special, all of the students will have an opportunity to learn the basics of raised bed gardening as appropriate to their level.

Each year interested middle school students that choose this special will help prepare the soil for planting by taking soil tests, adding soil amendments as needed, and deep tilling to prepare a fine seed bed.

    Once the soil is properly prepared and the middle schoolers have mastered the basics of gardening, then they will pass on their knowledge and skills to all of the other young learners at IVMS who will be invited to come enjoy the wonders of our little community garden.

    With Mother Nature's help, they will plant and water a variety of vegetables, herbs, and flowers, watch them grow, and then be able to enjoy some of tastes of the wonderful harvest by the end of the school year. 

    Students learn basic first aid procedures leading to certification. This year students will also become certified in CPR.

    Health includes an understanding of nutrition and exercise, getting enough sleep, and other important ways of taking care of oneself.

     In Latin class students learn Latin by reading about an actual family in Pompeii and use the reading exercises to study the structure of latin and what life in Pompeii was like just before Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.

     Students work at their own pace and in small groups, sometimes even acting out the stories. Students also have the opportunity to learn and review new vocabulary and grammar with online Quia exercises.

    This special is limited to 8th grade students during their graduating year. Leadership is examined through experience working with other students, films about leaders, discussions about leadership, and service projects.

    Besides the gaining of knowledge and the mastering of social and academic skills, every child needs all the help he or she can get in making the right decisions in daily life. It is wisdom that provides us, young and old, with the light of understanding required to see clearly which way to go when we must act.

     So since Philosophy is “the love of wisdom”, we offer a special course in Philosophical Ethics within Island Village’s Middle School.  We begin our course in Ethics by discussing what it means to be a person who not only has the gifts of knowing and feeling but also more importantly the power to make decisions based on three developing levels of moral principles.

     Within a seminar setting the young philosophers of our middle school are then given a series of ethical case studies to discuss and decide individually just what is the "right" thing to do.  They then are sent out “into the field” to present the particular case study to faculty members and finally to their parents to seek their input. Returning to the next seminar we then review what we all have found and attempt to resolve the particular ethical issue.

     One of our parents was gracious enough to donate eight Lego Mindstorms NXT kits. Since our future is surely to be shared with robots and we humans need to program and maintain them.

     The NXT itself has a loudspeaker, a monochrome LCD, and navigation keys on the front. This is the controller for the robot--its 32-bit brain, if you will. It has three ports on top for connecting to the servomotors and four ports on the bottom for connecting to four different sensors: Touch, Light, Sound, and Ultrasonic.

   The Music Specials are designed to develop an environment that promotes the concept: Performing Music is Fun.

    We all know that music is an art form, and is an important legacy in defining the social events, culture, and a moments in time. These specials are more focused on the experience of performing music.

     Once one knows the joy of performing and composing music, the motivation to explore, practice, and research music's important role in society is ignited.

     For some, music is a therapeutic way of expressing oneself. This alone can relieve the stresses of daily life and help focus on the good instead of the bad. There are countless individuals who swear by the importance of music in their childhood and adolescence.

    Island Village Music specials are determined to ignite the musical passions within its students.

    "When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe.
I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest."
-Henry David Thoreau

    The newspaper special allows students to foster a sense of community and inclusiveness. It helps students to develop cooperative skills in teamwork, problem-solving, listening skills, vocabulary development, and meeting deadlines.

    Writing skills are vastly improved as students conduct interviews or research, then write and edit their work. Before starting, students are required to read various newspapers and magazines to compare the different writing styles. In addition, students are encouraged to journal so writing becomes a daily habit.

    The newspaper staff is composed of upper middle school students grades 5 through 8. Specific positions include editorial committee, writers, reporters, cartoonists, printing and circulation, and advertising representatives.

    Staff meets together every special period to discuss recent, present, and future topics, which concern the students, parents, administrators, and educators. Working on a school newspaper should be fun, exciting, and rewarding opportunity for students.

    Students see how a business works.  They have the opportunity to learn about aspects of accounting, inventory control, cashiering, advertising, and customer relations.  They also learn to work together to make the store effective. 

    For the inventory, the school store accepts donations of school supplies, gently worn school shirts, and monetary donations.

    Students either requiring or requesting assistance at their current mathematics level or honing up on forgotten skills can take advantage of this special.

    The Reading Buddies special gives Middle School students the opportunity to perform community service by serving as tutors in lower elementary classrooms.

    The students work with Kindergarten through 3rd grade students in all academic areas, but the focus is usually on reading. The younger students get a chance to read out loud, or the middle school students may read to them.

    This special teaches leadership and responsibility.

Students that are assigned to reading lab spend time improving their reading skills. They are assigned work based on their current reading level and the reading assessments given the first week of classes.

The assigned readings are designed to increase the students reading  comprehension, fluency and  vocabulary. Our  goal is for each student to become an independent reader who reads on or above grade level.

    Students get extra help with writing assignments and practice for the FCAT.

    We work on our yearbook during the third quarter of the school year.  Students that enjoy digital arts, are proficient in digital photography and show good organizational skills are invited to join the yearbook staff.

     We divide into teams.  Some students specialize in selling and formatting the advertising pages.  Some acquire candid photos of each learning environment and create its candid photomontage and some ensure that each student’s picture is correct.