Students meet with their homeroom teacher at the beginning of the year and then periodically throughout the year for logistical items such as locker assignments and report card distribution. During the year, students also meet with their homeroom teacher once a week for Timber Time each Wednesday for 45 minutes for Leader in Me (LiM) lessons, cultural lessons, and work collectively on custom made character education lessons and community circles.

Student Service Learning helps students learn and develop through active participation in thoughtful, organized service that meets a recognized community need. Students are required to complete 75 SSL hours to earn a Maryland high school diploma.  Students can earn 10 hours per year while in middle school for a total of 30 hours by successfully completing the service-learning components of designated courses.  These courses include Investigations in Science 6, English 7 and Advanced US History.  Teachers will provide information about the service learning projects available in their courses.  The remaining required 45 SSL hours may be earned throughout their middle and high school career by involvement in approved, unpaid activities within the school and community.  A list of approved non-profit organizations is available on the following website: www.montgomeryserves.org.  Students who accrue more than 260 hours receive an MCPS Certificate of Meritorious Service.  Students who accrue all 75 hours before April of their 8th grade year will receive the Superintendent’s Student Service Learning Award.

In order to receive credit, students must keep in mind the following requirements:

1. For an activity not on the approved list, the Individual SSL Activity Request Form must be completed and approved prior to community service being performed.

2. Activities that further or promote a student’s religion, faith or faith community are not eligible for SSL hours.  SSL activities can be conducted by a faith based group but must serve the greater community outside their religious organization.

3. The Verification Form must be filled out completely, with particular attention given to the Student Reflection statement.  The deadline for turning in this form is the first Friday in June.

For questions regarding SSL hours, please visit https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/ssl/index.aspx or contact Ms. Lara Frashure at 240-740-1440.

Helpful links:

SSL Activity Verification Form 560-51

MCPS SSL Webpage

Montgomery County Volunteer Center

virtual opportunities

Shady Grove has various special education services through our Learning Academic Disabilities (LAD), and Emotional Disabilities (ED) Programs.  Students that receive these services have varied Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) that provide specialized instruction to address their academic needs.  General and special education teachers collaborate to ensure students have meaningful opportunities to access the general education curriculum.  Instruction is designed to incorporate strategies that will enable students to make progress on their IEP goals and manage the rigor of content across all subject areas.  A continuum of services is offered, including consultation, full inclusion, self-contained classes, and a combination of inclusion and self-contained classes.

The ESOL program provides support for non-native English speakers as they improve their American English speaking, listening, reading, writing and viewing skills. The program is broken into four sequential levels with the goal of becoming proficient in the English language. 

Credit and grades for middle school students taking a high school course are awarded by earning a passing grade each semester. Students who meet this criteria, by earning an A, B, C, or D, will receive high school credit. The final grade and credit earned for high school courses successfully completed while in middle school will be reported on the high school transcript, but will not be calculated into the cumulative GPA unless requested by the parent/guardian or the student if 18 years old or married (eligible students). Students/parents/guardians will be notified annually of procedures to follow in order to include such courses in their cumulative GPA.  If your child is not satisfied with the grade earned, he or she may retake the course in grade 7 or grade 8 if it is available, or they may retake the course in high school.  High school credit courses offered at shady grove may include: Algebra 1, Honors Geometry, Spanish 1, Spanish 2, Honors Spanish 3, Spanish for Spanish Speakers 1, Spanish for Spanish Speakers 2, French 1, French 2, Honors French 3, And Introduction to Engineering Design.

Gifted and talented (GT), honors and advanced courses provide opportunities for academically talented and motivated students to accelerate and enhance their learning experiences through exposure to advanced content, differentiated instruction, and on-going assessment.  These courses follow the approved grade level curriculum using instructional and assessment strategies that cover course objectives with more depth and require greater use of abstract and higher level thinking skills. Shady Grove offers GT, honors or advanced courses in the following content areas at all three grade levels: English, world languages, math, social studies and science. 

MCAP is a computer based and will provide students, parents, educators and the community with better student information at a faster pace and gather information that helps Mayland schools strengthen our instruction and improve student performance so that our graduates are ready to move into the workforce or a post secondary institution. MCAP will continue to assess the Mayland College and Career Ready Standards in reading, English/Language arts, and mathematics.

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