User:Jacinta022092/M.S 340

M.S 340, North Star Academy  is a New York City Department of Education Public Middle School. The school is located on Grand Army Plaza and Sterling Place. The school serves grades of 6-8. The school has a dress code that requires students to wear uniforms. There is a gym for dance, aerobics, physical training, cafeteria where you sit down enjoy your entertainment and a yard where you run around or jump double dutch, etc.

History
Bright students and a nurturing, close-knit environment make IS 340 a good option for families in struggling District 17. Student uniforms of white shirts and plaid ties set a formal tone throughout the small, red brick building. The school, which boasts an accelerated science curriculum, draws most of its students from Caribbean-American families living in Crown Heights and East Flatbush.

IS 340 arranges classes heterogeneously, meaning that students of various levels of achievement are placed in the same class. "I think there's greater competition that way," said Jean Williams, principal since September 2006 and a graduate of the Department of Education's Leadership Academy, the training program for new principals. To help 6th graders ease into the middle school routine, each class is assigned a core teacher that stays with them for English, social studies and math instruction.

During our visit we saw a blend of traditional and creative teaching styles. In some classes students sat in rows of desks while the teacher lectured from the front of the room. Elsewhere, kids laughed hysterically in a Spanish class when the teacher held up a photo of pop singer, Beyoncé to illustrate the word "guapa," meaning pretty and a nerdy superhero for "feo," meaning ugly. Squeezed into a tiny computer lab, students used Microsoft PowerPoint to create brochures about different literary genres, such as the elements of a horror story. In an English class students were writing diary entries in the voices of runaway slaves.

Bulletin boards displayed some less-inspired work, however, such as essays on famous Americans that were mainly recitations of facts and science displays with vibrant stock images downloaded from the Internet.

Science instruction, a main focus of the school, suffers from the lack of lab space and equipment. Despite the poor facilities, the school manages to push its students. Seventh-graders take the state's 8th grade science test, so that in 8th grade they take the high school Regents course in living environment. According to Williams, construction of a big science lab was slated to begin in the summer of 2008.

Overall the school was calm, though we did observe some unruly student behavior. An 8th grade class was extremely noisy while watching a video in the library. Too much horsing around diminished an energetic music teacher's lesson on scales.

The school's dean said violent incidents are rare, and that most kids act out because they need someone to talk to. On the day of our visit, five students were in the detention room, where Williams said typical offenses are horseplay, refusing to follow rules or verbal rudeness. Kids told us there weren't many fights. Williams said incidents have dropped significantly since she increased the amount of staff monitoring morning arrival.

Lunch and gym pose a challenge, with both taking place in the small, low-ceilinged basement. Kids told us they love the cheerleading and step program run by a school security guard and tennis. Their biggest lament was the lack of space. Boys and girls play separately in the yard during lunch recess.

Parent involvement "could be better," said Williams. She hopes to lure parents, many of whom work two jobs, to events by honoring them as well as the kids, like at a recent celebration of the 116 children with 100 percent attendance. Almost all parents come to open school nights, she said.

A very thorough guidance counselor oversees all high school applications. Some graduates go to specialized schools as well as selective schools like Bard High School Early College. Others go to local schools like East New York Transit Technology, John Dewey and Murrow.