MARTIN LUTHER KING MIDDLE SCHOOL
1781 ROSE STREET * 644-6280 * NEIL SMITH, PRINCIPAL
For two days and one evening each fall, the Martin Luther King Middle School gym is transformed into a Parent-Teacher Conference Hall. Teachers sit at tables, equipped with graded papers, course-work and enough folding chairs for parents and students to make themselves comfortable. All of the teachers are there, and an impressive 80% of King families show up to collect their students' report cards and talk to each of their children's teachers, one-to-one. For the parents, the conferences help to keep them in touch with their children as they move from childhood into high school. For the teachers, the time and effort, which they voluntarily give, represent the caring and dedication they bring to King.
Principal Neil Smith, who first organized the conference five years ago, believes the teachers are the reason behind King's excellence. "This school has an exceptional group of teachers who have worked together to receive major state grants in English, math, science and technology," says Principal Smith. "It is not easy to express how much time they have spent reviewing and developing curriculum, and evaluating school programs to make them better. These are teachers who choose to work with this age group. There is real commitment here."
That commitment shows in the high academic standards and equally high teacher morale. Teachers challenge their students with creative and relevant projects throughout the year:
- Eighth grade students choose their own sport in PE. Sixty of them take cycling, pedaling through Berkeley from Tilden Park to the Bay.
- Seventh grade math students design a pizza parlor, using percentage-based specifications, determine the optimal shape for cattle fields, and collect data to prove or disprove that pizza and cows have a correlation.
- Sixth graders are sorting, weighing and classifying the garbage generated at King, studying the problem of trash in Berkeley. They are telecommunicating their findings to other middle schools across the United States and Europe.
- King teachers have drawn upon community resources to enrich the curriculum. Paleontologist Tim White discussed his recent discovery of hominid fossils with students, exciting them about this field. The Mark Morris Dancers were on campus for one week, teaching dance and movement to sixth graders for the second year in a row. Newbury Award-winning author Karen Cushman met with all the seventh grade classes to discuss her book, Catherine Called Birdie, after they had read it. And Alice Waters, Chez Panisse founder, has involved many students in both cooking and gardening as her Edible Schoolyard blossoms.
Josie Gerst, co-founder of King's innovative and highly successful Family Writing Program, is not only a teacher at King; she is also a parent of three King graduates -- a dual tie to the school that one quarter of King's teachers share. "I feel very fortunate to have had my children here, and to have taught so many students I've seen grow up through Jefferson and Malcolm X," Gerst says reflectively. "But to tell the truth, even without that, King would feel like a family. We don't just work together, we have a softball team and skiing weekends -- we come together here by choice."
That same sense of welcome greets visitors and students as they enter the school, past the breathtaking mass of flowers that fill the courtyard garden planted and tended by PE teacher Byrll Terrell. The message resonates in the vibrant colors: King is a great place to be.
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