Rocky River Middle School was recognized for its teaming practices at the Ohio Middle Level Association (OMLA) Annual State Conference recently in Columbus.

The 2017 Component Award recognizes schools that embrace middle school philosophy, and utilize and promote teaming. The school underwent an on-site visit from OMLA members prior to receiving the award.

Winning schools had to meet five criterion, including:

• Displays of team pride, student ownership, student expectations and a sense of community.

• Teacher autonomy with students, including flexible scheduling for large and small group activities, and grouping students based on student needs.

• Lessons, techniques and assessments appropriate to the needs of young adolescents.

• Consistent, ongoing communication between parents and teams.

• Professional development opportunities to enhance teaming.

In her application, Principal Megan Rose identified several areas RRMS provides unique teaming activities, including team meetings with individual students for encouragement, flipped science classes allow students exposure to new teaching strategies, parent essays that provide insight into their children, and team members attending graduate classes together to design common standards and instructional methods.

Members of the RRMS leadership team who attended the annual conference and accepted the award were Jeff Smith, Matt England, Ben Purdy, Chandra Juhasz, Megan Rose, Jenneva Hill, Susan Weber, Terri McNeely and Dave Opdycke.