Irma C. Austin Middle

Students in Grades 6-8 will take electives classes called Connections. Typically, a student will have one Connections class that he or she will take for the entire year and one Connections class that he or she will take for one semester. In the middle of the year, he or she will begin a new semester-long Connections course. Here's a chart that provides an example of the Connections format:

We are often asked, "Do students get to choose their Connections courses?" The answer is both "yes" and "no". Students can request to take band or chorus, but the other courses are selected for the students by the school. The Connections program is designed for students to rotate through all of the courses in order to expose the students to the variety of courses that will be available at the high school level. Students are normally not given a choice because of the limited number of Connections classes offered at the middle school level. Since there are only six semester-long courses, students will take all six classes within their three years at AMS.

If a student takes band or chorus, he or she will typically not take PE and will use the second Connections slot to participate in the rotation of semester courses. However, some students have requested to take both band and chorus, which would remove those students from the semester rotation. Students may also take two year-long courses if they are participating in band/chorus and the 7th/8th Spanish program.