Another beautiful week has commenced in Middle School. This week, I noticed the mindset shift towards community. I’ve always been in awe of the FWM Middle School because in my school and camp experiences, I have never seen students across the three grades and ages come together to play one game so effortlessly as I have at FWM. I think my entire first year here, I continually commented on the socialization between grades; it truly felt like one community. This came to mind as Ms. Sutherland made a similar comment to me.

Then I thought about how the 8th years are leading the charge with fundraising. They planned and are executing their Name the Bunny fundraiser in the commons. They had each grade, 1-8 nominate a name. Each name was placed on a jar and left in the Commons. Whichever jar has the most value in coins after two weeks, will be the name of our new rabbit. The sole purpose of this is to raise enough money throughout the year to install a water bottle filling station. This group is fully aware that they will not benefit from this, but the idea of helping the community and filling a need is essential to their class. They are planning another fundraiser for Oktoberfest as well.

Another way the FWM Middle School embodies community is with their community service period. This dedicated period occurs one period in their 6-day rotation. They truly look forward to entering the younger classrooms and becoming a buddy or mentor to a younger student during their work cycle. This looks differently depending on the age. It’s beautiful. Not only do the younger children look forward to seeing their Middle School friends, but the older students are reminded about their vital presence in a younger community.

Now for a quick overview of academics:

In Humanities, all classes had their first current events presentations of the year! They really rose to the occasion and had wonderful discussions about important global events. 6th years discussed Becoming Naomi Leon character progression and went through some “anatomy” lessons about writing. 7th years had an awesome week comparing and contrasting political and economic systems, learning about Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung), the cultural revolution in China, and the significance of Tiananmen Square.  They also reviewed essay writing techniques. Finally, 8th years began reading A Different Mirror and discussing the idea of the Master Narrative in the story of America. They also read about and discussed what it means to be American, leading to lessons about stereotypes- are they true? Where do they come from? How can we overcome them?

It’s been a great week back after spending last week on our trip to Washington D.C. We were fortunate to have a wonderful tour guide, Dwight, who was incredibly knowledgeable of the city and its sites. One of the biggest benefits to having Dwight was the thoughtful discussions he led with our students and having them make connections between the sites. He offered questions before visiting memorials to have the kids figure out through observation and the prior knowledge he provided.

Additionally, as Chris noted in his reflection email, the middle school students were fabulous; there were no complaints, and they were flexible. We are incredibly fortunate and grateful to have a group like this middle school. It makes traveling fun!

Finally, this week the 5th years spent a morning attending our classes. They were excited to be immersed in the middle school and were great participants. We can’t wait to welcome them in the fall!

What a wonderful week! A special congratulations to the 8th years for completing their expert projects, a culmination of 5-months worth of planning, research, writing, and practicing. They should be proud of all they accomplished!

Next, we had special visitors on Friday. They enjoyed some math and a rocket launch on the field.

A big thank you to middle school parents and families for supporting our 8th years on their big night and visiting our classes on Grandparents Day. We love seeing you!

As promised, I want to take time to write about a unique classroom experience the 7th years participated in last week. Experiential learning, or learning by doing, is an important part of acquiring knowledge.

During their unit surrounding Animal Farm by George Orwell, students learned various economic and political systems of government (capitalism, socialism, communism, dictatorship, democracy, monarchy/oligarchy, and totalitarianism) and paralleled the novella with the Russian Revolution of 1917 and its aftermath, reading it as an allegory. They also spent time investigating the notion of a revolution. We looked at various revolutions from past and present and spoke about the causes, goals, what actually happened, and if they achieved their goals. We ended by devising a list of qualities that would make a great leader. Little did they know, this would be the launching point for tomorrow’s lesson.

The students walked into Humanities, and I told them there had been a rebellion. I had been overthrown and they would need to figure out how to successfully run class. I then went and sat in the back of the room and took copious notes, observing what happened next.

As expected, they were surprised at first, but they quickly sprang to action. Leaders emerged, both logical and more controlling, and it became clear that they all had the same goal: to learn as much as possible in the time given. While the first half of the class was spent deciding who would lead the pack, they realized that they should be focusing their time planning the class. They broke Humanities into a multi-day schedule of mini-classes that would run 10-15 minutes each. They cleverly realized that it would be optimal to have a reading comprehension class following a history lesson, so they could tie them together. I was impressed.

The end of the class came, and they begged to actually run the class the next day, exactly how they planned it. They agreed to go home and prep lessons to be delivered the next day. How could I say no?

The following day, 7th years executed their lessons. It was eye-opening to me. For the most part, they decided to take their favorite parts of Humanities and teach them as I might. I watched a history lesson about the Cuban Missile Crisis followed by written questions about that lesson, editing practice, a poetry discussion, current events, and a public speaking lesson. What I noticed, though, was the lack of movement in their lessons. They sat and worked quietly at their seats. I thought to myself, Is this how they feel the best practice of teaching is? Is this a direct reflection of their own experiences? I hoped not! I know, personally, I always plan at least one movement of environment during class and give children the freedom to do their quiet or group work in any space they feel comfortable. It wasn’t until one of the students became strict that they digressed and started speaking up.

The other crucial piece to experiential learning is reflection. Afterwards, we gathered and I asked the students about the experience. When I asked for overall feedback, one student mentioned that because one of their parents is a teacher, he was able to have a different type of conversation with him: not so much about what he teaches but how he teaches it. Another student enjoyed the process of teaching so much (planning and executing the lesson) that they thought they might consider it as a career. I asked if this was their dream version of a humanities class. They said they hadn’t considered they could do something like that and that there just simply wasn’t enough time to start from scratch. I would love to see what that might look like! Overall, the feedback was that they loved teaching each other. It will be important for me to honor this and celebrate it in my future planning of curriculum for students.

I think I will keep this experience in my repertoire. With different groups, this can go in completely separate directions each year. I can’t wait!

This was a loaded week! So much went on in our classes. The kids even commented about how quickly this week flew by.

In Science this week, the 6th year Earth Science students have been working on their unit, Earth, Moon, and Sun. Within this unit, students are discovering how Earth moves in space and how it associates with our seasons. Students created a short, stop-motion video representing key aspects and principles to each objective. The 7th year students are identifying the characteristics of waves. This unit informs students how a wave travels through or not through certain mediums. In order to facilitate these principles, students were able to demonstrate certain aspects of a wave using a slinky. Lastly, the 8th years are finishing their unit, Minor Bodies of the Solar System. Students have been working on identifying aspects of our moon in addition to the similarities/differences between meteoroids, meteorites, asteroids, and comets. By understanding more of the “small picture” within our solar system, students will better understand the “big picture”.

In Math this week, the 6^th years are now working on transforming formulas.  They know how to find the area of triangle, but now they have to find the length of one of the legs.  They are given the area of a circle, but they now have to find the radius. Next, the 6^th years will move onto graphing points and lines on a coordinate plane. The 7^th years will conclude their geometry unit this week.  In addition to finding the perimeter and area of polygons and circles, they found the surface area and volume of prisms and cylinders.  They have also learned how to find the slant height in order to find the surface area of a cone or pyramid.  Their unit will conclude with converting areas and volumes within or between systems of measurements. Lastly, the 8^th years will finish their unit on quadratics this week.  This unit included solving quadratics by graphing, factoring, and by using the quadratic formula.  They discovered that their answers can have two solutions, one solution, or no solution.  The class also solved systems of linear and quadratic equations.

In Humanities this week, 6th years continued reading Shooting Kabul, by N.H. Senzai. Connecting to the Humanities curriculum, we learned about the Islam religion as well as common Western misperceptions about it in a post-9/11 country. They are also watched a short documentary about the city of Kabul as it is today. Also in connection with the novel, we have been learning about racial profiling and bias. We have personally reflected and are becoming mindful of our own biases, recognizing them and moving forward. The 7th years finished reading Animal Farm by George Orwell this week. They also had a rebellion and I was overthrown, leaving Humanities class completely in their hands. During this two-day experiment (which is deserving of its own blog post) students decided what to do and how to move forward. In the end, we reflected and I also gave them a play-by-play of what they did and said. It was interesting for me to see, and for them to hear, the roles they take on when they are left on their own devices. Finally, 8th years completed the first round of expert presentations and received written feedback for moving forward. I can’t wait for the community to see what they have done!

Have a wonderful and peaceful weekend! Don’t forget to order your FWM sweatshirt and RSVP for next Friday’s dance, hosted by our 8th years!