Happy Friday! Middle School continued to have a packed week of progress in classes.

6th and 7th year Humanities students are working on their presentations for Research Night which is next Thursday, 2/8 at 6:30 p.m. Remaining interesting and engaged are the goals, and students are creating presentations that are not run by a script! This is scary for some, but in the end, they will find great success.

8th year Humanities students are studying Reconstruction, the post-Civil War time when the Confederacy is brought back into the Union and slavery is abolished. Students looked at the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution and the effects of the Emancipation Proclamation for African Americans in the years following the Civil War. As a separate conversation and analysis, students also watched a moving speech given by Lupita Nyong’o about beauty in Black America.

6th year Earth Science students have been working on the solar system. Students are designing models to represent the planets’ distances from the sun, size comparisons, and relative position from one another.

Parent Teacher Conferences should be scheduled with advisors only. They will be on February 15 (1 pm start – last conference at 7:30 pm) and February 16 (7:30 am start and last conference at 11:30 am). Please schedule your appointment by 5:00 pm on Wednesday, February 14^th.

If you would like to meet outside of the scheduled conference times, please email your child’s advisor directly and set up a mutually convenient time.  In addition, if you would like to meet with one of our enrichment teachers, please email them directly to set up a time to meet. Enrichment teachers will be available for parent conferences on Thursday, February 15^th from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm and on Friday from 8:00 am to 11:30 am. We look forward to talking with you about your child’s progress at school.

Community is a word we reflect on often at FWM. Humanities students continued working on their unit projects for Lois Lowry’s, The Giver, this week. Their challenge is to develop a community that, in their opinions, most resembles the concept of utopia. The students are finding that the word “community” has important meaning for schools, towns, and society. While there are a plethora of variants on the word’s meaning, one dictionary used the word “fellowship” in its definition.

The FWM community is certainly a fellowship and functions as companions, looking out for each other’s best interests.  The excitement during this week’s cooking elective was completely different because the food the students were preparing was for their peers. There was more attention to the process and making sure everything was done correctly. The pride in sharing a meal together that they prepared certainly embodied a close community.

Whether kids are coming together during an amazing science lab, creating human percentages in groups during math class, playing in a soccer game, or editing and revising each other’s writing, the middle school is demonstrating what it means to be a community every single day. The teachers are proud of their continued fellowship.

A week of warmer weather and an end to CTP-4 testing has Middle School students feeling back to themselves.

In Humanities, 6th and 7th year students are working hard on their Research Projects both in and out of school. They have been learning to use citations and keep their research organized in order to use it in their essay drafts. The topics are fantastic! 7th years are also continuing to read Facing the Lion by Joseph Lemosolai Lekuton, a contemporary memoir about growing up in the Maasai tribe. They are comparing Western culture to the Maasai culture and finding interesting differences. 8th years began their unit on Black Americans in the US and have been studying pre-Civil War policy and comparing it to today’s as well as the prevalence of stereotyping and implicit bias. Macklemore’s “Same Love” helped students to develop open, honest, and forward-thinking discussion about the effects of stereotyping. Math classes continued with their units and continue having vibrant classes.

What a week! The Middle School has done their best to go with the flow this week with a different schedule to accommodate CTP-4 testing and a snow day mid-week. There is no question that students are feeling the ripple effects of projects on the horizon and testing, so it more important now than ever to remind them to focus on today and take each day as it comes.

In self-reflection, it is also important to process the positives of each day. Those small, stressful instances that happen during a day seem to dwell and take over one’s entire perspective, so it is important to purposely think back to the positive occurrences. I like to remind students to point out when good things happen to their peers as well. While it is good to recognize and give attention to all of the emotions that come with a day, good and bad, remembering the sunshine will give an overall boost.

Encouraging students to take time every day to do something they love is crucial. Whether that is listening to their favorite music, curling up with a book, bouncing a basketball, drawing, watching their favorite TV show, walking the dog, cooking, etc., time spent rejuvenating one’s mind and body is vital. If your child isn’t sure how to relax, try coloring mandalas. I love to do this as a way to clear my mind or when I am feeling anxious. Here is a link to some Printable Mandalas.

“Cause when you worry your face will frown, and that will bring everybody down. So don’t worry, be happy.” Bobby McFerrin

Enjoy the end of your week!

Welcome back! We are gaining momentum with this five-day week. Students have been working, playing, and challenging themselves. We switched classes for Community Service, so it has been great for the Middle School students to get to know their new classes. With the warming of temperatures, some Middle Schoolers enjoyed the snow during recess. It’s been great to get fresh air and watch the joy they have!

New electives have been great fun. Students are participating in yoga, cooking class, photography, and book club. This week, book club finished reading Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and had a fabulous discussion. Cooking class made three different, delicious cookies from scratch: snicker doodles, lemon ricotta, and German chocolate.

We are looking forward to another week!