Middle Message | Winter 2014

Winter

2014

Middle Message The MBS Middle School Magazine

Message from the Head

Boni Luna, MBS Middle School Head

Shadowing a Student

Shadowing a student means to follow a student through their school day to gain insights into the student experience. It is common practice for educators to shadow a student in

their school. Having shadowed a student at a previous school, I am aware of the benefits and limitations of the experience. This time, I wanted to change the shadowing process from just observing the student to engaging with the student in his or her experience.

In December, I attended classes with a seventh-grade student. I met him in at his locker, went to homeroom and attended advisory, Morning Meeting and three of his classes. He introduced me to each of his teachers and explained I was shadowing him. After three hours, we happily parted ways at lunch.

Wh at I le a rn ed from thi s expe ri ence: • The school day is segmented to give students a break every 2 to 2.5 hours.

• The classes were a good length of time­­—not too long or short—an average of 45 or 50 mins.

• Teaching styles were diverse. I experienced group work, individually directed work, and a mini-lesson presented by the teacher.

• The students in every class were focused and on task.

Among the many benefits of engaging in this experience was being able to see the interactions among students and between teachers and students. It was affirming to experience the pace of the day and to know that the schedule is student and child centered.

Although I could never be a middle schooler again (thank goodness!), I walk away from this experience with a slightly better understanding of what our students encounter on a day-to-day basis. The idea of empathy comes to mind, as stated in our Mission Statement: Knowing and caring about how others feel can be a powerful force. As educators, it is our professional obligation to figure out ways to stay in touch with the student experience.

Spotlight on Learning

Jeremy Meserole, Middle School English Teacher

Poetry: A Lifetime Journey I love poetry, and I love sharing poetry with my students, too.

I use that word “sharing” intentionally—reading poetry brings people together and allows them to see the world from new perspectives. Discussing a poem can be a creative act, just as

creative as the process of writing a poem. So, I share poems

with my students to help them understand what it means to live

Thoughts on poetry by sixth-grade students...

lives that are creative, thoughtful, and exciting.

One of the poems I like to use with my students at the beginning

of the year is Robert Frost’s, “The Road Not Taken.” A famous poem, the piece discusses the importance of choices we make in life. I have my students consider the imagery in the poem, “the yellow wood,” “[the path] grassy and want[ing] wear,” “[the

path] in leaves no step had trodden black,” and ask them to

picture the scene in their mind’s eye. Have they seen places like this in the woods? Have they been for walks in the forest?

What does it feel like to be in the forest alone? What are the smells, the sights, the sounds of such an experience? I then

ask the students what it feels like to make important decisions in life—is there stress involved? Excitement? Anxiety? Joy? Why would Robert Frost connect making important decisions to a path in the woods?

Another poem I share with my students in Seamus Heaney’s,

“The Forge.” The poem discusses the role of art and craft in our world, and the transformations—good and bad—that technology creates. Again, I start with imagery of a blacksmith at work, “the

hammered anvil’s short-pitched ring” and “the unpredictable

fantail of sparks”; I ask the students to consider the metaphor of an anvil to a unicorn—why would a poet make such a connection?

And then I ask the students to wrestle with the implied question at the end of the poem—why is the blacksmith angry? Why has the changing world around him upset him so much?

In studying and reading poetry, my hope is that students begin

to make connections about the world around them, and that as they read closely, they begin to develop a sense of awe and wonder about the mystery of life and its inherent beauty.

Poetry is not just rhyming words. It’s an art. Poetry requires a deep mind. All famous poets are deep thinkers with wide imaginations and have the ability to paint pictures in the mind’s eye. I have studied a few poets in my time such as Robert Frost, Thoreau, E.E. Cummings and Edna St. Vincent Millay. These great poets’ poems make the reader excite the senses and inspire the mind.

It’s almost like their words touch the soul. One of my favorite poems that I find most inspiring is Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

–Patrick Merrigan Poetry is a story from the heart shortened into a few lines. Poetry can have a rhyme and a beat to it, or it can just be normal sentences. There are many different kinds of poems such as limericks, rhyming poems, or haikus. Poetry also can have pauses in it and can be suspenseful. A poem can have great meaning or can be just for fun. But most of all, poetry is a message written to explain things in an abstract way.

–Mitch Cassella

The Dean's Desk

Lisa Swanson, Dean of Middle School

Movement and the Brain Early this winter, Sara Tassinari (7th grade history) and I attended

goes on in classrooms, whether it be acting out a scene from

select faculty attend the conference to hear researchers discuss

during a science lab. Additionally, research shows that even

the “Learning and the Brain” conference in Boston. Each year the latest in brain-based learning, teaching and curriculum. One of the most interesting sessions I attended detailed the strong

connection between learning and movement. Movement and

a novel, using puppets in Spanish class or rotating to stations letting kids get out their seats to lean against a wall or to sit on the floor can stimulate the brain.

the middle-school student, in my mind, is a natural pair!

Offering ample recess time during the school day is a “no-

The brain is a complex organ that will grow when exposed to

when students may run and play lowers stress and improves

movement. The adolescent brain has a growth spurt between the ages of 11 and somewhere in the mid-20s. Researchers have found that when children move, either in the classroom or rigorously at recess, their brains release a “miracle grow”

of chemicals to cause neuron development. Neuron growth is

responsible for improved memory, mood and cognitive function.

Classrooms that are designed to get students up and about have

been linked to increased student performance in areas such

as processing speed, attention span and memory. Visitors to

our Middle School often comment on the flurry of activity that

brainer”, according to brain researchers. Unstructured time cognitive functions. As schools strive to find more classroom

time during the day, recess is an area that often gets cut. Our Middle School is committed to preserving the 20-30 minute

recess period, as we are able to enhance and maximize the learning experience for each child.

The take-home message is simple: moving matters! Those of us in the Middle School understand the science behind learning and the brain and have created a middle-school experience

for our students the involves a nice balance between sitting and moving.

Student Life

Rob Mead, Director of Student Life

Recess & Lunch If you ask middle-school students what

of a group playing kickball—and then

them will answer “recess” followed quickly

changed and reconfigured themselves.

their favorite period of the day is, most of

by “lunch.” Teachers and administrators

will have the same response. However,

there is a subtle difference between the answers.

ten minutes later the groups have all Some of the children follow one activity all the way through from the end, but

others bounce from group to group like honeybees in a meadow.

Children like these periods because they

I regularly sit with the children at lunch.

hang out with their friends. They are not

them individually, and it’s also a good

see them as “free time” when they can “under the gun” in the classroom and

they can buddy up with whomever they want. And, increasingly as they get older,

it is time when they can get done the things they need to get done before the start of the next class.

Adults like these periods because we see them as critical opportunities for the children to work on friendships and

explore social relationships. These are

It is a good way for me to get to know

way for me to test the mood of the student body as a whole. I ask questions about school trips, athletic teams, and

various activities. I’ll sometimes ask

about vacation plans or family members.

But the gist of the conversation is never

gossipy or “scuttlebutt”—it’s harmless stuff. It’s a chance for me to see a child’s social skills in action and to learn a little bit extra on the side.

the two main times in the day when the

If it’s true that we learn everything that

choices. They get to make dozens of

it’s equally true that we polish those skills

children get to make unforced social

decisions a day in a structured setting,

but who they sit and have lunch with or who they kick a soccer ball with—these

decisions they have to make on their own.

One of the things that sets MBS apart from

other private schools in the area is the flexibility of our lunch period. The noise level in the Dining Hall is extraordinary;

we need to know in kindergarten, then in our free time as we get older. I’m not

saying that lunch and recess are the most valuable time of the day—there are plenty of other valuable things happening

throughout the day. But sometimes we

take that “free time” for granted and overlook the valuable learning that is going on.

the energy in the room is palpable. The children sit with their friends at one table,

get up to grab a frozen yogurt and then reconfigure with a different group of friends for dessert.

The Recess period is a similarly fluid and

active social scene. At any given moment, there will be knots of children sitting and talking, or playing small games, or part

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Counselor's Corner

Hillary Potter, Middle School Guidance

One of our goals this School year has been to consciously encourage a culture of empathy and kindness within the Middle School Community. We see this as the flip side of meanness and bullying. To accomplish this goal we know it is up to the adults in the Community to lead the way by (role) modeling these values.

As a faculty, we began the year by talking about being more

deliberate and empathetic when interacting with our students and this meant we needed to improve our communication with one another as well.

We have accomplished this goal and more as we have integrated kindness and empathy into our grade-level advisory activities as

well as into our daily personal practice. The sixth grade started by teaching their students to “Seek first to understand, then to

be understood.” This lesson was taken from Sean Covey’s book The Habits of Highly Effective Teens. The group also took a day and posted random “kindness messages” around the Middle School building on several easels. One advisory period was used to view a video on what empathy and kindness might look

like in our Community and another was used to read passages from the book Wonder to promote the values of acceptance and empathy.

The seventh grade has been working with these values too.

All advisories are planning to view a video on empathy and are collectively constructing a survey on how they see students being treated and how they are treating each other within the

MBS Community. Discussions on this topic have already taken place in each advisory group.

The eighth grade advisories have had discussions on “differences” and our sensitivity to these within the Middle School. The students also took a field trip earlier in the year to The Community Food Bank of NJ where they spent the day actively volunteering.

The entire school has taken part in a Thanksgiving Food Drive, a Toy Drive sponsored by the Morris County Parks Department and

just last month we had a very successful Hat Drive for children with cancer at the Goryeb Children’s Hospital.

For those leading the School, intentionally integrating these values into the fabric of the MBS culture is an ongoing process.

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