Lessons We Loved

Each week in our internal staff newsletter, Jason Crutchfield, our assistant principal, and I try to highlight a staff member who we observed teaching a great lesson.  I think it's important to begin sharing those lessons out with the community via this blog so that all of you can help us celebrate our incredible staff.  We'll be starting that this week and hopefully continuing it quite often in the coming year.  

Today's lesson write up comes from Mr. Crutchfield:

"Smile, We See You"

No more poor behavior in band class; students are being watched. That is because Kate Meier and Richard Baritaud have been collaborating in their district wide PLCs’ (Professional Learning Communities) to “broadcast” their performances for each other.

This work began in CAI (the division's Curriculum, Assesment and Instruction professional development institute) with the development of performance tasks for music groups. Music directors in Albemarle thought it would be a good idea to have their groups perform pieces for each other using sites like SKYPE to observe performances. Students would have a selection to play that they haven’t seen before while another band/orchestra watches remotely from their own school.  The plan is to have students observe and document their assessments of each other using the precise terminology the judges will use during district band assessments.

I was able to observe the trial run in Mrs. Meier’s classroom this past month. She collaborated with the band director at Burley Middle and their symphonic band. Our students were highly energized by the prospects of this lesson. They waited patiently as Mrs. Meier worked out technicalities of the hardware. As they experienced minor tech delays, Mrs. Meier’s patience was the hero of this lesson. Once SKYPE was up and running, Henley’s Symphonic band played their piece. Once complete, Burley’s band members were able to come to the microphone and give feedback using the precise language that their district judges will be using next semester. The process was reciprocated and our students were able to provide accurate and constructive feedback as well.

A quick trip to a few classrooms

I’ve written before about something that makes Henley great—the ability to walk into any classroom on any given day and see students who are engaged in work that is meaningful and relevant to them. I was out doing some learning walks last Friday and each classroom I visited, once again, had outstanding work taking place. In Lydia Beeler’s eighth grade language arts class, students were working on an activity in which they revise a paragraph full of sentence fragments into one that is more grammatically correct and much more well-written. Her kids were developing the skill of revising their own writing and combining sentences to produce more richly written text. Next door in Ciara Imbert’s seventh grade life science class students were studying one of my favorite life science lessons—genetics. It’s so cool to see how kids combine traits to determine the likelihood of offspring having those traits. The kids love seeing this and applying it to the way they look and the genes that their parents have passed on to them. Finally in Erin James’ seventh grade language arts class, Erin and collaborative teacher Kathy Verell were teaching students strategies to use when reading non-fiction text. They had a great graphic organizer that kids were working through in groups. The non-fiction they were reading had a direct connection to the fiction text they would soon be starting, making the activity even more relevant to the students as they develop background knowledge about a new novel. All of these lessons had students who were engaged and developing skills that they will use for decades. What makes these few learning walks even better, was knowing that I could have picked any three classrooms in the school and I would have had just as many great things to write about. The work our teachers bring to their classrooms every day inspires me as an educator and makes a difference for all of our kids.

A great community tradition

One of the things I love about living in Crozet is the annual Christmas parade sponsored by the Crozet Fire Department, the most recent version of which was held this past Sunday. If you’ve never been, you really are missing a piece of small town America. The “floats” are from local girl and boy scout troops, the Crozet Lions club, Peachtree Baseball, Sam’s Hot Dog Shop, the rescue squad and, of course, the fire department. Much like it’s Macy’s counterpart, it all ends with Santa Claus, the big man himself, riding into the fire station to meet the kids, hand out free candy canes and hot chocolate and hear what all the little ones want for Christmas. Also present each and every year are dozens of current, future and past Henley Hornets. If nothing else, it’s totally Crozet.

Events such as the Christmas parade remind me what a great community we have. I strongly believe that a school such as Henley is a reflection of and a contributor to the development of our surrounding community. The values that we strive to instill in our students come through in the outstanding neighborhood events such as the Christmas parade. Our work goes so far beyond tests, grades, report cards and the like. We’re building responsible citizens who are going to be positive contributors to our community. Crozet would not be the same without Henley and Henley would not be the same without all of our community members. Your contributions and the values you instill in your children touch people’s lives in ways that you may never know. There is no way that we could do it without the strong support of our parents and other citizens.  I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to be living anywhere else.

The Great Debates

Politics can certainly be a touchy topic, and I try not to get into it too much at school or on my blog. I’ve got to tell you, though, I’ve been fascinated by the debates that have been taking place over the last couple of weeks as the nation prepares to elect our next President. Regardless of your political persuasion, its been a couple of nights of good entertainment with zingers flying in the VP debate, moderators trying their best to get straight answers about any topic, and even Big Bird entering the mix. I can’t wait to see what the next two will bring  and I encourage you to have your kids watch.

So what’s this got to do with Henley, you ask? I think it boils down to teachable moments and authentic learning. While all members of our staff make sure the lessons that we teach do not endorse any political candidate or philosophy, the opportunities to use a presidential election and the debates that go along with it in our classroom are tremendous. The civics and social studies connections are pretty straightforward, but I see opportunities in other classes as well. There could be opportunities for kids to crunch some of the seemingly contradictory tax and job numbers in math class, to discuss the importance of clear communication and the impacts of non-verbal cues in our English classes, to learn about polling data and how it is collected and interpreted in science or in a GPS class. Any of these activities can help to bring a sense of authenticity to a classroom and give us yet another answer to the age old “Why do we have to do this?” question: because you might be running for President one day. It seems funny, but you never really know where our kids may go.

Welcome to October!

Welcome to October, Hornets!  It’s been a great start to the year and we’ve been busy.  In the few short weeks since school began, we’ve had our sixth grade social, our back-to-school dance, SCA elections, our first activity period, back-to-school night, and the United Way Day of Caring.  Whew!

Things don’t really slow down for us much this month and we’re getting far enough along into the school year that a good academic picture is starting to unfold for each of our students.  I know that many of you have been checking ParentPortal pretty regularly and are really staying on top of academics.  We’ll be sending home interim reports on Tuesday, October 2 as one more check about your child’s progress to date.  We try to time our interim reports to coincide with our parent conference nights, and we hope that you will join us on either October 3 or October 11 to meet with your child’s teachers. 

In addition to conferences, this month we’ll have the end of our magazine drive, the Hornet Hustle on October 16, our fall band concert, an activity period on the 19^th, the end of the marking period and our Halloween Dance on the 25, a teacher workday on the 26 and our Halloween costume contest on the 31^st.  Another busy month for us! 

The start of our year has been outstanding.  It’s been great to get to know all of our new students and to reconnect with those returning to us. Henley is a special place to come to school both as a student and as a staff member.  Our kids and our teachers amaze me each day with their dedication.  I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year has in store!

Day of Caring

I bet that most of us would agree that we’ve got a lot of kids at Henley to whom much has been given. I think it was John Kennedy who said, “For those to whom much is given, much is required.”  Community and public service are values that I hope our students develop early and use often throughout their lives. That’s why having a project such as the Day of Caring is one that is so important to me. It gives our kids an opportunity to see people who are giving back to their community just for the sake of giving back. Last week, our Day of Caring volunteers spent the day with us building some beautiful benches that will be a key component of the Henley NEST outdoor classroom. I’m sure that many kids saw this work going on throughout the day and learned form it. One of the many aspects of Henley Middle School that I admire so much are the myriad opportunities we provide to our kids to experience public service. Several students gave up an activity period recently to spend some time giving back, in years past our green team would spend countless hours walking the building collecting recycling, and we always have more kids than spots available in our Henley Helpers programs at Brownsville and Crozet Elementary Schools. Each day that our teachers come to school they are shaping the future of our kids, our community and our country. The work that they do is helping to ensure that the values that have made this country great will continue for years to come. Our parents do an outstanding job of reinforcing strong values for their children at home.  Together we are making a difference.  I’m happy to be a part of this, and I can say for certain that I know our future is in good hands when these kids grow up and head out to make their mark in the world.

Middle School Dances

I hope that all of you will have a chance to come to a middle school dance during the time the you have young ones at Henley.  They really are a sight to see.  Dance is probably a misnomer—while there is some of that going on, there are a lot of kids playing basketball in the gym, goofing around in the computer lab, and eating pizza, soda and candy. Once in a while some actual dancing takes place, and if a young man and a young woman are actually courageous enough to get together for a slow song, it’s a rite of passage indeed.  Of course, at the middle school level, dancing to a slow song involves staying as far apart from one another as possible while still maintaining enough contact to consider it a “dance,” each student having their friend stand beside them while they dance so that each dancer can talk to their friend and not even have to look at the person they are dancing with, and at the end of the song the two dancer’s immediately going their separate ways, oftentimes with no parting words.  A sight to see indeed, and one that is quite different from what you may see at a high school dance.  The sixth grade social is this coming Friday—a great tradition at Henley that allows our nervous neophytes a little bit of a more relaxed atmosphere in which to experience their first dance.  This dance and the ones that will follow always remind me of how lucky we are to work with kids during their middle school years.  The changes they go through from sixth grade to eighth grade are tremendous, and not many people in this word get to watch those transformations every day.  What’s even more of an honor to me is to know that each and every one of us helps to shape those changes for our middle schoolers.  Our jobs are important both inside and outside of the classroom.  The work we are doing with kids will impact them for the rest of their days.  I’m happy to be a part of a team that understands this and takes the work so seriously.  Our sixth grade social is just the beginning for us this year.  If you get a chance, stop by one of the dances—it’s something that I would not want to have missed as a parent.

Back-to-School Night

It was great to see so many of you out at our annual Back-to-School Night last night.  This is always one of my favorite events of the year--a night when our parents take on the role of student and spend an evening as a middle schooler.  You got to see what class changes were like, how your kids navigate the hallways and make it to their classes on time, and had a chance to hear about all of the great things their teachers have in store for them this year.

Thanks, also, to those of you who were able to come to our State of the School presentation immediately preceeding Back-to-School Night.  In case you missed it, here are a few highlights:

• 90 faculty and staff members are at Henley each day to help you child have an incredible experience here as a student.
• We've got five staff members who are new to Henley this year--Lauretta Dezubay, Amy Effland, Natalie King, Erin James and Karen Spencer.
• Our kids rocked the SOL tests last year.  Schooldigger.com has Henley ranked as the number 2 public middle school in the state in terms of student achievement.  Next year we're shooting for number 1!
• Our academic focus this year will be on developing proficiency in lifelong learner standards.  We are also working toward creating innovative learning spaces that will maximize our students' potential.
• Our renewable resource center is fully operational this year and our outdoor classroom/greehouse/garden project is coming along nicely.
• Our SCA president provided insight about how to get involved as a Henley student.
• Our PATSO co-presidents discussed ways that you can get involved with the school.

One of my goals for last night's activities was for each and every one of you to realize that Henley is a truly outstanding school.  We take our jobs and our mission very seriously and strive for every student to have a rich, engaging experience in our school each day.  Hearing so many good things from parents about the positive start their children have had to the school year made my night.  Thanks, again, for coming out and for all of the support you give to help us make Henley such a special place.

Election Week!

This week brings our annual SCA election process. If you happen to stop by the school this week, I’m sure you’ll notice campaign posters, buttons and stickers around the school for all of the candidates that are running for office. This is always one of my favorite times of year—seeing so many of our kids want to take a leadership role among their peers, watching how seriously they take their campaigning, hearing their speeches and the visions that they have for the school. One of the aspects I enjoy most about these elections is that they stay so positive. It’s kids trying to sell themselves and what they can bring to school, with absolutely no mention of the terrible things that the other candidates have done or will do if they are in office. These kids have lots of great ideas about how we can make our school better—and it’s much deeper than no homework and longer lunches. The kids in the SCA really want to have a better school—they’ve brought us the pep rally, a new mascot to lift our school spirit, the annual canned food drive to help those in need, and our annual talent show, just to name a few. Each year we encourage our staff to let kids know just how important student government is to us at Henley. The seed we plant for service to school and community will continue to grow when we get them started at an early age. It’s going to be a fun week, and I can’t wait to see who our new leaders will be.

Week two!

I was getting a lot of butterflies last Tuesday night as I began thinking about our first day of classes and what the school year will bring.  I was nervous that there was something we forgot to do, or that student schedules would turn out to be messed up in some way, or that something would go wrong with the bus routes and our kids wouldn’t get here on time or get home when they were supposed to.  Of course, everything turned out fine and we had a great start to the year.  Deep down, I sort of knew this would be the case, but I got nervous anyway.  Really I suppose that’s a good sign—I hope the first day butterflies never go away.

So now we’re in week two.  We’ve met all of our kids, gone through our first day routines, and have started getting in to the meat of our opening units.  So here comes our first full week.  With the exception of a fire drill or two, it looks like we don’t have much on the books outside of our regularly scheduled classes so we can really start getting into the groove this week.  This is the time when our teachers begin building those relationships we know are so crucially important to developing successful students, focusing their work on the goals that we are all setting for the year, and again challenging ourselves to get better at what we do each and every day.  The potential I feel for the work we will all do with our students this year is tremendous.  It’s great to have them back and to be getting down to the business of teaching and learning.  Have a great week two, everyone!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back, Hornets! In just a few short days we’ll have all of you back meeting your new teachers, reconnecting with old friends, and beginning another wonderful year of learning and growing in the halls of J.T. Henley.  I can’t wait!

It’s certainly been a great summer here.  We’ve got several sets of new lockers that have recently been installed, an update to our heating and air conditioning system that has taken place, and a great new sound system that has been installed in the cafeteria just in time for back-to-school dances to begin.  If you check out the Henley website, you’ll notice that it’s got a brand new look as well. 

We’re really excited to be launching a new program this year called ParentPortal.  This program will allow parents to access schedule, grade and attendance information from anywhere they have a web connection.  It will also contain a link to our daily bulletin with announcements about all of the important events that will be taking place at Henley.  This should become a great information and communication tool for us this year.  As you know, because we are launching ParentPortal, we will not be mailing home class schedules this year.  Schedules will go live in ParentPortal at 4:30 on Friday, August 10.  At that time, parents who have picked up their usernames and passwords will be able to log on and see which classes and teachers their students have been assigned to for the coming school year.  If you still need to pick up your username and password, please stop by the Henley front office between 9:00 and 3:30 and remember to bring your photo I.D.

Another change that you will notice next year is that we are moving our STING period to the morning on a trial basis.  At the beginning of the year, we will start each day with a homeroom/STING period.  This will allow us to again have a period of sustained silent reading (SSR) to begin our day while still allowing for remediation and support to take place for students who need it.  At the end of September, we will consider feedback from parents, students and staff and make a decision to either keep STING in the morning or to move it back to the afternoon.

Our open house for new students is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on Monday, August 20.  This is a time for students to come to Henley to meet their new teachers and learn the location of each of their classes.  We hope to see many of you at this event!

It’s been much too quiet around here this summer, and I can’t wait until our hallways are again filled with the sounds of students learning and having fun.  School starts at 9:00 on Wednesday, August 22.  Until then, enjoy these final few days of summer and get ready for a fantastic year!  See you soon and Go Hornets!