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!