Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Technical difficulties resolved

I've been having trouble getting access to my blog site for the past couple of weeks.  The good news is that I'm back in and have been able to update with several great posts about wonderful lessons that are taking place at HMS.  Please read the posts below to find out about the great things taking place here!

Welcome to Marking Period Two!


Hello, Hornets, welcome to November and the start of the second marking period!  IT’s been a great start to the school year at HMS and our teachers and our students have been quite busy.  We’ve been hosting school dances, putting on band, chorus and orchestra concerts, taking field trips to enhance some of our project-based learning activities, meeting with parents at conference nights, raising money for the PATSO through our magazine drive, and electing our student council officers.  While that list was long, it’s just the tip of the iceberg of what Henley has to offer.  There is something for everyone here, and I hope that all of your kids are getting involved in some way.

Many of you may know that we had some renovations done to the school this summer and have created two large spaces know as our “spark spaces.”  These spaces are designed to enhance our teachers work to build students’ skills in creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration—the “4C’s” of 21st century learning.  So far they have been a great success and the kids have been raving about the unique furniture, the technology available, and the focus on creating that takes place each time they use the spaces.  I believe that just about every one of our students has had a chance to work in the spark spaces and encourage you all to have a conversation about the type of learning that was taking place and what they thought about it.

We’re excited to be moving into the second marking period, and things don’t look like they will be slowing down for us anytime soon.  Before we hit the end of the semester we’ll have our winter semi-formal dance, our fall drama production, holiday concerts, our canned food drive, and lots of opportunities to learn, learn, learn.  We’ll be staying busy and having fun and continuing to be the best middle school we can be.

Lesson Study

Our social studies team participated in a lesson study activity recently.  Here's a recap from Ms. Johnson:

I have heard a lot about the term “lesson study”, but have never been able to do, participate in or observe until this past Friday. My best summary of what I’ve taken away from the process is that a group of teachers (in this case all social studies teachers, instructional coaches, and GRT) collaborate to build a lesson together in the morning. You randomly select one teacher to teach that lesson in the afternoon while the others observe. Finally, you debrief in the afternoon about the lesson it-self, process, what you’ve learned, etc…This is a great way to work vertically with department members, discuss instructional strategies, plan together and have time for a solid discussion. On Friday, the social studies department worked on creating a lesson around primary and secondary sources. Students were split up in several different groups to review primary and secondary sources about a particular explorer.

The group had to work together to read through the provided primary and secondary sources and gather information to create a visual that they explained to the class about their explorer. Mr. Rooks was selected (by drawing his name out of a hat) to teach/facilitate this lesson to Mr. Wright’s sixth grade students. While the students were actively working together, analyzing sources, and summarizing information, the adults were taking notes on the intended student actions vs. observable student actions and any other observations. The lesson study process would be great for any content or level of teachers. Our instructional coaches can certainly facilitate this, so let them know if you’re interested. Awesome work, everyone!

Design 2015

Here's a great lesson I just experienced as part of our Design 2015 program:

Dr. Moran stopped by for a visit a couple of weeks ago to check out some of the great work that is taking place through our Design 2015 project. One of the lessons that I wanted to showcase for her was the work that Andrea Burton and Melanie Dusci did with their seventh grade math students. The students had just completed a task in which they had to use video to explain the world of rational and irrational numbers. Students were given a wide range of options to choose from to do this—movie trailers, metaphors, tv commercials—and they did some incredible work under Melanie and Andrea’s leadership. What showed me the true power of this learning, though, was that Melanie and Andrea pulled a few groups for me the day of the superintendent’s visit and asked them to showcase and discuss their work without any type of advance notice. The kids came up to the conference room and we played each of their group’s video. They spoke eloquently about how they created the project, what they learned from it, and the bumps in the road that they hit along the way. Each one of them did a great job of explaining the number system as well. The kids were providing us great feedback about why this project was so engaging to them—they had some choice, the got to work as a team, they had a product they could be proud of at the end of the assignment. It took a tremendous amount of work for Melanie and Andrea to put this together. It would have been much easier to have a more traditional lesson about the number system, but there is no way that the kids would have learned as much. If you get a chance, head over to Andrea’s web page and check out the links to some of the projects. You won’t be disappointed with what you see.

Birds-eye views with Mrs. Webb

Here's a lesson observed by Mr. Crutchfield:

Students in Mrs. Webb’s classes enjoy writing in their personal journals. Her stu-dents participate in all sorts of free writing activities using their journals. Word splash, is one type of assignment where students categorize vocabulary words from their recent readings. Bird’s eye view is another strategy where students are able to describe personal experiences by drawing a map that traces 10 memories with captions to explain them.

The best part about these journal assignments, students decorate the normally plain black and white composition books. When I walk in the class, their heads are down and they barely come up to share their work. Water color is the medium. Dots, sprinkles, swirls and dreamy landscapes are painted on each page. Every once and a while, a student’s eyes sneak a look at their friends work or share theirs. But then, eyes are quickly back to begin another page of water coloring. Students comment to me that when they decorate the pages the way they want, it helps them get into a zone when they write.
Mrs. Webb stops by my perch. She likes students to personalize their journals in hopes that all the good stuff that they have in it by the end of the year doesn't get tossed. I assured her that it doesn't. The art, done by my boys’ years ago in her class, is hanging on their bedroom walls to this day.

Art History Detectives

Here's a great lesson observed by Ashby Johsnon:

I was able to observe and listen to a group of 8th grade students hard at work trying to figure out a mysterious time capsule that was delivered to them from the Charlottesville/Albemarle Airport.
Maureen got a call last week that several pieces of art (from Henley) were at the airport and needed to not be at the airport any longer. The pieces were delivered to Henley last week and inside one of the pieces were letters and pictures of what appears to be former Henley students. Maureen’s art students have devised teams of investigators and researchers and are excitedly engaged in solving the mystery! The students know that the time capsule was made in 1998 and now they are trying to figure out who the faces and names are and how to find the people for more information. They are inter-viewing some Henley faculty, researching through old yearbooks, and searching for information online. They have made contact with one young lady, who happens to be the editor for the C’ville, and she plans to visit the class next week. Students are using all of the 4 C’s in their work and are engaged and intrigued in this whole process. I can’t wait until the mystery is solved and we have the pieces put together! Nice work, Mrs. Russell and students, keep us posted with your investigation and discoveries!