A couple of loved lessons

Here's one from assistant principal Ashby Johnson:

Mrs. Thomas’ creative writing class has been working on creating a blog and literary
magazine to share their writing online. The site is called the J.T. Henley Middle
School Daily Buzz. The 7th and 8th grade students have created the site to inform you
about the happenings at Henley. The blog is written by students with a focus on gaining
knowledge about events, fundraisers, and a wide variety of other topics. The literary
magazine, or Lit Mag, is where our Henley students can share their writing in an online
space for people to read and comment on. All the students have signed up for jobs like
publisher, writer, designer, tech support, editor, etc...so it is truly a team effort. The
students write through Writer’s Workshop in class, peer and self edit, then are able to
publish their writing online. It’s exciting to see how hard the students work in class and
how proud they are when their work gets published. Check out the blog posts and the
first posting in the Lit Mag at this address: http://henleybuzz.weebly.com

And one I saw a little while ago:

Last week I had a chance to stop by Adam Kuchta’s room to check out the work he was
doing with his sixth graders. In case you didn’t know, Adam and the rest of the CTE
teachers in the division are working hard to transform their programs so that they have
a stronger focus on things like engineering and programming. He had a great example
of this change taking place with a challenge for his sixth graders. The students have
been learning how to build and program Lego NXT robots. Last week they were given
a task to program their robots (which had been rigged with a magic marker on one of the
robotic arms) to draw a three and a half inch line on a paper, move seven inches forward
without drawing a line, and then repeat the cycle. Students had previously learned the
basics of the NXT programming software and worked first on their computers to build
a program they thought would meet the parameters of their challenge. In pairs, they
would load the program into their robots, give them a command to start and watch to see
if their program created the hoped for results. Most students that I saw did not get their
robots to perform in the way they had hoped on their first attempt, and this was really
a positive for the kids. They had to analyze the results of their program, problem solve
to figure out how to rewrite their program, and then try again to see if they were getting
closer to their goal. These kids were challenged with an authentic task, worked together
to solve it, and realized that failure is a key part of the learning process. A great lesson
all around!

Building Confidence

One of the best decisions I’ve made in recent years is to volunteer to work as an assistant
coach on some of my kids' Peachtree baseball teams. I started out with them in “blastball”
where a bunch of four year olds hit a big rubber ball off of a tee, run to the one base
that is one the field and jump on it to make a horn blow, moved on to t-ball, where you
keep swinging until you get a hit, everyone runs one base, and the final hitter each inning
runs as if he or she hit a homerun, and to our latest league—rookie ball, which has a machine
pitching to kids and all of the regular baseball rules in place, including runs that count
and winners and losers at the end of the game. I’ve quickly found that baseball is a game
of confidence, and that was certainly on display this past weekend. We have a kid on the
team who has struggled all year to get a hit as we came into our second to last
game. With two strikes during his first at bat, he hit the ball—once the look of
complete shock left his face and he realized what had happened, he took off for first. He
was thrown out by a few inches, but something special happened after that. He got a hit
in each of his next three at bats that day. He felt success, and it was contagious and he
was incredibly proud of how hard he had worked to get there.

When I got home from the game and was reflecting on what had happened, I quickly
began drawing some parallels to the work we do with kids. I think school is a confidence
game in many ways as well. We’ve got some kids who have been “striking out”
at school for a long time—by being in intervention classes since first grade, by failing
SOL tests year after year, by trying their best, but being told that sometimes its just not
good enough. I believe that success can be just as contagious in school as it was on
the baseball field the other day. One of our jobs as educators is to figure out how to create
opportunities for challenge and success for all of our kids—from those who struggle with
grade level material, to those who are right in the middle of the road, to those who are our
among our highest achievers. Getting those kids to see that they can do the challenging
work that we put in front of them can start that snowball of success that can lead to a
brighter future. And we can’t do it by letting up on our standards—that baseball wasn’t
moving any slower when things finally started turning around for our player.
Keeping a positive attitude with our kids, letting them know we’ll never give up on them,
and building their perseverance in the face of challenge will help them immeasurably as
they go through middle school and throughout life.

Wrong Design

I read a really interesting article in Wired magazine last week about the concept of “wrong design.” It began with a story about the artist Edward Degas and his work Jockeys Before the Race. The painting has three beautifully rendered horses with riders preparing for a race. What apparently made the painting radical for the time, however, was something seemingly very simple--the addition of a pole running vertically through the foreground of the painting and right through one of the horses. Degas did this to purposefully create something that wasn’t pleasing to the eye, and because of this, Degas was basically a laughing stock in the art world for a period of time. But it turns out that Degas knew what he was doing--his work soon caught the eye of other artists that wanted to do something unconventional. The author of the article explains this concept of “wrong design” much better than I can, so here it is:

“Degas was engaged in a strategy that has shown up periodically for centuries across every artistic and creative field. Think of it as one step in a cycle: In the early stages, practitioners dedicate themselves to inventing and improving the rules—how to craft the most pleasing chord progression, the perfectly proportioned building, the most precisely rendered amalgamation of rhyme and meter. Over time, those rules become laws, and artists and designers dedicate themselves to excelling within these agreed-upon parameters, creating work of unparalleled refinement and sophistication—the Pantheon, the Sistine Chapel, the Goldberg Variations. But once a certain maturity has been reached, someone comes along who decides to take a different route. Instead of trying to create an ever more polished and perfect artifact, this rebel actively seeks out imperfection—sticking a pole in the middle of his painting, intentionally adding grungy feedback to a guitar solo, deliberately photographing unpleasant subjects. Eventually some of these creative breakthroughs end up becoming the foundation of a new set of aesthetic rules, and the cycle begins again.”

So how can this idea apply to the work that we do with students every day? I think the message is that when we think we’ve got something down--something we’ve done for a long time with our students, something that people say is the “right” way to do things, something that we think is perfect just the way it is--maybe that’s the time to mess it up a little bit. Maybe it’s time to make things a little bit imperfect and see what happens--you never know when you’re going to find the next great trend.

Lessons we loved

This year I'm going to try to continue to highlight some of the great work that is taking place in our classrooms thorough our blog.  Here are a couple of examples of some outstanding lessons from HMS:

From Ms. Johnson--I’ve seen a couple of different classrooms use a Gallery Walk strategy for various reasons over the past couple of weeks. As you may know, a Gallery Walk allows students to explore multiple texts or images that are placed around the room. Teachers often use this strategy as a way to have students share their work with peers, examine text, or respond to a collection of quotations or images. This strategy requires students to physically move around the room, so it is often appealing to many of our kinesthetic learners. Erin James, 7th grade language arts, had students respond to each others Word Snap projects through leaving sticky notes next to each others journals. On the sticky note, the student wrote a question and/or comment for their classmate to consider or think about in terms of their project. Peer feedback is a big part of the Writing Workshop model, that Erin uses in her classes. This activity allowed students to start to practice providing feedback to their peers, while walking around the room, looking at each others project. I saw another version of a Gallery Walk in Monique Faruque’s 6th grade history class. Monique has many images placed around her room. During this Gallery Walk, she had students look at a section of images quietly, while taking notes, and writing comments and questions about various themes and characteristics they noticed. Again, students were up around the room, thinking and responding to what they saw and later they were able to discuss their thoughts within a group.
For more information and ideas about a Gallery Walk, paste this link into your web browser: http://bit.ly/1uG1tcD

From me--I stopped by the spark space last week and ran into a great lesson being taught by Todd Rooks and Pam Koury. Todd and Pam were co-teaching an activity on global citizenship. Students were working together in small groups at different stations to learn more about our world and its diverse people and cultures. At one station they were exploring this through music videos, at another they were researching another culture on-line and creating a Venn diagram comparing it and contrasting it to life in the United States, a third station had them taking a global awareness “ignorance test” and learning about world conflicts, and a final station had them researching world geography. All of this was set up through their blackboard sites and it created a highly engaging lesson for kids who likely don’t realize just how different things are throughout the world. Pam and Todd are going to be building on this lesson this year with the start of their “Global Nomads” club in which students will partner with school kids in either Afghanistan or Pakistan to develop relationships and learn about each others cultures and customs. This was a great learning experience for the kids and one that can help us build some strong relationships in the future. Great job, Todd and Pam!

Back-to-School Night

Thanks to all of you who came out to our back-to-school night earlier this week.  This is always one of my favorite nights of the year, when our parents get to step into the shoes of their children and spend a night as middle schoolers.  I heard a lot of positive feedback from our teachers about the great turnout we had and the positive relationships that they are starting to build with our families. 

As we mentioned in the state of the school address, Henley has a lot to be proud of—great teachers, motivated students, strong scores on state tests, and an active group of parents who provide a great deal of support wherever it’s needed.  We have worked hard to create an atmosphere that is conducive to learning and that allows for high levels of engagement and positive experiences for our students. 

I spoke last night about some of the goals that we have for this school year.  One is to “embrace the shake.”  A motto we have borrowed from artist Phil Hansen who has encouraged us to look at any limitations that students have as opportunities to be creative instead of as things that hold them back.  A couple of video clips that will give you an idea of why we want to “embrace the shake” can be found here and here.

 

I am also very interested in our staff developing an understanding of Carol Dweck’s work around growth vs. fixed mindsets.  The more I learn about this, the more important I believe it is that we work deliberately as a school to develop growth mindsets in our students.  A very brief explanation of this concept can be found here.

  

I know that we’re going to have another great year at Henley.  I look forward to getting to know our new students and to continuing our work with those who are returning. 

Off to a great start!

I had a lot of fun this week and last, and I hope that you and your kids did too. I’m always nervous and usually up all night before the first day of school and this year was no exception. I worry about the master schedule and whether or not everyone will have a class to go to when they arrive, I worry about the school buses and whether or not they will get here on time, I worry about the cafeteria and if all of the supplies that they need have been delivered for breakfast and lunch, this year I added a new worry to my list with laptop computer distribution for our seventh graders. The list could go on and on, but there is one thing I have learned I never need to worry about at Henley, and that is whether or not our teachers will be ready for a great start. Year in and year out, the Henley faculty and staff has shown their absolute dedication to our profession, to making kids feel welcome and to starting the year off strong. As I walked through the halls last week, a common theme I saw throughout the building was that of community building. Our classes were started with teachers and students alike developing the relationships that we know are so crucial to everyone’s success. Kids were getting to know their new classmates and their teachers, they were developing norms for how the class would operate this year, and they were setting the stage for success.

The excitement of the first week of school is infectious. Our kids were ready to be back and you could just sense that they were having a positive experience upon their return. I'm making it a goal this year to keep that level of excitement going not just during the first week or the first month of school, but throughout the entire year. We all want to create an atmosphere within our classrooms that makes kids want to run off of the school bus in the morning because they know they are going to be engaged, challenged and inspired each day by the work you are doing. Let’s get ready to have some fun.

Welcome back, Hornets!

Welcome to the 2014-2015 school year!  I hope that all of you are as excited as me about getting back to school.  While I know that everyone loves their summer break, it just feels natural at this time of year to begin thinking about getting a fresh start to a new school year.

We’ve had a lot going on at Henley since our kids left us last June.  We have had some renovations done to our library that have created a new presentation space and a new open seating area, we have started planning for a second gymnasium to be built with construction scheduled to begin in January, and we have been gearing up for our instructional technology initiative that will provide laptop computers to each of our seventh grade students.

At the end of last year we said goodbye to a number of our staff, and I’m very excited to have several new faces at Henley this year.  Our new staff includes:

·      Mia Fields—PE

·      Matt Hopewell—PE

·      Morgan Ciecierski--PE

·      Ernie Almanza—math teacher and testing coordinator

·      Cherie Thomas—French

·      Juliette Rosenthal—Spanish

·      C’Ta Delaurier—Intervention

·      Danica Alter—Special Education

·      Melanie O’Donnell-Special Education

·      Monique Faruque—Social Studies

·      Adam Kuchta—CTE

·      Sara McLaughlin—Math

This year we will continue our work to develop students abilities in the four C’s of twenty-first century education—communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity.  If students can become more proficient at skills such as these, they will be ready for anything that comes their way in the world of academics or the world of work. 

I know that 2014-2015 is going to be another great year for us at Henley Middle School, and I just can’t wait to get things started.  See you soon and Go Hornets!!!

A Lesson I Loved

I spent many years working in high schools prior to coming to Henley. Something that I noticed right away both as a teacher and an administrator was how much a solid art program and a caring art teacher meant to the school.  There were kids who lived for every moment they could spend in the art room--they were there before school, after school , during lunch--anytime they could find.  While our schedule is a little bit different in middle school, we still have kids whose lives would revolve around the art room if possible.  That’s why it warmed my heart so much to see Maureen Russell’s art students get started on a mural in the hallway outside of her room.  Maureen and I have spoken a few times about how much this project means to her kids.  They are showing up before school to work, wanting to complete their in class art assignments early to continue their work, and are incredibly proud of the addition they are making to the school.  And talk about talent--these kids have it!  I never caught the art bug myself, but was always amazed by the kids I knew who had those incredible talents that we’ve all seen in so many who have passed through our classes.  The kids who are working on this mural have great talent and great passion for art, but without a teacher like Maureen to fan the flames of that passion, they may have never gotten this amazing chance to express themselves.  I try to stop by the art hallway multiple times a day now, and each time I see a little more progress.  I hope that this is the first of many projects that will help us beautify the school through the talent of our students.

What we can learn form The Lego Movie

My kids love Legos.  Every year at birthdays and Christmastime I can guarantee that a new Lego set will be at the top of their list.  The sets that they like are getting more and more intricate as the years go on.  Typically they come with one or more instruction books with piece-by-piece instructions of how to build the Dolphin Cruiser or the Lion Chi Temple.  When my kids open them up, they diligently follow the directions and eventually come out with a product that looks exactly like the one on the box.  They get a great sense of accomplishment, but they definitely didn’t tap into their imagination in the way that I think a toy like Legos were originally designed to do.  When they seem to enjoy their Legos the most, however, is when they just sit down with their giant bins of bricks and begin to build the things that they have dreamed up on their own. 

Herein lies the premise of The Lego Movie which I took the kids to this past weekend.  It was a great movie on a number of levels, even the surprisingly catchy song that played over and over and over-“Everything is Awesome.”  The premise of the movie is that the evil President Business wants to use the Kragle—the most powerful weapon ever created, to freeze every Lego in the world into the scene that came with the directions.  President Business has cultivated a society in which rules are paramount and the day to day life of everyone in Bricksburg is extremely regimented.  Enter our everyday hero Emmet who through dumb luck finds the “Piece of Resistance”—the only object in the world that can stop the Kragle.  This leads to an adventure straight out of the imaginative mind of an elementary school student.  One if which Batman can show up to save the day in an Old West Scene or where Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon can show up on demand when needed.   It was an absolutely wonderful show.

I think there is so much we can take away from a movie like this one as educators.  The parallels between the battles between the conformity of the SOLs and the power of the 4C’s are eerily similar.  Kids are intuitively creative and want to use their imaginations to build, to experiment, to fail, and to learn.  I was thinking throughout the movie of the work we are focusing on this year, and it just reaffirmed for me again that we are doing the right thing for our kids.  By allowing them opportunities to be creative, to think through problems and to work together, we are building the skills they need to se successful in life and to defeat President Business and the evil Kragle.

A lesson I loved

I had the chancea few weeks ago to see one topic taught in two very different and equally engaging ways.  Eric Strzepek and Katie Bledsoe’s seventh grade social studies students are studying the causes of World War I and the decision for the United States to enter the conflict.  Eric’s students are demonstrating their understanding of this concept through the creation of an iMovie trailer about what they believe was the most significant cause of the conflict.  When I visited his class and spoke with his kids, they were able to not only explain the work they were doing on their trailers, but also showed clear understanding of such things as increased militarization in Europe and the dangers of entangling alliances.  The kids clearly understood what they were doing and had some very creative ways they were planning on defending their arguments.  Over in Katie’s class a different situation was playing out.  Katie and Teresa Goodin had taken on the roll of President Wilson and had split their class into several small groups, each of which was assigned to take on the persona of a different state senator whose states had very different reasons for entering or staying out of the war.  Students heard year by year accountings of the escalating world tensions, decided how these tensions impacted their home-state constituents, and then voted on whether or not to enter the war.  If a two-thirds majority was not reached, the US would stay neutral.  It was great to hear the students’ conversations as situations in the world and in their states changed and to hear how they were thinking through this very serious conversation.  Both of these classes were great examples of how one topic can be taught by the same PLC in different ways with great results.  Great work Eric, Katie and Teresa!

Welcome to the second semester!

Welcome to the second semester!  I trust that all of you enjoyed a relaxing Winter Break a few weeks ago.  It certainly was good to get some time away from schoolwork, and it was great to see how refreshed our students and staff looked as they returned in January.

This time of year is always a busy one for us at HMS.  We’ve just finished up all of our eighth grade exams and we’re already beginning our preparation for next year.  Teachers are busy making course recommendations, and our ParentPortal will be opened up at the end of January for parents and students to select their courses for the 2014-2015 school year.  January will bring our first ever “Seventh-grade Shindig,” a special evening of fun activities just for our seventh grade students.  Spirit week will hit in February with students dressing up in crazy costumes and then challenging our staff in volleyball and basketball games.  This marking period also brings our first foray of the year into SOL testing with our eighth grade students taking their writing test in mid-March.  There seems to always be something happening at Henley, and I hope that your children are finding some ways to take part. 

The first semester officially ended on January 17, and current semester grades should now be available via ParentPortal.  We will be mailing printed report cards to all students later this month.  Please take some time to sit down with your son or daughter and discuss their progress to date.  If they are doing well, what plans to they have to keep their strong work going?  If their grades have slipped, how can they get back on track in marking period three?  I think that the third marking period is always the most difficult one to keep students motivated.  Please be sure that you are checking on their progress regularly and encouraging them to do their best.

This school year has been an outstanding one so far.  I can’t wait to see what the second half of the year will bring!

Go Hornets!