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 21^st 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!

Socratic seminars

Here's another loved lesson as described by Ms. Johnson from the halls of J.T. Henley:

Last week, I was able to observe and listen to a book discussion, similar to a Socratic Seminar, in Mrs. Bowden’s language arts class. There was an inner circle of students, who were the “Wizards” and an outer circle of students who were the “Silent Ones”. Their task was to discuss specific chapters in Ender’s Game. Each student had discussion starters in the form of questions that were either able to be proven in the chapters or were open-ended and led students to sharing their thoughts, ideas, and opinions about the characters and plot. Students were actively engaged with one another throughout the discussion and Mrs. Bowden was simply a facilitator to guide the process. As I was leaving, I noticed that the “Silent Ones” were dying to have a chance to speak and share their thoughts. This activity definitely supported all of the 4 C’s and could be easily used in multiple content areas. It’s always exciting to see students discussing literature and my guess is, in the end, Mrs. Bowden had a hard time ending the discussion to move onto the next class. Way to go, Mrs. Bowden’s students!

Strategic planning and student feedback

You’ve probably heard that the school division and the school board have been putting a lot of work into revising the division’s strategic plan. It’s been dubbed “Horizon 2020” and it’s driving motto is “Unleashing Each Student’s Potential.” There are five goals that go along with this strategic plan, and they are to engage every student, implement balanced assessments, improve opportunities and achievements, create and expand partnerships, and optimize resources. Now that these goals have been set, the much harder parts begins—defining what these mean, figuring out how we will implement them, and developing ways to measure our progress toward meeting these goals. I’ve no doubt that if we can do these five things, we will be a better system for it.

As a part of the process to figure out how to implement and measure these goals, the school board held a work session last Thursday night. I had the opportunity to attend and participate in a session with three high school students. In the session, the students were asked about what types of activities really got them engaged in their learning. For them it came down to two things that we probably already knew, but were really reaffirming to me. Hands down, the most important element of engagement for these students was the classroom teacher. Students reported that it didn’t matter what the subject was, how much they already knew about it, or how technology was used—if they did not have a good teacher who cared about them, who understood their subject and who understood how to relate to kids, learning was not going to take place. Students also reported that when they are learning something, they always want to learn it with others. They want rooms that are set up for collaboration, and they felt like figuring out how to work with other students in a productive way was an incredibly useful skill. When they were asked to learn something independently, they felt that any type of learning that took place was often not authentic or relevant enough for them to have strong retention.

We recently surveyed students at Henley to get feedback from them about what they enjoyed most about coming to school and learning. The results that we saw show that our kids have many of the same feelings about what type of work is most meaningful to them when they are in our classes. They also were very clear that great teachers make a big difference. We are blessed at Henley to have a building full of teachers who build relationships and make a difference with kids. They may not always acknowledge it, but kids notice and appreciate when staff goes the extra mile to make a lesson engaging and to get to know them as individuals.

Martians landed last week at HMS!

Last week Martian’s landed in Leslie Tanner and Dana Stokes’ sixth grade science class. As an introductory lesson to some of the work the will be doing around the 4C’s in their project-based learning Design 2015 curriculum, Leslie and Dana challenged students to communicate with the Martians using nothing but symbols. The students were divided into groups and given forty five minutes to come up with a symbol based message that would welcome the visitors, explain what a school does and what students do while in attendance. Students used the portable white boards, their table tops and the idea paint wall to develop their speeches and then completed a gallery walk at the end of the lesson to determine which speech would be used to greet the aliens. It was so fun to see the students working on this project. They loved the novelty of writing on non-traditional surfaces, and they really got hooked into this activity. They had to work together, think in different ways, and tap into their creative juices to develop a way to send a simple message to someone who has no comprehension of our language or customs. The kids were totally engaged, and Leslie and Dana used this activity to develop some baseline measures of their students proficiency in each of the four C’s. Kids were buzzing about it at lunch and I heard form some parents who told me the kids were raving at home as well. This is a great example of helping students to develop the competencies that they will need for the world of work and college. Great job, Leslie and Dana!

A charitable spin to the magazine drive

Our annual magazine drive fundraiser will begin on Tuesday. Mr. Rene will be back to talk with our kids about the procedures of the drive, the collection dates and the cool things kids can win for helping to support the Henley PATSO. Our PATSO really does some wonderful things for the school with the money they raise—just ask any of our staff members who have an activboard installed in their room or one of the many faculty who have taken advantage of the PATSO professional development grants to travel to a conference. Lots of good comes to our school because of this drive.

We know that what excites our kids most about the drive are the tokens they can win if they reach a certain threshold of magazine sales. This year it includes a Kona Ice Party, a BMX show and a limo lunch. There’s a much more important reason for kids to participate this year, however. Great American, the company that sponsors the magazine sales, has partnered with Save the Children to bring some altruism to the drive. For every student who sells at least one subscription, Great American will donate a chick to needy families in impoverished countries. Can a chick really make a difference for a family? Absolutely. One chick can produce dozens of eggs each year to provide sustenance. Chicks can also produce other chicks for a family, and once a family has three or more, they usually have a viable source of additional income from breeding the chicks or selling their eggs.

Many of our kids at Henley have no comprehension of how some less fortunate people in the world live. This year our magazine drive gives them a chance to learn and to give back in a small way. I hope that all of you can stress the charitable addition to this year’s magazine drive. The more kids we get to participate, the more Save the Children will be able to help some of the world’s neediest families.

Another Loved Lesson

This loved lesson comes form Ms. Johnson, assistant principal.

This week, I got an opportunity to be a guest judge in Mr. Tarrant’s 8th grade Civics class. In both Mr. Rooks’ and Mr. Tarrant’s classes, students were debating the topic of compulsory voting. Each student was assigned a side – either pro or con - and read through a couple of different sources in order to get arguments to support their assigned side. The debate was structured as a face-off with each student required to participate in either the opening argument or rebuttal. Each side lined up facing each other and the center served as a meeting point for whoever was speaking. Opening arguments and rebuttals centered around specific examples of data, the obligation of a citizen, protecting the integrity of our elections, the right to vote, uneducated votes, constitutional rights, etc…This was a great way for all students to engage in higher level thinking and questioning in a structured venue. I ended up siding with the “pros” as I felt they provided more specific details and examples, stronger rebuttals, and followed the debate format more consistently. Both sides were excellent, however. I would say this activity definitely forced students in three of the four C’s – communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. Great job, 8th grade students!

Election Season

It’s election season at Henley!  Today marked the kick-off of our 2013-2014 campaign for the Henley Student Council Association.  I always admire the students who take the initiative to run for office.  Not only do they have to spend time submitting an application and hours creating campaign posters and stickers, they all have to stand up in front of their classmates to give a speech about why they are the strongest candidate for office. 

The school was definitely abuzz this morning with posters going up and stickers being passed out.  The next four days will have students vying for their classmates votes and discussing their ideas for how they can make Henley a better place.  I’ve always believed that the students who choose to become involved in activities at school—be it SCA, an after-school sports program, or one of our many enrichment clubs—have a better overall middle school experience.  It’s also great to see just how many want to get involved.  While not everyone will walk away victorious at the end of the week, everyone who chose to participate will have grown as an individual and will be a better person because of the experience.  Good luck to everyone as campaign week continues!

A lesson I loved

I'm going to try as often as possible to highlight some of the great lessons Ms. Johnson, Mr. Critchfield and I see as we walk through our classrooms at Henley.  Here's the first one of the year:

When our staff worked together in preschool week I challenged everyone to think of ways to engage and excite our kids on the first day of school. I saw many teachers rising to this challenge as I visited classes that day, and wanted to point out a great lesson from Mary Beth Kooken and Kathy Verell’s seventh grade science class. Mary Beth and Kathy had their students building their critical thinking and communication skills with their opening day activity. Each student had a picture of an animal hung around their neck and positioned behind their back so that they could not see what it was. Their task was to develop questions that would help them identify what their animal was without ever seeing the picture. This is a really hard task (especially when you have an animal like a bearded dragon to try to identify) but one that the students really got excited about. I saw kids starting to develop deeper level questions that would help them to identify their animal and kids who were highly engaged with their activity. I know that all of those students walked out of class that day excited for what this year will bring. What a great start for our kids—way to go, Mary Beth and Kathy!

Welcome to September

It didn’t really feel like the calendar changed this past weekend, did it? Mrs. McLaughlin, the kids and I spent some time each day this past weekend at the pool, and yesterday was just downright hot! I suppose we shouldn’t complain, because it’s been a pretty good summer in terms of heat, and here’s hoping cooler times are just around the corner. Another Labor Day is behind us and we’re back in school. To me, that just feels right this time of year.

September is a really special month in a school. Kids have gotten into their routines and we’re starting the traditions and activities that make our worlds so special. Our first activity period is coming up on Friday, the sixth grade social is two weeks after that and our first whole school dance is the following Friday. SCA elections are next week, then the magazine drive starts and the Friday night lights at WAHS are already blazing. We’ll also hit back-to-school night this month, walk kids through the age old ritual of the school picture (chin up, look to the left and smile!), send out our first interim reports, and discover some great new reads at the book fair. September’s going to be a busy one, no doubt, but to me it’s busy in a good way. There’s just something about the earlier sunsets, the cooler mornings and the first peeks of the colors of fall that remind me that school is starting and that we’ve all got to get back to the jobs we love. Let’s enjoy it while we can because we know it will quickly pass us by (did I mention that Halloween candy is out at Wal-mart…..)

Reflections on the First Day of School

Last Wednesday sure was a whirlwind of a day.  We began with a cafeteria packed full of early arriving students who were incredibly eager to get back to school and reconnect with all of their friends and teachers.  It was tough to hold them back until the 9:00 bell rang, and when it did it was invigorating to feel their energy fill the hallways.  Soon the sixth grade students were out in the hallway trying out their lockers for the first time—some with more success than others—and then our real work began with our first period of the day.  I tried to get to as many classes as I could on Wednesday, and I loved how often I saw teachers who were not going over rules and regulations, but were engaging their students in opportunities to connect with each other, think critically and problem solve, and, most importantly, to get excited about the school year.  When I talked with kids during lunches (which were packed full, to say the least) they all had stories to tell about the classes they were already excited about.  Each one loved something different, and I didn’t walk away from one conversation where I didn’t feel like we had gotten off to a strong start with that particular student.  The day turned extra-long when the busses weren’t able to arrive until 4:15 and we had a lot of worn-out kids who were ready to get out of here.  It was great to see how many of our staff members showed up at the bus loop to help kids find there way despite no one asking them to come on down.  By 4:30 the busses were rolling and day one was in the books.

The first day of school is always special.  Each of my first days at Henley have reinforced for me time and again what a talented, dedicated staff we have.  They work hard and get kids excited about learning.  They bring something fresh to them each year.  They let them know that they care about them as people.  They have all laid the groundwork for a wonderful year.  Last week I encouraged our staff to “start strong” and all of them rose to that challenge.  I can’t wait to see what this year will bring.

Welcome back! Let's get this school year started!

Hello, Hornets!  It is my distinct pleasure to welcome all of you to the 2013-2014 school year at J. T. Henley Middle School.  My excitement is building each day as we get closer to the start of the year.  I love meeting our new sixth grade class, watching our seventh graders make the transition away from being the “new kids on the block,” and seeing our eighth grade students move into positions as our leaders within the building.   I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, a school just does not feel right in the summertime when the halls are empty and the roar of students changing classes is gone.  It will be great to have that back in a few weeks. 

Lots of great things have been taking place at Henley since we left for summer break back in June.  We’ve had a significant renovation project going on that has transformed some of our classrooms into two large, innovative learning spaces.  The spaces have been designed to help our students complete work focused around the four C’s of twenty-first century education—communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity.  I am more convinced than ever that developing a curriculum that is designed to build these competencies in our students is crucially important to our success as a school.  One of my goals for this year is to have the four C’s become the driving force behind all of the work we do at Henley. 

In addition to our renovation project we have also applied a fresh coat of paint to the cafeteria, replaced the remaining original lockers, and have welcomed a new assistant principal to our building.  Ashby Johnson has joined our administrative team this summer and is looking forward to getting to know the Henley community.  We also have several new faces on our instructional staff: Kris Kishore in civics, Emily bands in electives, Lisa Boyce in Family/Consumer Science, Theresa Harriott in math 8 and science 6 and Audrey Hoover in intervention.  I know that they will all be great additions to our team.

Summer is just about wrapped up, and I hope that it has been a great one for you and for your family.  I can’t wait for that first bell to ring on the 21^st to get it all started!

Go Hornets!

A Visit from President Washington

Did anyone else see George Washington in the 6th grade hall last week? I did. Pam Koury used a great costume and wig to energize her students in another fun and creative review activity for her students.

Mrs. Koury had just finished a poster project in which students created time lines based on historical themes. Students were given the task of developing pictures reflecting symbols of the United States, such as an Eagle, Rolling Hills, and a Train. The pictures used significant points on them to represent a sequence of thematic events in U.S. history. Students were put into groups and given choice to select themes and historic events associated with them. Students where highly engaged throughout the activity since they were able to work on themes of their personal interest. Of course, this activity reinforced many Lifelong Learning Skills and was a great way to incorporate art.

George Washington showed up about a week later. In the styling of mystery dinner theater, Mrs. Koury being George Washington, Mrs. Thurston as Robert E. Lee (minus the commissioned grey) and all other students given a character within their curriculum. George sets up the plot and the mystery to solve.  Student groups move from station to station where they find clues to help them solve the mystery. Clues provide information based on primary source items. Student groups have to point out specific information in their process of eliminating suspects throughout the room. The culprit is one of the student characters and given the directive to act inconspicuous throughout the activity.

What makes this classroom mystery review effective is how it is aligned to the curriculum. All clues are accurate historical events. Students have to justify a characters involvement and accusations of guilt based on actual events relating to the required curricular review. This is difficult for 6th graders as they get caught up in the fun, but guides them in siting the evidence accurately.

Cold War Drama at HMS

Check out this great lesson that our seventh grade social studies students participated in recently.  Thanks to Assistant Principal Jason Crutchfield for the write-up!

On the Brink

You are the President of the United States during the height of the Cold War. You have just found out that Fidel Castro has been allowing the Soviets to store and set up nuclear missiles less the 100 miles off the coast of the United States. How do you know this? You have just been presented sets of satellite photographs of the missiles being transported and set up. What are you going to do?

This was the charge to Mr. Strzepek , Mrs. Bledsoe and Mrs. Goodin’s 7th grade Social Studies classes last week. 7th grade US2 students were given the opportunity to relive the Cuban Missile Crisis, through this authentic Cold War experience. Students were placed into groups, as they imagined that they were members of President Kennedy’s Cabinet, preparing to provide him a recommended course of action.

The teachers join in the fun by playing top advisors to the President. Their enthusiasm sells the lesson and provides a motivating environment. TOP ADVISERS to the President, provide student groups with great primary source documents; satellite images of Cuban missile sites. Once analyzed, they first come up with their own creative solution to the crisis. The Top Advisors then generalize the students’ original solutions, to develop a list of possible responses to the crisis.

Once all possible responses are considered, the teachers reveal the actual response used by President Kennedy. Students are proud to find that their original responses were very similar to what government officials considered.

Using this simulation strategy, students were able to apply many of the Lifelong Learning Standards in learning about the Cuban Missile Crisis. LLS#’s 2-4 and 6, seem the most appropriate to me. If I had to choose just one, it would be #6, Apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve new and increasingly complex problems.

Teacher Appreciaiton Week

I would like to take a moment to thank all of our teachers for the work that they do day-in and day-out to enrich the lives of the children who walk into Henley each day. Until you have walked in the shoes of a teacher, you never know how challenging, frustrating and rewarding their work can be. It takes someone very special to dedicate their lives to teaching. We all need a little pick me up every now and then, so here are a few quotes about our work that I hope will make our teachers feel good. I hope they all enjoy this week and the small tokens that we have in place to honor all of them.

•  The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called "truth." ~Dan Rather
• In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years. ~Jacques Barzun
• Teaching creates all other professions. ~Author Unknown
• If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job. ~Donald D. Quinn
• Modern cynics and skeptics... see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing. ~John F. Kennedy
• A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. ~Thomas Carruthers
• Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater. ~Gail Godwin
• A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. ~Henry Brooks Adams
• A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others. ~Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, translated from Turkish

Our Golden Apple Winner

It is my great honor to announce that the 2012-2013 Golden Apple winner from Henley Middle School is Tiffany Stauffer. It’s always a pleasure to walk down to Tiffany’s class to see her in action with her students. I never quite know what to expect when I walk in the door, but I know for certain that I’m going to see excited, engaged students—no small feat when you’re talking about a middle school math class. One of the things that really stands out to me about Tiffany is how much care and concern she shows for each of her students. She is often here before school working with kids, she has multiple STING groups that come to her for tutoring, she loves to break down data and dig deep to uncover the keys to student success. Outside of the classroom, Tiffany is a great leader and colleague. She has provided strong leadership to the math department for the past few years and is always well versed on the latest in best practice in math education. She works diligently with her PLC team and builds relationships with middle school math teachers at other middle schools and at some of our feeder elementary schools. In the summer, when she’s not on her latest exciting road trip, you can find her teaching professional development classes for other math teachers. Her incredible dedication shows through each and every day, and I know she is not exaggerating when she talks of how little down time she has, let alone time to sleep. Tiffany has been a great addition to our Henley math team, and she is quite deserving of this award. Way to go, Tiffany. It is great to see you honored in this way.

Welcome to the final quarter!

Welcome back from Spring Break, everyone!  I hope that you add had a wonderful relaxing week with your families and that you are ready to get back to school for the final nine weeks of school.  This past marking period has been an incredibly busy time at Henley Middle School.  We have seen our students achieve at high levels in both the science fair and in National History Day, eighth graders completed their SOL writing test, our parks and rec sponsored volleyball team brought home another championship, we hosted student/faculty basketball and volleyball games, parents filled the building for our annual Expo Night and Talent Show, and, oh yeah, we missed a couple of days due to snow.  Time flies when you’re having fun!

Things probably won’t be slowing down too much as we push our way toward the end of the school year.  Just in the next few weeks we’ll have activity period, our last school-wide dance of the year, marching band season begins with the Dogwood Parade, our SOL testing really gets rolling in May and spring sports are in full swing for many of our kids.  Busy times, indeed. 

When life gets as busy as it is now, I always encourage parents to take some time to ensure that we aren’t overloading our kids.  Above all, my goal at Henley is to have a school filled with happy, healthy kids.  That usually can’t happen when a student’s day is scheduled to the minute.  School work and extracurricular activities are important, but so is down time that is unstructured and lets our kids decide what they want to do.  I encourage you all to strive to find that balance.

This school year has been a great one so far.  We’ve got such wonderful, talented students and teachers at Henley that it makes coming to work each day a breeze.  Enjoy the spring weather and the final weeks of the school year.  June 12 will be here before you know it and we’ll all be moving on to high school or our next grade at Henley.  Enjoy it, work hard and be sure to take time to stop and smell the roses.

Stem and the 4 C's

You’ve probably heard a lot lately about STEM. It’s an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math and it’s getting a lot of press because it is becoming more and more clear that jobs in these fields are booming and there are not enough qualified workers to fill them. I read an article in EdWeek recently that had some pretty interesting statistics. For example, STEM fields are expected to grow by 17% over the next decade or so, with other fields growing only 9.8%. Another interesting fact from the article was that nationwide across all employment fields, there are 3.6 people competing for every one job available, in STEM fields there is 1.9 jobs for every one applicant. This is a sector for which we need to be preparing our students. That’s all well and good if your child already has a love for all things math and science, but what if their passions lie in language arts, the humanities or some other area? You shouldn’t feel at all that those areas aren't worthwhile or that STEM can't benefit their development as learners. That’s because the heart of STEM, what employers and colleges really want to see in their students and potential employees, is proficiency in the “four C’s”—curiosity, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. These are the skills that we all should be striving to instill in our students. If we can build our students capacities and proficiencies in these areas, we are giving them the foundations to be great creative thinkers and problems solvers—the next generation of American innovators. It’s never too early to begin placing a focus on these skills—in fact, when kids enter school they are naturally curious, creative collaborators—if you need any evidence of this, walk into any kindergarten class in Albemarle County and you’ll see it pretty quickly. Somewhere along the path to college, these natural tendencies begin to diminish—I think it’s one of our jobs to keep tapping into them and developing them for our kids. Anyway—just some food for thought for today. If you are interested in the article, you can find it at
http://bit.ly/XWszei
Check it out if you get a chance, and spend some time thinking about how we can impact our children's lives for the better with the four C’s.

The Latest Lesson We Loved

Last week the seventh grade math team invited me down to their rooms to check out a lesson they were teaching on proportional reasoning and scale. The first thing I noticed as I approached the rooms was that students were sprawled everywhere in the hallway. Inside the rooms it was no different—groups of students all busily working on a really cool project. For this assignment, students were given a small printout of a picture of a hornet. They divided their picture into several grid squares, and then each member of the group selected squares and copied their portion of the picture using a much larger scale. As each student finished, they pieced their drawings back together and saw that they had, indeed, replicated the original drawing on a much larger scale. This was a great lesson for many reasons—it was highly engaging for the students to be learning a mathematical concept in a different way, it had great tie ins to Marzano’s similarities and differences work, it gave the students a sense of audience as they knew their work would be displayed for the whole class, and it allowed students to work cooperatively with others—if one group member failed to produce, the task could not be completed. It was great to see students working in this way on their math assignments. Great work Melanie, Linda and Andrea!

One Page to Go

I’ve got a printout of the Henley slide schedule tacked to the bulletin board in my office. It takes up three pages to list out the schedule for each day of the school year. This past Tuesday marked a big milestone for the year—the first two pages are done and we’ve got one page of the slide to go this school year. Man does time fly. This year has been a busy one, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon. We’ve got four weeks to go until Spring Break, and then things get even faster as we make that final push toward the end of the year. I’m always reminded at this time of year just how important each and every school day is for us and for our kids. We really don’t have any time to waste, especially in a year when we’ve missed so many days due to weather. I know that it can be hard to keep students' motivation up during this time of year, but it is crucially important that we do whatever it takes to keep them moving in the right direction so that they can maximize their learning in the time that we have left.  Each day we strive to make our students stronger learners, stronger thinkers, better collaborators and better communicators.  We hope that the skills we are trying to instill will take them far as they become the leaders and the innovators of our next generation.  So let's strive to keep their motivation high, to celebrate all of their success, and to make the best use of the time we have remaining this year--we'll be running out of it before we know it.

Here's a few more great lessons from HMS!

This one is from me:  I stopped by Ciara Imbert’s seventh grade science class a in January and saw a great lesson taking place. Her students were working in small groups on a fossil lab. During the lab, each group had a set of bones representing a complete fossil of an animal. Instead of seeing all of the bones at once, they were kept in an envelope and the groups could pull out just a few at a time. They started by pulling four bones out, piecing them together in a way that seemed to make the most sense to them, and made some predictions about what type of animal it would turn out to be using their observation and inference skills. After they had made their predictions, they would pull a few more bones out of the envelope and go through a similar process. It was really neat to see how the thinking of the students panned out. They were having great conversations about their predictions, why they were making them and what evidence they had to back up their thinking. Both Ciara and Mary Beth have been working all year on developing students’ observation and inference skills as part of their work on lifelong learner standards. As I was leaving the class, Ciara commented to me how much better the students seemed to be doing with this lab after having such a strong focus on those skills. It was great to see this engaging lesson in action and get some confirmation that the work we are doing with lifelong learner standards is paying off. Great job, Ciara!

Here's one from Mr. Crutchfield: As we returned from that wonderful winter break, I had something really fun to look forward to. Mr. Hobson’s debate class planned to have matches the week that they returned to school.

In preparing for this, Mr. Hobson worked with Teacher Coach Laura Shifflet and solicited the help from other staff in the building including me. His plan was to have students prepare thoroughly for the activity prior to leaving. As a way to have them prepared above and beyond before the break, he sent each debate team around the building to state their positions’, arguments’, and rebuttals’ to volunteer staff members.

By presenting their debate strategy 3 or 4 times, in front of 3 or 4 adults, student teams were able to refine their strategy and receive constructive feedback on the effectiveness of their arguments and rebuttals. This allowed them enough time to make small adjustments prior to break and quickly refine them once they returned.

Luckily the debate that I was able to observe, once we returned from break, involved one of the groups that I was able to screen. It was great, because I witnessed precise moments when they used the feedback that I provided them. One of the girls during the prep, was a bit silly and not showing seriousness in communicating the negative effects of keeping animals in zoos. She heard a brief rationale on why her mood affects the audience’s feelings on the topic. It was nice to see the young lady correct her behavior for the sake of the assignment. This was especially important in their team’s explanation and their persuasion of the existence of ZOOCHOSIS, a depressive condition that some animals develop in captivity.

Each debate team assessed their performance in front of their audience, using vocabulary associated with debating and then received peer feedback in the same manner. This was great in that even students who felt prepared, worked to continually improve their presentations. It also helped them understand, through a sense of audience, what is appealing and persuasive to large groups of people (Life Long Learning Standard 5: Seek, recognize and understand systems, patterns, themes and interactions).

Another Loved Lesson!

Just before we left for Winter Break, I had the opportunity to stop by Amy Effland’s sixth grade science class.  Amy’s class was about to begin a project in which they would be planning out an ideal city.  While the city they were to create would be a fictional place, the way in which they learned about it was anything but.  For this lesson, Amy had recruited a planner from Albemarle County to come speak with her students.  The planner brought a huge printout of all of the plans for developing Old Trail.  It had everything from the street layout, to the drainage plan, to the number and types of houses that would be on each lot and every other aspect of developing a community you could think of.  Every student in the class knows Old Trail—whether it’s a place they live or golf or shop or just drive through on the way home.  Bringing in this local connection immediately launched the level of relevance through the roof on this lesson.  Kids could look at streets they knew and picture what they may soon look like, some were even finding their houses and looking at them in totally different ways.  Amy’s lesson took something that could be a very difficult topic for students to envision and gave it meaning and relevance.  It was great to see that she tapped into some of the many community resources we have in the area.  Great work, Amy!

Welcome to the second semester!

Happy New Year, everyone!  I trust that all of you enjoyed a wonderful winter break and got to spend some time relaxing with your friends and family.  It has been an outstanding first semester here at Henley this year.  Our sixth grade students are now “old hats” at this whole middle school thing, our seventh graders are half way done with middle school and our eighth grade students can see the light at the end of the tunnel of their middle school careers.  An exciting time for everyone indeed!

All of our students have started the scheduling process for next year, and I’m excited to remind everyone that we are now completing our course selection process entirely online through ParentPortal.  There are several sets of instructions and worksheets to help you with this process and you can find them on the Henley website.  From the homepage, click on the “Parents” tab and then click on the “2013-2014 Registration” link.  All of the documents you need to guide you through the process can be found there.  The registration window is open until January 31 and you are welcome to call the school counseling office if you have any questions about this process.

First semester report cards should be arriving in your mailbox soon.  Please be sure to take some time to have a conversation with your child about his or her progress so far this year.  What are the goals they set for themselves at the beginning of the year?  Are they on track to meet them?  If so, to what to they attribute their success?  If not, how can we work together as a team to help them get back on track?  A key to second semester success is staying focused and keeping academics as a top priority.  When we work together as a team, we can surely accomplish this mission.

I’m excited to start the second half of the school year.  Each day that I come to work, I ‘m thankful for the amazing students you send to us each day.  They make my job easy and enjoyable and it thrills me to see how successful they are.  I hope that all of you can appreciate what a wonderful place Henley Middle School is thanks to our students and our staff.  Here’s to a great 2013!  Go Hornets!