The Middle Matters

Back to School Night Opening Remarks

Ken Rogers, Head of Middle School

We started the year by having Community Day during the first week.  So I thought it fitting to frame my brief comments tonight around a concept symbolic of community…the neighborhood.

One of the great things about healthy neighborhoods is that they are FAMILIAR—

That is certainly true for the MS.  Our Community Day was a success.  Our goal was to start the year with a thoughtful positive tone, but to also provoke students to increase their awareness of their impact on the lives of others.  We had a stirring, yet occasionally funny, assembly by Dr. Michael Fowlin, we processed the assembly and the book Wonder in advisory groups, and we had fun playing together in grade-level groups for the afternoon.

 

In advisory, we continue to seek a balance between structured discussions and activities and time to just breathe and “hang out.”  Already we have had goal-setting conversations with advisees and will be holding individual conferences with students at each marking period.  Additionally, each grade is planning activities around topics like academic honesty and leadership.

 

We continue to actively engage in conversations about the needs of individual students.  I remain impressed at how often teachers seek each other out to discuss individual students or to spend time helping individual students with a wide range of issues—not just academic.  We meet regularly to discuss students and try to quickly engage parents in that conversation while giving students a bit more rope as they get older.

In communication, we are pleased to roll out the Middle Matters Blog and the Middle School Virtual Office on the Virtual Learning Environment or (VLE).  We use this system with students, and now we are glad that parents now have a page to find access to all things middle school:  links, calendars, announcements, grade level pages, and more are there to help you connect to MS.  For those teachers who provide handouts tonight, we have made them available on the Lobby. For those of you who may be technologically challenged, our Student Technomancers are here tonight to help you get your device connected to the Virtual Lobby, the Blogs, and iCal for athletic schedules.  At the grade-level orientations next week, we will review communication protocol and the year ahead in more specific ways.

The next great thing about healthy neighborhoods is that they are PLACES OF GROWTH AND CHANGE—This year we welcome 45 new students and 6 new faculty.  Other numbers include 13 clubs, 72 students in band, 101, students in senior chorus, and 191 students participating in athletics this fall season.

At the same time we make sure advisories and classes are “right-sized” with 25 advisories with roughly 11 advisees in each and class-sizes under 16 students.

 

We are excited to have our new Dean of Students, Jonas Jeswald come on board to grow our co-curricular/activity program.  He will share his vision for student activities at the grade-level orientations next week.  M,T, and W 8:15-9:30am.

 

Our community connections are increasing.  We are having three service half-days that will focus on completing meaningful and necessary service both on campus and off.  We are also increasing our trips including a new sixth grade trip to build the class of 2020 as it adds to its number.  We’ve got trips to see “Romeo and Juliet”, “In the Heights”, and other potential trips to augment our curriculum.

 

As middle school educators, we continue to develop ways to develop the attitudes and habits so critical for children in the middle school years.  “How to…” is critical here and not just with academic tasks like writing essays and test-taking. 

How to:

Talk to teachers/self-advocate

Resolve conflict

Make safe, healthy decisions

To be mindful and pause before acting and speaking

 

There is exciting new research and curricular materials which support our efforts here.  Dr. Andrea Kurtz is undergoing training in mindfulness for adolescents and Jay Wright, our new H&W Department Chair has been refining our program to more consistently equip students with clear content and the opportunity to explore not what to think, but—like in all our classes—how to think.  Mr. Wright will provide a brief program overview tonight and grade-level specifics at each of the orientations next week.

 

Curricular guru Grant Wiggins says that “Coverage is the enemy of depth.”  We continue to work to craft content and instruction in a way that seeks to create personalized learning experiences that are authentic, meaningful, and they enable students to pursue or discover passions and stay interested.   JARGON ALERT:  When you hear Virtual Learning Environment, SMART Boards, SMART Lessons, the iPad pilot, Project Based Learning, Flipped Classrooms, Curriculum Mapping, Differentiated Instruction, and Essential Questions are all part of our professional work to balance the art of teaching with the science of teaching.

 

Finally, healthy neighborhoods are places of WONDER and wondering.  And yes, that is a nod to our summer reading novel.  

 

So many questions…those of us on the faculty are wondering what does teaching look like now that the smartest one in the room…is the room?  What is the “picture” of a middle school student at the end of his or her eighth grade year?  We ask who isn’t connected, and we aren’t just talking about technology.

 

We know you are wondering about the world you are raising your children in.  Will they be safe?  Will they be smart?  Will they meet their potential as students and human beings?”

 

The children are wrestling with “Am I normal?  Am I special?  What do I believe?  What is my ‘thing?’ Who is my friend?”

 

All neighborhoods are full of stories:  Narratives

               About how things came to be

               About the people in the neighborhood

               About things that happen or didn’t happen

 

Healthy neighborhoods are willing to challenge the narratives:

                What is it I am assuming I know?

                What do I need to know and why?  What are my motives?

                Who do I help or harm by passing a story along?

                Who is closest to the problem who can help me understand?

 

Neighborhoods are full of difference and the similarity

                In this neighborhood, we are indeed a “blend of different.”  And like in any neighborhood we need to be aware of those differences and how they motivate people.  Take me for example.  I am aware everyday of how I’m different.  Every room I enter at GA, I am aware of my difference.  Yes…I am a Southerner…from Virginia.  Daily, I stifle the urge to say words like y’all, reckon, and yonder.  Yes it is tough being different.  Seriously though, we don’t know what others are carrying inside that impact how they live among us.   So that’s why the areas where we are the same are so very critical.  We are all imperfect human beings with a desire to be here, at the same time, to walk out, together, the mission of Germantown Academy.  In times of triumph and pride, defeat and shame, or a lack of clarity, in OUR neighborhood we commit to be independent thinkers, confident in expression, compassionate in spirit, collaborative in action, and honorable in deed.  And by signing the recently crafted civility pledge we agree to seek understanding in ways that build rather than tear down.

 

At the CORE, we are a neighborhood of teaching and learning—all of us.  Every moment an opportunity to teach and to learn—to contribute to the well-being of our neighborhood in ways that acknowledge everyone’s humanity and desire to be connected to something wonderful…something significant.

 

Thank you.