Words from the Head of Middle School
Excerpts from Drew Meyer, from the MS Parents Visiting Night
World Perspectives
Our new World Perspectives Program has invigorated our Middle School faculty with new ideas and a fresh outlook towards the curriculum. As educators we know how critical it is for our students to be exposed to the larger world as the old days of isolating oneself to their local surroundings does not work anymore. Technology and travel have made the world infinitely smaller. I can think of how it would take me months to prepare research material for a project years ago whereas now one of my students can pull up the daily newspaper from Ouagadougou (true story). As someone who has seen GFA transition over the past decade and a half from a relatively insular institution to one that looks to connect our students to the wider world, these changes are heartening.
Community
A connected focus for us in the Middle School revolves around community. In the same way, we are asking students to think outside of their local surroundings, we are also looking at ways for students to see beyond their own needs and look at the broader community of the Middle School. Over the past three years, we have clarified our focus in the Middle School on this front. We have created a system of Core Values and a distinct Honor Code that clearly states the expectations of GFA students, and the level of trust that we put in them. The lack of locks on lockers has always been one of the greatest distinguishing marks of this school. The success of the Honor Code pledge supports the best of this tradition. Ultimately, our goal is for the students to take greater ownership in creating the kind of community that we all want to live it.
Technology
The last piece of community building activities involves technology. So much of the way that students connect to each other is virtual. We have seen this on campus over the past five years as the laptop program took hold at GFA. One of the more humorous moments would be when a group of fifteen students would all be sitting in line in the Forum emailing each other instead of talking. As I stated earlier, the academic aspects of technology has made today's education indistinguishable from when we went through school. The ability to find information at your fingertips has made the world much smaller and provided so many more opportunities for real learning. We have embraced this technology at GFA and we are working with our students to help them see what is useful information and what isn't through research seminars in seventh and eighth grades. However, we also know that this virtual community can be a distraction for many of our students and a source of frustration for parents. At school, we are seeking to build our community through students actually connecting to each other in a real way. As result, we have limited computer use to a classroom with a teacher present, the study hall room, or the library. We are encouraging students during their free time to read, talk with friends, play a game, or go outside. Just from the first three weeks of school, I am excited to see our Forum turned back into a, well, Forum -- a place where kids can connect with each other and build a sense of community.
As you can see, this is an exciting time for your students and this year promises to be a great one.
Students Win Writing Awards
Two middle school students have won Regional Gold Key Awards in writing from Scholastic Alliance for Young Artists and Writers. Their pieces were chosen out of 12,000 submissions.
Eighth grader Juliet Fontana won for her personal essay/memoir "The Sauce of our Italian Lives." Her piece also went on to win a Gold Key Award in the National Competition.
Eighth grader Ethan Petno won for his short short story "Rhapsody's Final Hour."
Eighth grade English teacher Robbi Hartt says, "Juliet and Ethan's pieces are proof that you never know where an English assignment, even an in-class prompt, can take you."
Juliet's The Sauce of our Italian Lives began as a memoir assignment following Da Chen's visit last fall. The award-winning Chinese writer talked to students about the importance of choosing a theme for each memoir piece and using specific scenes to bring it to life for the reader. From his inspiration came Juliet's story about her Italian heritage, the "circulating love" of family and her grandparents' special sauce.
Ethan Petno started his draft for Rhapsody's Final Hour as an in-class vocabulary exercise. As an added competition with two classmates, he agreed to begin with the hook, "A faint voice broke through the night sky" and see where it could take him. After finishing this simple exercise, Ethan developed it into a longer story with a new purpose--creating a powerful sensory experience to illustrate one of his favorite symphonies, the Fourth Movement of Dvorak's New World symphony. Both students are editors for Pendragon, GFA's MS literary magazine.
A glimpse of the award-winning work:
Rhapsody's Final Hour
A faint voice broke through the night sky. Clouds roiled in the dark, obscuring the moon and stars. Lightning flashed, bathing the spire in an unearthly glow. Thunder boomed, its roaring call crashing through the air to burst on the ground below. The rain poured from the sky, drenching the ground. The lone tower jutted towards the heavens, reaching from the ground into the infinite blackness. The voice again called, crying, pleading, but for what, one could not be sure. Then the storm rose again, muffling the sound….
The Sauce of our Italian Lives
I’m not going to tell you about how when we talk we accidently knock things over, or about how after many years in North America we still can’t tell which language my Nonno is speaking. I’m not going to mention how after dinner he tells stories about how he used to work for his dad in the old country and then dances around with a wine glass in his hand. I’m not going to tell you about how on our American Thanksgiving Day my Nonna made a twenty-two pound turkey even though they live in Canada. I’m also not going to tell you about how my mom was the only one in her family to move farther away than a few miles and when we visit all of my relatives gather at Carmela’s house for big hugs and kisses, that even breakfast is a multiple course meal, and that we eat our salad after dinner and find it perfectly normal. Or that when most family members run to give me a hug and say, “You look so big,” I don’t even remember their names, or how I have relatives who aren’t really relatives. I’m definitely not going to tell you about how it’s unheard of to eat a meal without a piece of bread in the other hand, or how there is never a flat surface in the kitchen without food on it. That we don’t notice we’re talking loudly because everyone else around us does, too. You see, I’m not going to tell you what Italians do, I’m going to tell you why they do it. I am going to tell you that we do all of this because it brings us together, that it seems the amount of food you make represents how much you love the people who will share it with you….