Welcome to the first issue of the 2009-2010 Stoneleigh-Burnham Middle School Newsletter!

Bill Ivey has volunteered to write a blog at http://sbsmiddleschool.wordpress.com/

Recent entries include:
- Everything in Readiness (reprinted from the Snapshot article)
- Scenes from the Roller Skating Rink
- Finding Your Way (about the Middle School Overnight)

These blog entries will reflect on life in the middle school and on educational issues in general. For returning parents, they will replace the introductions used in previous year's newsletters. We invite you to read, reflect, and/or comment.
 

Gorgeous weather and the beautiful grounds and skylit cabins of Chimney Corners Camp provided the setting for a very successful Middle School Overnight trip from September 14-15. We arrived at around 8:00 P.M., and after moving in to the cabins, attended a campfire led by members of the Chimney Corners staff. Several returning eighth graders recognized a counselor named Paul, which touched him as he also remembered us fondly from last year. Later on, during one of the many rousing skits and songs they performed for and with us, he added a verse which last year's students had taught him. After the campfire, the students prepared for bed and stayed up chatting, perhaps somewhat past their usual bedtimes, but not much.

The following morning, after breakfast and moving out of the cabins, we split up by grades for leadership and team-building activities. Both groups did an activity wherein they had to cross something "dangerous" (for the seventh grade, this was the chocolate river in Willy Wonka's factory) using paper plates (for the seventh grade, these were "marshmallows") to step on. They started with one less paper plate than there were people, and lost any paper plate which remained untouched even for a split second. The seventh graders spoke at lunch of how well it worked when they finally realized they could line up by height and this made it simpler, and the eighth graders came up with a creative way to pass each other down the line with the next paper plate following behind.

In the afternoon, the eighth graders did the high ropes course, while the seventh graders worked on "low ropes" challenges such as getting the entire group through a vertical "spider-web" built of ropes without using any given hole more than once. The Chimney Corners counselors were impressed with how well all the girls worked together and solved their challenges, and the young woman working with the seventh graders added that she was also impressed with how inclusive they were, as opposed to the stereotype of seventh grade girls. Though the students did experience some frustrations along the way, they understood that these were opportunities to grow and learn, and all in all they had a wonderful, fun, and also productive trip.

Many thanks to Laura Lavallee and Erica Marback for driving and chaperoning throughout, and to Bethany O'Connell for serving as an overnight chaperone before returning to school for an early appointment.

By the time you read this newsletter, MOCA will have had their first meeting. MOCA includes all middle school students and serves as the middle school student government. Among the first agenda items will be determining the exact process for sending representatives to the all-school Student Council, new this year at the request of last year's MOCA members. In subsequent meetings, students will also review this year's overnight trip and discuss how to spend an anonymous gift of $200 intended for books for the library. Several returning students have been running other ideas past us, and the year promises to be active and successful.

The class is full of determination to learn math and we have already begun sharing our questions and knowledge with each other. We are building on the class's solid foundation of the order of operations and are working with translating phrases into mathematical expressions. We are emphasizing the importance of vocabulary and being comfortable speaking about math. I look forward to the exciting and busy year ahead!

The Humanities 7 class is off to a wonderful start. The first unit is on the theme question, "What was life like in the 1940's?" The class read-aloud book is The Year of Impossible Good-byes by Sook Nyul Choi, semi-autobiographical fiction about a North Korean family suffering under the Japanese occupation. The group novel is Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson, a story of identical twins and their vastly different lives, which begins on a small island in Maryland around the time of the Pearl Harbor invasion. Students are each researching a different year of the decade and will present their results in a tri-fold brochure. Assessment of this final project will focus on research and writing skills: citations and Works Cited pages in MLA format, paragraph structure, and proofreading.

In the meantime, the students have been working on defining "What a good teacher does" in preparation for an eventual discussion of "What a good student does." These discussions will in turn lead to the writing and signing of a class contract agreeing on no more than six guiding principles (the better to practice collaboration and the better to develop higher-order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluation). They have also created the 300+ questions which will form the starting points for the six units which they will be designing throughout the year. This class is energetic, full of ideas and questions, and skilled at taking care of each other. The year ahead shines bright with promise.

The performing arts have long been a vital part of life at Stoneleigh-Burnham, and this year's middle school students are involved in many ways. On Thursday, Greg Snedeker visited study hall to meet the students, note their instruments and experience, and figure out what will be the best configuration for the two groups he will lead. All students will be in one instrumental group or the other. Meanwhile, Cyndee Meese was meeting with eighth grade students interested in joining the Upper School Chorus (which meets the same period as middle school study hall), and one eighth grader has been invited to audition for the school's Octet. All seventh graders will take Vocal Music with Cyndee this winter. Additionally, Bill Ivey has been talking to students interested in joining the middle school's Rock Band, which will meet once a week. Moreover, several students in both grades are taking dance as a sport, all 7th graders will be taking dance one day a week with Ann Sorvino during the class day, and two 8th graders have been allowed to take Pointe one day a week. Finally, the Theatre 8 class has begun meeting and working toward their performance scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 19 at 7:00 P.M.

We begin our exploration of the origins of language and culture by asking ourselves Shakespeare's age-old question, "What's in a name?" The answers will prove to be intriguing when Piper, Sophia, Yasmin, Kaci, Francesca, Jordyn, Maah, Olivia and Maraina all research the meaning and origins of their own names. As a group, we are able to introduce ourselves in English, Spanish, French, Polish, Russian, Japanese and a dialect of Ghana. We are off to a good start! During the next three weeks we will examine language origins, as well as the geographies and cultures of ancient worlds in order to have a deeper understanding of the roots of the English language.

In science, we are off to an exciting start as the students are pushing themselves to understand the abstract concepts that face them in chemistry. By building molecules of beads and drawing analogies to their previous science background, the class is already meeting success. In the next couple of weeks, we will work on learning about atoms, elements and molecules in the context of the periodic table. Simultaneously, we will work on measurement skills working with the equipment in the lab and use of the metric system.

Last year's parents asked if we could read another book in common this year. I am proposing that for Fall Family Weekend, we echo choices from the summer reading the faculty did and read either The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine or A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. Interested parents may purchase either book, and will have the chance to participate in a jigsaw discussion to share ideas first with other people who read the same book, and then with people who read a different book. For the Spring Family Weekend, we will choose a young adult novel that all students as well as interested parents and teachers will read and discuss. If you have any questions, please contact Bill Ivey .

On the first day of the term, Friday, September 11, the seventh graders each made a "name" sign, which expressed something about who she is. The class Art and Culture will look at the art of various countries and time periods to see what can be learned about their cultures. Most of the art projects will involve materials, techniques and imagery specific to the cultures being studied. Different media will be introduced as well as the basic elements and principles of art. You may view a photo of the class online.

The School maintains an online calendar of events for use by parents, students, and other members of our community. You may access this calendar at

You may also access a copy of the academic calendar through the parent portal, signing in at:

If you ever have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you!