Making Your Life a Work of Art

"Oh, these are the days, my friends and these are the days, my friends." - Philip Glass

As the Sienna rolled down the driveway and back up the on-ramp to route 91 south, amidst much laughter, the three students heading to the Food Bank began to sing an original song. The lyrics were simple: the numbers "one" and "two." The melody was also simple, consisting of up to three different notes in a broken chord. They tried many different variations on the melody, combined in different ways to create a kind of three-part harmony. The result was beautiful, given the students' voices and the ever-evolving piece itself, a kind of minimalist choral composition reminiscent of the avant-garde and hypnotically repetitive sound of the landmark opera "Einstein at the Beach" by Philip Glass, an extract of which may be heard at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmX_GgozpQs. The students kept experimenting with different combinations of notes and the basic lyrics all the way to their destination, some 25 minutes away, even taking out a cell phone at one point to try recording themselves...

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In Humanities 8, the students have just finished up their "Agamemnon" unit with a mock trial and a five-paragraph essay. The students each selected a role and acted out a murder trial. In addition, the class spent much of a week working on thesis and outline development, followed by drafting and editing. The class will begin to look at a large historical view of the Middle East with an eye towards current events. The students have each selected a relevant topic and will spend this week researching and preparing a presentation for the entire class. As always, the class will keep up with the weekly grammar and vocabulary.

At the MOCA meeting on Oct. 23, students learned that both Williston and Eaglebrook would like to meet up with us to do off campus activities. The students decided to plan a bowling night for Saturday, Nov.14, hoping to hold it at the Northampton bowling alley.

The students also designed this year's process for electing student leaders for MOCA. Students may self-nominate for an election. This election will be held, in an attempt to save paper, on one single sheet of paper on which every student writes the name(s) of the student(s) for whom she is voting. One 7th and one 8th grader will serve together as co-leaders for two meetings (two weeks), following which a new election will be held. Students who have once served as leaders may not serve again until everyone who wants to has had the chance to do so. The first election was held last Friday, but as it resulted in a tie for 8th grade leader, we will wait to announce the results until the students have had the chance to break the tie.

There was no Student Council business to report as both representatives were unable to attend due to Debate practice. However, it can now be reported that StuCo elected Sara Gibbons as co-advisor, joining Beth Stinchfield.

The class is working on solving several-step equations. They are reviewing a number of skills such as combining like terms, using properties and real number operations as they build their new skills. While they are working on solving equations, they are also working on word problems and their problem-solving skills.

The middle school instrumental classes continue to work on learning notation in both treble and bass clef. Beginners are working on "Now's the Time," a blues piece by Charlie Parker. After they learn all their notes, we will work on rhythm and in particular how to execute a proper swing rhythm. The advanced players continue to work on "A Friend Like Me" but have also picked out a Harry Potter "medley" of songs. The music should arrive this week. Most students have been keeping up with their practice logs and are making progress on their instruments. There will be more music to come in the future once the beginners have the rudimentary skills of their respective instruments. Keep up the good work!

The Humanities 7 class has wrapped up an excellent "Who are we?" unit with a wide range of presentations. Topics ranged from "How do you build the perfect life?" to "What color is my aura?" to "What is life like in Antigua?" and more. Students did a great job of engaging and interacting with their audience, and a number of lively discussions burst forth spontaneously during various presentations.

To build the assessment rubrics for speaking skills and PowerPoint skills, students observed Bill making an oral presentation with a supporting PowerPoint, and noticed what he did well and what needed improvement. In groups, students used these observations to identify the specific skills listed in each rubric, with students adding their thoughts on how mastery-level work should be defined. Bill filled in the "Acceptable but needs work," "In progress" and "No basis for assessment" columns, and the resulting rubrics have been filled out both by the students (evaluating their own work) and Bill.

For the next unit, the students are working to design a unit that will be anti-racist and/or anti-sexist and which will eventually involve other schools, perhaps in an online debate. They are well aware that coming to consensus on elements and procedures for the unit will take a great deal of work, and have had several thoughtful conversations on how best to make this happen and what Bill's role should be. It promises to be an exciting process!

The health class continues to work on life skills, most recently focusing on money management and social skills (mostly manners). In the coming weeks, groups will present on stress management, organization, and hygiene. In class discussions, we are trying to find out how well we really know ourselves and how we create our own experiences. We will soon create a list of "10 things that are not really working in our lives" and try to figure out how to change them and attack the issues at hand. How and why do we sometimes sabotage ourselves? These and other questions will be central to health class for the rest of the term.

In science, we are continuing our studies of respiration. We are looking at the difference between respiration and fermentation (without oxygen). We completed a virtual lab where the class saw the effect of the temperature and the amount of sugar affecting the amount of energy created. They are now working on writing the final draft of the report. In our next lab, the girls will see the effects as they measure their respiration rate before and after exercise.

Many thanks to all the parents and family members who attended the meeting during F period on Family Weekend. These are the excellent goals you set for your daughters for the year. In order of the number of stickers affixed to each goal, here is your list:

self-confidence/confidence - 25
academic skills - 12
pushing beyond personal limitations - 10
organizational skills - 9
persuasive writing - 9
time management - 9
practice skills (e.g. driving, financial skills) - 7
problem solvers - 7
social skills - 7
self-motivated - 7
critical thinkers - 5
teamwork - 5
think outside the box - 3
reading skills - 3
advocacy for self and others - 3
cooperation - 3
care about the environment - 2
collaboration - 0

I have already shared this list with the middle school faculty, and we will use it to help guide us in our work through the year, academically, socially, athletically, aesthetically. We welcome your ongoing feedback .

On Friday, November 6, 8th graders will spend the morning visiting the Upper School. They will attend B, C and D period classes, and have the opportunity to ask questions of Jess Durfey, 9th Grade Class Dean, and some of the current 9th graders. This tradition, initiated by the current sophomores when they were 8th graders, has been moved earlier in the year at parental request. We are adding a new feature this year, a parent meeting from 8:00-9:00 with a panel of Upper School faculty and administrators. This will allow parents to ask questions about the upper school program and the college placement process.

If you are unable to attend but have questions of your own, please contact Bill Ivey. He will collect questions and answers, and assemble a FAQ on moving up to the upper school which will be posted on the school's website.

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

http://www.sbschool.org/home/calendar.asp

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

http://www.sbschool.org/home/content.asp?section=parents

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