Multiple Depths is about the half-child, half-adult world of the middle schooler.

Inherently Mavericks is about the keynote address at a recent middle school conference.

The Humanities 7 class has thrown itself into its work with an impressive energy and drive to learn. The independent work routine is up and running, with vocabulary quizzes each Monday, new 10-word vocabulary lists due each Tuesday, a Reader's Response Journal blog on independent reading due each Wednesday, and independent writing assignments due each Friday. Students are eager to discuss their books as well as write about them, even though they can read each other's blogs, and this will be incorporated into the class routine. Students have already begun sharing their original writing with each other, and judging from the quality of the writing, the reading and the discussions, there will be some absolutely superb work coming out of this class. They are highly motivated, and have let me know that they are not interested in just hearing "Great work" but rather want deeply to improve and are seeking suggestions to help make that happen. We can do that!

Our first formal unit is "What would my life be like if I were a member of an indigenous culture?" The morning reading book, Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington, is about Ms. Pilkington's aboriginal mother and aunts' escape from a settlement camp in Southwestern Australia, and the group novel Morning Girl, by Michael Dorris, is a gorgeously-written series of vignettes of a family in the Bahamas of long ago. Students have individually chosen indigenous cultures from the Abenaki to the Zulus, and are engaged in research on geography, economy, social structures and values, and more. They will begin presenting their cultures to the class no earlier than October 8.

This is a lively, intelligent, curious group and they are off to a wonderful start. I am excited about the year.

Instrumental music in the middle school is thriving thanks to Bill Ivey's help and strong commitment. With the increase in the middle school enrollment, we now have both a beginner and advanced instrumental ensemble, each meeting twice a week. The two classes are almost equal in size. This is a slight change from the past where we had to eventually combine the two groups to make one ensemble; we now have the numbers to support two distinct ensembles. This will make for exciting and challenging classes. The beginners have their instruments and are beginning to explore the fundamentals of technique and reading with respect to their individual instrument. They have been given "Now's The Time" by Charlie Parker as a simple introductory piece to work on as an ensemble. The advanced group has taken time to review notation and has begun work on "BIg Block Blues," a wonderful medium swing tune that is suitable for the level of the class. There is a lot of wonderful musical talent in the middle school and I look forward to making the most of it this year. Respectfully submitted - Dr. Snedeker

The Foundations of Language and Culture class is off to a great start. This year's major goal is to write a textbook for the course. So far, this has entailed four main projects: to agree on a definition of language, to examine textbooks and informational websites and determine the parts of our textbook and what will be included in those parts, to delineate goals for the year, and to begin thinking about learning theories by examining the brain.

Defining language proved to be much more difficult than expected as there were a number of subtle points on which the students disagreed. Through discussion, they were able to resolve all but one of the issues, this being the difference in meaning between "voice" and "speech" and whether both words, or only one, needed to figure in the definition. Eventually, the students agreed to participate in a debate. Once the debate was over, and before I rendered my decision, the students were asked to brainstorm how they would feel if they won, how they would feel if they lost, how they would hope the other team would react if they won, and how they would hope the other team would react if they lost. They came up with an impressively sophisticated range of responses remarkable for their honesty, their awareness of human dynamics, and their sincere desire to reach out to and support each other. In the end, much as I had predicted (and planned for), the act of defining language was as much about defining what kind of learning community the class wanted to be as about defining the word itself. For the record, the definition on which they settled (subject to revision at various points in the year) is: "A way of communicating, telling stories to share knowledge and history with people and cultures around the world by using your voice through your body, speech, symbols, and writing."

The goals the class set for itself this year are:
- to learn to communicate together in different languages (including Chinese, French, and Spanish which are taught here, as well as an array of other languages from Arabic to Zulu)
- to learn about the cultures associated with those languages
- to learn how language and culture shape each other
- to learn definitions for language and culture
- to learn how to learn languages
- to understand the origins of language
- to understand the structures of language

It promises to be an amazing year!

Humanities 8 has just wrapped up its first research project in which the students each learned about a specific topic relevant to Ancient Greece. They each presented their information, and we have since begun to read Agamemnon by Aeschylus. The class is becoming much more fluent in both Greek mythology and values relevant to 5th Century Athens. However, the students' attention seems to revert to the stories involving the Greek Gods as they often resemble a soap opera.

The middle school rock band has chosen and begun working on its first piece, "Lovebug" by the Jonas Brothers. A blend of jazz and soft rock, "Lovebug" has an easygoing mood and simple chords which make it a perfect choice to start out the year. The instrumental arrangement featuring bass, congas, drums and piano, is coming together and the singers sound gorgeous. This year's group is anxious to perform more frequently than they did last year, and with the quick start it does seem likely we will build our repertoire steadily. Look for a probable performance winter term as well as the traditional end-of-year concert in May.

The ESL Reading/Writing Workshop class is focusing on developing students' abilities to understand and express themselves in English. Research shows that nothing does more to build not only reading skills but also vocabulary, grammar and spelling than reading an engaging book of a student's own choice, and so the girls in this class have spent more time reading than doing anything else. Like Humanities 7 students, they have also been blogging about their books, and commenting on each other's blog. Beginning this week, they will also be turning in independent writing every Friday, and these assignments will provide additional opportunities to polish their writing as well as to express their unique voice. Finally, the students are listening to and discussing the book The Jacket by Andrew Clements, about a White boy who falsely accuses a Black boy of stealing his brother's jacket and how he begins to think about the role racism is playing in his life. The students are working extremely hard in this class and are off to a good start.

By the time you read this newsletter, all the community service groups will have visited their sites for the first time. This year, the Dakin-Pioneer Valley Humane Society has opened up two new days when we can volunteer, and so we now have six separate groups of 2-3 students visiting the shelter, three each week. One group each is visiting the Food Bank and the Poet's Seat Nursing Home, and the remaining two groups are helping out at the 21st Century After-School Program at Federal Street Elementary School in Greenfield. All the sites have been delighted to have us back, a testament not only to the work of past students but also to the very positive first-day attitudes of this year's students. Research tells us that in connecting to the community through this important work, and in connecting to each other during the car trips there and back, the students are not only performing a valuable service, raising their self-esteem, and having fun, but also setting the stage for improved achievement across the board - a win-win-win situation.

Students will re-register for service at the beginning of each trimester as service opportunities are dependent on sports. This will also allow students who are interested to try out different sites as the year progresses. Thank you to Cyndee Meese and Greg Snedeker for helping with the driving, and to Carolyn Flower for scheduling vehicle use. We are looking forward to another fun and valuable year together.

The new scientists in seventh grade started off the year observing three different samples of water under a microscope. The class learned or reviewed how to use a microscope and then discussed how to use it safely in the classroom. There were exciting observations leading to research to determine what types of organisms were observed. To provide context for this activity, the class learned about the development of the cell theory by debating the significance of the roles of various scientist. Each group argued in support of one scientist, with five represented, and against another. This gave the chance to learn the history of the equipment we were using as well. From here, we begin our study of what is inside the cells.

Hi!!! I am Chia-Jung (Sara) Tsou, a Chinese teacher. I am a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese from Taiwan. I love to share my language and culture with students, and I love to help them master new challenges.

Chinese 1 just had their first experience making a popular Chinese food, dumplings. Students made a whole dumpling by mixing different flours to make the wrap and combining meat and vegetables for the filling, and then folding the wrap around the filling. I was very impressed by their hard work and creative dumplings. We were very excited when the dumplings were cooked!

September 22 was the Moon Festival, which is like Thanksgiving to Chinese families. Moon cake is the traditional food that families eat together during the holiday. In class, students had the chance to eat moon cake and learn the cultural meaning of the moon festival.

Every year, once the students have had the chance to settle in, we ask everyone in the middle school to keep a homework log for one week. They write down the amount of homework they do in each class every day, and then calculate the totals for each day and for each class. We teachers then meet together to examine, collate, analyze and discuss this data, and use it to fine-tune the amount of homework we assign. Our goal is to find the best balance of boarding student needs, where we want to keep them legitimately busy throughout the ninety-minute study hall, and day student needs, where they often don't get home until late and may have a tough time trying to fit in all their homework before bedtime, especially given other competing needs such as household chores and/or family time.

The students began keeping these homework logs on Wednesday, September 29, and will turn them in on Wednesday, October 6. Our next middle school team meeting will be Thursday, October 7, so if we have adjustments to be made, we will start as soon as possible. If you would like to add your own input to the discussion, please contact Bill Ivey at bivey@sbschool.org. Thank you!

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!