Down the Road, about student presentations in the Foundations of Language and Culture class and how they relate to learning in general.

Having a Conversation, about some of the questions middle school students have raised about gender-related issues and how they relate to Ally Week.

Besides links to the two most recent blog entries, we also want to provide a link to the PowerPoint which Bill presented at the Middle School Parents' Meeting on Family Weekend as several parents have requested a copy. If you have any questions about it, please let Bill know .

The Humanities 7 class has designed and begun their second unit for which the theme question is: "How does power affect the types, targets and results of prejudice?" They have generated a page and a half of related questions which may be the topics for a final project, and may also lead to group activities. The group novel is To Kill a Mockingbird and for now, as it relates to the theme of this unit, we will continue with Rabbit-Proof Fence as a morning reading book. Choices for final projects include three different types of essays (compare and contrast, persuasive, literary analysis), research paper, debate, short story, and one-act play. These will be due the Monday after Thanksgiving break.

The students have also been discussing ideas for a Class Constitution, which is to consist of no more than six rules, all phrased in terms of what specific behaviors are expected in class. This group has also elected to write a Preamble. Besides helping to define community characteristics we desire as we enter a unit which is bound to challenge our comfort levels at different points in time, this activity also provides practice in both analysis and synthesis, higher-order thinking skills which are emphasized throughout this course.

The middle school instrumental classes are progressing well. We have been working on a few new pieces. The beginner class has started rehearsing "I'm a Believer," and the advanced class is working on "Don't Stop Believin" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." Both classes are really excited about the new pieces. In the past two weeks, the advanced class has made good progress on "Don't Stop Believin." At one point, they stoppped after rehearsing an excerpt and were all surprised at how good they sounded as an ensemble. I just love those moments!! Bill and I have been trading groups every couple of weeks so that we both have a chance to work with each class. I will be with the beginners for the rest of the term and hope I can move a few additional students from that class into the advanced class. (Chelsea and Indra have already moved to the advanced class!)

On Saturday, October 30th we sponsored a highly successful open mic night. There were several middle schoolers that attended and Charlotte and Niambi both courageously performed pieces by Beyonce and Maroon Five. They sounded great!! I hope at our next open mic we can have more of the girls sing.

The FLC class, as the students have begun calling it, is continuing to do strong work. Having mastered basic greetings in French, the students have been focusing on how to ask where different locations are and how to give directions to these locations. As one of the students' goals in this class is to learn how to study languages and practice for the kinds of learning they will be doing next year, we will have quizzes in this class. The first quiz is Friday, Nov. 5 (the date this newsletter is due to come out) and judging from their classroom performance, the students will be quite ready to do well. The next French unit will involve different foods and beverages relating to all three meals of the day, and will be closely followed by related vocabulary needed to buy these foods and/or to order them in restaurants. Cultural topics will no doubt arise during these units, as well as renewed requests to eat French food!

Additionally, students have begun researching questions and topics for the first section of the textbook, which will be on the origins of language. There are four groups ranging from one to five people. Six of the students have had the first conference with one of our textbook mentors, spending approximately 30 minutes talking to Laurie Wasserman about the questions they have written. Unfortunately, we have had two major glitches in our efforts to have a teleconference with Brenda Dyck, one of which she had never seen before and which struck not only her teleconferencing room but also those of a number of her colleagues around Alberta. We will try again next week, with the agreement that if there is another major glitch in the teleconferencing technology (Elluminate), we will quickly move to Skype or speakerphone and ensure the students are in touch with her that day. Meanwhile, Jose Vilson has set up a Skype conference for Friday, Nov. 5 (the day this newsletter is due out), and Bill Ferriter is combing his schedule for a time we can Skype with him.

The middle school band has put "Lovebug" on temporary hiatus and has been focusing on learning the Taylor Swift song "White Horse." This song supports strong lead vocals by the singers in the group with a beautiful cello part and piano countermelodies joining the core of drums, bass and finger-picked guitar. The students have run the song through several times, and just need to polish a few sections. It already sounds gorgeous!

The ESL Reading/Writing Workshop class has moved on from The Jacket by Andrew Clements and is now listening to and discussing Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. So far, the students have learned a lot about World War II and life in Denmark during the Nazi occupation.

They are continuing to keep blogs on the independent reading books they have chosen, and to turn in independent writing every week. A major portion of each class is spent on individual conferences going over the students' writing to ensure it can be understood and to teach grammar points as they arise.

The students are working hard in this class, and making steady progress in their English.

It's hard to believe that the first trimester of community service is already winding down. Whether it's playing games with elderly people at the Poet's Seat Nursing Home, doing housekeeping tasks and feeding and playing with animals at the Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society, sorting meat and other donations at The Food Bank or helping out with the after-school program at Federal Street Elementary School, the students have cumulatively put in many hours of service and continued to build bridges with their commnunity. Sign-ups for the winter trimester will take place shortly so that we may ensure that service fits with athletics commitments and riding lessons.

Recently in Physical Science, we began studying the Periodic Table and learning about the elements. The class made periodic tables of candy as an exploration of classification and to think about how things can be organized. Simultaneously, each student worked on researching a specific element. An important part of this assignment involved evaluating sources. Also, it provided the girls a chance to learn about the history and discovery of the element they researched. Next, we will complete a lab where we observe elements and study the connection between the atomic number and the mass number.

At the most recent MOCA meeting, one of the juniors came to talk to the middle schoolers about the Yearbook. Following her presentation, the two middle school representatives to Student Council ("StuCo") had several agenda items to bring up. First, they explained Color Wars to the new students. This is a school tradition held in the winter during Spirit Week wherein each grade in the upper school, the middle school and the faculty/staff are each assigned a color to wear on a particular day. Each group creates a skit to present to the entire school which promotes their color, and prizes are given out. StuCo is looking for input on the advantages and disadvantages of permanently assigning colors to each grade and group rather than choosing anew each year as has been the practice, and the middle school students offered a range of opinions on the topic.

The StuCo reps also asked what ideas the middle schoolers had for new traditions specific to the middle school. There were five suggestions ranging from a dress-down day to a student-teacher switch to a dress-up-your-advisor contest. No decision has yet been made.

The meeting adjourned at this point, though we did agree in principle to form subcommittees to develop and submit proposals for two earlier ideas MOCA had agreed to pursue. One group will offer suggestions to modify the dress code and the other group will develop a proposal to form a sister-brother school relationship with another school.

Theatre 8 has been working on a marvelously British project, "The Chumleigh Towers Trilogy." The work, written by Allison Davidon, is in the form of “a play-within-a-play”. Within a larger framework, three brief melodramas are performed. A very witty parallel to a certain girls’ school in Greenfield, MA, England’s Chumley Towers houses the requisite array of delightful characters including poets and heroines, snobs and athletes – and, of course, a delightfully stern Head of School. Outside of our standard vocal and physical training, the students have worked on many different characterizations, theatre styles, and vocal qualities during their preparation for this production. They have also collaborated on design ideas for both costumes and sets. "The Chumleigh Towers Trilogy" will be performed on Thursday, November 18 in the Geissler Gallery at 7 p.m. It is appropriate for all ages. Admission is free.

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!