News Detail

What's New . . .

Ana Chaney
This week's note builds on the constantly renewing spirit of progressive education that I touched on last week . . .

Middle School teachers are constantly re-examining and improving the curriculum, collaborating with each other, and testing out new and better ways to draw students in to deep learning experiences. Middle schoolers not only benefit from the experience of curriculum that is fresh, timely, and creative, but they have these adult role models who practice what they preach: lifelong learning, a pursuit of excellence, and a willingness to take risks. This week I am honoring the faculty’s hard work, enthusiasm and inventiveness by highlighting some of my favorite innovations they have embarked on just this year.  
 
  • Partnership with the Cooke School, a school for students with special needs, is part of a new unit spotlighting ableism in the eighth grade.
  • Fifth grade humanities classes are using process drama to bring history to life. They ask students to problem-solve historical conundrums like: How can we leverage the annual flooding of the Nile to manage the dry season?
  • Seventh grade math and science teachers will lead a series of collaborative lessons about climate change data in the spring.
  • A new unit on logic puzzles was introduced in sixth grade math seminar. Students had to devise their own unique methodology for recording and tracking the given conditions (rather than being given traditional logic tables).
  • Sphero robots are now being used in the robot evolution unit in fifth grade. These small programmable spheres can yield data on direction, velocity, resulting in some exciting new mutations.
  • Documentary films are being made for the first time by each of the eighth grade social justice groups about their topics, their fieldwork, and the experience of taking action. They will be screened on the day of the Teach-In.
  • The eye project, a seventh grade art class exercise in value and shading, has expanded to explore new materials, including textured paper and white pencils for highlighting.
  • The learning specialists have launched the learning lab as an after school space for academic support for all students.
  • The Cultures In Contact Museum in seventh grade moved towards a gallery model in the ongoing effort to expose and challenge the Eurocentric narrative. Each student's topic had its own space in which each of the cultures were given a more balanced emphasis. 
  • Fifth grade advisors have introduced Identity Shares, in which teachers model naming the various aspects of their identity - upbringing, family structure, race, ethnic background, educational experiences - and how each of these have shaped who they are. 
  • Trips to the Islamic Cultural Center and the Eldridge Street Synagogue are now a part of the sixth grade medieval curriculum alongside trips to the Cloisters and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine.
  • Interested fifth and sixth graders engage in service by joining their senior buddies (from Dorot senior center) for activities once a week. 

Those of you who came for classroom visits this week saw some of these innovations in action. I’m proud to say that the founding values of experimentation, creativity, child-centeredness are alive and well in the Middle School, pioneered by our teachers. Next year’s experiments are already brewing. 
 
Best,
Ana
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