Middle School
	Our Learning Community

The Middle School Learning Community

To be Mission Driven
The Middle School Program: A Rising Star
Supporting Students: It Takes a Village
The Middle School Advisory Program
The Adolescent Issues Program
Thinking About and Teaching Diversity: We each have a story to tell . . .
Where we are from . . .

To be Mission Driven

At LREI we talk a lot about mission - about those core values that are present in all that we try to do. We met as a full faculty this week to talk about the mission of the school in general and our mission statement in particular. What was exciting about the discussion was the profound consensus across all three divisions about what these core values are. This consensus translates to an educational experience for students four to eighteen years old that builds on these shared values in developmentally appropriate ways. In Middle School meeting this week, I shared the following excerpt of the mission statement with students: "The progressive ideals that in 1921 gave life and inspiration to the school — academic excellence and creativity, active learning and innovative teaching, respect for the individual and responsibility to the community-continue to guide the school today." We then spent some time thinking together about how they would define those progressive ideals. Here is a selection of some of their ideas about the driving forces behind the LREI experience:

• It's a place where learning is fun
• It's a good place to make and have friends
• The teachers are really cool
• It's about forming a community
• It's a place where you can have an opinion
• It's a place where you help other people
• It's a good place just to be yourself

I couldn't have said it better myself.

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The Middle School Program: A Rising Star

Last week, Phil sent out an email announcing our selection as a "Rising Star" Middle School as part of the Manhattan Media Group's 2006 Blackboard Awards. The award is a true honor and a validation of the committed and dedicated work of the Middle School faculty, students and parents. The Blackboard Awards were created in 2002 by Manhattan Media, owners of Our Town, the West Side Spirit and AVENUE magazine. Their goal is to highlight notable achievements by schools across all of New York's educational systems. The Blackboard Awards program has met with an excellent response from schools, readers and the New York Press Association. Enormous care is taken with the selection process. They polled parents and students; spoke with many educators and educational consultants; and ran a Web site where well over 1,000 opinions were recorded. They were guided throughout by a distinguished advisory board, including representatives from independent, public and religious schools, who helped them define great learning communities, and who offered insights into how the best schools educate their students.

With this as our backdrop, Middle School dean Gabrielle Keller, our two most senior eighth grade class reps and I had the pleasure of attending the Blackboard Awards ceremony last week. It was a wonderful event, but in one respect long on adults giving and accepting congratulations for the learning that takes place in their schools. For me, the highlight of the evening was when our award was accepted by our eighth grade reps Amy and Emily. They were the only students to speak that night and when they did the side conversations in the audience stopped. Their presence on the stage refocused the evening on the real reason why we were all gathered in celebration..

Amy and Emily were poised and articulate and, as representatives of our larger community, reflected the core values of our progressive mission that places students at the center of the learning process. The impact of this was not lost on those gathered for the event. I close with their words, which speak volumes for the hard work that takes place each day in the Middle School.

Emily: We're glad to accept this award on behalf of the middle school students, faculty, and parents. When I think of our middle school, I think of great teachers, community, progressive values, interacting with my peers, and the confidence to be myself.

Amy: For me, LREI is a place that sets the highest of standards for us, both academically and personally. It challenges us to reach our goals and gives everyone a chance to be their best person. It fosters independence and a knack for digging deeper into any material we get our hands on. It's all this and more that makes me so proud to accept this award on behalf of my school. Thank you again for this wonderful honor.

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Supporting Students: It Takes a Village

One of the things that impresses me about the Middle School faculty is the daily commitment that each faculty member makes to get to know your child as a learner and as a person. This allows each teacher to think about how to best support the students in his or her class and to design learning experiences that challenge each student in meaningful ways. This depth of understanding plays itself out most obviously through individual student-teacher relationships, but is supported by a collegial and reflective team approach to all matters concerning curriculum and kids.

As we approach Family Conferences and students and teachers think about progress made and areas of strength and challenge, I thought that it would be useful to speak a bit about how, as a team, the Middle School Faculty supports your children. On a regular basis, grade-level teams meet to discuss students and to explore how we can best meet individual needs in the context of the larger learning community. The grade-level team consists of teachers, learning specialists, advisors, a dean, the school psychologist, and the principal.

In grade-level meetings, the team seeks to develop the most complete picture of a student and to do this it draws on the collective experience of those who work with the student. This "portraiture" through multiple perspectives opens the door to the development of innovative strategies that draw on the lived experience of each of the student’s many student-teacher relationships. These discussions, while not only useful for addressing issues relevant to a particular student, often generalize to approaches and strategies that benefit a whole group of students. This leads to a deeper and richer educational experience for all students.

In many schools, the involvement of learning specialists and school psychologists on grade-level, or support teams, is reserved for students who have been identified as "in crisis." At LREI, these individuals play an active role in all discussions. Their input is important as it provides another lens through which we can explore how to best meet an individual student’s needs. Beyond being members of the team, they are active members of the Middle School community who make deep and lasting connections with students and who view their work in terms of the shared needs of our learning community.Each of you will have conferences with a number of teachers next week. It is important to also keep in mind the many individuals with whom you may not speak who, on a daily basis, help to support your child as part of a team that is committed to his or her success.

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The Middle School Advisory Program

A number of you have recently inquired about the advisory program and the role that it plays in the Middle School. Advisory is an integral part of the Middle School program at LREI and is designed to address the intellectual, social, and ethical development of the early adolescent. It also provides an opportunity for each student to get to know one teacher as an advocate, mentor and advisor who will provide critical support throughout the course of her/his Middle School experience.

The advisory program provides a space for students to come together to explore issues related to the middle school experience. It provides a forum for advisors to get to better know the members of their group so that they can best advocate for their advisees. This work also helps advisors to play an important role in helping students to prepare for and lead Family Conferences.

Advisory groups meet in grade level groups during morning and afternoon homeroom periods. Each class has two advisors and each student is assigned to one of the two advisors. Much of this time is spent as a whole group, but there are times where the class will break into smaller groups so that students can have more focused discussions with their advisor. Each Thursday afternoon, students and their advisor meet in a group with the advisor and advisees from another grade level group. This creates mixed grade groups of fifth and sixth graders and groups of seventh and eighth graders. These meetings allow students to come together across grades to engage in a variety of projects and to address community issues. These across-grade pairings allow us to provide a more developmentally appropriate curriculum for the advisory program that better meets the needs of advisees and advisors.

Advisors and advisees work together in a supportive environment to establish a forum for effective communication. This helps to support a school-wide climate conducive to learning and growth. In advisory, students are engaged in activities that promote the development of supportive and caring relationships among all members of the school community and in activities that help students to gain a more comprehensive insight into their individual development as learners.The advisory program creates a context for students to practice leadership and mentoring skills and to receive support and assistance from their peers. The multi-age structure of the Thursday advisory group sessions is designed to ensure that the acquisition of these skills flows in both directions, from older students to younger students and from younger students to older students.

Advisory Program Goals:

1. Improve School Culture and Build Community
• Provide support for shared values/expectations: academic and behavioralHelp students develop the skills necessary to interact positively with teachers and peersPromote a positive school climate and culture of excellencePromote school spirit and prideFoster a sense of respect and community among students and staff
• Provide more opportunities for students to interact across grade levels
2. Improve Communication
   • Foster meaningful dialog among peers and between adults and students and the school and homeAllow for focused and proactive discussions so that students do not "slip through the cracks"Provide each student and family with a faculty point person who has an overall sense of the student‚Äôs school experienceSupport students so that they can communicate information about their school experience at formal Family Conferences and at other informal meetings
   • Acknowledge and discuss Middle School and school-wide issues, concerns, and programs using informal and pre-planned activities
3. Develop Advocacy Skills
   • Identify and support the development of skills that encourage students to assume an appropriate degree of responsibility for the learning process.Provide a support group that each student can go to for assistance
   • Support effective decision-making and problem-solving approaches
4. Build Relationships
   • Adult to student, student to student, school to home
   • Learn about community members and their interests and needs
5. Validate the Student Experience
   • Promote student voice and leadershipAcknowledge and discuss social and community issues
   • Provide an additional context for meaningful community service

Student Goals:

The Advisory Program provides students with opportunities, guidance and support to:

• Develop strong self-concepts, feelings of self-worth, and confidence. Assess and communicate to others areas of success and challenge with regard to their academic and social lives in schoolSeek out enrichment and support relative to these areas.Acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes for appropriate decision-making and managing their lives effectively in order to become thoughtful, caring individuals who plan and reflect, make informed choices, and take personal responsibility for their actions. Develop planning skills ranging from goal setting to locating and assessing sources of support and assistance. Act respectfully, responsibly, and ethically towards their family, peer group, school and community. Determine the contributions they can make to their school, community and society.
• Foster respect for law, social justice and democracy and develop attitudes of tolerance and respect for diversity in all its forms.

Morning and afternoon advisory meetings are used for brief check-ins. During this time, an advisor may meet with two or three of his/her advisees. They use this time to check in about schoolwork and about any other issues that might be on an advisee's mind. While these check-ins are taking place, the other advisees are preparing for the day (e.g., going over homework, organizing binders, etc.). In some advisories, each advisee has a peer who he/she checks in with in addition to his/her advisor.

During our Thursday sessions, groups have been developing and implementing a variety of long-term projects. Our hope is that some of these projects will become on-going efforts that advisory groups cycle through during the school year or during alternate years. These efforts are in addition to the our evolving relationship with St. John's Food Pantry. Each week an advisory group travels to the pantry to help with the sorting of food. More recently, advisory groups have started going to the pantry to help with the distribution of the food to pantry clients. This has added a new dimension to the experience and deepened the sense of service connected with this work. We will continue to identity additional service experiences that can serve as a cornerstone of the advisory program.Activities in advisory are structured to support individual growth and build community.

Advisors are provided with a general framework, but are also given the flexibility and encouraged to seek out activities that address the particular needs of their advisory groups.As we move forward with the advisory program, I will keep you posted as to what we are learning and any new developments regarding the program's design.

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The Adolescent Issues Program

The Adolescent Issues program is an important part of the LREI Middle School educational experience. In general, The Adolescent Issues program has three goals. They are:

1. to help students develop good discussion skills. This includes the ability to explain themselves clearly and the more difficult skill of active and effective listening.to provide factual information about, and opportunities for discussion on, a wide variety of topics important to pre-adolescents and adolescents.
2. to provide the skills for, and opportunities to practice, reflective and informed decision making.

We achieve these goals through our weekly Adolescent Issues meetings. These meetings are led by core teacher, me (fifth and sixth grades) and Phil (seventh and eighth grades). During the first half of the school year, the faculty and the students choose the discussion topics. Throughout the year the fifth grade will continue to have their weekly meeting with a wide range of topics that includes learning styles, conflict resolution, and diversity issues. Starting in January, the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades begin the sexuality, substance abuse, and personal safety portions of the Adolescent Issues program. Below you will find a list of the general areas of discussion for these meetings.

• Values and their role in decision makingSexuality and sexual/gender stereotypesPuberty, reproductive anatomy, and physiologyResponsibilities of sexual activityRelationshipsPeer Pressure and refusal strategiesSubstance abuse
• Personal safety

Though the general topics are the same throughout the grades, the actual content and activities differ with the age of the students. However, all of the discussions are based in the belief that as we cannot make all of children's decisions for them, we must help them to become informed and responsible decision makers. Current discussion and activities include:

• Fifth Grade -- The fifth grade spent much of the first two quarters discussing issues related to the transition to middle school. These discussions focused on the responsibilities that come with the independence that is part of the middle school experience. We have also spent a fair amount of time talking about friendships and the many pressures that can exert a push or pull on these relationships. Most recently, our attention has turned to issues of school culture, personal safety, and social justice.
• Sixth Grade -- The sixth grade recently finished an extended unit on the people and forces that influence us. Throughout the unit, we explored the positive and negative aspects of peer pressure. In small groups, students created original skits that showed situations where individuals were being influenced to do things that they didn't want to do. This led to several discussions on refusal strategies and using peers for positive support. Over the next few weeks, we will explore issues related to personal and home safety. After the Spring Break, we will focus our discussion on substance abuse and puberty and sexuality.
• Seventh Grade -- The seventh grade is currently involved in a "Values Auction." This exercise helps the students to define the values that they rely on to make decisions and to examine what happens when their values conflict with those of their peers, their teachers or their parents. Discussion in the next few weeks will include a unit on Substance Abuse and, after Spring Break, a series of discussions on puberty and sexuality.
• Eighth Grade -- The eighth grade spent much of November and December discussing Substance Abuse. We began this year looking at how teens can foster a healthy lifestyle. The students are working individually or in small groups to research and present lessons on topics including fitness, nutrition, stress and eating disorders. The teachers will also address some of these issues and others that the students did not choose to investigate. Upcoming topics include puberty and sexuality and gender stereotyping.

We feel that an important part of this program is the on-going discussion and learning that will hopefully take place at home. We encourage students to discuss the week's topics with you. To support these home discussions we are planning a number of Parent Adolescent Issues evenings. I look forward to seeing you on these evening. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the Adolescent Issues program.

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Thinking About and Teaching Diversity: We each have a story to tell . . .

First, a thank you to those of you who were able to attend the PA Diversity and Community evening this past Tuesday. Our discussion on "How to Continue Diversity Conversations at Home" was an engaging one and reinforced for me the need for these on-going dialogs. One theme that emerged from the evening was the power of stories. In many ways, our efforts to address issues of diversity are about creating the space for members of our community to tell their stories to each other. Whether in the context of engaging in experiences outside of the classroom, exploring challenging texts, or participating in well-structured activities, these are stories that need to be heard and shared.

In the spirit of telling stories, I thought it would be useful to share with you some of the ways that we have been continuing the conversation about diversity issues in the Middle School. Last June, the middle school faculty met with a team of facilitators who led us through a series of activities aimed fostering an adult-to-adult dialog on issues related to group identification and unpacking assumptions and biases that can impact on our work with students. The workshop helped to bring us closer as a community of colleagues and raised important questions for us as to how best to tackle these issues in our Middle School community. When we returned from summer break, we revisited many of these ideas and were able to better reflect on the experience now that some time had passed. As a faculty, there was universal agreement that we need to continue this work, which we will do.

This past Tuesday afternoon, we met as a full faculty to hear reports from colleagues on grant projects that were carried out over the summer. A number of the Middle School projects that were completed took as their primary focus work on diversity and social justice issues. Fifth grade core teacher Heather Brandstetter researched and read a variety of books with diversity themes. The books ranged in topics from a family struggling to survive in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule, to the life of a migrant family from Cuba, to a Japanese-American family fighting racism in rural Georgia. Through this research, Heather identified several new texts appropriate for fifth grade and developed curriculum that integrates our language arts studies with a range of multicultural issues.

Eighth grade core teachers Sarah Barlow and Noni Polhill developed a Social Justice Activist Project as a culminating project for the eighth grade. Working in partnership with Children for Children, the eighth graders will develop a service project in the community related to a social justice issue and host an event for National and Global Youth Service Day in April.

Both of these grant projects will create additional focused and developmentally appropriate opportunities for students and faculty to explore important diversity related themes. I have written elsewhere about how the Middle School core curriculum addresses issues related to multiculturalism and how this focus supports the development of important critical thinking skills and of our students' predispositions to understanding, empathy, and action. These skills are crucial as students explore a range of perspectives and seek to better understand social justice issues that include equity, power, access and privilege.

One fundamental change to the sixth grade exploration of the Middle Ages is the use of religion as a lens to explore this time period in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe. This change has allowed us to engage in important comparative studies across time and regions. This comparative approach helps students to better understand the ways in which the world views of individuals and groups are shaped by a common perspective; it also helps them to better understand how conflicts between individuals and groups are often mediated by these differing world views. In a way, as with Tuesday night’s dialog, we are simply searching for better ways for students to access and understand the stories that individuals, groups, tribes, empires, and nations tell about who they are and what they value.

On other fronts, our decision to reconfigure advisory groups into fifth/sixth and seventh/eighth grade groups was in part a response to discussions related to diversity issues that the Middle School faculty had last year. This decision was based on our belief that while all Middle School students should participate in diversity discussions as part of the advisory program, these discussions need to take in the varied levels of developmental readiness reflected in the Middle School population. As we talk about helping students to choose texts that are "just right," we also need to make sure that students are exploring these complicated issues in ways that are "just right."

To this end, Middle School PE teacher and Co-Athletic Director Marcus Chang worked with Director of Diversity and Community Sharon DuPree over the summer to create a series of diversity focused activities to be used in classes and in advisory groups.We also looked at feedback from both Marcus and fifth and sixth grade science teacher Sherezada Acosta who co-facilitate the Students of Color group and from members of the group about how to better support the group and increase opportunities for participation. This led to some changes in the schedule that we think will better support this group’s work. The Students of Color group will have their first meeting of the year in the next week or two.

So whether behind the scenes or in the classroom, these discussions and stories about diversity are always present. Our challenge is not simply to make them an extra piece that we add on, but rather to use them as the jumping off point for authentic and meaningful explorations of self and community. We invite you to partner with us in the on-going telling of these stories.

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Where we are from . . .

In advisory, some groups have been working on "I am from . . ." poems. These poems have provided us with an entry point for discussions about identity and values and given us an opportunity to see the world from another's point of view. In sharing the poems, we find that we have much in common and that our differences provide moments for understanding. Expressed in images of important places, people, sounds, experiences, and advice, these poems provide clear representations of our students' creativity and willingness to look inward and to share that "looking inward" with others. What follows is a collection of these images from a number of writers that turns the "I am from" into a where "we" are from.

• I am from the whoosh of cars and the murmur of people talking.
• I am from adobe houses with tin roofs, bodegas and tortillerias, cactus covered hillsides, milpas, and fields of grass and magueyes.
• I am from visiting relative and old teachers who have taught me life long lessons.
• I am from the deli around the corner and walking into walls.
• I am from Old Hickory and the Festival of Lights on Christmas Eve.
• I am from bicycle keys, monkeys, and "I forgot my keys."
• I am from a little child spitting out his non-sugar free bubblegum before his mother noticed.
• I am from feeding the cat and forgetting to practice the piano.
• I am from "clean that room" and "make your bed" because we are having guests.
• I am from two different countries, two messy apartments, two loving parents, and two annoying brothers.
• I am from looking out the window to a sky blue river and the Williamsburg Bridge.
• I am from Honey Nut Cheerios and Nutella on toast and cheesy pizza with pepperoni and garlic and bagels with butter.
• I am from where dogs bark wildly and children play freely.
• I am from warm quilts, ringing telephones, honking cars and trucks, ringing doorbells, and photo albums from the past.
• I am from "work hard," "be happy," try your best," and "don't overreact."
• I am from trying to figure it all out.
• I am from everything I've ever done, everyone I've met, everywhere I've been, but mostly I am from everything I've loved.
• I am from the memories that fill my mind and the ones yet to come.

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