Oh Gee!
1/26/2018
Goofy + Giggly + Growing + Gregarious + Gangling + Gabby + Groggy + Gross = GREAT!(The Truth Behind Middle School)Middle Schoolers are not called “‘tweens” for nothin’. They are in between the innocence of childhood and on the brink of understanding real world problems. They are growing, sometimes shockingly, overnight! They may not understand their emotions as hormones begin to influence how they feel and think. They are goofy, giggly, growing, gregarious, gangling, gabby, groggy, and gross - all of which plays a huge role in their self esteem and confidence moving forward. One goal of the Middle School program at PNA is to help them understand these things about themselves in a supportive environment of friends who are feeling weirdly the same way. Taking the time to do this while allowing Middle Schoolers to be themselves is likely the BIGGEST TAKEAWAY PNA graduates have as they enter high school. PNA graduates are grounded in who they are. They are confident and able to navigate the challenging social pressures they will likely encounter in high school. PNA grads are pushed them into positions of leadership based on this confidence as well as their academic focus. While there are many social opportunities throughout each day that are “teachable moments”, the PNA Middle School also addresses potential issues more formally through the weekly Advisory Program. For Advisory, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders are split into three multi class groups, each with one classroom teacher and one specialist teacher. Every Friday, these groups meet in place of regular morning meeting. The idea behind the Advisory is to provide students with a “team” outside their normal friend group who they get to know better and count on. The Advisory meetings last a bit longer than the typical morning meeting. Usually there is a morning message that primes the students about what the discussion topic will be. Last week the message was: Today we will be talking about the qualities of a good friend. What characteristics do you look for in a good friend? Write a quality or characteristic on a Post-it note and add it to the poster. You can write as many as you like. As you can tell from a message like this one, the discussion is aimed at getting students to talk about what they expect a good friend to be. In this case, after reviewing each quality added to the poster, students were asked to rate themselves (privately) on the qualities that, as a group, were selected to demonstrate those of a good friend. Advisory is a place where students can learn what others think and reflect on where they sit with that. It is a safe place where students can learn about themselves. To be able to open up and share feelings with one another doesn’t happen overnight. First, students have to get to know each other and the best way to do that is to have fun!!! Of course food is always included as are games. There may even be a bit of mischief involved, harnessing the comradery necessary to bring about that level of trust that allows for deeper sharing among friends.
Middle Schoolers find themselves at a new level of social discovery, making this age critical in their development moving forward. When these ‘tweens are able to be their goofy, giggly, growing, gregarious, gangling, gabby, groggy, and gross selves without the ridicule of peers and with the watchful Guidance of teachers, they can more quickly and confidently understand who they are. These students are (oh Gee!) - Grounded. Revision, Revision, Revision!
1/19/2018
Writing is hard. Writing about writing is harder. This seems to be all that comes to mind as I try to write about the students’ writing. I know how a student feels when I see her staring out the window during Writer’s Workshop - not writing. In these times, I often tell students to just write what they are thinking to get those clogging ideas out, allowing the fresh ones in. (Hence the opening line to this paragraph.) If writing is hard for students, revision feels impossible! Many students feel that once they have written their piece, it is done. Yet revision is essential to all writing whether it is just checking for errors or completely overhauling an idea. Currently, students are working on a short narrative piece where their main lesson is to practice revision techniques that help to focus the piece and keep students from straying off topic while also “exploding” ideas that need more detail to enhance meaning. All of this requires revision, and lots of it. One revision method is called “looping”. Looping is an exercise many writers use to narrow the focus of a piece. Often, in early drafts we write anything and everything that comes to mind about our topic. As we revise, we want to “zoom in” on only the most important and interesting parts of our narrative in order to discover our PURPOSE for writing. So, after the students had responded to a prompt, they were asked to reread their work to find just one sentence that they were particularly proud of, thought was interesting, felt was the most exciting part, or understood to be an important moment in their story. Here are examples of what they discovered:
From here, students were asked to start over, using just their chosen line as the first sentence in their story. (They actually did this three times over the same number of days.) Afterward, students felt that they had more clear and purposeful writing and that they were more focused on the meaningful parts of their stories. And while they have essentially written 3 drafts already, over the next week, they will continue their revisions through teacher conferences, My Access Intellimetric feedback, and peer Critical Friends groups. Is a writer’s work ever done? Probably not. But as students revise and become more satisfied with their work, they realize that good writing can have a rather elaborate process of revision and it likely includes input from others. And while there is always room for improvement, there comes a time in the process when students can put aside their revision efforts because they feel assured that they have presented their meaning to the best of their ability and they can say that they are “done.” Honoring Dr. King
1/13/2018
Happy new year! Our first week back from a lovely holiday break was short but busy! Our language arts and social studies times throughout the week were dedicated to preparations for the Martin Luther King Jr. assembly that will take place this Monday morning. We actually began discussing equity and Dr. King's dreams several weeks ago, reading some of his words, brainstorming ideas, and listening to the voices of people who have faced inequities in their lives. Students talked with family members and friends who've had firsthand experiences with prejudice and inequity: as black Americans in the South during the Civi Rights movement, here in Alaska as Alaska Natives, and as Japanese Americans in Japanese internment camps during WW2. We also read about inequities and challenges faced today, such as in Saudi Arabia, where women just recently gained the right to drive but still stand in separate lines at fast food restaurants. We pondered the controversy of NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem. We read an excerpt from King's Strive Toward Freedom about the Montgomery bus boycotts and King's 6 Principles of Nonviolence and vision of a "Beloved Community." And throughout this process, students reflected on all they heard and read and its application in our lives today. Throughout their work, the driving goal was to synthesize all they learned to create a presentation for an assembly that would be appropriate for a wide ranging audience and that would properly honor Dr. King. As I reflect on this project and the process our class went through, I was constantly reminded that learning is messy, and the process of teaching students to be independent learners and thinkers is challenging. Though I, as the teacher, had many ideas for the assembly and was anxious to move the work forward, it was important that the ideas came from the students themselves. We had multiple planning sessions that lead us to dead ends, and as this week arrived, they really still had no solid plan. Yet they continued to work, and by the end of the day on Monday, a plan began to form. With a deadline looming, the class went into action, forming teams to work on the various parts, creating props, writing scripts, negotiating roles, and debating pros and cons of various approaches. The class feels good about the resulting plan and they've moved into the weekend with the goal of practicing their lines and being prepared to put their best foot forward on Monday morning. Most importantly, this presentation came from them - it was not dictated by an adult or found in a textbook. It came from their minds, their hearts, and their imaginations. It focused on the things that were most meaningful to them. It was messy and challenging, but in the end that is how our students take steps toward independence as learners. We hope you join the students of PNA on Monday morning as they celebrate Dr. King's vision of nonviolence and love. |
Sarah Mariner
Ms. Mariner earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Science from Colorado State University, and was awarded a teaching certificate through the University of Alaska, Southeast. Her varied background includes being an environmental education field instructor in Massachusetts, Colorado, and Baja, Mexico. She also served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. Archives
April 2021
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