Middle
February 4, 2021
GSA-Just Be You! Club Welcomes First Speaker
The Middle School GSA-Just Be You! Club recently welcomed its first guest speaker, Kelli Carmack-Hansen. GSA clubs are student-run organizations nationwide that support LGBTQ+ youth and allies. The Middle School’s club began in fall 2020. Carmack-Hansen, who is an advocate for people in the LGBTQ+ community, is the founder and executive director of E-Volve Coaching & Consulting, a unique organization providing educational and social-emotional coaching services for youth and young adults, parent advocacy support, and professional development consulting. Over the course of 20 years, she has worked in the public school system, day treatment programs, wilderness therapy, residential treatment, therapeutic boarding schools, and is presently leading her own business. Carmack Hansen shared a motto with students. “Who you are and how you are has a purpose. No matter what,” she said. “Whether that is how you love, how you think, how you feel, what you believe, etc. You were designed the way you are for a reason, so seek out the people that can help you shine your light and serve your purpose. Find your tribe!”
English Students Write About Friendship
Following the winter break, sixth-grade English teacher Emily Stettler asked her students to reflect on what it means to be a true friend. “We had a discussion on why every person needs a true friend in life and the challenges of, not only judging others, but looking inside ourselves to make sure our actions and words are representative of demonstrating the characteristics we desire in a friend,” Stettler said. “Our discussion included the dangers people face when they feel excluded and disenfranchised from society with no one to support them.” Students were then asked to complete a writing assignment, either a poem or a narrative, expressing their views about friendship or a personal experience with friendship. Students also had the option to compare a true friend to a false friend in their work. Stettler asked the students to keep the examples anonymous and she redistributed the writings to the class. “Each student read this new writing sample and chose a line or two that resonated with them,” she said. “The class then worked together to compile these statements into a poem. We read and rearranged until everyone was happy with the progression and flow and then we shared the poem at assembly.”
Seventh-graders Design Zipline System
Seventh-graders in Karen Glum’s Innovation Lab took part in a challenge that put their design thinking skills to the test. Glum asked students to design and build a zipline system under the premise that they were helping the fairy tale character Little Red Riding Hood send items to her grandmother because a wolf has made it too dangerous to walk through the forest. Glum said students made engineering and economic decisions in their designs, and they used materials such as string and cardboard to create their ziplines. “Students also had to make design decisions based on information about Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood,” Glum said. “For example, grandma being a stringent environmentalist so that should affect the type of basket they use.”
Sixth-graders Study Latin Roots of Words in the News
Latin teacher Marcie Handler recently got to the root of a selection of words with her sixth-grade students. Students watched a video about the origins of the English language and its relationship with Latin and French. They also examined the word etymology. “We then explored the etymologies of some English words that we have been seeing and hearing in the news lately—for example: democracy, sedition, inauguration—and see how these words evolved from Latin words into English words,” Handler said. She added, “It’s important for Latin students not only to know the meanings of these words, but also to understand where the words came from.”
A Writing Prompt of Historic Proportions
Sixth-grade writing workshop teacher and librarian Megan Whitt recently asked her students to write from a prompt that has already gone down in history—the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. The students’ two-part question asked, “From your understanding and what you’ve read, seen, and heard, what happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6? What questions do you still have about what happened?” Whitt said the exercise spurred discussion and allowed students to process and share their feelings about the events of the day.
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Five Stingers Sign to Play in College
Five Stingers from the Class of 2024 signed their letters of intent to continue their athletic careers in college.
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