Middle
October 5, 2022
Between the Pages: Ellen Oh
Seven Hills welcomed Ellen Oh as this year’s Between the Pages author. During her presentations to Upper and Middle School students, Oh discussed her literary journey, answered questions, and signed novels. Later in the day, Oh also taught the eighth grade creative writing class and led a winter scene writing exercise. After students shared their work, Oh applauded their decision to begin their stories in the middle of the action, enabling readers to quickly immerse themselves in the story. Oh is the author of the “Dragon King Chronicles,” “Finding Junie Kim,” and many more incredible books. She is also the co-founder and president of We Need Diverse Books, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting diversity within children’s literature.
Community building trip to North Carolina
Eighth graders, teachers, and Head of Middle School Bill Waskowitz journeyed to the Nantahala Outdoor Center, located in Bryson City, North Carolina for an outdoor team adventure. Students and faculty went mountain biking, white water rafting, zip lining, learned wilderness survival skills, and more during their stay. “These types of trips intentionally push students outside of their comfort zones to take appropriate risks that challenge their physical and emotional boundaries. Students get to know each other outside of the classroom where they can develop friendships that support their day-to-day lives when they are in school. Because we have our faculty take part in trips, students also have the chance to get to know their teachers in a context that serves to strengthen the teacher-student relationships that are such an essential part of our Middle School program,” Waskowitz said.
Seventh graders scale the solar system
Seventh graders in teacher Kristin Suer’s class used proportional math to calculate a scaled version of our solar system and utilized an assortment of objects to correlate with the approximate scaled diameter of the planets. “We want students to put the information they learn into practice and build to the next step,” Suer said. “Along with utilizing knowledge from sixth grade, students are preparing for our next chapter and beginning to ask why jovian planets, like Jupiter and Saturn, need to be farther away from the sun than terrestrial planets, such as earth.”
Analyzing Latin
Seventh graders in Latin teacher Katie Swinford’s class analyzed a skit about Forum Boarium, a cattle forum in ancient Rome. From character descriptions to settings to dialogue, students read the entire skit in Latin. After getting a feel for the characters, students then began to analyze their actions, and how they related to the modern day. For example, students compared the sales strategy of the Mercator with a door-to-door car salesman.
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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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