Dear Middle School Parents,
As we are approaching the hot weather, please remember to send a bottle of water with your child to school every day. Remind him/her to finish it by the end of the school day and especially to drink prior to, during, and after physical activity or prolonged period out in the sun. Did you know that by the time you feel thirsty your body is already becoming dehydrated? Children must not use thirst as the sign for need for fluids. Do not wait until you are thirsty! Tell your child this over and over and over again.
Middle School Coffee 18 March at 8:45 in BBT
The next middle coffee will be dedicated to the Service Learning Task Force to give you an update on the program and where we are at this point. The presenters will talk about service versus service learning and what it might look like in the Middle School in the future.
Model United Nations (MUN) Parent Meeting
MUN is an extracurricular activity where students assume the roles of countries and organisations represented in the United Nations in specific committees. The aims of an MUN conference are to encourage debate and sharing of views between students from different schools and of different ethnicities. The ultimate goal is to promote awareness of international relations and issues in young people, and to inspire global mindedness and an understanding to the problems of the world and how to combat them, whilst providing an atmosphere where students can progress in their communication skills and open mindedness. This would allow students an insight to further their understanding and learning of politics in a global and international manner.
There will be a parent meeting on 19 March at 3:45 in the BBT for all delegates who will be traveling to Taipei in April. We will provide details of the trip and answer any questions you may have.
Peer Mediation Program: “Students helping students”
Peer Mediation is a conflict resolution process that provides students the opportunity to talk and effectively resolve their conflicts among themselves. Conflicts between students are a normal part of daily life. Conflicts that are most common in school include name-calling, rumors, threats, and relationships or friendship issues. Peer mediators conduct the mediation process. Peer Mediation works to develop a place where students can talk out their differences and come to a peaceful solution.
The training for Peer Mediators will enable students to learn communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills and how to apply those skills in the six-step mediation process. Students will be traveling off campus for a two day training on March 21st and 22nd. The new Peer Mediation program will be launched the week of April 22nd.
Congratulations to our Peer Mediators! They have been nominated by their peers. The following students will be Peer Mediators for the following school year 2014-15.
6th grade
Arunveer Kahlon Natsumi Shindo
Reuben Neilsen Bhavni Joshi
Manav Chakrvarthy Min Jeong Park
7th grade
Tarun Krishna Shridula Harinath
Siddesh Vijayakumar Hana Sivakumar
Minha Park Medhya Dwaraknath
Grade 8 Science Fair
Students have been working on the NESA Virtual Science Fair. Students have been learning to write their hypothesis, creating procedure and coming up with their list of materials. Most of the work is being done at home with their teammates, but some of the testing will be under the guidance of the teachers. In addition to working with the teachers here in school, they also collaborate with professors at universities who has been guiding them through this process virtually. If your child was here in Grade 5, they had a similar Virtual Science Fair a few years back.
This project will culminate in the Science Fair, which will take place on Thursday and Friday, 27-28 March. Parents can visit on Thursday, 27 March between 8:30 - 10:15 and 1:35-3:30.
Academic Corner
In Grade 6, students have recently finished our unit on ancient Egypt, where students created a flip book project to showcase their learning. They are currently learning about ancient India, where the focus is on geography, early civilizations, and the origins of Hinduism and Buddhism. Students will compare and contrast major empires and rulers of ancient India. The unit will end with a exploration of the religious, artistic, and scientific contributions that have influenced our modern world. They will continue to place emphasis on developing strong note-taking skills, in addition to answering historical/essential questions with strong supporting details and topic/thesis sentences. Students use the Grade 6 Humanities blog to build their knowledge and make connections between what they are reading and learning in class: http://martinhumanities.com/.
In Grade 7, students are wrapping up the Disintegration Unit, which will conclude with some project based learning (students get 9 choices to complete a compare and contrast project). They also have two interdisciplinary essays that will be completed for language arts and social studies. One will be an on-demand essay, and another will be a formal argumentative essay integrating the writing skills from LA and content concepts from SS. The argumentative writing is based on the idea of whether or not feudalism is a good system or a bad one. Some informational writings that they are doing will be about comparing and contrasting European and Japanese feudalism, as well as explaining the introduction of plague in Europe and its disastrous effects.
In Grade 8, students have just finished a short investigation into the form and function of the U.S. Constitution. Students were encouraged to transfer those understandings to the government of their nation of citizenship in a Tic-Tac-Toe activity. They are now exploring the causes of the U.S. Civil War by looking at the socioeconomic differences of Northern and Southern states. Slavery and the issue of states' rights will be explored in upcoming weeks. In addition to reading informational texts, the will examine speeches of four famous Americans given between 1820 and 1860 in order to better understand the root causes of the U.S. Civil War.
High School Play: Into the Woods
“The cow as white as milk,
The cape as red as blood,
The hair as yellow as corn,
The slipper as pure as gold.”
Will the baker and his wife find the four special objects to reverse the horrible witch’s curse? Will Jack sell the cow and buy food for his poor family? Will Cinderella’s handsome prince find her? And Little Red Riding Hood! Will she safely make it to her granny’s cottage in the woods... or will she fall prey to the devious, yet charming, wolf?
Come to the high school production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical, Into the Woods, to find out what happens to some of your favorite fairy tale characters who cross paths in this spirited musical!
Shows are Friday, March 21st, at 5:00 PM, and Saturday, March 22nd, at 7:00 PM. Tickets are on sale before and after school near the front entrance and during the day with Ms. Sonia in the main reception. Tickets are available in three sections: Director’s Circle (rs. 500), Orchestra (rs. 300), and Mezzanine (rs. 100). Support our creative and courageous student actors by joining us “in the woods.”
Have a great weekend.
Alan Phan
Middle School Principal