Educating Our Eagles - Issue 20

Educating
our Eagles
20

CONTENTS
4
Introduction - Curriculum Director, Julie Dolan
6
High School - Train to Hadestown – Kevin Wolgemuth
8
High School - Cultural Awareness – Tara Johnston
10
Elementary School - Morning Centers – Carrere Tirrell
12
Elementary School - City/Village Collage – Sarah Cooke
14
High School - Portfolio Development – Stephanie Graham
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INTRODUCTION
From SBRSD’s Director of Curriculum
and Instruction, Julie Dolan
Thankful for our School Community
I am thankful for the opportunity to share a window into our classrooms
each month, for all the work that Ms. Giordano does to make this beautiful
publication come to life, and of course to all the faculty and staff for taking the
time to showcase an educational experience they created for their students.
A District goal this year is to deeply listen and incorporate the voice of
our school community into our Strategy for Continuous Improvement. In
particular, we are focused on elevating student voice. We strive to provide
space for students to share the things they enjoy about their experience
in school, as well as to impart their ideas and hopes for how we can work
together to create positive impacts on improving school practices. It has
been a pleasure to hear the students’ perspectives and to see them light
up and engage in out-of-the-box thinking about ways to innovate and
reimagine school.
I want to convey my deep gratitude to all who are a part of making SBRSD
such an amazing place to teach, learn, and work. The District is a school
family with many gifts and talents which are shared each day with one
another and our students. We are grateful for our SBRSD School Community
who are willing to give selflessly of their time to make profound, positive, and
lasting differences in the lives of students, and help guide them to learn, grow
and find success on whichever path their future holds for them.
Of course, we are thankful for our amazing, talented, creative, curious, and
resilient students. They bring us joy, and sometimes they challenge us, they
make us think, and they always make us want to be better.
Happy Reading! We love sharing all the great things happening each day with
all of you!
All My Best,
Julie Dolan
Right: Mount Everett Principal, Jesse Carpenter reads to
the Pre-K Integrated class.
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HIGH SCHOOL:
Taking the Train to Hadestown
Writing in the Humanities focuses on connecting literature with art and music,
and classical tales with modern realities. To explore so many intersections,
twenty-one Mount Everett seniors and three instructors visited New York
City this November to take in a live performance on Broadway.
Before the trip, students read the Greek myths of two couples, Hades and Persephone,
and Orpheus and Eurydice. After examining symphonies and paintings created in
response to the tales, students listened to music from Anais Mitchell's Tony Awardwinning
musical, Hadestown. Conversations touched on enduring questions about
youth and aging, identity, love, courage, politics and economics.
The trip began with a train ride into Grand Central Station, continued with a walking
tour of Times Square and Broadway before a lunch at Hard Rock Cafe, and culminated
in a matinee at the historic Walter Kerr Theatre.
As a result of instruction, students will be able to:
• connect classical themes with modern issues, finding how old tales relate to their
lives; identify patterns across visual, physical and textual media; and argue the
relevance of live dramatic performances.
Observations:
Most remarkable was watching students experience live theater for the first time, hearing
them chatter excitedly on the train ride home, and listening to their responses the next
day. Some students cried at the performance. Others looked ready to leap over the
balcony railing when the set opened up to re-create the hell of Hades. Many were at a
loss for words to describe how vastly their in-person experience differed from reading or
watching a film. For many students, this first trip to New York City expanded their world
understanding. For many more students, this first trip to Broadway introduced them to a
means of expression that they hadn't known.
Since then, I've heard “the non-drama kids” singing show tunes, been asked by juniors if
we'll do it next year, and had several participants say that they didn't like musicals before
the show and now can't stop listening to the same tracks because they want to relive the
experience. After the first run of a new activity or text, I often ask my students, “Should
we use this again next year?” This time, I wasn't able to ask: students were telling me
about when they will go back.
MA Standards:
English Frameworks (2017): Reading Literature 2, 3, 5, 6, and special emphasis on
7 and 9, “Integration of Knowledge and Ideas”; Writing 3, 7 and 8; Speaking and
Listening 2 and 3.
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HIGH SCHOOL:
Cultural Awareness: Difficult Jobs
Students in Spanish IV recently learned about the working conditions in some of the most
difficult jobs around the world, and the story of the trapped Chilean Miners from 2010.
The class studied migrant workers and discussed how working as a team, and having
strong leaders, helps people overcome the most difficult obstacles.
As a result of instruction students will be able to:
• Compare and contrast jobs and working conditions in Mexico, Chile, and the United
States.
• use team-building and leadership skills to solve problems.
• learn the importance of work equality and regulations to protect workers rights.
Observations:
Students learned the importance of family, strong leadership, and working as a team. Students
became aware of civil rights and working conditions in the 1940’s and 1950’s for migrant workers
in the United States. Students learned of workers rights in Chile and the mining industry.
MA Standards:
Interpersonal Communication
Interpretive Communication
Social Justice
Cultural comparisons
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Miner Claudio Yanez applauds as he is carried away on a stretcher after being rescued from the collapsed San Jose mine
where he had been trapped with 32 other miners for over two months in 2010 near Copiapo, Chile.
Hugo Infante/AP
https://www.npr.org/2014/10/29/359839104/the-incredible-story-of-chilean-miners-rescued-from-the-deep-down-dark
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ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:
Morning Centers
S
tudents choose from a variety of morning activities that are linked to MA standards introduced
in PreK and/or the Boston Public Schools Department of Early Childhood Focus on Pre-K
curriculum.
Because PreK at SBRSD is multi age (3, 4 and even 5 yrs old) and some students will be in
the PreK for 2 years, the objectives vary based on age/development.
Some the objectives were:
• copy a pattern either depicted or molded for them
• extend a pattern already started for them
• created a pattern of their own
Observations:
Using colored chain links, some students were able to copy a given or drawn pattern. Others were
able to extend a pattern by building on what had already been started. And some students were
even created their own pattern using the colored links.
MA Standards:
Look for and describe patterns and relationships (PreK-LS1-2
PreK-LS1-3,)
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ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:
City/Village Collages
The South Egremont School is thinking about what makes a city, or in our neighborhood, a
village, work. Children are reading books about urban neighborhoods and thinking about all the
interconnecting jobs that help a community to function. The books we are reading are helping
children notice the details of the world around them—features like farms, fields, houses, mailboxes,
traffic lights, garbage collection, important village buildings— and the people who do jobs that make
our town work. This week we looked closely at illustrations of towns and cities in our books created with
collage and learned about some amazing collage artists like Roamer Bearden, Ekua Holmes and Mark
Bradford. Children began working on their own collaged cityscapes. They tore, cut, arranged, organized
and adhered interesting shapes and textures to create amazing cities and neighborhoods at night.
As a result of instruction, students will be able to:
• demonstrate initiative, self -direction, and independence.
• create representations of experiences or stories and explain them to others.
• with guidance and support, use a combination of drawing, building with blocks or other materials, or
dictating to construct maps and other representations of familiar places.
Observations:
Ms. Didi and I noticed how incredibly focused and engaged the entire class was as they "shopped" for
materials, tried things out and built multi-layered images of homes and neighborhoods where many people
lived. It was interesting to hear ideas and stories shared as they worked - about restaurants, traffic lights,
playgrounds, schools and post offices!
"We can put some stars in later, because this is the city at night!" "I'm going to make a person walking." "Mine
has a horse because a horse can pull a carriage there."
MA Standards:
APL1., APL4., SL.PK.5 , PK.T2.3
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HIGH SCHOOL:
Portfolio Development
Advanced level art students in Portfolio class work with a variety of media and techniques in their artwork.
They spend the semester contributing to a body of work that exemplifies both breadth and depth. In the first
quarter, they are given assignments that challenge them in a certain medium. They go through an artistic thinking
process of exploration, practice, and concept development before completing their compositions. Students will
hone in on a passion or idea in a sustained investigation in the second quarter. They document their work and
create a website to house and share their portfolio, which in the end, is comprised of about 15 pieces of their best
work from the past two years.
As a result of instruction, students will be able to:
• use the artistic thinking process to problem solve, build technical skills, and develop ideas.
• create a body of work that shows artistic growth, the communication of ideas, risk-taking, and personal voice.
• document and share a collection of artwork, including an artist statement.
Observations:
Depending on their personal goals – whether it be applying to an art program or a creative field, building
skills, etc., students are typically at varying stages of artistic development and practice. The class works well
because each assignment allows them either work with new materials or take their previous experience to a new
level. They are measured by their growth, effort, and knowledge and application of the elements and principles
of art in the communication of ideas. Sometimes colleges have specific criteria to include in their portfolios, or
students may have a particular artistic career path in mind. The class allows them to focus on their needs as they
prepare for their future.
MA Standards:
Generate original ideas that integrate aesthetic principles with individual personal style while pushing the
boundaries of style, genre, medium, and connections (A.V.Cr.01).
Document personal strategies used regularly to organize artistic ideas (A.V.Cr. 02)
Select, analyze, and interpret artistic work for presentation. Organize and plan an art exhibition that explores a
personally meaningful theme, idea, or concept. ((A.V.P.06)
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HIGH SCHOOL:
Portfolio Development (continued)
Evelyn Vollmer, grade 11
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Ivy Ben Webster David, grade 12
Shira Sawyer, grade 12
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