The time of year that every Henley parent has looked forward to in recent years is again upon us. What time is that, you ask? Report cards? Not quite. School dances? Well, yes, but that's not what I'm thinking about. Winter Break? No such luck.
The time of year I'm talking about, of course, is the annual PATSO magazine drive. The magazine drive has been a Henley tradition for many years now and has allowed our PATSO to support both teachers and students in a number of ways. The funds we have raised in previous years have gone toward providing a lunch fund for some students in need, purchasing equipment for our classrooms such as computers, digital cameras, and ELMOS (if you've never seen an ELMO, it's really cool--sort of like an overhead projector on steroids), and supporting our teachers with classroom supplies and the occasional meal or two. We've been squirling away much of the money that we've earned over the past couple of magazine drives for a big ticket item that may finally be close to reality--a replacement for the Henley Hive.
For those of you who don't know the history of the Hive, it was a huge play structure that was incredibly popular with the students of Henley. Unfortunately, the hive had to come down when we did our most recent renovation, and we've been fighting a nightmare of red tape trying to get it replaced. It looks like the pieces of the puzzle are finally beginning to come together, and we hope to have an announcement about a new Hive sometime before the end of the year.
In all seriousness, I know that hawking these magazines isn't always the most appealing activity for our parents, but it does allow Henley to do some things that we otherwise wouldn't be able to do. Our kids really get some cool prizes and awards from it as well. This year there will be a BMX show one day after school for students reaching a certain benchmark, and the ever-popular limousine rides are also making their return.
I truly appreciate all of the blood, sweat and tears that goes into this drive every year and look forward to your continued support.
Here's what happening at Henley over the next few weeks:
September 25--Tornado and lockdown drills
September 25/26--Interim reports distributed
September 28--Back-to-School Dance 4:00-6:30
October 1--PATSO meeting 7:00
October 4 and 10--Parent conferences 4:30-8:15
I hope to see you at many of these events.
Go Hornets!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Sixth Grade Social
Sorry it's been a while since the last update to this page. The pace is really picking up at Henley with students, teachers and administrators back in full swing! All of us at Henley are being pulled in many different directions every day. My days consist of, among other things, classroom visits, grade level and department meetings with teachers, at least fifty e-mail messages a day, lunch duty in the cafeteria, and meetings with parents. The time commitments placed upon our teachers are demanding as well with lesson preparation, grading papers, teaching classes, and going to meetings of their own.
When I think about how busy we are and in how many different directions we are pulled, I think also of how hectic life has become for our students. At Henley, the vast majority of our students have high levels of intrinsic motivation to succeed in the classroom. They work hard while they are in school and work just as hard when they leave to study and complete their homework assignments. On top of this, most of our kids are involved in some type of extracurricular activities. I know students who travel out of town several days a week for gymnastics, who play on multiple sports teams during the week, who are involved in any number of civic and community service activities. It amazes me how much busier everyone is compared to when I was in middle school, and it makes me wonder sometimes, when do these kids get to be kids?
I like to think that we provide several opportunities throughout the year for kids to be kids at Henley. The first of these took place this past Friday with our sixth grade social. It looked like almost all of the sixth grade turned out for this activity which included dancing, a limbo contest, bingo, an open gymnasium, and an open computer lab. It was one of my first chances to see some of our students in a different light, without many of the restrictions that we place on them during the day. They were truly kids being kids.
There will be many more opportunities for moments such as this as we move on through the year. We have a dance just about every month and I can't wait to interact with our kids at our first school-wide dance on the 28th. We also have activity periods just about every month. The first of these is this Friday, and the activities that are offered for our students to "let loose" a little bit during the school day include an Elvis club, a Harry Potter club, basketball, football, movies, and computer activities just to name a few. Activity period has long been a tradition at Henley and several other middle schools in the county. It really lets us see our students in a different light and allows us to interact with them in a different way. I'm truly looking forward to this Friday, and to seeing how much fun we are going to have.
Here's what's happening at Henley over the next few weeks:
September 21--Activity Period
September 25/26--Interim Reports distributed to students
September 26--Magazine Drive Kickoff
September 28--Back-to-School Dance
October 1--PATSO meeting--7:00 p.m.
Go Hornets!
When I think about how busy we are and in how many different directions we are pulled, I think also of how hectic life has become for our students. At Henley, the vast majority of our students have high levels of intrinsic motivation to succeed in the classroom. They work hard while they are in school and work just as hard when they leave to study and complete their homework assignments. On top of this, most of our kids are involved in some type of extracurricular activities. I know students who travel out of town several days a week for gymnastics, who play on multiple sports teams during the week, who are involved in any number of civic and community service activities. It amazes me how much busier everyone is compared to when I was in middle school, and it makes me wonder sometimes, when do these kids get to be kids?
I like to think that we provide several opportunities throughout the year for kids to be kids at Henley. The first of these took place this past Friday with our sixth grade social. It looked like almost all of the sixth grade turned out for this activity which included dancing, a limbo contest, bingo, an open gymnasium, and an open computer lab. It was one of my first chances to see some of our students in a different light, without many of the restrictions that we place on them during the day. They were truly kids being kids.
There will be many more opportunities for moments such as this as we move on through the year. We have a dance just about every month and I can't wait to interact with our kids at our first school-wide dance on the 28th. We also have activity periods just about every month. The first of these is this Friday, and the activities that are offered for our students to "let loose" a little bit during the school day include an Elvis club, a Harry Potter club, basketball, football, movies, and computer activities just to name a few. Activity period has long been a tradition at Henley and several other middle schools in the county. It really lets us see our students in a different light and allows us to interact with them in a different way. I'm truly looking forward to this Friday, and to seeing how much fun we are going to have.
Here's what's happening at Henley over the next few weeks:
September 21--Activity Period
September 25/26--Interim Reports distributed to students
September 26--Magazine Drive Kickoff
September 28--Back-to-School Dance
October 1--PATSO meeting--7:00 p.m.
Go Hornets!
Sunday, September 2, 2007
A walk through the halls
I just got done taking a look at my calendar for the past week at Henley. It goes without saying that it was quite full. There were school board meetings, meetings with parents, interviews, conferences with teachers, a meeting with the superintendent, some meetings before school, and many after school hours. This is all part of the job, and all of these activities are helping me to work toward building the best school possible for our Henley Hornets. I’ve never been a big fan of meetings, however, and I’ve found that they can wear on a person. Some people re-energize from these by having a cup of coffee or a Diet Coke, but not me (although I do drink my fair share of Diet Coke). For me the best way to get the juices flowing and to get energized is to walk through the halls of Henley and to pop my head into some classes. I just got back to my office from such a walk, and wanted to share with you some of the absolutely wonderful experiences that I had.
Each seventh grade social studies room that I walked into was alive with students working together in small groups on a US geography lesson. They were using graphic organizers, technology, and cooperative learning to divide the United States into several geographic regions.
In an eighth grade civics/economics class, students were writing their first research papers of the year. They were position papers on topics of their choice. The students I spoke with were forming arguments for or against such diverse and relevant topics as the war in Iraq and the constitutional rights of students. It was refreshing and invigorating to see these kids forming logical arguments for or against their position. When I engaged them with questions from the “other side’s” perspective, they were quick to challenge my way of thinking in favor of theirs.
My next stop was the gym where a vigorous game of “crab soccer” was underway. If you’ve never experienced this game, it is a sight to behold, as students crab-walk around the gym attempting to kick over sized balls over a wall of students who are trying to prevent them from doing such. The noise level alone in a crab soccer game is something I’ll never forget.
Finally, I stopped into a seventh grade math class that really had kids thinking outside of the box. Robert Marzano, in his book Classroom Instruction That Works, identifies nine research-based strategies that have proven to be effective means of raising levels of student achievement. Two of those techniques were in play in this class—identifying similarities and differences, and creating nonlinguistic representations. This teacher was putting a new spin on Venn Diagrams by having students identify similarities and differences between different types of numbers (real, rational, irrational, whole, integers, etc). Instead of the traditional three or four circle diagram, he asked them to get more creative on how they could classify these numbers. One group used a map of North America and broke the numbers into different geographic regions, one used a picture of a pancake breakfast with butter, syrup, and the pancake itself representing different groups, and one group had a girl who was wearing two-foot wide flower on her head. Unfortunately, my time in this class was limited, and I never got to saw exactly what her group had in mind, but she caught me after school and let me know that the results were hilarious.
Needless to say, I returned to my office refreshed, invigorated, and incredibly pleased at the work the teachers at Henley were doing. I know that I could walk through our halls on any given day and relate similar tales of students who are engaged and thinking.
What a year this is going to be!
Here are a few dates to keep in mind over the next couple of weeks:
September 5, 7:00-9:00 Back to school night
September 14, 4:00-5:30 6th grade social
September 25/26—Interim reports distributed
September 26—PATSO magazine drive kickoff
September 28—Back-to-School Dance, 4:00-6:30
Go Hornets!
Each seventh grade social studies room that I walked into was alive with students working together in small groups on a US geography lesson. They were using graphic organizers, technology, and cooperative learning to divide the United States into several geographic regions.
In an eighth grade civics/economics class, students were writing their first research papers of the year. They were position papers on topics of their choice. The students I spoke with were forming arguments for or against such diverse and relevant topics as the war in Iraq and the constitutional rights of students. It was refreshing and invigorating to see these kids forming logical arguments for or against their position. When I engaged them with questions from the “other side’s” perspective, they were quick to challenge my way of thinking in favor of theirs.
My next stop was the gym where a vigorous game of “crab soccer” was underway. If you’ve never experienced this game, it is a sight to behold, as students crab-walk around the gym attempting to kick over sized balls over a wall of students who are trying to prevent them from doing such. The noise level alone in a crab soccer game is something I’ll never forget.
Finally, I stopped into a seventh grade math class that really had kids thinking outside of the box. Robert Marzano, in his book Classroom Instruction That Works, identifies nine research-based strategies that have proven to be effective means of raising levels of student achievement. Two of those techniques were in play in this class—identifying similarities and differences, and creating nonlinguistic representations. This teacher was putting a new spin on Venn Diagrams by having students identify similarities and differences between different types of numbers (real, rational, irrational, whole, integers, etc). Instead of the traditional three or four circle diagram, he asked them to get more creative on how they could classify these numbers. One group used a map of North America and broke the numbers into different geographic regions, one used a picture of a pancake breakfast with butter, syrup, and the pancake itself representing different groups, and one group had a girl who was wearing two-foot wide flower on her head. Unfortunately, my time in this class was limited, and I never got to saw exactly what her group had in mind, but she caught me after school and let me know that the results were hilarious.
Needless to say, I returned to my office refreshed, invigorated, and incredibly pleased at the work the teachers at Henley were doing. I know that I could walk through our halls on any given day and relate similar tales of students who are engaged and thinking.
What a year this is going to be!
Here are a few dates to keep in mind over the next couple of weeks:
September 5, 7:00-9:00 Back to school night
September 14, 4:00-5:30 6th grade social
September 25/26—Interim reports distributed
September 26—PATSO magazine drive kickoff
September 28—Back-to-School Dance, 4:00-6:30
Go Hornets!
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