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!