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On Monday, after sleepy students arrive at school from the weekend, we start with morning meeting in homeroom. Morning meeting is a time for each homeroom to share compliments and/or appreciations with each other as well as anything that comes up including concerns or dilemmas that we might have. It is a good way to start off our day because we can bring up things that are troubling us and, with a little help from our friends and teachers, solve those problems. –Lola
I literally run into school each day. Before, I never remembered looking forward to school, but now I do. All of the teachers are standing in the hallway, and they always say hello. I look forward to that every morning. Each homeroom is a mix of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. Sometimes we have a class meeting, where we discuss important events coming up, such as the Spring Concert, the Science Fair, and Mayday, which is a huge all-school festival on May 1st where we set up booths like you see at carnivals. For the Spring Concert, the entire middle school chorus is performing, as is the lower school chorus. Some classes do things based on what they are working on. For example, I recently took a class called Rock Band. We are playing some songs at the concert that we have been working on in class. Other times in homeroom, we just talk, share stories and get ready for the day. –LaurenStudents and teachers alike offer suggestions, express concerns, and celebrate the successes of our community. –Danielle
Socratic seminar my favorite class. In Socratic Seminar we first choose a piece such as a poem, a picture, a song, or really, anything that can be analyzed or discussed (which is just about anything!). Then we have about fifteen minutes to annotate the piece. We write down thoughts, questions, comments, and observations. After the fifteen minutes we start a discussion on the piece, and we share our thoughts on it. Socratic is not an argument, it is just a discussion on a topic to find potential meanings. Depending on the group dynamic, you can get some very good and meaningful conversations out of Socratic Seminar. –Joe
Socratic Seminar is where we go into great detail about something. One of our subjects has been, 'What is the difference between knowing something and understanding something?' Then after we got this question, we tried to figure out the answer. It is philosophy. -Chris
My favorite class at Sparhawk is creative writing. It is an elective, and I look forward to it every Tuesday and Thursday. Writing is one of my favorite hobbies and I get the chance to fulfill my interests at school. Creative writing isn’t your typical Language Arts class. The focus is not grammar and mechanics like other aspects of our Language Arts program. Creative writing class is just what it’s called. We channel our creative brain-power to make stories and poems. We learn different writing styles, and make up our own. After the teacher gives us a writing “intro” or challenge, we grab our computers and begin. Creative writing is the best class ever! -JoSince I love to write, my favorite class is creative writing. I have written a lot of stories, so I was thrilled when I saw that Sparhawk had an entire class for it. My favorite writing genre is “horror”, and the teacher lets me write that during our free-writes. I like creative writing because it has a very calming atmosphere. We get honest opinions about our stories. When I’m at home, I am not always sure they will be frank about my work, but at Sparhawk, I know that I will be encouraged in an honest way. -LaurenOne of my favorite subjects is creative writing. My favorite part of this class is free writing. I also love when we write stories to read out loud to the younger students. It’s really fun to come up with stories and invent characters and that is another reason I really like creative writing. It’s really fun to just relax and write! -Lola
I really like math, but I never realized it until I came to Sparhawk. Before Sparhawk, I was always put in my grade-level class and that did not challenge me. The teachers at Sparhawk realized this, and within two days, I was in Algebra, which is how I found out that I really loved math. Students at Sparhawk are put in math classes based on their ability, not grade. I really like that. -Lauren My favorite class is math. I am in Course 3 math and it is really fun and challenging. Every day, when I walk into math class, the teacher has something new for us to work on. We are always puzzled by problems that really work our brain. Our teacher is getting us ready for high school by preparing us with challenging algebra problems. We also just had a math fair where we designed projects. I presented a math game but I particularly enjoyed another student’s project about shearing sheep. It was really fun working on math in these ways. –Cam
Music is one of my favorite favorite classes at Sparhawk. The class is nice and small so we all get a lot of attention but we also have enough people to harmonize which is very fun. We get to alternate the types of instruments we use, or, for example, you may get a different drum every day, and each one sounds completely different from the other. We also vary our music from day to day so we get a wide variety of beats. Also we get to explore different cultures and their music. We just began to learn about West African beats, which are very fun to learn. -Wesley
Art at Sparhawk School is really fun. We get several electives that have different themes for art and music. This trimester I am taking a sewing class called Sublime Rags. We learn a lot of different techniques and after only three classes, I already know how to do the back stitch, straight stitch, over stitch, and how to thread and use a sewing machine! There are also other options for art. Like in the first trimester, I did a class on ancient cultures and we made Aztec masks. In that class we put plaster strips on each other's faces and waited for them to dry so that we could make the masks. After we did the plaster, we covered the masks in paint. Then we brought in rocks and tiles to cover the masks so that they looked like actual Aztec masks. This was a cool experience and before I came to Sparhawk I hated art. But now thanks to the awesome art teacher, I love it. –SethOur art teacher is excellent. Last trimester I took an art class called the Art of Black and White. There were a lot of really interesting projects completed in that class, created from different types of black and white media only, no color. I have actually incorporated that concept into a video game I am playing at home. During the last class of last trimester, we had a party. We actually sampled black and white foods in celebration. -Lauren
My favorite class in school is Language Arts. I enjoy this class because we incorporate a lot of reading into our class. Right now we are reading Fahrenheit 451 and A Dogs Journey. Our teacher is reading us A Dogs Journey out loud, which I really enjoy. I like that he picks books for us that we might not pick for ourselves. A lot of the time I end up really liking the books that he chooses. We also read a lot of short stories and answer questions about what we have read, which is something I really like to do. –KatieOne of the biggest projects we do is Speech. This project takes place right after we get back from Christmas break and we work on it until March. For speech, each student picks a topic and writes a persuasive essay about it. All the students work on some variation of speech, but after writing and revising draft after draft, the eighth graders present theirs to a large audience made up of family and friends. Doing speech helps us develop our writing and public speaking skills. –LolaWe have just finished our speeches, which we are all required to write and then present in March. Our teacher is reading a book out loud to us. I don’t think you can ever be too old for that. I sketch while he is reading, but I’m still listening. At the school I used to go to, I was not allowed to draw, but at Sparhawk, they know it helps me focus. In fact, my science fair project last year was on drawing and how it affects people’s focus. -Lauren
My favorite class of the day is science. In science, we learn about a lot of cool stuff like gravity, simple machines, tides and craters. Did you know that an object at rest will remain at rest until acted on by another force? That fact is actually one of Newton’s Laws of Gravity. I particularly loved our unit on Astronomy. I really like Science because you learn very cool and interesting stuff. -Misha
Science at Sparhawk School is a very informative class. Some days in science, we work from our science book while other days we conduct experiments. Currently in science we are learning about chemistry. We have learned about density and physical and chemical properties. I am looking forward to learning about acids and bases. Soon we are going to start working on our science fair projects. –Jacob
The first class we have is science, the only class that is not integrated with multi-grade students. I am with all the other eighth graders, doing chemistry. We do a lot of interactive experiments, where everyone gets a chance to be part of an important procedure. Every spring, we have a science fair. After choosing a topic that interests us, we perform experiments. Sometimes, other students will volunteer to be test subjects in experiments they find fun. There is no contest. We strive to create a non-competitive atmosphere so we can all learn in our own way. We learn about Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences which shows that each student has strength in different areas. We conduct a lot of experiments in science class. They are very interactive; very hands-on. Everyone has a part in what we’re doing. -Lauren
I don’t think most middle schools have recess, but we do. Twice a day, in fact. Some students play Elimination, which is a game not unlike dodge-ball. Other groups of students sit on Lily’s rock and just talk. Lily’s rock is this huge boulder that we are allowed to hang out on if we want. Some students are gathered around the tetherball court. Others are working on building their massive fort on the perimeter of the woods. -Lauren
At break time, the school store, which is run by students, opens and you can buy snacks. The money collected by the school store goes to the end of the year trip. –Chris
During break time, the Sparhawk campus buzzes with social activity. Students gather in clusters of friends. (Yes, everyone has friends here!) conversing and munching on snacks, or they dash outside to play a quick pickup game of soccer, touch football, or basketball. There are as many activities as there are ideas. -Kelly In winter, we use the hill behind our school to sled. We also build snowmen and snow forts. That is, of course, if we get enough snow! –Lola
Just like snack, lunch is a time where we can relax and talk to our friends. Every Friday, we serve pizza to students who choose to buy it. It is a student-run business. One of us collects orders on Wednesday, one of us calls in the order on Thursday, and we all help serve on Friday. -Lauren
Spanish- In Spanish class, we don’t constantly sit hearing something and have to write it down. We take breaks to play games to help us memorize things. I am happy that I’ve been able to learn about verbs and adjectives this year. One of the most fun games is when the teacher throws a stuffed animal to different people and asks them to translate different phrases. We also read and perform skits, which are fun. We work in groups to translate them and practice reading for each of the different roles.It’s nice that the class is a small group, so it’s not like there are people constantly shouting things out. We also practice asking and answering different questions with each other, and we go around the room and do surveys to practice new phrases. We cook foods from different countries and we learn about and celebrate El día de los muertos, The Day of the Dead. –Jerry
French –Learning a foreign language helps open my head up, which is very helpful. We are always learning new concepts. Our teacher asks us questions in French and we answer them in French. We go over homework, which might be fill in the blanks or answering questions from the text. Sometimes we perform skits as well. We also study the history of France as well as the food and holidays they celebrate. We celebrated on a Friday when we finished a chapter by cooking up some crepes in our school kitchen and watching asterix et obelix a famous cartoon!
Fridays at Sparhawk School are not like other days in the week. We have classes such as Community Time/History Live, Enrichments, Chorus, and Applied Math. During lunch, we can order pizza. During Community Time/History Live, we go to Lowell’s Boat Shop, participate in community service, or reenact historic moments we are studying. In enrichments you can choose a class where you can do fun things like design paper airplanes or buildings, debate, learn to cook, play sports, write articles for the school newspaper, and many more. In chorus we practice our singing skills and practice for concerts. There is also a period called applied math. In applied math, we find out how we can use math in real life. So that is what we do on Friday. –SeanFridays at Sparhawk are always fun and filled with positive energy. My favorite part of Friday is the debate enrichment called “Arguably the Best”. In this enrichment, two sides are pitted against each other in a debate about topics such as, but not limited to: Video games, do they cause violence or not? Vampires, real or fake? It is really fun to be part of a friendly debate in which you must prove your friend’s argument wrong, and yours correct. We take turns speaking about our side from a podium at the front of the class, and the other side is allowed to counter your point by saying “P.O.I.!” (point of interest) while you are speaking. It is a really fun class, and our cries of “Case Closed!” or “P.O.I.!” echo through the class with a magnitude of positive energy. – Erik
I love enrichment classes on Fridays. They help me exercise areas of learning that I really enjoy. I have never not enjoyed enrichments! –Casey Fridays are coolFridays at our middle schoolFridays make me happyLike bubble gum and taffyHere at Sparhawk we have our own wayAll I have to say is yay, yay, yay-Mikaila
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