2018.12.7 – Saxe Weekly – The Saxe weekly

December 7, 2018

Quote(s) that resonated with us this week:

“Attitudes are contagious. Make yours worth catching.”

“It doesn’t matter what others are doing, it matters what you are doing.”

“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.”

“If it’s important to you, you’ll find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.”

Dear Saxe Family,

I hope you had a wonderful week. This week, we take a closer look at World Language, Digital Citizenship. English Language Arts (ELA), Alice in Wonderland, and more!

Have a nice weekend,

Dave Gusitsch

Principal, Saxe Middle School

Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:

12/11 NCHS/Saxe Orchestra Festival

Want to check out the weekly from last week? Click, here.

One Second Everyday:

Back again for this week – Saxe Middle School 1-Second Everyday! “Life is made of seconds.” Check out the latest clips from each day of the 2018-19 school year (so far), showcasing so much of what makes Saxe Middle School great. This will be a recurring, bi-weekly feature. Enjoy!

Pro tip: want to enjoy it more? Set your youtube playback setting to play at .75 speed

Social Studies

In our Digital Citizenship course, students become increasingly aware of how our online behaviors can have positive and negative consequences. In grade 6, students engage in a lesson called the “Trillion Dollar Footprint.” Students are asked to read the profiles (digital footprints) of two candidates who wish to compete in a popular (but fictitious) talent show. The executive producer is looking for candidates who work well with others and who are honest. Students read profiles containing information about the candidates online activities. They work collaboratively, reviewing the profiles in order to make a suggestion about which candidate would be the best and why.

Making Thinking Visible In ELA Classrooms

Students in grades 5-8 are reading closely and deeply across texts to recognize how authors craft ideas to achieve universal ideas. In order to show thinking, students create visual representations to synthesize across texts to compare/contrast and critically view structures as intentional and significant. Students in fifth grade are comparing and contrasting how symbols exist throughout texts to impact a thematic message, while sixth-grade learners are studying the motivations and pressures (conflicts) that authors create to teach a universal theme. Seventh graders are mapping setting and mood through visual notes to compare/contrast author techniques, and eighth graders are synthesizing across texts to show how themes about power live within literature. These visual representations help children to map out and rehearse their critical thinking before moving toward a writing task. Here are a few examples of visual strategies being used in our ELA classrooms to push thinking to a deep, conceptual level.

Spanish

The Fifth grade FLES Program is similar to K-4 program. Students learn to use Spanish by using the language actively. As students learn to identify the colonies of the United States, they practice their locations by also talking about the different types of activities they can participate in based on the location and weather of that state. Here are 5th-grade students learning to express their preferences (“yo prefiero”) and to give reasons (“porque”) for their preferences. Ask your child where they would prefer to go over Winter Break – la playa o la montaña – and to give 3 reasons in Spanish for their choice. For example – “Yo prefiero la playa porque me gusta el calor, y porque yo puedo nadar en el océano, y porque yo soy activo.”

Mrs. Milositz’s FLES class has been creating slideshows to highlight the colonies they are studying in their Social Studies class with Mrs. Carter. Using their PERSIA GT charts that they researched and completed during Social Studies, students have focused on the geography aspect of their respective colonies and have prepared short presentations in Spanish.

8th graders’ presented recently, Se hace así. They taught the class sports, cooking, drawing, baking, and even how to grill steak!

Saxe in the News

This week’s New Canaanite “Full Disclosure” covers the recent 5th/6th-grade play, Alice in Wonderland. It nicely captures the scope of what goes into a middle school play, at the highest level. Enjoy this humorous, insightful look by one of our very own PTC Co-Presidents, Susan Gelvin.