How Much Does One
Person Matter?
There are many things teachers can do to engage students
with difficult lessons. One of the most
difficult lessons to grasp for adolescents is the cumulative impact of many
small actions.
Whether it be voting in elections, participating as a part
of a larger team, or doing small acts of community service (like our Green Team’s
initiatives) adolescents (and some adults) so often want to see immediate
feedback and impact of their small act.
When they cannot get this, as is often the case when doing small
positive things, they too often and too easily disengage from participating.
This is one of the core reasons for our Spirit “competition”
between teams.
Today we announced that our P1 team had the most students
turn in forms from our Chicken Parm Fundraiser.
They, with 86% participation, beat out P2 by 1% and Mohawk by a bit
more. Please note that to participate,
students did not need to make a purchase but needed to simply turn in their sheet. We have a little more than 1150 students and
only 1/3 of our students placed orders for dinners. This means that many more students
participated who did NOT order dinners.
I put quotes around the word competition above because there
aren’t huge consequences attached to winning and losing our spirit contests. We have a ‘house cup’ we’ll award to the
eventual overall team winner at the end of the year and that’s it!
We minimize the overall reward in this instance to
underscore the importance of the larger intrinsic message; to be a part of a
community and to have community one must be communal. That’s hard enough when one’s community is
more than a 1,000 people, and even harder when they are adolescents whose
intellectual smarts are way ahead of their emotional smarts.
Community is what spirit, participation, and engagement are
about. When a person fully joins with
his or her community it’s never easy.
There can be as much bad as good and as much dysfunction as
teamwork. But the teachable lesson for
our students is that dealing with any of the sad or negative aspects in any
community are better than being isolated and not having a community. This too is a lesson that can be enormously
difficult for many children whose personal circumstance leads them to see more
of the negative aspects of community than positive, which is all the more
reason why we make every attempt to build in safe opportunities for students to
participate.
While I offer congratulations to our P1 students for their
small victory, the ultimate prize for all of our students comes to those who
make the effort, who try regardless of success or failure, and who receive
positive support from their community for engaging! While our P1 students gave a small cheer this
morning, our Mohawk and P2 students felt a little more unity in making the
effort communally!
Well done and have a great weekend!
Mr. Klugman
...and as to the title of this piece... it was one participant that pushed P1 ahead of P2. How much does one person matter? A great deal!
End of Week Notes
Reminder: Semester Change
- Mr. Warford reminded all students today that they should check their schedules to confirm their rotations through exploratory classes (Art, Music, and Technology). For 6th graders Technology offerings are either ATM (Academic Technology Management) or CL (Computer Literacy)
- There is never a better time to work on expectations for organization than at quarter breaks. Parents can check students agendas, have students show you their homework and all in an affirmative tone where we, as parents, compliment them for getting back into, or continuing their positive practice.
It's not what you'd expect...
- The BCMS musical is absolutely not what you'd expect from a middle school musical. It's so much more! Thanks to the direction of Jason and Lynsdey Dashew and our amazing cast this year's production will far exceed any expectations!
What is FASS?
- FASS is Friday After School Support
- students can either be assigned to it or can voluntarily opt into it to receive support in the form of math or ELA help, in the form of a quiet place to do work, and in the form of having access to computers if needed.
- We routinely have a math teacher, an ELA teacher and any combination of Mr. Klugman (science support), Mr. Warford (ELA and SS support) and Mr. Zadoorian (ELA and SS support) to work with students
- Parents and students who would like more information can call our counselors
- We meet every Friday from 3:00 to 5:00 PM
Wow, We were really impressed by our 8th graders!
- Our snowflake 8th grade dance was a huge success and largely due to the behaviors of our 8th grade students who were appropriate to a person. Thanks to Mrs. Vincent, Health teacher and SADD coordinator for her support and organization, to our SADD students, to Mr. Warford and Mr. Zadoorian for their work behind the scenes to support students, and to our parent and staff chaperones! Well done!
Monday, Jan 26
- 1st day of Semester 2 - HB and exploratory transitions
Tuesday, Jan 27
- Late Buses
Wed, Jan 28
- Late buses
Thurs, Jan 29
- OPENING NIGHT - Bye, Bye Birdie - BCMS Musical
- Late buses
Fri, Jan 30
- Bye Bye Birdie continues
- Q2 report cards published to Aspen
Sat. Jan 31
- Bye, Bye Birdie Matinee and Evening Shows ...last day to see a great production
