October conference prep and a personal pie chart

Parent/Advisor/Advisee “getting to know you” conferences are October 5th/6th this fall.  Students will tell the advocates in their lives about their academic goals, dreams and hopes for high school and college and talk about possible career fields out there!  We can’t imagine a better way to show support to the students we serve each day than to take the time to really focus on each one individually.
 See below for an artifact some groups filled out to try to organize all the things on their minds and hearts this year in Middle School.  What does your “emotional pie chart” look like?   

Nature Trail Clean Up!!

"Service learning is a process of involving students in community service activities combined with facilitated means for applying the experience to their academic and personal development.  It is a form of experiential education aimed at enhancing and enriching student learning in course material.  When compared to other forms of experiential learning like internships and cooperative education, it is similar in that it is student-centered, hands-on and directly applicable to the curriculum.” - http://www.uncfsu.edu/civic-engagement/service-learning/definition-of-service-learning

This afternoon, Miss O’Connor, Mr. Johnson, Miss Simpson and Ms. Michalski invited middle school students to gain authentic service experience and lifelong memories of what it feels like to give back to their community.  When our students participate in opportunities to come together to pick up trash from our school property, they inherently became more attached to their school while learning the value of hard work... and environmental conservation!  These are ideas we reflect on often during the school day, but our kids were motivated and driven today to serve and to embody what it means to give selflessly.  See the rebirth of the nature trail below.
GO TEAM NATURE TRAIL CLEAN UP! :-)   PHOTO Creds: David Cappaert and Ashley O’Connor.

  

The Journey with Johnson...

Appointed photographer, Zachary, captures the spirit of his advisory group.

Included below:

one awkwardly close pic of Nathan, Nito and his new bud Nicholas gaming, Bernard and Jerry snacking and listening, and Keegan just being warm, supportive, original Keegan... amazing hair and all! 

  

Was this single gender group a mistake? No way! Experiences can be richer and more meaningful in groups where students feel like they can be themselves.  No easy task in the middle school years...

Thank you, Mr. Johnson! 

Cookie the gecko does advisory?!!!!

Corinne, Nannette, Abdullah, Andre, Joshua and Bryan and... Cookie (the gecko) hung out during advisory this morning.  They talked about the difference between aggressive and assertive, bossy versus decisive and more! 6th graders work to learn about themselves every day, but especially with a caring advisor... named Ms. Couch! Cookie is certainly a welcome member of The Scooby Doo Sluggers because, well, he is a gecko and that is just plain cool enough.

 Cookie does advisory! One lucky gecko.

BFFs! 

3rd Friday, emotional intelligence and a snack fest!

Advisory groups can be proud of themselves for... showing care and listening skills!  Designing logos together! sharing about their weekends! playing social-skills-Jenga!  We are off and running with getting in touch with who we are and who we want to be.

See below for some pics from our morning. 

If you have questions about any and all things advisory you can email Ms. Elizabeth Wilson at wilsl001@hartfordschools.org 

Enjoy!

 Ms. O’Connor giving love to students who got dirty helping to clean up the nature trail last weekend. Great job!!













Leah making an announcement about her weekend football game and the student reps running community meetings! :-)

 

Anasty and Luis creating personal logos. 

Chow time! Ms. Devlin’s group feasted in the garden lab together and talked about their weekends!  Looks like an awesome culinary collaboration.     

Ashanti showing off her advisory group’s Mascot. A squash called an Opo / Calabash. 

Mikalah, Suhas and Colin showing their advisory logo poster. “ALWAYS FLY!” 

Tali, Junaid and José using Mr. Smith’s crafts to build a strong identity.  (Mr. Smith has crafts?)

Do you have high emotional intelligence!?  Ms. Couch’s group uncovered what that means and then rated themselves to get in touch with personal character traits.  Very deep stuff!

7th graders playing UNO to break the ice before snacking on homemade cupcakes. Jealous! 

The “fraternity” of Mr. Johnson’s all male group builds relationships through... gaming of course! This group is getting tight.   

 

Nito and Mr. Johnson playing it cool, but also talking about their feelings! Social/emotional Jenga makes advisees discover things they didn’t know about themselves. 

William and Meghna designing a team advisory logo.  They are “The Inventors” and decided to use gears to symbolize the inner workings of their group.  What color will it be? What will each color represent?  Good job, guys! 

Service learning brainstorm!

Mr. Baerny’s group made a brainstorm circle of ideas for how to begin service learning this year.  Where might you want to volunteer?  How does helping others make you feel? How does it make others feel? What actions can you take every day to help others?  How can service learning become a lifestyle instead of a temporary activity?

communication, leadership and literally building a new home!

Ms. Feltes’ advisory thrived on Friday trying to building a shelter that all could fit under using only newspaper and masking tape. Not easy, and not to be forgotten.  Students were not allowed to communicate with words, just actions, movements, and facial expressions.  In our bigger picture of “building the house we want to live in”, consider all the ways we accomplish tasks together and learn in the process.  The frustrations, mistakes and rebuilding are all worth the trouble when we think about working to reach goals and valuing the journey.  Wow! GO team!

2nd Friday! Slogans, team names and togetherness.

“Be yourself, don’t let anyone else decide your fate.”  -Shakiara Levest (6th grade)

Advisors and advisees were busy this morning building identities of their group.  Ms. Couch’s group talked about the upcoming year’s events- conferences, digital citizenship, roles of the advisor and college readiness!  Ms. O’Connor’s group uncovered life-question cards like, what would you do if your friend needed help and... or what does it mean to be loyal.  Ms. Simpson’s group are pros at Jenga! (and talking about personal identifiers like values and what is important in your life).  Ms. Riendeau’s group finally solidified their team name: The Aqua Rockets! Ms. Braunwart worked with advisees to find similarities between their “all about me” papers. Cool!

See pics below for what building a community can look like.

Yanayra better be careful with that Jenga- there’s some social/emotional topics to discuss on each block.  :-)

The very best marker box in the world. Go Jorge! 

Grade themes!

Mr. Barry leading “The A-Team” with their mascot: a panther! 

Kimberly can knit?! Never knew that!

Ms. Wilson said to “look up” for the photo. 7th grade in action! 

Mrs. Perreira helping Christofer with his favorite snacks sheet- very important stuff. 

They are “the hedgehogs”!! 

Building a Community- OUR WAY!

Hello!
Greetings, faculty announcements, student announcements then shout outs and dismissal.  That is order of events for our brand new addition to advisory- Community Meetings!
Each month we will gather together as a middle school family, talking about parts of our school that need tightening up and making sure we are all on the same page about upcoming events and celebrations.  Today’s especially touching moment came from a brand new 6th grader to ESM named Jalil Peña.  Jalil courageously announced a shout out to his new friend, Kenneth, who has made him feel like a part of something in just the first three days of school.  Let’s hear one HUGE clap for that. !!
Peace, light and have a wonderful labor day weekend.

Extended homeroom... and a mystery solved!

This week students worked with advisors and teachers to begin “building a house” together. A strong one, full of honesty, care, and of course with a sturdy foundation.

7th graders talked about the role of advisory in their lives. The way 7th grade can feel very bumpy and all the ways you never have to feel alone during those times!
Ms. Reisch challenged her students to solve a top secret murder mystery using only a few clues and their group mates for support.  A few groups actually solved it!!  Relationships and building a family environment can be a lot like detective work, Ms. Reisch says.  All the pieces are there but we must communicate with trust and respect in order to reach our goals.  So awesome!!