From the Director’s Chair March 2008
Posted by msnl in : From the Director's Chair, March 2008"In a culture where order is necessary, and where our collective lives are mediated by shared expectations and rules, it’s important to embrace a little chaos."
Schools are places which rely on order. We use a schedule to outline our activity throughout the day. We care about expectations for homework and in the classroom. We use calendars and planners, notebooks and routines.
It’s not that order is a bad thing. The reality is, we all need some structure to get where we’re going on a given day, and we need practice to learn habits which will be a foundation for later relationships, work, and life. Sometimes, though, a little chaos finds its way into our daily routine. During the winter trimester, any visitor to our sixth grade classes would likely find their son or daughter not in a classroom, but in our basement. Doing what? An activity unlike any traditional classroom learning. Students scattered throughout the room, working on a variety of projects which looked like they might belong better in a garage than a classroom. There were teams of artists drawing on large sheets of cloth, kids cleaning spilled paint from the floor, and people moving plywood and screens. This wasn’t order; it was chaos. It was loud, unscripted, and even mildly out-of-control.
But was it learning? In fact, what our sixth graders do during the ‘Museum Project’ models what education researchers wou
ld consider exemplary authentic learning. Authentic learning, as the name implies, simply puts students in charge, not only of solving their own complex challenges, but also of defining for themselves what those challenges should be. In this case, it’s the challenge of creating a set of museum exhibits from a large room that is, well, big, concrete, empty, and basement-like. Students spend several weeks in multiple classes tackling team goals like painting backdrops, setting out exhibits, and choosing the important items with which to represent the culture of the ancient Aztecs, the Greeks, the Chinese, or India. This learning and work involves all of the chaos that one might imagine when sixty minds come together; it would be difficult for any of us to accomplish.
The joy of authentic learning is that the chaos will lead not only to something organized, but more importantly, to real problems solved, real lessons internalized. Want to move something heavy? Get help. Want to paint without messing up the floor? Put down a drop cloth. Want to make your exhibit interesting for your mom or dad, or older brother? Learn to listen to other classmates, to highlight each one’s strengths in creating art, or layout design, or explaining complicated rituals in simple terms. Most importantly, with the guidance and help of teachers, students learn to make these decisions themselves. The museum is the product of their own living with chaos, a lesson as important as any of the historical information digested. For teachers, this kind of learning is a greater challenge than a standard lesson: in addition to the obvious patience and tolerance for chaos, it ironically requires more thought and planning, in order to help students find their own way to their goal.
In a culture where order is necessary, and where our collective lives are mediated by shared expectations and rules, it’s important to embrace a little chaos. The challenge, as many of us might agree, is that chaos can be a little disconcerting. In my own classroom, we spent a recent afternoon on a lab meant to measure lung capacity. Students filled large containers with water, then blew air into the container, displacing the water to later measure the volume of their lungs. We found that our containers weren’t large enough; water soon covered not only the lab tables, but also the floor, and we went through most of a large roll of paper towels scrounged from the janitor’s closet. I have to admit: we had fun, and we learned our lung capacities and learned problem-solving at the same time, as students figured out how to manage multiple containers, how to hold a large multi-gallon pretzel jar upside-down, and then, how to clean up a classroom that had been bathed, literally, in gallons of tap water.
Meeting for Worship was the day following this lab, and by that time I was no longer thinking about the students with long sheets of paper towel, or of the eighth graders who arrived early for the class after ours, helping us to finish mopping the floor. After Meeting, one of my students told me, “Ms. Tatum, we had a bet that you were going to talk about our class in Meeting.” I was surprised. “What was I going to talk about?” I asked. “You know,” he said, “about how we were such a good community, and how we had such a good time cleaning up, and how Mrs. Roberts’ students came and helped us mop the floor.” Students are so much smarter than we adults sometimes. Obviously, the real reason for authentic learning often has nothing to do with the academic objective. It’s about our ability to get out of the way, so that students can have the chance to make their own sense of the lessons that life offers in the moments when we let a little chaos occur.
Rebecca Tatum
Director of Middle School
In the Classroom March 2008
Posted by msnl in : In the Classroom, March 2008The Naturalization Ceremony
On Feb. 21, I took my Eighth Grade Civics class to the Federal Building in Philadelphia, at Sixth and Market Streets, to watch 96 people from 41 countries take the oath of U.S. citizenship. Other classes made the same trip, on different dates throughout the winter. One of the reasons we teach Civics as part of our Eighth Grade curriculum is because we want our students to understand and begin to appreciate the very nature of the freedom and the political system that we enjoy and sometimes take for granted as citizens of the United States. It is very easy for us to forget that the American colonial experiment in government, which began just blocks from the Federal Building, had never been tried before, nor was its success a forgone conclusion. Clearly, the crush of immigrants who have come to our country, over many generations, are proof of our founders’ successful venture. And if one finds him or herself in need personal verification, there is nothing like witnessing the naturalization ceremony of new United States citizens.
Sixteen of us filed into the federal courtroom at 10:30 a.m. and discovered that we had been given seats of honor in the front of the room. After we sat down, the naturalization clerk, wearing an American flag scarf, asked me to come back and meet the judge, court officials and the day’s speakers in the judge’s chambers. U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe asked questions about what our class had been studying, and then told me how delighted she was that students were in attendance. I really hadn’t been expecting this type of treatment, and it was wonderful for us to be made to feel so welcome.
Judge Rufe came out of her chambers, we were told to rise, and the ceremony began. She opened with a short speech that was a sincere effort to make the new citizens feel special and welcomed. As she spoke, I scanned the room, and I was amazed at the variety of people present. Some were with families and friends; some were with their young children. And soon, they were standing as the oath of citizenship was administered. They were asked to renounce their allegiance to their country of birth, and swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.
This was a “lump in the throat” moment for me. I didn’t think it would cause the emotion in me that it did. After all, I am a cynical civics teacher who teaches his students to question everything and to analyze our political process. But the importance of that moment, particularly for the new citizens in that courtroom, will stay with me forever.
Of course, long speeches followed, and much was said to make the 96 people feel welcome and special. The best speech, and as they say, worth the price of admission, was a speech by a new citizen, a young woman from Nicaragua, which closed the ceremony. She spoke of why she was here, and how much more opportunity there was than in her former country. She spoke about how important this day was to her. It was a great day to be an American.
Jon Saltzman
Civics Teacher, 8th Grade
Immigrants in Philadelphia Neighborhoods
The Immigrants in Philadelphia Neighborhoods (IPN) project has been a recurring unit in the seventh grade for several years now. It involves assigning each seventh grader a local neighborhood and an ethnic immigrant group that dominates that neighborhood. Seventh graders research their assigned group, demonstrate their knowledge in a creative story or presentation, and celebrate the process with a guided trip through that neighborhood.
This unit is special in that it involves several dimensions. First, it is interdisciplinary. Though the project takes place in their English classes, seventh graders explore topics of immigration and migration more deeply in their Social Studies classes at the same time. Students are also reminded about issues of social responsibility and service and subtly reminded about the application of these Quaker values and testimonies to their learning.
Prior to the official start of the unit, students have begun touching upon relevant academic issues the unit requires. In the winter they started reading short stories from the anthology “First Crossings,” edited by Donald Gallo. These fictional stories personalize and vivify issues of the immigrant experience, especially as they relate to pre-teens and adolescents. Students are asked not only to consider and empathize with these issues but also examine the structure of these narratives and create their own short stories.
At the end of the second trimester, students also did a unit centering around “The Adventures of Marco Polo,” a nonfiction introduction to “The Description of the World,” Marco Polo's epic account of his travels in Asia. This unit allowed them to explore issues of critical literacy and authenticity of sources; students were encouraged to question Marco Polo's claims and examine his biases. Students looked at both secondary and primary sources and discussed how a text's context informs its meaning and influence. These are fundamental issues of research that go beyond merely finding facts.
Such considerations are particularly important when the Internet has become so crucial to research for both amateurs and seasoned academics. For the IPN project, students are encouraged to use technology for research and for production but are then taught to critically evaluate the efficacy and validity of their use. They discuss, for example, the advantages and limitations of sources like Wikipedia, an online open-source encyclopedia. They are entrusted with digital cameras and video cameras on their field trip to document their experience, and then they are asked to consider how they might edit their footage to present it in a compelling and coherent way — and in a way that is compassionate and fair.
When the seventh grade splits up on March 19 to go on their five separate field trips, students get to see first-hand the neighborhoods and people they have only considered somewhat abstractly. These trips include a guided walking tour and ethnic lunch. Students are coached in behaving courteously and appropriately in unfamiliar environments. The trip becomes both a celebration of the work they have done and yet another dimension of their learning experience. In other words, students are asked not only to open their hearts and minds to the diversity of the city, but also to become more sophisticated in their learning and reflection. As students try their first taste of a foreign dish, they do so as a citizen of the world.
Tom Kim
Language Arts Teacher, 7th and 8th Grade
Meeting for Business
On Thursday, March 13, the Middle School faculty and student body will conduct a “Meeting for Business” around the upcoming Day of Service on April 18. This style of worship and method of decision-making has been a hallmark of Quaker discernment since the formation of the Religious Society of Friends under George Fox. For our school, these gatherings take place instead of Meeting for Worship on Thursdays and this is a method of decision-making that is used in a variety of settings by faculty, administration and students throughout our school.
The Middle School meetings for business take a variety of forms. Sometimes there is a clear decision we need to make as a community. Other times, the meeting for business can take the form of a “threshing session” in which different ideas and concepts are brought to the table for our review as a community. Whatever the format and style, the following quote from Michael Sheeran helps describe the spirit of any meeting for business:
Meeting for business always begins with silence and closes in silence – a clear reminder that an atmosphere of worshipfully seeking God’s will is to mark the gathering. Douglas Steere puts it well: ‘The Quaker meeting for business opens an in unhurried period of waiting silence, and if the meeting is properly carried through, there emerges something of this mood of openness not to my wishes and my designs and my surface preferences, but to openness to the deeper levels of where the Guide’s bidding may have its way and where the problem may be resolved in quite a different way than had ever occurred to me.’” (Michael Sheeran S.J. Beyond Majority Rule: Voteless Decisions in the Religious Society of Friends (Regis College: Denver, CO. 1996)
For our upcoming Meeting for business, we are excited to hear students’ experiences and reflections on service in the Middle School. We are coming up on our second full day of service on April 18 and we would like to hear of ideas for service, suggestions for reflection and analysis, and other aspects of our time together. This is a day that has become a community-led event and we are excited to utilize our Quaker practices in order to encourage this sense of ownership for our time together. Students will “clerk” the meeting and also record minutes so that we can share and revisit our collective time together. We are open to where the Guide will lead us.
Tom Rickard
Middle School Service Coordinator
Chair, Religion Department
Pennsylvania Math League
Penn Charter chooses to participate in the Pennsylvania Math League (PAML) contest each February. All Middle School students take the 30-minute, 40-question contest administered according to grade level. The top five scores from each grade are then submitted to represent a team from Penn Charter. These scores are compared to scores from other Pennsylvania schools that choose to participate. It is a nice way to recognize students who may excel in these types of problem-solving activities and who may not be as strong in a traditional classroom setting. Students on the team are presented with certificates at an assembly at the end of the school year. Please contact Jennifer Ketler if you have questions about the PAML contest.
Jennifer Ketler
Middle School Math Coordinator
National Latin Exam
By Friday, March 14, seventh and eighth grade Latin students will have taken the National Latin Exam. More than 100,000 students from all over the English-speaking world take the test each year. The National Latin Exam contains 40 multiple-choice questions that cover Roman culture and the Latin language. Awards are given by the American Classical League to students who score above the national average. Students who earn a perfect score receive a letter of commendation from the American Classical League. In addition, Penn Charter gives internal prizes to the student who scores best in each class. The National Latin Exam does not count in students’ trimester grades but does provide a valuable assessment of our Latin program. College scholarships and fellowships to classical organizations are available to students who score well year after year on the National Latin Exam. For more information, please see the website of the test: nle.org.
James Fiorile
Teacher of Middle School Latin
Coordinator of Middle School Foreign Languages
News You Can Use March 2008
Posted by msnl in : News You Can Use, March 2008Winter Intramurals Recap
During the winter trimester, each of the intramural houses competed in various activities such as the Great Alaskan Shootout, dodgeball, handball, floor hockey and crab soccer. The games were spirited, with a good underlying theme of sportsmanship. In the winter we also do great work with service both on and off campus. It also has afforded our students the opportunity to work with fellow students from other grades as they signed up for various service projects. Here is the listing of some of the assigned service sites and projects:
Historic Rittenhouse: This is a local park that needed clean up and attention and it is right down the street, across Lincoln Drive on Wissahickon Ave.
Greene Street Tree Lab: This is a small nursery that grows and donates trees to different sections of the city. It is located in a lot right next to Greene Street Friends School.
Chaminoux Stable: This is a working horse stable that runs a "work to ride" program in which inner city youth get a chance to learn equestrian sports. The students get to learn about the program and help with maintenance of the facilities.
Hassel Home: We have been going to Hassel for the last few years and working with the elderly residents there. This is a personal care home across the street on School House Lane.
Students also helped prepare materials for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, finished some painting projects and attended to in-house needs here at PC as well. It was a great trimester of service!
We look forward to our spring intramurals and getting outside!
Patrick McDonough
Middle School Athletic Director, Science Teacher, 6th and 8th Grade
Cambodia Explorations, Continued…
Along with our K-12 counterparts, we in Middle School have spent time this year learning about the stories and lives of students in Cambodia. We look forward to continuing our exploration in April, when Anne Caramanico, Penn Charter Overseer and traveler, visits Penn Charter to talk about her work in supporting the Caramanico School in Cambodia. We also look forward to a presentation from students from the Project 20/20 group, which has been working all year on studies in partnership with the Cloud Forest School in Monteverde, Costa Rica. This group has worked to raise funds toward Cambodian school projects connected with Penn Charter.
When we connect to other cultures and other schools, our world gets a little smaller. Thanks in advance to Ms. Caramanico for helping to bring Cambodia a little closer to Penn Charter; we look forward to continuing our learning.
Dragon Boating - New Friends, New Experiences
Penn Charter middle schoolers have an exciting opportunity this spring – to pilot a dragon boat as a part of a four-school joint effort with neighborhood schools Henry School, Anna Lane Lingelbach School, Wissahickon Charter School and William Penn Charter School. Funded by a grant from the Chestnut Hill Health Foundation and organized by Philadelphia dragon boat crew members and teachers, this spring activity will bring together students from four schools for weeks of regular practice on dry land and then on the water. Penn Charter’s boat will have room for 20 students and is open to students in spring sports and the spring play. Encourage your son or daughter to sign up now, before the seats all fill! 
Team members will practice twice a week, first to learn the basic strokes and rhythms of paddling, and then to get out on the Schuylkill River. The spring’s work will culminate in a four-school Healthy Dragon Festival, planned for early June. We look forward to building new partnerships with our school neighbors, and hope to start a dragon boating tradition which will train Penn Charter boaters for years to come.
Middle School Day of Service
Get ready for the second annual Middle School Day of Service, dedicated in honor of Darryl J. Ford and held on Friday, April 18. Middle schoolers will head out for a morning of service in area community organizations, then return to Penn Charter for lunch, an invited speaker, and a service fair featuring the many options presented throughout the year by our eighth grade assembly leaders. Look for these service options and links to various organizations to be posted soon on our Middle School blog.
We are excited to involve our students in planning the Day of Service. See “In the Classroom” for a longer article on our upcoming Meeting for Business, in which students will thresh out ideas about the local service organizations they’d like to support. As the day approaches, stay tuned for more details about how you can get involved and support your son or daughter in this important ‘day on.’ Middle School students have already logged hundreds of hours of service this year. In a school where service is already central to our learning and life in community, we look forward to a day where collective service learning is the goal.
Field Biology – Summer 2007, Summer 2008
As we begin to think ahead to summer, consider encouraging your son or daughter to take his or her learning outside! This summer, we offer an exciting Field Biology course for Middle School students, based in the woods, streams and rivers near Penn Charter. Sign ups are open now, for all middle schoolers!
I spent the first three weeks of last summer teaching Field Biology. Like this summer’s course, this course was open to any students from grades 6-8, and met from 8:30-11:30 in the morning. So often throughout the year, my students get caught up in the grind of earning high marks rather than appreciating their education for the sake of learning. This course gave the students the opportunity to learn for the sake of learning and not for a grade. It was a fun experience for all of us. We spent the first few mornings going over proper techniques for collecting insects and plants. Then the students were given the necessary materials to head out into the field. On a daily basis we traveled to various locations and gathered both plant and insect collections. We spent time at Fort Washington State Park, Valley Green in Fairmount Park, and the Wissahickon Park and watershed. Students created Rickor mounts of collected insects and made a book of pressed plants. Students learned how to properly use a dichotomous key when identifying plants as well as how to use an insect book to identify the specimens they collected. Each plant in their book was identified by its scientific name as well as its common name.
My students had a fantastic time making their insect collections. Once they were collected and pinned in the mount, the students then identified the insect or butterfly by scientific name and common name. As I look back at the summer that was, I reminded myself why being an educator is so important to me. To see my students’ enthusiasm, hard work, and drive to learn enables me to go to work every day with a tremendous sense of pride. I look forward to continuing this valuable learning opportunity for years to come.
Jeffrey Humble
Middle School Science Coordinator, Teacher 7th and 8th Grade Science
Freedom from Chemical Dependency
During the week of March 10, a Freedom from Chemical Dependency (FCD) instructor returned to PC to conduct FCD’s alcohol, tobacco and other drug education program for our students. FCD works with schools all over this country (including many of our peer institutions) to provide important information about health issues. Although FCD worked most closely with our seventh grade students, all middle schoolers had an opportunity to learn from the instructor and have their questions answered.
All Middle and Upper School parents were invited to a well-attended Community program with our FCD instructor on Thursday, March 13. This event is always informative for parents, and we hope you were able to attend.
Community News March 2008
Posted by msnl in : Community News, March 2008It’s hard to believe that Spring Break is just around the corner! January was a busy month with a very well attended Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service where one quarter of the students arrived with family and friends and prepared 11 trays of ziti, 12 trays of fruit salad and 200 bags of toiletries. The items were given to St. Francis Inn and Northwest Philadelphia Interfaith Hospitality Network. A highlight in February was the sixth grade Museum Project that featured the ancient civilizations of China, India, Greece and the Aztec empire. The festival was an array of artifacts, a variety of ethnic foods, skits and educational information that showcased each culture.March began with our Parent Meeting for Worship on March 5.March 10 featured the beginning of the Middle School Freedom from Chemical Dependency Week Monday, March 17 is Family Visiting Day for the Middle School beginning at 8 a.m. If you have not yet registered, please e-mail Stephanie Ball at sball@penncharter.com.
Spring Break begins at the close of school on Thursday, March 20.
Mark Your Calendars!
Tuesday, April 1 – Classes resume
Thursday, April 3 – Parent Meeting for Worship
Friday, April 11 – Seventh and eighth grade dance
Thursday, April 17 – Special Dress Day, Breakfast with your Child and Family Meeting for WorshipThursday and Friday, April 24 and April 25 –
Middle School Play – Ten-Minute Theatre
Sunday, April 27 – P.C. Summer Camp Open House – 2
Save the Date March 2008
Posted by msnl in : Save the Date, March 2008March
20 Spring Break begins at close of school
April
1 Classes resume
7 MS quarter 4 begins
11 7th and 8th Grade Dance, 7:30 – 10 p.m. (OG)
17 Middle School Breakfast with your Child, 7:30 - 8 a.m. (DH)
Middle School Family Meeting for Worship, 8:15 – 8:50 a.m. (MR)
Middle School Parents Forum, 8:15 – 9:15 a.m. (MR)
18 Mid-trimester 3
24 Middle School play, 7 p.m. (MR)
25 Middle School play, 1:30 p.m. (MR