In the Classroom September 2008
Posted by msnl in : In the Classroom, September 2008 , trackbackClass Trips
Sixth Grade
Hannah Jacoby-Rupp, Sixth Grade Class Advisor
We continue a new tradition in sixth grade this year with our second annual two-day fall trip. Sixth graders stick to the Philadelphia area in two days of local service and fun activities on Thursday and Friday, Sept. 25-26, returning to school each afternoon to debrief (and clean up!).
Last year’s group spent a day planting trees in the Wissahickon section of Fairmount Park, then bonded during trust-building and hiking in the park. This year, we look forward to another outdoor service experience in Fairmount Park, with plenty of chances for students to get to know one another as they embark, together, on the adventure of Middle School. More information is on its way – watch your mail for the details!
Seventh Grade
Alice Bateman and Jim Fiorile, Seventh Grade Class Advisors
Seventh grade is a special year in middle school, as there is tremendous physical, emotional and social growth that takes place. Our Penn Charter seventh grade program seeks to support, challenge and inspire students during this time. Therefore, we begin the year with an exciting three-day camping trip in late September to Bloomsburg, Pa.
The purpose of the trip is twofold: we want to create opportunities for the class to bond and learn to work together in both small and large groups, and we also want to have some outdoor educational experiences which tie into the curriculum and the seventh grade theme of “Perspective.” The team-building experiences, which will include a session on conflict resolution, are especially important for the grade as there are many new students.
The trip this year will be Wednesday, Sept. 24 to Friday, Sept. 26. We will leave school by 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, travel in tour buses to the camp, and return by 2:55 p.m. on Friday. Parents, look for more information in upcoming days.
Eighth Grade
Cassandra Aldridge and Hannah Jacoby-Rupp, Eighth Grade Civics Teachers
As anyone who follows politics knows, this is a big year. We’re witnessing a remarkable campaign, and the fall promises to bring this exciting race to the finish.
Our civics program links students’ learning about our government and electoral system to the very real process of electing a president. In this unique year, our eighth graders will follow the elections through their own visit to our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., for their class trip on Oct. 15-17. This is a new experience for students and teachers, and ties into an exciting fall project for students, a new take on the independent work often considered one of the highlights of the eighth grade year. Stay tuned for details on the Washington, D.C., trip, and for information on our Election Night event in the Middle School. We’re excited to share this new experience with you.
New This Year: Drama Club
As many of us discover during the spring Middle School play, our students can act! This year, we have a new outlet for those actors and actresses dying to try out a new scene, or play a new character, or find something to do with those costumes and props. Middle School teachers Elizabeth Jones and Michael Roche have created a new Drama Club, which will meet both during and after school, throughout the year. Drama Club is open to any interested student. Participants will help to shape the club’s activities, and may be called upon to entertain the occasional Monday morning assembly. More than anything, they’ll have fun while exploring.
Summer Explorations: Family, Culture and Language
Elizabeth Pago-Taylor, Middle School French
I am certain that home is wherever you are. I like the idea of living in the moment, but there is something about origins that tugs at your core. My husband, Rodney, and I decided to take our son Sebastien to four islands to celebrate my 40th birthday. We started on a little island in New York, traveled to Trinidad, then continued on to Martinique and finally to Puerto Rico. At three, Seba understands that we explore the islands to learn our history, remember our past and change our future. We ate the best mango in Trinidad, the best avocados in Puerto Rico and the best pineapples in Martinique. The food! The ocean! Family! Languages!
Since the earthquakes and Hurricane Dean, things have changed on the French Caribbean island of Martinique, yet things remain the same. People go about living the lives they know. Shared meals, traditions, hot days, cool nights, rain and tree-ripened fruit. Did I mention the ocean? Sebastien refused to go into the pool alone, yet he got into the ocean, descending on his own from the boat that we rode into the choppy waters of the Atlantic during Martinique's magnificent yole rondes competition. He learned a few more words in Creole and he ran errands with my mother in downtown Fort-de-France, where she showed him the hospital in which I was born. We walked passed the Bibliotheque Schoelcher, the ornate library dedicated to the abolitionist who helped end slavery in the French islands in 1848.
A few weeks earlier Sebastien accompanied us for a tribute to the great Martinican poet Aime Cesaire. He watched his father join other scholars to read from the monumental Cahier du Retour au Pays Natal by Cesaire. Cesaire was leader of the Negritude movement and a politician instrumental in Martinique becoming not just a colony, but a full-fledged department of France in 1948 (just as Hawaii became a state of the United States). When we landed on the island, Sebastien was the first to notice the pictures and poetry banners of Aime Cesaire hanging in the terminal of the airport, which has now been named in Aime Cesaire's honor.
Some call the island paradise. I call Martinique that special part of me – the intriguing and colorful blend of France and Africa. It is essential to regularly visit and remember one's origins. It was a joy to experience the return visit through Sebastien's eyes.