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VOLUME 15, ISSUE 9 NOVEMBER 11, 2011
Mission Hill School NewsLetter from Mission Hill
W h a t D o e s t h e S t a f f T h i n k A b o u t t h e P r o p o s a l ?
D e a r M i s s i o n H i l l S c h o o l F r i e n d s , F a m i l i e s , S t u d e n t s a n d S t a f f ,
What does the staff think? a question asked by parents, colleagues and school partners, has been
popping like popcorn in our classrooms and hallways for several weeks now. Our school community is
wondering how the educators at Mission Hill feel about the proposed move to the former Agassiz School
site. The responses to the question have been ambiguous, and with good reason.
If there is anything our adult community is good at, its thinking things through. Mission Hill staff have
come together repeatedly over the past few weeks in light of the proposed move to discuss what is most
important: the children and the resources we need to continue, and to improve the learning experiences
we provide. We have shared our individual viewpoints with each
other and intentionally resisted making a public general statement
on behalf of us all because of the time it takes to consider multiple
viewpoints, to ask questions, to consider the impact that each
location would have on all of our constituencies including the
neighborhoods, to give each other room to think, shift and
expressto use our Habits of Mind. Our school, child to adult, is
democratic and fosters acceptance and understanding of differing
viewpoints. The democratic values that are expressed in our
mission statement requires that we be prepared to spend time -
even it might seem wasteful - hearing each other out. Spending
time is exactly what weve done.
After much debate about how to communicate our thoughts, we
came to consensus about two messages we wanted you all to hear.
1. We believe that the philosophy, mission and spirit of our school
can thrive in any location. We are a team committed to the
education of the whole child no matter where. Our beliefs, creativity, relationships and way of being are
not bound by a physical structure.
2. We s t r o n g l y prefer to stay in our current location with the potential to expand and serve more
families in the Mission Hill community. We are committed to the Mission Hill neighborhood, we support
and acknowledge the priorities communicated by parents and guardians, and we believe that our current
location will serve our students.
On November 15 the School Committee will vote on the proposal. All are welcome and encouraged to
attend the meeting. (See meeting details in the Hot Topics section of our news.) The School Committee,
the Superintendent and other BPS decision-makers have heard the voices of several parents and staff.
There is still time to share your thinking. All our voices are important.
~ A y l a G a v i n s
MISSION HILL SCHOOL NEWS PAGE 1
November
Mon 11/14-11/16: Grades
7&8 to Farm School
Thu. 11/17: Family Council. 5:45
Wed. 11/23: Theme Breakfast
Wed. 11/23: Early Dismissal, 1:00
December
Thu. 12/8: Gov. Bd. Mtg. 6:00
Thu. 12/22: Family Night, 5:45
12/23-1/1/12: Vacation
R E M I N D E R S
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F r o m t h e C l a s s r o o m s
O n e o f t h e t a d p o l e s h a v e a l e g . T h e y
s w i m v e r y f a s t .
T h e t a d p o l e s h a v e g o t t e n b i g g e r a n d
f a s t e r .
T h e t a d p o l e i s s w i m m i n g . T h e y h a v e
b e e n e a t i n g s o m e f o o d . T h e y r e s m a l l .
T h e y r e s w i m m i n g i n a p o o l o f w a t e r .
We hope to record more changes in
the coming weeks.
~ J a d a B r o w n ,
J o - A n n H a w k e s w o r t h ,
& K i m b e r l y R o g e r s
R o o m 2 0 4
Alejandro, Enaisja, Cyrus, and I sattogether. They had decided that we
would examine two types of birdseed
and try to figure out which one the
birds in the schoolyard like more.
What do you think we will need for
our ornithology inquiry? I asked.
Cyrus started, We could use
pinecones and dip them in honey and
then put the seeds on them. Enaisjas
eyes got big, We need buckets to put
the seed in. We need string to tie the
containers to the tree. Angela sharedwith them that one of the books in the
classroom had a guide to making bird
feeders, and that sparked the idea to
make our own. They were starting
their action plan. They were figuring
out the steps and materials they need
to accomplish their inquiry.
We need to look at the birds,
Alejandro stated. At rapid pace they
then started throwing out ideas for
collecting the data. We need to
observe was one clear way theyshared to collect data. Cyrus
continued, We can look in the feeders
to see which has less. How will we
know which has less? I asked. They
looked at me as if I was asking the
craziest question. And then they
paused and thought about it. How
will we know for sure? I continued.
We then moved into the idea of
knowing how much seed we put into
each bird feeder and how much hadbeen eaten. Measurement had
emerged. Our next steps are to figure
out what form of measure we will
use to answer our question.
~ K a t h y C l u n i s D ' A n d r e a
R o o m 2 0 5
Each morning when the children
come to the classroom they are
asked to stop to answer the question
of the day--a survey question that
points to topics we are studying (Doyou think the sand at the beach will
be warm or cool today?) and skills
we are building (Can you think of a
word that rhymes with sand?). This
survey creates a bar graph, and is
one of the many places children
experience math through the school
day without necessarily knowing
that it's math. We've also made bar
graphs about the pattern blocks
we've used to design crab and snail
shapes, and we've noticed how somepeople use more of one shape or
another to solve those puzzles. Our
dice races make bar graphs, too a
child rolls a die on the table and
records the result, over and over
again. Look which number gets to
the top first!
In the coming weeks we'll become
more explicit about these
experiences and the strategies we
can use as we encounter them.
Graphing requires sorting, counting,representing, reading. How do you
know which is more or less? How do
you figure out how many more one
quantity is than another? How do
you represent what you know? How
do you use information in
meaningful ways? What story does a
MISSION HILL SCHOOL NEWS PAGE 2
VOLUME 15, ISSUE 9 NOVEMBER 11, 2011
5 t o 7 y e a r - o l d s
R o o m 2 0 3
Many weeks ago, before our
caterpillar and mouse fiasco, little
creatures were delivered to room
203. After several guesses about
what they were, we finally
confirmed that they were tadpoles.
Since then we have been making
careful observations and
sporadically recording them. Here is
some of what we had to say about
our tadpoles:
T h e y d o n t h a v e a l e g .
I l i k e t h e t a d p o l e s b e c a u s e t h e y a r e
c u t e . O u r t a d p o l e s a r e i n t h e w a t e r .
D i d y o u k n o w t h e y k n o w h o w t o
s w i m ?
H e s w i m m e d !
T h e t a d p o l e s a r e g r o w i n g a n d
c h a n g i n g . T h e y h a v e a l i f e c y c l e
f r o m b o r n t o l e g t o f r o g a n d d i f f e r e n t
f r o g s h a v e d i f f e r e n t
c o l o r s . F r o g s a r e a n i m a l s a n d a r e
i m p o r t a n t .
T h e y d i d a l o t o f p o o p i n g !
T h e d o t s a r e f o o d . T h e s e s a r e
t a d p o l e s . T h e t r e e l o o k i n g t h i n g i s
s e a w e e d .
T h e m o m m y i s h o l d i n g a b a b y . O n e
i s h o l d i n g t h e s n a i l a n d o n e i s
h o l d i n g t h e t a d p o l e . T h e y l o o k l i k e
b r o w n s k i n t a d p o l e s
w i t h b r o w n p o l k a d o t s .
T h e t a d p o l e s a r e s m a l l . T h e y a r e
l i t t l e .
O n e i s b i g a n d o n e i s s m a l l a n d
t h e y h a v e p o l k a d o t s . T h e r e a r e
c r u m b s a l l a r o u n d t h e t a n k . T h e
t a d p o l e s a r e t h e g r e e n
t h i n g i n t h e t a n k . T a d p o l e s l i k e t o
e a t f o o d .
T h e s e a r e t a d p o l e s t h a t a r e i n t h e
t a n k w i t h t h e i r l e g s a n d t h e y h a v e
s e a w e e d .
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MISSION HILL SCHOOL NEWS PAGE 3
graph tell, and how does that story
help us organize and understand our
world?
~ M e l i s s a T o n a c h e l ,
L e i a B a y l o r & R i c h a r d L e a k
7 t o 9 Y e a r - O l d s
R o o m 2 0 1
On Friday I sat in a hallway as
children skipped by. The space was
filled with self-portraits, animal
sculptures and class surveys. The
hallway was bursting with energy as
children headed to lunch and recess.
A typical scene at Mission Hill, but
this particular hallway was not our
own. I was a visitor at Central Park
East in New York City. I watched
children and teachers at work, but
mostly my attention was drawn to
space how did the children move
through it? How did the teachers
utilize it for learning, inspiration,
and very practically, storage? I could
write a thousand words, but I will
stop and simply say it was a
beautiful, beautiful day.
I also stopped off to see a friend
teaching at a test-driven charter
school. His students, fourth graders,
are required to have their feet firmly
planted on the floor at all times.
Their hands should be folded on the
desk or holding their materials. His
superiors have informed him that
this is how they know students are
engaged in their learning. My
friends pay is linked to his students
performance on the standardized test
given annually by the state. His
stories deeply saddened me.
At a community meeting held
Monday evening, one parent referred
to Mission Hill School as a gem. It is
indeed. Central Park East and
Mission Hill are the types of places
where teaching and learning are
thoughtful, loving and
developmentally appropriate. I
believe that they are the kinds of
places where all of our children
deserve to learn.
~ E m i l y S c h u b i n
& D o n n a W i n d e r
R o o m 2 0 7
Dear Families,
This week the Lighting Bolts did
some letter writing. Its funny how
this seems to be a lost art for many
these days. Technology makes things
so much quicker and less formal.
Email has replaced what is called
snail mail. Texting has replaced
that quick phone call that used to
connect voices and people. Why go
see a concert when you can see it on
YouTube for free?
This week Kylie, our intern from
Wheelock College, taught a lesson
on letter writing. As we expected,
there were many students who had
not written or received a letter
before. It reminded me of last year,
when the entire school exchanged
letters. Every adult and student not
only wrote a letter to someone but
also received one. It was so nice!
Who doesnt like that excitement of
anticipation knowing that a letter is
coming? I felt that vibe again as
students began to write letters to their
families, friends and other special
people in their lives. We even
decided to write to the bees!
Their letters were sincere and
thoughtful and they are learning how
to use the proper format of a letter -
from the salutation to the closing.
I have a feeling that the Lightning
Bolts will be putting some flash
back into that snail mail. Watch your
mailboxes.
Sincerely,
~ J e n e r r a W i l l i a m s
& A m i n a M i c h e l - L o r d
9 t o 1 1 Y e a r - O l d s
R o o m 2 0 2
The Wolf Pack had a very busy,
successful, and full week. With our
fearless leader, James, stricken with
sickness, the students demonstrated
that they have what it takes to be self
directed learners and achieve great
things regardless of slight speed
bumps in their paths. With the
conclusion of October comes the
thought of the transition into the new
unit. As we continue to tie up our
Theme Studies Unit, we have now
begun to consider how to actually
create a large scale habitat within the
room. The Wolf Pack has worked
tirelessly and enthusiastically on
creating posters, diagrams, and
predictions of life science
vocabulary and habitats. We have
also been hard at work creating and
finishing our fables - short stories
with morals, or lessons. The
students understanding of the
traditional morals serving as the
foundation for the fables we have
read and the lessons in their writing
indicate that this particular group of
kids truly has morals of their own.
Lessons are all around us, and the
Wolf Pack has developed a skill for
producing these lessons in their
writing with fictional characters. As
the jackets come out for recess, and
the windows begin to close, it is
clear that we are ready to transition
into the next unit, thoughtful and
mindful of our mission as learners.
~ K e v i n K a r e c k a s
& J a m e s M c G o v e r n
NOVEMBER 11, 2011VOLUME 15, ISSUE 9
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MISSION HILL SCHOOL NEWS PAGE 4
NOVEMBER 11, 2011VOLUME 15, ISSUE 9
R o o m 2 0 6
This isnt fair, the plants never
get a break! exclaimed one
exhausted child. The comments
came after a recent food chain and
ecosystems game in the school
yard. Children were assigned
different roles, including
decomposers, producers,
herbivores, carnivores, natural
disasters and humans. The sun was
played by the adults.
After discussing who ate who,
they were given life cards, which
they had to give to whatever tagged
them (or in the case of natural
disaster, threw the ball at them).
After running out life cards they
could only be brought back to life
by getting energy from the sun.
Needless to say, the humans
wreaked havoc on the system,
taking life cards from all that
played, with the exception of
natural disaster, who the humans
just could not get away from. And
once the humans lost their lives,
unfortunately, there was nothing
that the sun could do about it.
The ecosystem game is one of my
favorites because it involves
learning through experience and
through movement. Now as we
move forward into the next phase
of our study, building miniature
living ecosystems, we will have this
experience and these feelings of
fairness to draw from and put
into application.
~ N a k i a K e i z e r
G r a d e s 6 , 7 8
R o o m 2 1 1
Guess what animal this came
from? That was the challenge
students had to solve last Thursday.
Andrew MacBlane, a naturalist
educator from Boston Nature Center,
came to teach a lesson on animal
adaptations. This concept connects to
our class novel, H a t c h e t , because
animals adapt to their ecosystems,
just as the novels protagonist does.
Students were excited to see and
touch bones, skulls, and skins and
predict where they came from. After
we discussed each part students were
able to create their own critters
(animal) out of recycled materials.
They had to make a lot of decisions
before they were given supplies to
create a 3D animal from recycled
materials. For example, they needed
to pick a habitat for their animal.
They also needed to decide what are
its predators, prey, skin, and diet.
After brainstorming, they built their
animals. Students drafted a story
about their animal and were required
to include figurative language
(simile, hyperbole, personification)
as Gary Paulson used in H a t c h e t .
The culminating project for H a t c h e t
will be to create a field guide of all
the plants and animals within the
novel.
~ S a r a h D e C r u z
R o o m 2 0 9
I had an unusual experience last
Tuesday evening. A professor in the
Graduate School of Education at
Tufts University invited a few area
high school and middle school
students to join her class for a
student panel. The professor wanted
the students to share their
experiences of school with her
students who are studying tobecome teachers.
Sela and Hawolul represented
Mission Hill. There were also
several high school students from
Westwood and Malden. The
students sat in the front of the room
while the professor asked them
questions and the 35 or so teachers-
in-training listened carefully. Later,
the teachers-to-be asked their own
questions of the student panel.
Sela and Hawolul were amazing!They spoke with clarity and
passion, and held their audiences
attention. The wisdom they shared,
detailing what makes a good
school, an effective teacher, a
sound learning environment, and a
supportive community, is really
helpful knowledge for all teachers,
and information not easily gleaned
from a textbook or lecture. The
girls value being able to trust their
teachers, opportunities for choice intheir academic program, and
engaging with a variety of problem
solving experiences.
Hawolul and Sela are experts
when it comes to knowing how to
do school well. Perhaps some day,
theyll be students at Tufts
University themselves. Selas eyes
shone when she saw that there was
an entire building on campus
devoted to studying psychology.
And Hawolul was excited to hearthat Tufts also has a medical
school. Im glad they had the
chance to share their ideas at Tufts.
~ A n n R u g g i e r o & E l s a H e a d
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MISSION HILL SCHOOL NEWS PAGE 5
NOVEMBER 11, 2011VOLUME 15, ISSUE 9
R o o m 2 0 8
The eighth grade has been busy
building, researching, presenting to
visitors and beginning their visits to
potential next schools. Take a look
at some of our projects:
~ J a c o b W h e e l e r
H o t T o p i c s
C o u r t n e y s C o r n e r
Check out Courtneys Corner,
outside Room 101, for information
on various programs and resources
for you and your family.
R i n c n d e C o u r t n e y
Mira la informacin que esta fuera
en el Rincn de Courtney en
saln 101 para informatin sobre
varios programas y recursos para ti
y tu familia.
H e l p W i t h H o l i d a y M e a l s
During the coming months many
families come together to share
meals and gifts. Courtney can assist
any family needing support around
getting food on their table or gifts
for children. Please do not hesitate
to contact Courtney by email
[email protected], calling the
school 617.635.6384 or leaving a
note in her box. If you have any
questions, ask Courtney or let your
childs classroom teacher know.
A y u d a c o n C o m i d a s d e
V a c a c i o n e s
Durante los meses siguientes
muchas familias se juntan para
compartir las comidas y los regalos
y Courtney puede ayudar a
cualquier familia que necesite
apoyo con obtener alimento o
regales para los nios. Por favor, no
demore en comunicarse con
Courtney. Puede encontrar a
Courtney en la escuela o por su
correo electrnico al
[email protected] o dejar un
mensaje por telfono en la escuela
617.635.6384 o una nota en su
cajn. Si usted tiene alguna
pregunta busque a Courtney o
djele saber a la maestra de su hijo
o hija.
Paul, Trey and Foday constructing...
A beehive observation deck!
Selena with new corner shelves
M i s s i o n H i l l S c h o o l
A B o s t o n P u b l i c P i l o t S c h o o l
Deborah Meier, Founder
Ayla Gavins, Principal
67 Alleghany Street
Roxbury, MA 02120
617.635.6384 (office)
617.635.6419 (fax)
www.missionhillschool.org
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MISSION HILL SCHOOL NEWS PAGE 6
NOVEMBER 11, 2011VOLUME 15, ISSUE 9
A b o u t S c h o o l C o m m i t t e e M e e t i n g s
The Committee meets approximately twice per month during the school year to adopt, review, and modify
policies and practices that support the sound operations of the Boston Public Schools and that enhance teaching
and learning and improved student achievement. Except as noted, meetings are held at 6:00 p.m. in the
Edward Winter Chambers, 26 Court Street.
All meetings are posted at least 48 hours in advance at the Office of the City Clerk and at Boston Public
Schools headquarters, 26 Court Street. Most meetings are held Wednesdays from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the
Edward Winter Chambers, 26 Court Street. To confirm the date, time, location or agenda of any meeting,
contact the School Committee office, at: 617-635-9014.
The Committee posts draft agendas on their website several days before each meeting. Check the meeting
announcement pages on the district calendar for the latest information. Archived agendas are posted by date, as
well.
P u b l i c C o m m e n t
Every School Committee meeting includes opportunities for parents and other members of the community to
address the Committee about school and district issues. Testimony pertaining to matters scheduled for a vote
by the School Committee at the same meeting takes place during Public Comment on Action Items.
Testimony pertaining to all other matters takes place during General Public Comment.
To request participation in the public comment period of any meeting, contact the School Committee Office
or speak to the Executive Secretary before the start of the meeting. Each speaker is allotted three minutes of
testimony.
Broadcasts
School Committee meetings are broadcast live on Boston City Television through the Mayor's Office of Cable
Communications. You can view the meetings live on Comcast Channel 24 and RCN Channel 13. You may also
watch previous meetings on-line in the School Committee archives or by visiting the Boston City Cable Office
video library.
T h e m e e t i n g t o d e c i d e o n w h e t h e r M i s s i o n H i l l S c h o o l i s t o b e m o v e d i s s c h e d u l e d f o r
T u e s d a y , N o v e m b e r 1 5
t h