 HIGH SCHOOL High School Science has started the year off strong. Physics just finished a test on Newton's First Law and now move into Projectiles. Heads up! Biology explored Carrying Capacity with a 3-day activity trying to keep cups alive by feeding them beans while battling shelter, predators, and disease. Chemistry is figuring out the Periodic Table and made a wall diagram of an Argon atom replete with s & p orbitals shown! And Systems of the Human Body dissected a chicken wing and made their own wall diagram showing the interactions between muscles, tendons, and bones. We are also super excited for our 9th graders to see all this science in action during our three-day Fall experiential overnight to Camp SEA Lab starting on Monday. Woo-hoo! –Jay Huston, High School Science  Students were exploring elements in the main group of the periodic table. At the top is an electron configuration diagram and all the arrows are called an orbital diagram. In the bottom, right they are identifying the number of valence electrons and the number of energy levels. And finally in the bottom left, they are doing a Lewis dot diagram. These are four ways of looking at the same element, in this case Polonium. MIDDLE SCHOOL
Middle School students have been working on effective scientific observation skills and learning the difference between their observations, which are based on things they can see, touch, hear, and smell, versus an inference – something that is a conclusion based on observations. Students have done a little bit of microscope work, focusing on learning how to draw what they see while looking through a microscope at 20x magnification. We will continue to work on these foundational skills for the remainder of the first quarter. –Tasha Hudick, K-8 Science ELEMENTARY Elementary students are learning the basics of measuring, mixing, and following simple instructions in a science experiment. We’ve done some simple chemical reactions and explored two different types of slime! We are using our science toolkit, Our Senses, to talk about our experiments. –Tasha Hudick, K-8 Science  Student Government has gotten into a rhythm these last few weeks! The new members have quickly learned the ropes from the veteran members about the standard operating procedures for all of our sales. The members are energized, motivated, and working collaboratively to run our sales each week. Speaking of sales, we would like to thank SPA for providing such delicious treats for our first Bake Sale of the school year! We thank you and appreciate you!
This week in Student Government, discussions began about things we could purchase for the school with the funds that we get through our weekly Friday sales. This will be a process, but already, students are thinking deeply about ideas that can improve the experience of students at Stanbridge. One such idea under consideration is installing another microwave in the courtyard, as this year students have seen slightly longer lines to use the microwaves at lunchtime. Student Government is currently researching a variety of pizza places as we consider changing the location of where we get our pizza for our monthly Pizza Sale. Members are taking initiative and looking at the prices of different pizza places, as well as their quality, as we consider switching to a different restaurant. We will keep you updated as we continue to research and weigh our options. Our Student Government wants to hear from our students! This week we put our Suggestion Box back in the front office, where students from any division are welcome to write down ideas and suggestions that they would like Student Government to consider. Your input is taken seriously and is greatly appreciated! –Kenny Katz, Student Government Faculty Advisor  HIGH SCHOOL
The High School U.S. History classes are off to a running start! We have engaged in numerous discussions, and jumped into readings about the early years of the American republic: life under the Articles of Confederation, reasons behind discarding the Articles and establishing the U.S. Constitution, and the significance of the U.S. prevailing against the British in the War of 1812. This week, we covered the various factors that led to the American Civil War, including whether popular sovereignty should have been used to decide the slavery question in the West, and how the Dred Scott decision was a huge factor in escalating tensions between North and South. The High School Government/Econ classes started the school year studying the different types of governments that exist, as well as the reasons why a written constitution is an incredibly important aspect of governing a state. This week, we started a unit on political parties, their role vis-à-vis facilitating elections and governance, and how the role of political parties has shifted significantly since the late 19th century. Students also completed their first current events assignment – pick a news story that they felt holds significance, summarize it, and explain why it is a story that deserves attention. – Kenny Katz, High School History & Government MIDDLE SCHOOL – DIVING INTO HISTORY As we've started off the year in Middle School Social Studies, we have begun our U.S. History content with a focus on the indigenous people of North America and those who were the earliest inhabiters of this country. Learning about these first Americans has brought conversation topics ranging from migration (of both humans and animals), to the uses and abuses of power, and even to the impacts of climate change on these original Americans. We've explored interactive maps of U.S. and the tribal lands that used to cover all 50 states, discussed what kind of evidence is used to understand the past, and how historians operate like detectives of the past, sifting through various pieces of information to try to find a connection. A good amount of time has been spent getting settled in the classroom and learning and practicing the various routines and protocols we have, as well. Making sure all students feel comfortable in the space and with the expectations they have. It's been a great start to the year. I'm really looking forward to continuing on this journey as we dive deeper into U.S. History and all that comes with it! – Drew Vinson, Middle School Humanities ELEMENTARY Lower and Middle Elementary are starting to learn about community workers and the jobs they do in the community. We have discussed what we think each job entails and if we interact with these workers with our families. Middle Elementary has been working on "Where I Am on the Map" worksheets. Upper Elementary is also starting to discuss what they know about social studies, as well as beginning to learn about maps and locations. We are excited to learn more about our communities and the world around us! – Adria Olson, Lower El Lead Teacher  Social Learning is a school-wide program anchoring our work at Stanbridge. All students attend a class at least once weekly that focuses on a topic or skill related to self-regulation, relationship-building, and prosocial behaviors.
Based on the work of Michelle Garcia-Winner (Social Thinking) and Leah Kuypers (Zones of Regulations), Tricia, our speech therapist, and Mary and Emma, our counselors, create lessons that target each group's areas of need. High School students responded to a survey of their needs and requested more lessons about making friends, nurturing friendships, and starting conversations with people they do not know. They also asked for lessons on Executive Functioning skills, such as studying for tests and keeping themselves organized. Their other areas of interest included getting along with parents and dating and romance. Our first lessons will focus on friendship: how to make friends, be a good friend, and use who-what-when-where-why-and-how questions to start conversations with new people. The high schoolers will have opportunities to practice these skills when they go on experiential trips this month and next. – Mary Stadler, Director of Counseling  ELEMENTARY
Our Bulldogs in the Elementary division have been working in Lexia, reading aloud short stories as well as chapter books. While making literacy accessible to all learners, students have been discovering and attaining new vocabulary. Lower and Middle Elementary have been practicing pronouncing and writing sight words. They have been enjoying reading rhyming books such as Down by the Bay and Pete the Cat books. They even practiced making up their own rhyming words. Upper Elementary has already delved into descriptive paragraph writing this year. Using the hamburger model, students begin with the introduction and end with the conclusion – represented by the top and bottom buns respectively. They are also using graphic organizers as a tool to help plan their thoughts and set up ordered sentences for descriptions of their STEM project in which they designed, built, and presented a school of their creation. As part of their language learning, we are also working on how to be a good listening audience. – Harriet Mukisa, Middle Elementary Lead MIDDLE SCHOOL Our Middle School Humanities team works closely to plan cross-curricular lessons in Language Arts and Social Studies, enforcing learning as not merely subject-based, but teaching students that subjects often tie together. Students began a different type of study about Indigenous Americans this week . In Language Arts, students began reading Rabbit Chase, a graphic novel about an Indigenous middle schooler who gets lost on a school field trip and must work with mythological creatures from their tribe to get back to their family. Students have enjoyed the graphic novel, and are asking amazing questions about history, historical sources, and Indigenous cultures. In Social Studies, they have been working with interactive maps, looking at how the United States was divided geographically before European settlers arrived. Students are learning why is it important for Indigenous people to tell their stories, myths, and traditions from their own perspectives. – Emma Woods, Humanities: Language Arts HIGH SCHOOL High Schoolers are launching into English by studying neurotypes (types of brains) this week. Students identified their strengths and areas of growth, what tools work best to support them in the classroom, and how a neurodiverse community benefits everyone. Students worked on taking notes with the content, engaging in class discussions, and even built their own "brains." This work lays the foundation for students to better access English, express themselves, and empower them to advocate for their needs. – Emma Woods, Kantodeia Schnabel, & Drew Vinson, English As we settle into the school year, students are adjusting to their Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) schedule. Elementary receives Social Learning, Emotions & Relationships, and Library once per week in a rotation. Middle School receives Emotions & Relationships as one of their five end-of-day "Specials" classes. High Schoolers receive SEL content through a weekly grouping during morning Advisory. All Bulldogs are all learning about routines and expectations through various activities that support the needs of their specific learning group. Content in Emotions & Relationships is based on five Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) areas: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Across the grade levels, students are offered regular opportunities to check in using the Zones of Regulation. Ask your Middle or High Schooler about their Emote check-in! Can you or your student identify their teachers on the "Bitmoji Zones Board" below? – Emma Mamis, Board Certified Dance/ Movement Therapist, Clinical Counselor   HIGH SCHOOL
This year Stanbridge High School has started off wonderfully! The students have quickly accepted and welcomed our new High School teachers: Avery, Coach Daniel, Drew, Greg, and Kantodeia. Daniel Geller is now in high school full-time, too. This new crew of educators have brought wonderful insights, skills, and energy from their previous jobs (and Divisions) and helped our program reach the next level. One of the largest changes this Fall is that we have revamped our CARES program! While the program still highlights the importance of lifelong-learning in Community, Academics, Respect, Empathy, and Safety, students are no longer carrying around CARES sheets. Emphasizing 1:1 reflective conversations with their teachers at the end of every class, students now review their behaviors. This adjustment helps them become more introspective and strengthens their student-teacher relationships. I feel so lucky to work at a school with such thoughtful students and dedicated staff. If this is any indication of the year to come, students and staff are both going to thrive this year! – Jay Huston, Head of School MIDDLE SCHOOL Middle School is off to a fantastic start for the new school year. There are many new faces, both students and teachers who have joined our program. We are so excited to have Drew take on Social Studies, Avery join us for math, Gregory for Tech, and Daniel and Gage for athletics! We have spent the last week in our advisory groupings getting to know each other and getting settled into our new routines. Our new advisory groups Blanc, Vinson, Everest and Denali are named after the highest peaks of different continents and students have been gathering both in their individual advisories and in Twin Peaks Advisory, where we combine two groups to play games and expand our social circle. Academic groupings are named for different sharks: Hammerhead, Lemon, Tiger and Nurse. Sharks are often misunderstood animals but have amazing qualities and abilities – just like our students. Our shark groups give Middle Schoolers yet another opportunity to stretch their social and emotional growth while learning together. – Tasha Hudick, Middle School Division Lead ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Our 2024-2025 Stanbridge Academy Elementary school year has begun! New additions and changes to classrooms have shaped up our clean and calm learning environments. The first few weeks focus on learning new routines, schedules, students and staff. Class expectations have been set. Team building activities have been enjoyed. SEL classes and speech services have begun. Student workload and responsibilities increase slowly each day. Differentiated reading groups will be decided after observational and formal assessments occur to determine appropriate placements. Finally, the sign up calendar for parent volunteering opportunities has been sent. Be sure to check it out along with the SPA Volunteer Survey, too. Students have come in excited about starting school and we're off to a great start for school success! – Michele Sumpton, Elementary Division Lead  This past Tuesday, our Student Government (StuGov) gathered and convened our first session of the 2024-2025 school year! Our officers and representatives met for the first time as new members were introduced and welcomed into this year's StuGov. All of our officers and representatives came into our first meeting highly motivated and energized, ready to serve! During this first meeting, our team discussed norms and nominated peers whom they thought would be willing to serve as deputies for this school year. Deputies assist Student Government with Friday sales or other activities. Also discussed was the protocol surrounding how the first Snack Shack would be conducted. Thank you to the members who volunteered and facilitated today's Snack Shack. (See pictures below.) Please welcome this year's team as the elected student voice of Stanbridge:
Lunchtime Sales Next Friday, September 6, is our first Pizza Sale of the school year. If you would like your child to have a delicious pizza lunch from Pizza My Heart provided by Student Government, please complete the Pizza Form by this coming Wednesday. The form has information about drinks, salad, and types of pizza that will be sold during the sale. If your child is going to buy pizza during next week's Pizza Sale, parents must fill out the form no later than 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 4. During Friday's lunchtime sale, please have your child bring $5's and $1's to pay for their lunch. We are unable to adequately provide change if everyone brings a $20 bill. Your cooperation with this is much appreciated. If you have any questions about the upcoming Pizza Sale, please don't hesitate to reach out. We hope everyone has a wonderful three day weekend! – Kenny Katz, Student Government Faculty Advisor What it Feels Like to Give a Speech at Stanbridge-By Ian Mackenzie, Bulldog Blog creator, editor and Stanbridge’s go-to idea man  What's up Bulldogs? It's your blondest Bulldog Blogger Ian Mackenzie here. In this post, I'm going to tell you about the various speeches I’ve made across my time at Stanbridge, what it felt like to give them, and how you can improve your ability to speak to an audience. I am also going to explain how I soothed my anxiety and my stage fright. The capability to keep my emotions on stage took many hours of work for me. Now, I've gone over how I give speeches, and man, Ian sure talks a lot but what's the point?! I’m going to show you four lessons real soon, calm down Mr. exclamation point. Alright, Lesson One: Practice!! I cannot emphasize this enough. If you want to give a speech that people other than your parents will applaud, then review the words you’re going to say constantly. That means P-R-A-C-T-I-C-E. Don’t try to memorize the whole speech. Just don’t. Or if you are more experienced at giving speeches, you could have the paper in front of you for reference, but only look at it when you need the exact words from your speech. Lesson Two: Make sure you are slowing down and enunciate clearly. If you are like me, then you need to slow down that speedy mind of yours, as well as that tireless mouth. Don’t forget to check on that every once in a while when you're giving a longer speech. Lesson Three: if you stutter or say the wrong line, there are two ways to deal with it.
Stop the entire speech and say something like, “Sorry I messed up.” This shows the audience that you are less prepared or willing than you first let on. And finally, Lesson Four: Try to make as much eye contact as possible. If you look down at your paper too much, the audience will lose interest way faster. Simple as that. I hope this was helpful to you. Maybe you can apply some of these skills to your everyday life. Why not give it a shot? See you in the next post! This year, the focus of our Spring Gala fundraiser was Celebrating The Arts at Stanbridge… and we continue the celebration every day! As the Public Relations Support Intern, Senior Aaron Fong has observed both Music and Visual Art classes during 4th period Bridges Internships. His surveillance gives readers a sense of our comprehensive onsite Arts programming. Greetings! Music class at Stanbridge Academy allows students K-12 to express their individual emotions, tones, and creativity. Matt Robidoux’s Music class inspires students! It gives them the opportunity to learn how to read music, understand technique, and learn how to play musical instruments such as the drumset. Middle School (MS) is learning how to use hand drums as percussion, as well as understanding the variations of beats while playing a musical instrument. A special guest [Tim Russell, the Dance Department’s Music Director at University of Wisconsin, Madison] visited Stanbridge. The guest demonstrated an instrument that students found very interesting. It’s called the Suitcase Drum. The suitcase drum features a cymbal, a snare, tongos, and a cowbell. Students tried out the sound effects on the suitcase drum, which can be great for kids to try at home. Also, students listened and played along with the beat with the drumkit and the suitcase drum to provide rhythm. The students transitioned from playing the drums into the instrument of the week. The instrument was called the Mbira. The Mbira was classified by musicologists as an African musical instrument traditional to the people of Zimbabwe. The Mbira consists of a wooden board with a few keys to pluck on, which is a seventeen thumb piano. The Mbira was produced by ethno musicologists, who study music from different cultures all over the world. Students watched a presentation on Google Slides along with a video on Youtube about the Mbira. The Middle School students tried out the Mbira with their thumbs to pluck the keys for major and minor tones. The Middle School Topaz group I observed learned an interesting word: “Solfege”. Solfege tells the students about the syllables for music notes that can be used for a choir or any other performance -- Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, and Do. Students sing along the Solfege with the assistance of Matt on guitar by using different keys using A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. After playing the Mbira, they learned about a musician named Moondog. Moondog is a person who dressed up as a viking and performed street music. Students sang out a quick song called “Do Your Thing”, a song from Moondog. They were handed out a music sheet to follow along with the lyrics. Aaron's interview with Matt Robidoux answered additional questions about music classes at Stanbridge Academy.
Q: Why is it important for schools to offer music?
A: I am a supporter of arts curriculum in schools - it helps so much with social/emotional learning, and solidifies mathematical and scientific concepts for students who engage in a musical practice. Music is also great for exercising gross and motor skills. Q: Why is it important for schools to offer instrument instruction? A: Learning a musical instrument provides a firm external structure with lots of room for creativity and personal growth. For example, at Stanbridge one can engage in music class in a number of ways depending on which instrument one chooses. Q: What are the cognitive thinking skills learned through music? A: Structured study of music has been proven to enhance language-based reasoning, short term memory, and planning skills. I have also seen it help students to learn more about themselves, or “come into their own” if you will. Q: What courses of study do you need to become a music teacher? A: Generally someone teaching music in a school has at least a [Bachelor of Arts] in music education and sometimes a teaching certificate. I would also say that teaching music happens in many ways; in community programs, via individual lessons instruction, and in ensemble settings. Q: What is your favorite part of being a teacher? A: Providing students with the tools to understand how music works and eventually be themselves, and engaging in something I am passionate about all day every day. In general, I enjoy being part of this wonderful Stanbridge community!  Hello! I’m Ian M., one of the contributors to the Stanbridge Academy “Bulldog Blog.” Since this is the first post for the new blog, I should let all of the readers know that I am an 11th-grade student who has been at Stanbridge for a number of years. I am also the guy who sang Sam Smith’s song “I’m Not the Only One” in this year’s Student Talent Show earlier this month. In this post, I am going to describe my Stanbridge Talent Show experience, as both a performer and an audience member.
To kick things off, I will start with my journey as a performer and what it took for me to get where I am now. I didn’t exactly come out of my mother’s womb singing falsetto. For me to sing as high as I did at the talent show took more than a year of practice. I have not taken many singing lessons. Let me rephrase that: I have not taken many singing lessons and paid attention to them. I once took lessons from a good vocal coach, but I was a 12-year-old boy, so I only went to the lessons because he had a bowl of candy out for the students that were still children (me included). As for the much harder explanation of what it felt like to be an audience member at the talent show... Considering some of you readers were at the Stanbridge Talent Show, you probably know what it’s like to watch someone sing or perform on a stage. But being both a performer and an audience member was difficult for me at first, and sometimes it still is. My brother is a musician in a band called Ruse. If you were at the talent show this year then you probably saw some cool looking rocker dudes with purple hair and baggy jeans walking around. Purple-Haired One, thy name is Grant (a/k/a my brother) who has purple hair and is much trendier than me. Anyway, I feel inspired by my brother, and try to put effort into my voice and my ability to sit still and laugh while my classmate Tarek tells a funny joke, or when Lizzie, another classmate, sings “1Up Girl,” one of my favorite Video Game songs (basically the only Mario Odyssey song I can name). And I would mean it when I cheered or laughed, because my favorite part of the talent show wasn’t when I was performing myself, or accepting compliments. It was when one of my friends stood up from the crowd and performed something extraordinary, and made sure that people were liking the show the whole time that they were up there. That is why I am so honored to be up on that stage, so grateful to be an audience member, and so proud of all my friends for putting on such a good show. So ask yourself: Now that you know how I feel about everything entertainment related, what can you do with this information that can benefit you if and when you perform or are watching a performance? What new skills can you apply in class? I’ll leave you to think on that. Until the next blog post—peace out Stanbridge Bulldogs, and have a wonderful day! |
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