Head Master's Blog

Writing in My Career

2012-01-30T21:20:00.006-05:00

I had the pleasure of speaking to 10-A (one of our fourth grade girls' homerooms) about the centrality of writing in my career. A variety of parent and employee speakers have been visiting 10-A to discuss how they use writing and math in their daily lives as adults. I discussed the various ways that I write (e-mail, letter, report, text message, blog, handwritten note) and the importance of several key elements of writing: knowing your audience; the use of descriptive, non-repetitive vocabulary; proofreading; and revising. Whether the piece of writing is a composition or a dissertation, I explained, the writing process is essentially the same:

1) think of a topic

2) brainstorm ideas

3) make an outline

4) write

5) proofread

6) revise (with the help of a teacher or colleague) until it is your best effort.

Colorful Art Project

2012-01-22T22:02:00.009-05:00

Long before the Tim Tebow craze was sweeping the country, Wayne Thiebaud (also pronounced "Tee-bow") was making a major impact within the art community. Best known for his colorful painting of cakes, pies, and baked goods, he was presented with the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 1994. Why do I mention Waybe Thiebaud in my Calvert blog? No, it is not because I love his prime subject of baked goods! Under the direction of Middle School art teacher Larisa Kamp, our 8th grade art students create Thiebaud-inspired paintings, and they are currently on display in the second floor landing of the Middle School. The paintings are terrific--bright, vivid images that come off the canvas and make the viewer yearn for the bakery. Please see below for some examples. Also, we hope to arrange a display of the paintings later in the semester at The Evergreen on Coldspring Lane. I will share details when they become available.

MLK Day of Service

2012-01-16T14:54:00.004-05:00

We held our third annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service this morning, and it was a big success! Approximately 275 students, family members, and employees participated in a wide variety of on and off campus activities. Participants assembled sun butter and jelly sandwiches for Our Daily Bread; made scarves for the homeless; hand painted crafts for sick children; played bingo with the disabled; clipped coupons and wrote "sight words" for families who visit The Door; and assisted at Paul's Place and the Hampden Family Center, among other activities. Master storyteller (and former Calvert librarian) Karen Burdnell kicked off the morning by offering comments about Dr. King and sharing several family-friendly, interactive stories. In my brief opening remarks, I stated that the event was important for three reasons: 1) to serve the Baltimore community; 2) to honor the legacy of Dr. King; and 3) to build "community" within Calvert. Special thanks to Mrs. DeLorbe and Senora Sachar for organizing this wonderful day!

Impressive Students

2012-01-13T14:19:00.004-05:00

Even though I have spent 15 years of life walking the halls of Calvert School--seven as a student and eight as Head Master--I remain continually impressed with poise, effort, and achievement of our students. On Wednesday, we held our second annual Middle School Fine Arts Night before a packed audience in the Black Box Theater. It was a wonderful evening displaying theater, dancing, singing, art, music, digital arts, and public speaking. Nearly 50 students participated! Also, there was a subset of those students who also played in interscholastic athletic events that afternoon and then hustled back to campus for Fine Arts Night. I truly appreciate how well they represented the School in all of their endeavors that day. This morning, we had our first-ever school-wide Martin Luther King, Jr. Assembly. (It was actually "almost" school-wide because the Pilot Class and 6th Age students followed their normal schedule while 7th Age through 8th grade gathered in the Middle School Gym). The assembly was incredible! An 8th grade girl offered her "Reflection" on her younger brother, who has special needs, followed by an 8th grade boy who recited a portion of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Both students were poised, articulate, and inspirational. The Middle School band also provided excellent musical accompaniment throughout the program. The assembly was the perfect way to begin the Martin Luther King weekend. On Monday, we will hold our third annual Martin Luther King Day of Service. I will report on those activities next week.

Book Recommendation

2012-01-08T21:12:00.002-05:00

On a plane ride to and from Boston last week, I read The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, and I recommend it highly. I had heard about the New York Times bestselling book for a year, and I finally had the perfect opportunity to read it. I am sure glad that I did, because it is a powerful story of family, education, and socioeconomics. The book cover states, "Two kids named Wes Moore were born blocks apart within a year of each other. Both grew up fatherless in similar Baltimore neighborhoods and had difficult childhoods; both hung out on street corners with their crews; both ran into trouble with the police. How, then, did one grow up to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated veteran, White House fellow, and business leader, while the other ended up a convicted murderer serving a life sentence?" If that question intrigues you in the slightest, pick up the book (or perhaps I should say "order it for your e-reader").

Important Admissions Reminder

2012-01-08T21:03:00.002-05:00

If you are interested in Pilot Class or 6th Age for your child, I strongly recommend that you attend one of our two Prospective Parents Nights, which will be held on January 10 and January 18 in the Lower School. The program will run from 7:00 to 8:45 PM and will include time with administrators, homeroom teachers, and "specials" teachers (science, art, music, physical education, etc.). The beauty of the evening is that it is a concentrated look at our two biggest entry grades, and visitors get a chance to interact directly with teachers and other key employees. I hope to see you there!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T16:32:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year to all my readers! I hope that you had ample time to celebrate the holidays with your family and friends. I had a great break and was able to visit several museums in Washington, D.C. (Air and Space and Natural History) as well as participate in a Polar Bear Plunge yesterday in Margate, N.J. I dove all the way under the freezing cold water. I am still not exactly sure why I did it, but I did it! This week, we dive right back in to the school year. Classes, sports practices, and and extracurricular activities all resume. On Friday evening, the 5th grade will present Middle School Musical in the Auditorium. Next week, the events continue with a Prospective Parents' Night on Tuesday, 1/10, and a Middle School Fine Arts Night on Wednesday, 1/11. Best wishes for a wonderful, healthy, and productive 2012!

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-16T08:36:00.007-05:00

It has been quite a week of activity on campus! On Monday, I hosted the 8th Annual Head Master's Inn in my office, which is our equivalent of a holiday party for employees. During the course of the day, close to 100 employees stopped by my office for fellowship, food, and cheer. The Middle School held a day of holiday festivities last Friday (December 9) before returning to exam review on Monday and Tuesday and then three days of exams to conclude the week and the calendar year. The Middle School students can now head into winter break with exams behind them. Their teachers, however, have some grading to do! On the Lower School side of campus, I remained very impressed with the focus of the students during the course of the week. Monday through Wednesday were essentially normal days, with some class parties beginning yesterday. Today, the Lower Schoolers are dressed in red and green holiday attire, and they will gather for a sing-a-long later this morning before heading home at 12:15 P.M. for a two-week vacation. School resumes on Tuesday, January 3. Best wishes to my readers for a joyous, safe, and blessed holiday season! This will likely be my final posting until 2012, so let me also wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Back in Philly at Grad School

2011-12-11T23:41:00.003-05:00

The title of this post is technically correct, but it is slightly misleading. Yes, I was back at the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday, but this time it was as a teacher, not as a student. I must admit that it felt odd driving into West Philadelphia and onto campus. Did I owe any work? Were there any dissertation revisions to do? Alas, those fears were unfounded; my diploma was still valid! I was asked to present a case study to the third-year students in the program I completed in 2010--the Mid-Career Doctorate in Educational Leadership at the Penn Graduate School of Education (GSE). The class was called "Advanced Issues in Educational Leadership." I decided to discuss Calvert's one-to-one laptop program for Middle School students, which has been in place since 1999. Our technology committee has been reviewing the program for a year, and we are considering some alterations in the future. The class and I discussed successes, challenges, options, curriculum, vision, leadership, hardware, "apps," and communication. I found the 90 minutes to be very beneficial, as I gained valuable insights from over twenty sets of experienced and intelligent "fresh eyes." Yes, truth be told, on the way out of town, I did stop at Sarcone's Bakery in South Philly for a loaf of their incredibly delicious Italian bread. Without exaggeration, it is the best bread in the world!

Steve Broy Tree Dedication

2011-12-04T22:00:00.003-05:00

This afternoon, we held a tree dedication in memory of faculty member Steve Broy, who died suddenly last winter. The tree and accompanying plaque are located on the "island" of grass just below the Middle School parking lot. The idea for the tree came directly from the members of the Class of 2011. My comments at the dedication are below.

Welcome everyone on this Sunday afternoon to this tree dedication ceremony here at Calvert School in memory of our beloved friend, colleague, and teacher Steve Broy, whose life was taken far too suddenly and far too short last winter. The turnout here is a testament to the power and influence Steve had over so many people—from all ages and all walks of life. And the fact that this event immediately precedes a Ravens young alumni event is perfect because of Steve’s affinity of sports. I am sure he is smiling down on as us and very happy that we are together and about to stay and see a game.

To be very honest, I am just getting to grips with the fact that Steve is not coming back. For months, I expected to see him in the gym, to bump into him in the hallway, or to see him in the Atrium having lunch. Although we do not have Steve with us anymore in body, we do have him in spirit, and we do have his memory and his legacy. And that legacy was of a man who valued simplicity and I say that in the most complimentary way. Steve knew what was important, and he focused on those things. First and foremost, he was a great father, husband, son, and brother. Family meant everything to him and guided his actions and words. He always bragged about his wonderful daughters and told the latest stories and showed the latest pictures. Second, Steve loved his students. He was so happy teaching at Calvert and forged genuine, meaningful relationships with his advisees, players, and students. And finally, Steve loved sports. He valued teamwork, competitiveness, effort, and physical fitness. Those three things—family, students, and sports—made Steve who he was, and I think we can all learn from that—to do a few things—a few very important things—very very well and to do them with joy, passion, and love.

Considering Calvert?

2011-12-02T21:02:00.003-05:00

If you are, in fact, considering Calvert as a school for your child, I strongly encourage you to contact the Admission Office at 410-243-6054 x. 148. Our evaluation slots are rapidly filling up as we approach the application deadline of Friday, January 13, so I advise "not waiting" if you are thinking of us as a possible school for your son or daughter. This morning, we held our third "Considering Calvert" admission event of the season, and approximately 70 prospective parents attended. Our 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Admission Ambassadors continued to do a wonderful job speaking about their Calvert experiences and helping to tour the families around the campus. In my brief opening comments, I stressed Calvert's pre-K to 8th grade structure (affording our Middle School students greater leadership opportunities, among other advantages); the rigorous, challenging academic program; and the caring, nurturing community. In addition, I touched on "value" (our "bundled" tuition includes books, field trips, snack, and lunch, with no additional fees) and "values"--our four character "pillars" of respect, honor, compassion, and responsibility. Manning one of the tour stops, I had the chance to talk about extracurricular activities, interscholastic sports, fine and performing arts, clubs, as well as Calvert's "best of both worlds" gender approach that includes strong single-sex elements within an overall coeducational framework. Many thanks to the prospective parents for their time and interest!

Toy Drive

2011-11-27T21:35:00.003-05:00

I hope that my readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Last Wednesday morning, we enjoyed a terrific Grandparents' Day (highlighted by the 10th Age Plays and the Pilot/6th Age Pilgrims and Native Americans "show") before recessing for Thanksgiving break. This week, Calvert will participate in a Community Outreach Toy Drive. We will collect new and gently used toys to donate to our outreach partners--The Hampden Family Center and Paul's Place--as well as other local organizations that serve the less fortunate. If Calvert parents would like to participate in this all-school drive, please have your son or daughter bring in a donation any day this week. Gifts should be wrapped and marked with a tag denoting the age, gender, and if the gift is new or gently used. We will provide gift tags for the students. Thank you in advance for your support!

Hopper-Cricket Football

2011-11-20T22:44:00.006-05:00

The 10th Age held its annual Hopper-Cricket flag football game on Friday afternoon on the Middle School's Krongard Field. It was exciting for these Lower School boys to play on the "big" football field. PE teacher Brett Porter and our Grounds crew did a great job dividing the full field into three width-wise smaller fields. Thus, we had three action-packed games going on simultaneously, allowing all the boys to play the entire time. Several members of the Middle School football team gave up their club period to help referee the games, which was very thoughtful. As some of my readers know, we divide the Lower Schoolers into Hopper and Crickets (boys) and Crow and Canaries (girls). Throughout the year and on Track and Field Day, there are athletic competitions with the winning teams for the year being announced during the last week of school at our Lower School Awards Assembly.

Amazing Sunrise

2011-11-14T21:42:00.004-05:00

Being a campus resident, I have the unique opportunity to see Calvert's beautiful fifteen acres at all times of day. This morning at approximately 6:45 A.M., while walking my faithful watchdog, Percy, I caught sight of a stunning reddish-orange sunrise over the Middle School. The picture below, taken with my BlackBerry, does not do the scene justice, but hopefully you can "get the picture" (pun intended).

Football Team Wins Final Game

2011-11-08T22:08:00.007-05:00

The Middle School football team won its final game of the season this afternoon, beating a tough Friends School opponent by a score of 34-16. Both teams played hard until the final whistle as the sunlight faded behind the trees at Friends. Four different players scored for Calvert, including a 6th grade running back who scampered around the left end to reach the end zone on the game's final play. I heartily commend the team members and wish them good luck in their winter sports. Congrats and thanks are also extended to coaches Bennett, Mascuch, Murphy, and Hagel. The future looks bright for the football team, as just four players are currently in the 8th grade. Below, please enjoy three pictures: the whole team after the game, the four 8th graders with Head Coach Bennett, and a bonus picture of Assistant Head Master David Clapp in festive attire during a football and soccer "tailgate" last week at Calvert!

Important Date Reminders

2011-11-07T21:29:00.003-05:00

I want to remind my readers about two important upcoming dates. First, on Thursday, we have the second "Considering Calvert Day" for prospective parents. I urge any families interested in Calvert to attend this informative, interactive session from 9:00 to 11:00 A.M. If you cannot attend on Thursday, please come to our final Considering Calvert Day of the year, on Friday, December 2. Second, I wish to remind current parents that school will be closed this Friday, November 11, that we can devote a full, uninterrupted day to Parent-Teacher Conferences. We believe strongly in the partnership with our parents, and we recommend that all parents sign up to visit with their child's teacher(s). This year, sign-ups are being handled online via the PCR Parent Portal, which has greatly streamlined the scheduling process. I look forward to seeing our current parents on Friday!

Hoop It Up!

2011-11-01T21:52:00.003-04:00

I have coached 5th grade intramural basketball for the last five years. This afternoon, we had an unusually small group who wanted to play, and I was forced to come out of basketball retirement to "hoop it ip" with the students. For a solid 45 minutes, we played full court 3 on 3. Mind you, we were not playing "walk it up the court and look for the backdoor" Princeton (my college alma mater) style basketball. Rather, we passed and dribbled the ball at a breakneck pace similar to the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers! I must admit it felt very good to run up and down the court with the kids. I loved basketball growing up and played competitively through high school. As you know, however, there is a difference in the impact on your body between jogging (which I do fairly regularly) and sprinting (which I rarely do), so now, at 10:00 PM, the soreness is setting in. If you see me walking gingerly around campus on Wednesday, you will know why!

Pumpkins!

2011-10-27T21:05:00.011-04:00

As part of our Middle School Spirit Week, we had a pumpkin carving contest, with each 7th grade advisory submitting a pumpkin to be judged. Some of the creations were excellent! Below you will find a witch (Madame Bofill-Polsky's advisory), Mike Wazowski from Monster's, Inc. (Mrs. Finnegan), a scary "smokin'" pumpkin (courtesy of Mr. Doss and his boys' fog machine), and the award-winning, first-place cheeseburger pumpkin from Senora Sachar's advisory! Friday is costume day. Any guesses as to my costume?

Book Recommendation

2011-10-25T23:10:00.004-04:00

I highly recommend The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch. It is one of the very best books on education I have ever read. Dr. Ravitch covers historical topics; reviews testing, accountability, and school choice in detail; and offers a compelling vision for what public education should look like in our country. Multiple case studies reinforce her key assertions. I am not going into any more detail because I want you to read the book! I have the exciting task of introducing Dr. Ravitch and presiding during her speech next Monday at the Association of Independent Maryland Schools Annual Conference, so I read the book to gain a greater understanding of her mindset and beliefs. If Dr. Ravitch's speech is half as good as her book, it will be outstanding!

Community Building

2011-10-25T22:25:00.002-04:00

We have had multiple excellent and very well-attended "community building" events over the past several days: Fall Family Outreach Day (90 people), Race for the Cure (98 members on Team Calvert, which is a new record for us!), Lower School Calvert-in-Action Day this morning (50 parents) , and a "Fostering Resiliency in Children" Parent Workshop this evening (50 parents) led by our counselors, Tracy Hannah and Terri Merwin. Moreover, we hosted both a girls' soccer game and a 6th grade boys' flag football game on campus this afternoon. If you blink, you will miss a great deal of activity here at Calvert!

A Big Wellness Week Ahead!

2011-10-18T21:47:00.003-04:00

We have a full seven days of wellness and outreach activities on and off campus, starting with our second annual Fall Family Community Outreach Day on Saturday, 10/22. During Outreach Day, Calvert families will beautify campus, clean up Stony Run, and make casseroles for Baltimore's neediest citizens. On Sunday, the Calvert School Race for the Cure Team--which is over 70 strong as of now--will run to support a cure for breast cancer. The Fall Food Drive will take place from Monday, 10/24, through Friday, 10/28. This year, we are collecting fresh foods for the first time, which will provide families from area city schools access to healthy food and produce. Great foods to contribute would be russet and sweet potatoes, squashes such as butternut, acorn and spaghetti, and root vegetables such as radishes, parsnips, turnips and beets. Other items needed include green beans, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, apples, and oranges. Moreover, on 10/24, Lower School classes will plant 50 trays of seeds in a collaborative effort with Real Food Farms and Constellation Energy. A few weeks after, some Middle School students will plant the mature seedlings in the ground at Real Food Farms, and then in a few months, students (and families if needed) will harvest the plants and sell at a farm stand. Many thanks to Calvert teachers Mollie Williams, Jennifer Yapsuga, Larisa Kamp, Erin Strom, and Jennifer Armstrong for overseeing the aforementioned activities! It should be a terrific, worthwhile week for students, faculty and staff, and families.

Ted Lord '89 Stresses Values

2011-10-14T11:54:00.001-04:00

Ted Lord '89 spoke this morning at our Middle School assembly. After Calvert, Dr. Lord attended Gilman, the University of North Carolina, and then Harvard Medical School. He spoke about how Calvert teachers paid attention to him and stressed citizenship as well as academics. Dr. Lord told a story about how he did not receive a seal for citizenship one month because he had been unkind to a classmate. This lesson stuck with him, and he never missed another citizenship seal during his Calvert years. Dr. Lord discussed his extensive travels through Africa; the landscape, people, languages, and poverty all made a significant impact on him and his worldview. He also recounted his experience teaching English in Kazakhstan! Now, Dr. Lord serves as an anesthesiologist in Boston. In closing, Dr. Lord explained that there is no such thing as a self-made man. He has relied on his family and friends for support, and he urged the students to thank their parents for all their love and guidance. Thank you, Dr. Lord, for a wonderful assembly!

Another Friday in the Middle School

2011-10-10T23:51:00.004-04:00

As on September 16, I found myself in the Middle School on a Friday afternoon amidst a rare stretch of unscheduled time. Here is what I saw as I walked around: 8th grade Spanish class using "Word Champ" software to study gender, tenses, and capitalization (1:15 PM), 7th grade American history class, with laptops out, working on an outline for an essay about the colonies (1:17), two teachers planning for a field trip (1:19), 8th grade Latin class conjugating verbs (1:23), a teacher preparing her "blast" email for the week (1:25), 7th grade English class, with laptops out, working on a character sketch essay (1:30), and a 5th grade PE class playing soccer outside in the brilliant sun (1:35). A few hours later, the 6th grade would return from five days and four nights at the Echo Hill Outdoor School (located in Worton, MD). The students were tired and, shall we say, a bit "rumpled," but they were very happy!

Emerging Issues Committee

2011-10-04T21:40:00.003-04:00

As Vice President of the the Board of the Association of Independent Maryland Schools (AIMS), I have the pleasure of serving as Chair of the newly-formed Emerging Issues Committee, or EIC. The purpose of the EIC is to advise the Executive Director (Ron Goldblatt) and the Board on a broad range of emerging issues that are affecting or could affect member schools, including educational trends, finance, and demographics. The nine-member EIC seeks to identify, analyze, and “sort” emerging issues. This past Monday, we held our first meeting of the school year on the beautiful campus of The Key School in Annapolis. We were quite fortunate to have an outstanding guest presenter, Donna Orem, the Chief Operating Officer of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). Ms. Orem led a lively, interactive dialogue on trends that NAIS is following at a national level, including demographics and the economy, "disruptive innovations" such as distance education, a changing consumer base, and the new workforce. We met for two hours, and, quite frankly, could have used two more, as the discussion was so pertinent for all the school leaders at the table as well as for AIMS as a whole! Our next meeting will be held at Calvert in January. While the exact topic is TBA, I believe we will focus on one of the aspects of Ms. Orem's presentation and examine it in more detail. I will report back with a synopsis of future meetings.

Safety First

2011-09-28T23:07:00.005-04:00

The adage that "safety always comes first" really is true in a school setting. Our first priority every day is that all 612 of our students are both physically and emotionally "safe" at Calvert. Our maintenance and grounds team takes excellent care of the campus, working hard to ensure well-kept buildings, fields, gardens, and pathways. We regularly evaluate and, when needed, modify our safety procedures and protocols. Even though it is still only September, we have already had two successful fire drills (one conducted by our staff and another "unannounced" drill from the Fire Department). Moreover, we will hold our annual "red alert" drill in October, in which teachers lock classroom doors, turn out classroom lights, and have the students sit on the ground in silence for a few minutes. This drill simulates our procedures in the highly unlikely event that an intruder gained access to a building and posed a threat. Recently, I communicated with Calvert parents about another important safety matter--dismissal procedures. Having all drivers put their cell phones away as they approach campus is an important aspect of a smooth pickup period. In addition, by arriving at the designated time (depending on the grade level of the child), drivers have a shorter wait time and the local streets are less congested. I thank Calvert parents for their ongoing cooperation and am pleased to report much improved dismissals in recent days. Look for details about students' emotional well-being in a future posting. Our Wellness Committee has been quite active over the past twelve months!

Moving!

2011-09-23T09:59:00.001-04:00

Calvert has always been well-known for our focus on the fundamentals of education: reading, writing, mathematics, and public speaking. You may not know, however, that here at Calvert we pay a great deal of attention to physical education, fitness, and wellness. From Pilot Class through 8th grade, our students have an excellent physical education program as part of their academic schedule. Our 5th graders have the option of participating in after-school intramurals, such as basketball (I am one of the coaches) and winter soccer. In grades 6 through 8, over 90 percent of the students play on one of our 14 interscholastic teams. Furthermore, several Middle School clubs (offered the final period on Friday) are sports-related, such as field hockey and flag football for the 6th graders. Most grades have two recesses a day, and we now have 50-60 Middle School students a day taking advantage of our 7:30-8:00 AM before-school recess in the gym. Add all of this up, and we are, in the words of Middle School Head Matt Buck '87, "The Movement School." This movement promotes bone and muscle development and stimulates the brain as well! The maestra of this beehive of activity is Mary Alice Lears, our Director of Athletics and Physical Education. Last year, in recognition of her superlative work, Mrs. Lears won the Deborah Dorsey Albert Award at Graduation for "outstanding contributions to the life and mission of Calvert School." I encourage my readers to visit campus to (literally) see our boys and girls in action. I would be happy to provide a personalized tour of our athletic facilities and physical education classes.

Friday PM in the Middle School

2011-09-18T22:36:00.003-04:00

I have always admired the ability of our students to focus in the classroom regardless of the day of the week, circumstance, or time of day. You might think that our students (and teachers) would be winding down on a Friday afternoon with only an hour or so to go before dismissing for the weekend. My walk-through of the Middle School on Friday afternoon (9/15) proved just the opposite. During a twenty-five minute stretch of time, I cruised around all floors of the building, typing notes on my IPAD2, and popping in and out of classrooms. I observed energetic teachers, engaged students, and productive lessons. My notes are as follows, with accompanying times: 7th grade English class discussing To Kill a Mockingbird (1:40 PM), 6th grade math class wrestling with a word problem about tickets to a circus (1:45), 8th graders taking a math quiz on integers and expressions (1:51), 6th graders enthusiastically turning in their carefully colored and labeled maps of Ancient Greece in history class (1:52), 7th graders describing people in a photo in Spanish class (1:53), 8th graders reviewing an Algebra II quiz (1:56), 6th graders making journal entries about a Ray Bradbury short story--"The Pedestrian" (1:57), a 6th grade science class watching a NASA video on the water cycle (2:01), and a 7th grade Spanish class working diligently to learn stem changing verbs (2:04). This school year, I plan to offer more reports of this nature to give my readers a snapshot of the exciting things happening at Calvert at a given point in time.

The Benefit of Mistakes

2011-09-12T23:13:00.002-04:00

This may seem like an obvious statement, but students learn from mistakes. I think, however, that we tend to focus too often on avoiding mistakes in the name of reaching 100% accuracy the first time around. Mistakes are an integral part of the learning process. Don't get me wrong--I want our students to study diligently for their spelling tests and try their best to spell all the words correctly. However, mistakes can and will occur, and when they do, we all need to learn from them. Students can make the necessary modifications, and teachers can learn about a child's learning style and/or what material needs to be reinforced with an individual child or the whole class. (We tend to forget about how adults can learn from the students' errors. That is a mistake, no pun intended!). In the opening all-school assembly, I made a mistake on purpose in order to show the students that it was "OK" to err and fine (and often necessary) to be corrected in front of others. I welcomed the audience to the 2007-2008 school year, and Dr. Trusty, on cue, came to microphone and told me that I had the wrong year. The text of my speech is as follows: "Dr. Trusty, thank you for correcting my mistake. You are right. It is the 2011-12 school year, NOT the 2007-08 school year! The first thing I wanted to stress this morning is that it is OK to make mistakes, and it is important that your teachers correct you. That is all part of the learning process. Your teachers might correct you one on one, or they might correct you in front of the class, but that is fine, too. No one will be corrected in front of about 725 people like I just was. Again, I expect that all of us will make mistakes this year. We just need to learn from the mistakes and how to do things correctly, whether it is math, science, handwriting, music, or geography, to name a few subjects."

A Great Start!

2011-09-06T22:02:00.013-04:00

We are off to an excellent start in the 2011-2012 school year! It is only September 6, but we have already had three full days of school, multiple assemblies, and a parents' night (5th grade, this evening). The excitement of the first day of school has transformed into a seriousness of purpose. Don't get me wrong--the enthusiasm is still evident--but we are now into the routine of classes. Middle School interscholastic sports begin tomorrow, and Lower School clubs commence next week. Please enjoy some pictures below from my travels around campus today. In the final photo, you can see the "character pillars" developed by our Wellness Committee last school year and painted onto prominent spaces in our main Middle School hallway. "Respect" and "Compassion" are readable in the photo; harder to see are "Responsibility" and "Honor."

A Wonderful First Day of School!

2011-09-01T22:27:00.007-04:00

We have been quite fortunate on campus this week, as we had minimal damage from Hurricane Irene. We maintained our power, which allowed us to open school--as scheduled--this morning. There is simply nothing like the first day of school...the excitement, the smiles, the stacks of unopened markers, the pads of lined paper just waiting for a composition, the "buzzcuts," the hugs, and the handshakes. Dr. Trusty and I had to start shaking hands at about 7:52 A.M (rather than our normal 7:58 A.M.) to accommodate the LONG line of eager parents and students at the Lower School. Apparently, the crowd stretched all the way to Canterbury Road! At the all-school assembly, Letitia Elliott, our Lower School music teacher, delivered a rousing solo rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. It was a beautiful way to start the assembly and kickoff the school year! For the fourth straight year, we opened our doors with an all-time high enrollment (612 students this year). Below, you will see pictures of Dr. Trusty asking "Trusty Trivia" questions in the Lower School Lobby, two students speaking in front of English class, and a giant chocolate chip cookie! As Head Master, I had to try a cookie for quality control purposes, of course, and I am pleased to report that they were, in fact, suitable for dessert in the Middle School. :)

"The Hay is in the Barn"

2011-08-31T22:38:00.002-04:00

As I write this post late Wednesday evening, the start of school is fewer than ten hours away. One of my college football coaches used to say on the eve of a game, “The hay is in the barn,” meaning that all the work had been completed. That is how I feel right now regarding the start of the 2011-12 academic year. Similar to the planning before a football game, all the preparations have been made here on campus, and we are ready to “kickoff” the school year. The buildings and grounds look terrific; I greatly appreciate the efforts of faculty, staff, and administration in preparing rooms, buildings, indoor and outdoor spaces, and accompanying plans and schedules. In my time here, I don’t think the overall classrooms have looked as great as they do right now in terms of the actual physical state of the classrooms coupled with the teachers’ decorations. We had a wonderful Pilot and Sixth Age "Popsicle Party" earlier today, and the enthusiasm from the students and parents was contagious. In fact, I do not think I will sleep well this evening...just too excited for the opening handshakes. Here we go!!

2011-12 Here We Come!

2011-08-25T15:23:00.003-04:00

I hope that my readers had a summer full of enjoyment and rejuvenation. I had a chance to read, exercise more frequently, do some traveling, and plan for the rapidly approaching school year. Each summer, in mid-August, I get the "itch" for the school year to get started. Do not get me wrong--summer is wonderful--but I am ready. It is time. School needs to begin. Along those lines, the campus has been truly bustling with activity the past week. New teachers began their meetings on August 18, "veteran" teachers came back yesterday, and all-employee meetings commenced this morning. My remarks to faculty and staff centered on the importance of doing all the "little things" well and thoroughly, day by day, week by week, and month by month. We split into groups, brainstormed about crucial "little things" for each department, and then came back together as a whole group to share and to compare notes. I firmly believe that if we do all the little things well, then the overall goal of having an excelllent school year will take care of itself. It was a very productive morning, indeed. Meetings will continue through next Tuesday, August 30, followed by the Popsicle Party for Pilot Class and Sixth Age students on August 31. School officially begins on Thursday, September 1. I can't wait!

2010-11 "In the Books"

2011-06-13T23:31:00.002-04:00

I am very pleased to report that the 2010-2011 academic year came to a successful and beautiful conclusion with the Graduation ceremony for the Class of 2011 on the Castalia lawn on the hot but (thankfully!) dry morning of Wednesday, June 8. We thank the graduates for their breadth and depth of contributions to Calvert over the past decade, and we wish them the best of luck as they transition to their eleven new schools in the fall. Leading up to Graduation, we celebrated an excellent school year through events and activities in classrooms, advisories, and by academic division, including multiple awards ceremonies, Lower School Closing Exercises for the Tenth Age (our largest in School history), and the Dixon Dinner for Eighth Graders and their parents. I would like to thank my loyal readers for all of their support during the past year. My blog will likely be on hiatus until school resumes. Have a great summer!

Class #60--6th Age Reading

2011-06-01T11:06:00.005-04:00

Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 8:45 A.M. 6th Age Reading Class. Class #60 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” expedition. The warm temperatures have not affected the spirits of Mrs. Catlin’s eleven enthusiastic readers. Mrs. Catlin has created a “fish pond” on her rug. The “fish” on the rug have words written on them, as well as a paper clip attached. The students take their fishing rod (a stick with yarn and a magnet on the end of the yarn) and fish for antonyms. The first boy selects “open” and then has to find “shut.” A girl finds “light” and “dark.” Another pair is “asleep” and “awake.” This activity is a very effective way to teach the students about opposites! Mrs. Catlin is a source of constant encouragement for the boys and girls as they “fish” for the correct words. After all the fish have been caught, Mrs. Catlin passes out two cards to each student. Each card has a word on it. Mrs. Catlin then shows two pictures to the class. The students with the corresponding words put them together to create a compound word. For example, Mrs. Catlin holds up a picture of a stick of butter and then a picture of a fly. The children say excitedly, “Butterfly!” With Mrs. Catlin’s reading class this morning, my year-long “50 Classes or Bust” voyage comes to a close. It started way back in early September and finishes today, in the month of June. Oh, the classes I have seen—every grade level, every subject, and nearly every faculty member! My goal was 50 classes and I reached 60, which gives me a sense of great accomplishment. I am a bit sad, however, given that I have to wait three whole months before I observe my next class. In the fall, I plan to observe the five or six teachers whom I missed this year. I can’t wait!

Class #59--7th Age Reading

2011-05-24T14:52:00.005-04:00

Tuesday, May 24, 2011, 9:45 A.M. 7th Age Reading Class. Class #59 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. In 7th Age reading class this morning, Ms. Swiss explains the first activity, which is a “sequencing” exercise related to the book Thunder Cake. Each group of four students has a set of ten cards, with a paragraph on each card. The group has to place the cards in the proper order. For seven-year olds, this is an appropriately challenging activity, as it involves teamwork, reading, and comprehension. It is fascinating to see the groups in action! Ms. Swiss circulates to check on each group’s progress and to answer any questions that have arisen. After about 15 minutes of group work, Ms. Swiss reads aloud from the book, which has been projected onto a screen. The students have to listen carefully to see if they have sequenced their cards correctly. In the final few minutes of class, each pupil cuts out the ingredients for "thunder cake" from a worksheet and glues the ingredients, in the correct order, onto another piece of paper. Good job, boys and girls!

Class #58--6th Age Geography

2011-05-23T23:26:00.002-04:00

Monday, May 23, 2011, 10:55 A.M. 6th Age Geography Class. Class #58 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” quest. Unbelievably, we are starting our final five-day week of classes! Mrs. Strand’s twelve students are excited to use the SmartBoard in 6-E. A map of the United States (without state borders) is projected onto the SmartBoard. The students take turns sliding the Northeast states into their proper location on the map. If the student manipulates the state correctly, it pops into place on the map. These six-year olds clearly know where the states are located! After turns on both the SmartBoard and a traditional map, the students sit on the rug and listen to Mrs. Strand read aloud from several books about United States geography. One clever book is called United Tweets of America and focuses on the various state birds. Did you know that the black-capped chickadee is the state bird of Massachusetts? In the final ten minutes of class, the boys and girls work on a packet of state-related worksheets. For example, the Michigan page is about finding missing car parts, while the Colorado sheet is a downhill skiing maze. In addition to learning about United States geography, the Sixth Agers have “travelled” across the globe this year, as evidenced by their excellent class play last week, The Sixth Age Trip Around the World!

Class #57--8th Age Math

2011-05-20T13:28:00.012-04:00

Friday, May 20, 2011, 12:50 P.M. 8th Age Math Class. Class #57 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” voyage. There is tremendous excitement in the air today in the Lower School! It is Black and Gold Spirit Day and “Moving Up” Day, in which students spend time with teachers at next year’s grade level. In addition, we had an orientation for our new (for 2011-2012) students and parents. In the midst of these many activities and events, we are, of course, having academic classes. Mrs. Woods’s math class has finished lunch and recess and is ready to learn. Class begins with a review of three-digit addition problems on the chalk board. Mrs. Woods ensures that the students are adding correctly and saying the answers in the correct manner. Transitioning out of the warm-up, the class truly perks up when Mrs. Woods holds up a big Hershey’s chocolate bar. In the name of fractions, the class examines the candy bar, which can be conveniently divided into halves, quarters, eighths, and sixteenths. Each student has a small, sixteenth piece as a treat. (The leftover pieces are within my reach; will I be able to resist?). I look up from typing, and yarn is flying around the room! (See second picture below). The “pitcher” asks an addition fact (for example, 5+9), and the “catcher” provides the answer (14). The result of the yarn tossing is a variety of geometric shapes, which the class analyzes. In the final part of the period, Mrs. Woods reviews subtraction with regrouping. Each student works through a variety of problems on a small whiteboard on his or her desk. Mrs. Woods is unsuccessful in her efforts to stump the class! I commend Mrs. Woods and her pupils for a multi-faceted, successful period.

7th Grade Art Class

2011-05-20T13:03:00.005-04:00

I was walking by the Middle School art room yesterday afternoon and was drawn in by the bright colors I saw on the canvases. Please enjoy some pictures of the students' animal paintings.

Class #56--7th Age Math

2011-05-16T12:12:00.006-04:00

Monday, May 16, 2011, 11:25 A.M. 7th Age Math Class. Class #56 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. As I walk in to Mrs. Crawford’s classroom, the students are diligently working on a four-minute addition “frenzy” worksheet. Yes, the age-old math facts sheets are alive and well at Calvert! As the students finish, Mrs. Crawford gives them their completion time to record. The class is studying fractions, and it happens to be Skittles day today! Each student receives a bag, which is quickly torn open and then sorted into five different categories, based on flavor. The students have to answer multiple questions, such as: how many Skittles are in the bag? What fraction are lime? What fraction are grape and orange? (And yes, the fractions will change if the students start to eat the inventory!). Mrs. Crawford enters the data into a spreadsheet, which is then projected onto a whiteboard. It was surprising to me to see such variances among the Skittles bags. For example, one bag had only four lemon pieces while another had twelve; another had seven grapes while a classmate’s had nineteen. This is an excellent activity, as the students have to demonstrate facility with numerators and denominators in an enjoyable, hand-on format. The pupils keep working hard; they also have to determine the fraction of classmates wearing a certain color shirt (yellow, white, or blue), as well as the fraction wearing jumpers. Next, the boys and girls design their “fraction” bedroom on a sheet of graph paper. They draw various pieces of furniture and indicate the appropriate fraction it represents in terms of the total space in the bedroom. Bravo to Mrs. Crawford and her students for a great class!

Class #55--8th Age PE

2011-05-13T14:17:00.004-04:00

Friday, May 13, 2011, 1:45 P.M. 8th Age Physical Education Class. Class #55 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” quest. It is an exciting day here on the campus, as we kickoff Alumni Weekend. I just had the pleasure of hosting the annual luncheon for our older alumni—those from the classes of 1961 (50th Reunion) and earlier. We were fortunate to have about 50 alumni in attendance, ranging from the Class of 1931 to the Class of 1961. Lunch ends, and I hustle down to the Lower School girls’ gym to see Mrs. Sewell and her 8th Age girls in action. As my faithful readers know, Mrs. Sewell is retiring this year after over 37 years of exemplary service to Calvert. Given that Mrs. Sewell has only a few weeks of school remaining, it is a treat for me to spend a full period with her class. The girls immediately begin warming up. “Let me see some decent push-ups,” Mrs. Sewell exhorts. The girls begin playing a game called Line Ball. They are divided into two teams, and each girl has a number. Mrs. Sewell calls out a number, the appropriate girl runs to the middle of the gym, gets a ball, runs back to her side, completes a chest pass with each member of the team, dribbles to a basketball hoop, and then completes a shot from near the foul line. The girl who makes the basket first wins a point for her team. What enthusiasm I see! The girls scream words of encouragement, even chanting their teammate’s name as she tries to make a shot. Mrs. Sewell still has the magic touch. After seeing a girl struggle mightily to make a shot, she instructs the student to shoot underhanded. Lo and behold, the next shot goes in!

The Sprint to the Finish!

2011-05-12T09:20:00.000-04:00

I am often asked at this time of year, "So, are things winding down at Calvert now?" My reply is typically, "Actually, we are not winding down. We are speeding up and sprinting to the finish." We truly want to finish the year in a strong manner; the teachers and staff members are focused to make the final four weeks of school both productive and enjoyable. The calendar is literally full of exciting activities and programs, including the following: Pilot Class Mother's Day Tea; 6th Age, 7th Age, and 7th grade plays; Pilot Class field trip to the Zoo; 8th Age field trip to Union Mills; 7th grade overnight trip to Philadelphia; 10th Age trip to Gettysburg; 8th grade overnight trip to Calleva Outdoor School and day trip to Washington, D.C.; Alumni Weekend and Calvert Day spring fair; 9th and 10th Age Crow-Canary games; Middle School "Battle of the Books," Lower School Spirit Week, and New Parent/Student Orientation and "Moving Up" Day! I encourage current Calvert parents to keep a close eye on the website and on on their e-mails for updates about upcoming events on campus. Also, let's keep our fingers crossed for no rain on Calvert Day on Saturday!

Class #54--Pilot Language Arts

2011-05-04T09:44:00.012-04:00

Wednesday, May 4, 2011, 9:20 A.M. Pilot Language Arts Class. Class #54 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. Mrs. Mollett wastes no time in having the boys and girls “circle up” on the rug. The students say the alphabet in succession (one boy says “A” then the next says “B”). Mrs. Mollett mixes it up by having a student start with a letter in the middle of the alphabet. Next, the students read aloud from a card, and then the appropriate person has to respond. “I have red. Who has yellow?” a girl asks. Then a boy responds, “I have yellow. Who has blue?” I am very impressed with the pace of the replies and with the students’ reading ability! The class transitions to the table area, where Mrs. Mollett reads a book aloud about a cat. The book, in keeping with the first activity, has many “color” words. The students are soon writing lower case letters on a "fish" worksheet and coloring in the sections of the fish with the right color. Mrs. Mollett checks in with each student to make sure the letter formation is correct. As the students finish, they take an individual "Spell-A-Puzzle" to the rug and hone their reading and fine motor skills. Amazingly, there is another activity before the period ends. The students will be illustrating a book; the first step, today, is to read the book. The eager pupils take turns reading pages aloud. Great job, Pilot Class!

Class #53--7th Age Math

2011-05-02T11:58:00.005-04:00

Monday, May 2, 2011, 11:25 A.M. 7th Age Math Class. Class #53 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” marathon. May is upon us! Where did the school year go? There are only 26 days of classes left…maybe we should add a week at the end of the school year to be able to incorporate more teaching time. Don’t worry, students, I am just kidding, but we actually ARE tight on time, with much to do in a little over a month. Mrs. Pontier’s 11 math students are ready to work this morning. The class is studying a money unit; they have constructed a classroom store, ironically called “Money Tree,” which is stocked with such desirable items as lollipops. plastic balls, and liquid "bubbles" to blow outside. Each student decorates a shopping bag and a money envelope and then receives (plastic) coins--10 pennies, 4 quarters, 5 nickels, and 5 dimes--from the banker, Mrs. Pontier. Each student then shops at the store, with students taking turns as the cashier. One of the boys says with a huge smile, "I got to buy both of the things I wanted. I hit the jackpot!" The boys and girls also have to complete two worksheets to solidify their knowledge about coin value. Today’s class is interactive, hands-on, and very practical. The students have to budget their money and make change, which are life-long skills, for sure. Bravo to Mrs. Pontier and her enthusiastic students for such a wonderful math class!

Class #52--9th Age Composition

2011-04-26T22:47:00.005-04:00

Tuesday, April 26, 2011, 11:45 A.M. 9th Age Composition Class. Class #52 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” voyage. Two weeks ago, the 9th Agers spent the day on a Living Classrooms boat trip on the Chesapeake Bay. When the girls in Ms. Preston’s class returned to campus, they spent some time journaling about their experiences on the water. At the start of class today, they sit in small groups (based on which boat they were on) and share some of their journal recollections. I hear “Chinese tanker,” “dissected oysters,” and “Francis Scott Key Bridge,” among many other comments. Although the conversations could go on for hours, it is time to learn some factual information about the boats. Ms. Preston passes out fact sheets about the vessels, and the girls highlight the most pertinent items for inclusion in their compositions. Now that the journals have been reviewed and the factual information has been disseminated, the girls move to the planner stage. Planners, which come in many different “shapes and sizes,” are extremely worthwhile tools to help students organize, sort, and sequence their thoughts before they put pencil to paper on the actual composition. The girls will be writing about their day on their water, but, on a higher, life-long level, they are learning the invaluable writing process. Writing is certainly an emphasis at Calvert; I can share that I am extremely grateful for the excellent writing education I received here as a student. I have two positive observations as class winds down. First, I think Ms. Preston walked a mile during class! She diligently circulated throughout her room the entire period, answering, encouraging, clarifying, and caring. Second, I was struck by how intently and seriously the girls worked on their planners. For a solid 15-20 minutes, the class members quietly and efficiently completed the task at hand; as a result, they are ready to write tomorrow!

Class #51--10th Age Reading

2011-04-21T11:13:00.003-04:00

Thursday, April 21, 2011, 10:25 A.M. 10th Age Reading Class. Class #51 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” expedition. After snack is over, the boys and girls file into the classroom of Mrs. Szczerbicki (Mrs. S for short!) and very quietly settle down for the first activity, which is to read a story from their New Practice Readers book and then answer the accompanying questions. After five minutes of silent individual work, the class begins discussing “Katie’s Trunk,” which is a Revolutionary War-era short story they recently finished. There is a healthy give and take about the appropriateness of armies’ actions during a war, such as seizing the possessions of civilians. The class takes a few minutes to jot down main ideas for a poem they will write about the story. Given that April is Poetry Month, Mrs. S is making sure her students have plenty of exposure to the genre. To that end, the students come to the front of the room in groups of three and four to recite (from memory) a poem about dogs by Ogden Nash, “An Introduction to Dogs.” Why a poem about dogs, you might ask? The students are reading Shiloh, a book about a beagle named…Shiloh. Next, in groups of two, the students log in to Glogster, which is essentially an online collage maker. The students will create their own “glogs” about Shiloh, incorporating key ideas and themes in their own personal style. This is teamwork and technology in action! I am very impressed with how much Mrs. S and her students have accomplished in one period!

Class #50--9th Age Composition

2011-04-19T16:55:00.007-04:00

Tuesday, April 19, 2011, 11:45 A.M. 9th Age Composition Class. Class #50 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” voyage. I made it to my goal of 50 classes! It has been such a pleasure for me to see so many students and teachers in action in both divisions. The 9th Age girls have just completed their egg drop. Each girl built a container (a modified shoe box) that was designed to protect an egg being dropped off the girls’ gym balcony. Now, in composition class, it is time to write about the activity. Mrs. Strom passes out the planner, cleverly entitled “Egg Drop Soup”. The girls work diligently at their tables of four to fill in the planner boxes, describing the order of events, how they felt at certain times, and, with vivid descriptions, what happened to their eggs. Mrs. Strom circulates throughout the room, checking on progress, answering questions, and encouraging the girls to be as specific as possible in their narrative. She then uses her laptop and classroom projector to display key words that the girls have suggested for the composition, such as: survived, balcony, disappointed, anxious. The girls then develop topic and concluding sentences, which are shared via the projector (see picture below). I liked this opening the best: “ ‘One, two, three. Release!’ That is how the egg drop started.” I commend Mrs. Strom and the girls for their hard work and productivity. In one 45-minute period, the girls filled out their planner, listed key words, and wrote opening and closing sentences. The students will write and edit the actual composition during the “compo” periods on Wednesday and Thursday. Even though I have now reached my target of 50 classes, I am going to continue observing given that there is still ample time left in the academic year. Class #51 is coming up on Thursday!

Class #49--8th Age Geography

2011-04-18T23:57:00.003-04:00

Monday, April 18, 2011, 2:10 P.M. 8th Age Geography Class. Class #49 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. The boys of 8-2, after a vigorous PE period, arrive back in their classroom and settle down nicely for geography class. Mr. Paul, who taught me in 9th Age during the 1979-80 school year, is still working his magic at Calvert, now with the 8th Age boys. A published author and the 2009 recipient of the Deborah Dorsey Albert Award for outstanding contributions to the life and mission of Calvert, Mr. Paul incorporates his love of boating into the lessons whenever possible. In class today, Mr. Paul helps the boys gain a greater understanding of magnetic vs. “real” North, latitude and longitude, and the workings of a compass. The activity involves using a parallel ruler to chart a course between three buoys. Working as a “ship,” each table must determine the proper direction and degrees to sail in order to complete the voyage successfully. Although this is geography class, the students are using math as well as working on their critical thinking and teamwork skills. “Pirate Paul” moves from ship to ship to see who needs a little extra help or explanation. The period was quite enjoyable and informative for both students and observer alike!

Latin Class in Molly's Garden

2011-04-14T13:54:00.001-04:00

In this case, a picture IS worth a thousand words.

Class #48--10th Age Math

2011-04-14T12:19:00.005-04:00

Thursday, April 14, 2011, 2011, 11:45 A.M. 10th Age Math Class. Class #48 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” expedition. My goal of 50 classes is in sight, and I am sprinting to the finish! I hope that my Baltimore-area readers had a chance to get outside, because it is a picture-perfect spring day. Despite the allure of the spectacular weather, Mr. McMahon’s class is already hard at work reviewing fractions as I enter the room. Mr. McMahon is making excellent use of the new ceiling-mounted projector; he shows the classes images that are readily divided into a variety of fractions, including a pizza, several flags (states, countries, and maritime), a football field, a window pane, and a Rubik’s Cube (the rage of yesteryear). The class builds on this knowledge in the next activity, which is to design a personal “fraction flag.” Mr. McMahon shows the students how to make various fractions by folding a piece of paper. The students practice their designs on “scratch paper” (a great school term, by the way) and then move on to the final copy, replete with an original “seal.” This hands-on activity allows the boys and girls to see fractions at work in the real world and not just in an equation.

Class #47--8th Age Technology

2011-04-11T11:26:00.005-04:00

Monday, April 11, 2011, 2011, 10:45 A.M. 8th Age Technology Class. Class #47 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. On this beautiful (and unseasonably warm) Monday morning, the girls enter the main Lower School computer lab and settle down quickly. Mrs. McGraw does not waste any time jumping into the lesson. She explains that the class will be using hand-held SMART response devices, also called senteos, to take a technology quiz. The senteos are designed for what is known as a formative assessment, which can provide powerful information about how much students know at a particular point in time before the final (or “summative”) assessment is given. Faculty can then alter their instruction accordingly. For example, if ten out of fifteen students in a math class miss both “percent” questions on a senteo quiz, the teacher knows she has to review that topic again. In tech class this morning, Mrs. McGraw asks eleven questions about computer and software functionality. The questions are projected on the board and read aloud; the girls answer anonymously using their senteo. Some questions are as follows: how many times do you need to click a piece of clip art in order to insert it into a Microsoft Word document ? True or false--you should always “x-out” of all programs before shutting down out of your computer? At the end of the quiz, Mrs. McGraw—and the girls—can see how the class fared in terms of correct responses to each question. Under Mrs. McGraw’s expert tutelage, the girls did very well. It is hard to believe they have so many technological skills at the young age of 8. Bravo to Mrs. McGraw and her class!

Class #46--7th Age PE

2011-04-05T11:17:00.006-04:00

Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 2011, 10:45 A.M. 7th Age PE Class. Class #46 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” trek. As I enter the gymnasium, the boys are already running hard in an oval pattern around cones that have been set up by Mr. Vorsteg. At the conclusion of the warm-up, Mr. Vorsteg leads the students in a stretch of the major muscle groups. After being divided into five different groups, the boys hit a waffle ball off the top of a cone. After two swings with the plastic bat, the next boy takes his turn; Mr. Vorsteg circulates to provide individual tips and pointers about hand, feet, and bat placement. Multi-colored wiffle balls are flying around the gym! I can see the boys gaining confidence as they make solid contact and become more comfortable swinging the bat. When I ask two boys why they enjoy PE, one replies, "The fun games," and the other says, "I enjoy running around." Class concludes with a quick but effective clean-up. The boys line up and are off to math!

Class #45--6th Age Music

2011-04-04T13:43:00.005-04:00

Monday, April 4, 2011, 2011, 1:20 P.M. 6th Age Music Class. Class #45 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” voyage. It is “Opening Day” for the Orioles, and we are celebrating with a black and orange dress down day in the Lower School. Could there be a prettier day for the O’s home opener? I think not! The 6-D students walk into Mrs. Elliott’s music room and take their place on the carpeted risers. Their chatter immediately stops as Mrs. Elliott begins playing on her keyboard. The class sings the following lyrics several times to get them in the music mode: “Good afternoon to you. How do you do? Nice to see that you are doing fine. Now it is music time.” Mrs. Elliott transitions the class to several other songs, including the Calvert classics “Funiculi, Funicula” and “Silhouette Child.” How do these young children know all these verses? I am impressed by their knowledge and attentiveness. In the spirit of the baseball game today, Mrs. Elliott teaches the class “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” The students first “clap” the sound to understand its rhythm before singing it. Then, the class members keep the rhythm going by tossing a gigantic tennis ball back and forth to Mrs. Elliott. What a fun, productive class!

Class #44--6th Grade English

2011-03-30T08:57:00.008-04:00

Wednesday, March 30, 2011, 8:20 A.M. 6th Grade English Class. Class #44 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. It is first period, and the students are fully engaged as I walk into Mrs. Williams’s class a few moments after the bell rings. A class member kindly brings me up to speed on the plot of Parvana’s Journey, an award-winning novel about the war in Afghanistan. The main characters, most notably 13 year-old girl Parvana, have all experienced great loss, but they have “found each other,” so to speak. The book’s cover explains, “At times extremely sad, Parvana’s Journey provides an honest and compassionate look at the situation in Afghanistan, yet never loses sight of the courage and hope that can keep children afloat even in the most horrific circumstances.” The students have identified four main themes in the book: war, survival, loss, and children in an adult world. Today, the students are taking quotations from the book (on strips of paper) and gluing them under the appropriate theme. Mrs. Williams, who also serves as Dean of Students and Director of Summer Programs and Community Outreach, stresses that one can make a good argument for a quotation being placed in several different categories. The most important thing, she explains, is to clarify and “state your case” with evidence. Under Mrs. Williams’s skillful guidance, the students are discussing heavy material with maturity and thoughtfulness. They take turns reading the quotations aloud, with Mrs. Williams exhorting them to speak with the appropriate emotion and intonation, depending on the nature of the quotation. Next, students read excerpts from their homework assignment, which was to write about their own personal “Green Valley,” which in the novel is an imaginary place of health, peace, and bounty. In the final few minutes of class, the students stand in a circle and review vocabulary from their text, Worldly Wise. Mrs. Williams reads a definition, and then two students compete to say the corresponding vocabulary word. The winner advances to the next spot on the circle. Bravo to Mrs. Williams and her class!

Class #43--8th Grade Algebra I

2011-03-29T10:05:00.003-04:00

Tuesday, March 29, 2011, 9:10 A.M. 8th Grade Algebra I Class. Class #43 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” marathon. Given two absences, this normally small class of eight students is even smaller today. The students better be sharp for Mrs. Yapsuga! The class moves directly into three warm-up problems. The first is as follows: “Find the slope of a line containing the points (2,6) and (-5, -8).” Boy, am I rusty! The students, however, complete the three problems, share their answers on the board, and then are quickly working on the next activity. They pivot 180 degrees and face the SmartBoard on the rear wall of the class. A graph showing “Oil Changes vs. Engine Repair” is projected, and the class discusses the slope of the line and what it means. This is a follow-up to yesterday’s lesson, in which the students created a scatter plot using their graphing calculators and then created a “line of best fit.” Next, the class examines a graph displaying the relationship between the weight of a bike and the height of a jump that can be executed. After looking at the data, the students discover that for every five pounds of bike weight, the height of the jump goes down by one foot. Next, the class evaluates winning times for the men’s Olympics 200 meter individual medley swim. The class digs into some meaty questions. What is the slope of the line and what it means? What might the times have been if the Olympics had been held in 1980? Is it reasonable to predict the winning time for the 2012 Summer Games? 2028 Olympic Games? At what point do the projections become questionable, i.e. how fast is it humanly possible to swim (or run)? Mrs. Yapsuga is employing technology very well to enhance the lesson. She is using the SmartBoard to project—and type on--a graphing calculator. (See pictures below). The students have their own individual graphing calculators and can follow along, offer suggestions, and compare and contrast their answers. A great class!

Class #42--7th Age Library Class

2011-03-25T13:53:00.004-04:00

Friday, March 25, 2011, 1:25 P.M. 7th Age Library Class. Class #42 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” voyage. After enjoying a recess, the boys from Ms. Swiss’s class are ready to focus in library class, under the watchful eye of Mrs. Thomas. In 2010, Mrs. Thomas won the Deborah Dorsey Albert Award at Graduation for her “outstanding contribution to the life and mission of Calvert School.” The boys drop off their books onto the “return” cart and then take a seat at round tables in front of the SmartBoard. Mrs. Thomas asks the boys how they sort their books at home. The responses are varied: by alphabet, color, size, series, and chapter (vs. non-chapter books), to name a few. Mrs. Thomas then explains the contributions of Melvil Dewey, the creater of the Dewey Decimal classification system, which, as you know, is a uniform and consistent manner of sorting and classifying books in libraries. On a worksheet, the boys circle pictures of wild animals (found in the 500s in the Dewey system) and put a square abound the pictures of pets (found in the 600s). Next, the boys work diligently in pairs to group sea animal, mammal, and bird words. For the final fifteen minutes of class, the students enthusiastically look for books to check out for the weeks ahead!

Class #41--5th Grade Library Class

2011-03-24T09:33:00.005-04:00

Thursday, March 24, 2011, 9:10 A.M. 5th Grade Library Class. Class #41 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” expedition. It is unseasonably cold outside, but it is perfectly warm here in the Middle School Library! As our Middle School parents know, we had a highly successful Iditarod-themed program in 5th through 8th grades in the week preceding spring break. The students, working in teams, learned about both the Iditarod and Alaskan geography, history, and culture by moving to different stations and completing a wide variety of tasks throughout the building. The students were also treated to an assembly presentation from Dan Dent, who was a two-time participant in the grueling race. Today in class, the boys are working in pairs to write a follow-up, post-race letter to “their” musher. Mrs. Stone has the lesson well-organized and begins by reviewing proper letter form and possible topics to include. In the age of e-mail and text messaging, it still remains crucially important that our students know how to format and write a proper letter, be it hand-written or typed.

A Memorable Dance Assembly

2011-03-21T12:15:00.007-04:00

After a hectic pre-vacation week of school and then a week of spring break, I am back in the office today and gearing up for the resumption of classes tomorrow. The buildings are quiet today, but they will be full of energy on Tuesday! On Friday, March 11--right before we adjourned for vacation--we held our annual 7th and 8th Age Dance Assembly. Always a festive affair, this year's version was extra special because it was the final one for retiring physical education teacher Jane Sewell, who is retiring in June after an outstanding career at Calvert that began in March 1974. Mrs. Sewell has orchestrated the dance assembly for decades, and will will surely miss her leadership next year. We thank Mrs. Sewell for her skillful teaching, passion for Calvert, and wonderful friendship!

Class #40--9th Age Art

2011-03-07T11:34:00.007-05:00

Monday, March 7, 2011, 11:00 A.M. 9th Age Art Class. Class #40 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. Like a major league hitter “stuck” at 399 home runs while trying desperately to hit number 400, I was “stuck” at 39 classes for more than two weeks! Therefore, it feels great to be back in a classroom this morning. Mrs. Bishop’s eager 9th Age girls arrive with their smocks on and ready to work. In the spirit of Women’s History Month, the girls spent a few minutes discussing a piece of artwork by Eva Hesse. Mrs. Bishop then gives a detailed list of instructions to each table of students, and the girls return to work on their “Face Formula” project. This multi-period endeavor involves drawing five different people--with emphasis on the faces--weaving clothing for three of the five, and then incorporating fabric collages as well! Mrs. Bishop skillfully and kindly helps the students throughout the period. (I would offer to help, but I am not much of a clothing weaver, unfortunately). I am truly impressed by the girls’ creations! Enjoy the pictures below.

Lessons from an Adult Student

2011-03-03T15:31:00.003-05:00

The highlights of my day are the moments I spend with students. As my readers know, I am shooting to observe 50 classes this year, meet with every Middle School advisory, and speak individually with every 8th grader. Today, I spent 30 minutes in 10-A (a fourth grade girls' homeroom) sharing my "Lessons from an Adult Student." I described the rigors of my doctoral program and stressed, above all, the importance of being a life-long learner. I shared four lessons that I learned during my three years at the University of Pennsylvania: 1) high-quality advising matters; 2) surround yourself with bright, talented people; 3) step up when a classmate needs help; 4) the "fast" tortoise wins the race, i.e. diligently adhering to a master schedule will allow one to complete a big project. The girls asked excellent questions throughout my presentation! The "cutest" one came from a girl who asked if I had to do any dissections while I was learning to be a "doctor"! I replied, "Fortunately, no, but we did dissect many, many books." :)

National Conference a Winner

2011-02-25T10:49:00.004-05:00

I have had the privilege of attending the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Annual Conference the last few days. The conference is being held in National Harbor, Maryland, which is a new "town" and conference center on the Maryland side of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Over 4,000 independent school faculty, administrators, and trustees have gathered from all across the country to share ideas and learn about best practices. The keynote speakers have been excellent! Wendy Mogel, author of The Blessings of a Skinned Knee, was irreverent and quite funny as she offered common sense advice for parenting teenagers. Her new book--The Blessings of a B Minus--looks like a must read! I also heard Dan Heath speak about change. Heath co-wrote (with his brother, Chip) Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard, and he offered three overarching pieces of advice for those seeking to initiate and implement change in their personal or professional lives: Direct the Rider, Motivate the Elephant, and Shape the Path? What do those phrases mean? You need to read the book to find out! Have a great weekend--I hope to see many Calvert parents at tomorrow night's Corks for Calvert event.

Class #39--7th Age Science

2011-02-17T14:55:00.005-05:00

Thursday, February 17, 2011, 1:30 P.M. 7th Age Science Class. Class #39 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” expedition. Last week, the girls from 7-A discussed the moon, and today the sun is the focus of the class. As the period begins, the girls enthusiastically rattle off characteristics of the sun: made of gas, hot, can damage our eyes, center of the solar system, to name a few. The girls move from their seats to the rug, where they listen to Ms. Lacy read The Sun: Our Closest Star. In the question and answer time that follows, Ms. Lacy ensures that the class understand the basic facts about the sun, such as its composition and position in the solar system, i.e. the earth revolves around the sun and the moon revolves around the earth. These concepts are reinforced by the clever, entertaining five-minute video clip that follows. The girls move back to their seats, where they complete and then color a worksheet. By talking about the sun, hearing a read aloud, watching the “Rock ‘N Learn Earth Science” DVD, and then doing the worksheet, the girls have learned about the sun in a variety of different ways this afternoon. I am confident that, under Ms. Lacy’s skillful tutelage, the girls now understand the fundamentals of this very important star!

Class #38--6th Grade Music Class

2011-02-14T16:42:00.010-05:00

Monday, February 14, 2011, 10:20 A.M. 6th Grade Music Class. Class #38 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. On a beautiful Valentine’s Day Monday, I am so pleased to be in Mr. Hardesty’s music class. Mr. Hardesty is our super-talented Middle School music teacher; he is in his 26th year at Calvert and, among several songs he wrote for Calvert, gave us the gift of “Silhouette Child.” Class has just begun as I walk in. Mr. Hardesty is talking about the musical contributions of the legendary Sam Cooke. Class quickly transitions over to the tiered performance area, where Mr. Hardesty reviews how to play an E-minor key on the guitar. The students are soon strumming away to “Horse With No Name,” accompanied by keyboard, tambourine, and drums! “Wild Thing” is soon to follow, and the music room is rocking! Please enjoy a bunch of photos below, and have a terrific week.

Class #37--5th Grade P.E.

2011-02-07T13:25:00.007-05:00

Monday, February 7, 2011, 1:00 P.M. 5th Grade Physical Education Class. Class #37 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” voyage. Time for "Pirate Ball" in 5th grade PE! It is a Monday, and the students are full of energy. They come into the gym and complete their “dynamic warm-ups” without prompting. Mrs. Lears, our athletic director and PE teacher extraordinaire, divides the eager participants into red, yellow, green, and blue teams and sends the teams to their quadrants. In each of the four quadrants is a group of balls—red, yellow, green, and blue. The goal is to “raid” the opposing territories—without being caught, of course—and secure your team’s balls. So, the blue team tries to collect all the blue balls, the green team all the blue balls, and so on. There is a great deal of action, strategy, and passion involved! Please enjoy some photos below.

Class #36--5th Grade Science

2011-02-02T12:58:00.005-05:00

Wednesday, February 2, 2011, 12:15 P.M. 5th Grade Science Class. Class #36 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. The students have hustled in from their “lunch recess” and settle into their seats in Mrs. Ossmus’s colorful, lovingly-decorated classroom. After showing students some old-fashioned paper fasteners, Mrs. Ossmus informs the class that the paper clip was invented in 1899. Did you know the world’s heaviest paper clip is 4,000 pounds? The record-setting paper clip is obviously very large, and it is made of solid metal. Metal has multiple properties: conducts heat and electricity, shiny, hard, malleable, and ductile. Ductility, as I learned today, is the ability to be pulled into thin wires without breaking. By 12:27, the students are making predictions about a “hardness vs. malleability” experiment they are about to conduct in class. How many times can the students bend a copper wire and a paper clip before the objects snap? Which is more malleable? Each student tests the two items. I can see their inquisitive expressions as I hear them counting the number of bends. I help out with bending a student’s paper clip, and the small clip is tougher than you might think! It turns out that the copper wire takes many more bends before it breaks, on average, than the paper clip. Therefore, we can state that the copper wire is more malleable than the clip. The class discusses which metals might be better for various tasks and structures, including an invention the students might make. I greatly appreciate both Mrs. Ossmus’s and the class’s enthusiasm today. In the pictures below, you will see a student bending a copper wire, another student holding a broken paper clip, and Mrs. Ossmus demonstrating the proper bending technique!

Class #35--10th Age Spanish

2011-01-31T14:23:00.004-05:00

Monday, January 31, 2011, 1:45 P.M. 10th Age Spanish Class. Class #35 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” trek. Senora Duncan wastes no time in getting the girls started this afternoon. After exchanging greetings with Sra. Duncan, the girls review their homework with their table mates. Sra. quickly transitions into a flash card activity; she shows the class a card with a picture (restaurant, road, theater, hospital, etc.) on it, and then the class says the word in Spanish. Sra. Duncan ensures that the girls use the correct gender and pronunciation when identifying the word. The girls take turns reading “sentences” on the board that have been created from putting several flashcards together, e.g. picture of a boy…directional arrow…park becomes, “El va al parque.” After the first round, Sra. adds time of day (morning, afternoon, etc.) and calendar cards to increase the difficulty of the sentences. As quickly as class starts, it ends, with Sra. calling the students to line up by their birth month. I am impressed with the students’ knowledge, and their enthusiasm is infectious!

Class #34--8th Grade History

2011-01-31T13:45:00.000-05:00

Monday, January 31, 2011, 10:00 A.M. 8th Grade History Class. Class #34 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. I have been looking forward to this class all weekend, as I knew that Mr. Shawen would begin the period with a discussion of the unfolding civil unrest in Egypt. In fact, that is just what happens, and I am learning a great deal as I type this blog post. The class discusses alliances, geography, peace treaties, and the intricacies and “stickiness” of the US position, i.e. how we are trying to balancing democracy and stability in the Middle East. Mr. Shawen expertly guides the students through the complexities of the issues; he is in his thirtieth year teaching at Calvert and is the only faculty member to have won both of our teaching honors: the Apgar Award and the Deborah Dorsey Albert Award. At approximately 10:15, the class transitions to a discussion of pre-World War I Europe. The students compare and contrast the political map of 1914 to the map of today. Mr. Shawen walks the class through the Franco-Russian alliance and the resulting German Schlieffen Plan, which aimed to conquer France in six weeks so that Germany could turn its full attention to Russia. The students also discuss warfare tactics and how guns evolved over the course of several wars over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The conversation is fast-paced and stimulating. I wish I could continue attending in subsequent days!

Middle School Fine Arts Night

2011-01-24T22:08:00.010-05:00

On Thursday, January 20, we held our inaugural Middle School Fine Arts Night, under the direction of art teacher extraordinaire Larisa Kamp. It was a huge success! An enthusiastic audience of students, family members, friends, and faculty was treated to folktale readings, five songs from the 7th grade band, three scenes from the 7th grade play Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Cry Wolf, and a scene from the 5th grade play The Oddity. Enjoy some pictures below!

Class #33--10th Age Math

2011-01-24T21:55:00.001-05:00

Monday, January 24, 2011, 11:35 A.M. 10th Age Math Class. Class #33 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” expedition. On a frigid day, I am here in a nice toasty Lower School classroom with Mrs. Holt, our Lower School math specialist, and her thirteen eager 10th Age students. After quick homework check, Mrs. Holt announces that it is time for a new activity. Mrs. Holt wants her students to think about math all the time, including when they are getting out supplies. “If your birthday is a prime number, come get a marker and a whiteboard,” she announces, followed by, “If your birthday is a composite number small than 20, come get your supplies,” and so on. The topic of the day is “Russian Peasant Multiplication.” Mrs. Holt shows a video which explains the method: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrUCL7tGKaI

Essentially, one factor is doubled while the other is doubled, “even” rows are crossed out, and then you are left with a “friendlier” addition problem. It is a very interesting method, indeed! The students use remaining class time in pairs to experiment with different combinations and to figure out why this method works mathematically. The students are simultaneously working on their computation while stretching their critical thinking skills! In the final two minutes of class, Mrs. Holt calls up groups of three students for a challenge question. She flips a card, which has a number of dots on it, and then she asks a question to each group of three. The student who first answers correctly wins the round. The questions are challenging--square this number and subtract 5, what is second multiple of this number, square this number and add 9, find two-thirds of this number and multiply by 11—and the students are fast! I am impressed by their speed AND accuracy.

Class #32--8th Grade English

2011-01-19T10:39:00.003-05:00

Wednesday, January 19, 10:00 A.M. 8th Grade English Class. Class #32 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. I have a real treat today. I have the opportunity to observe 8th grade students giving oral proposals about their prospective Castalia Projects. The Castalia Project is our 8th grade “capstone project,” which, as Ms. Summers describes, is designed to allow 8th graders to use skills developed over the course of Middle School to research a topic of their choice. The project includes a formal five to seven page research paper as well as a Creative Final Product (CFP) that uses the research a student has done to build a creative interpretation of his or her topic. These may include, but are not limited to: visual art of any medium, primary source interviews, documentaries, design relevant to subject at hand, model or other 3-dimensional representations, or other digital representations or interpretations of topic At the end of the year, students will present their projects before the Calvert community. Two students, a boy and a girl, whose projects show particular distinction, will be selected to present their projects at Graduation in June. As the students take turns presenting this morning, classmates ask clarifying questions, and Ms. Summers helps the students start to narrow their proposed topics. For example, one student wants to research piracy, but after a rich discussion, he realizes that “piracy” is too big a topic to cover in depth in five to seven pages. However, he will be able to write thoroughly about pirate tactics or Somali piracy within the parameters of the project. Over the course of just one period this morning, I hear proposals about BMX bike racing, the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, Cleopatra, the Academy Awards, yoga, history of the Boy Scouts, history of piracy, Alzheimer’s, the Sundance Film Festival, magazine publishing, and piracy. I cannot wait to see how the projects turn out!

Extras? No, Our Curriculum

2011-01-11T23:22:00.005-05:00

In schools, one often hears of the "extracurriculars," which implies that certain activities, such as drama and athletics, are added on to the curriculum and take on less importance than other strands of the program. Some schools use the phrase "co-curricular" as a descriptor, which I have never quite understood. Athletics and the arts are key components of the Calvert experience, and thus I hesitate to call them anything but "our curriculum." This subject is on my mind because of the very impressive displays of ability and teamwork on the basketball court I witnessed over the last two days from our girls' and boys' teams AND the same very impressive displays of ability and teamwork I saw in the 7th grade play, Don't Count Your Chickens Until They Cry Wolf, last weekend. The play was so funny that I literally cried with laughter! The facial expressions and animation of the actors was just priceless. I strongly encourage my readers to come see a winter athletic contest, our first-ever Middle School Fine Arts Night on January 20, and/or the 5th grade play on the evening of January 24. If you attend, remember that you are seeing "our curriculum," not "extras"!

Class #31--8th Grade Latin

2011-01-06T13:44:00.001-05:00

Thursday, January 6, 1:00 P.M. 8th Grade Latin Class. Class #31 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” marathon. Dr. Pietropaoli, or “Dr. P” for short, starts class by reminding students to bring their (fully charged) laptops to class next week, as they will be needed throughout the week in Latin. Dr. P., who studied Latin in Rome, quickly turns to the word of the day, “conspicuous,” which he discusses with the class. The students learn that “conspicuous” comes from the Latin root “conspicio,” which means “to catch sight of.” The saying of the week is “Potest ex casa magnus vir exire,” from Seneca, translated as, “A great man can come out of a little hut.” As the students open their laptops, Dr. P. projects a chart of adjectives onto the board. The class reviews how gender and number affect the spelling of the adjective in question. “The adjective always refers back to the noun, which is already set. You have to make your adjective agree with the noun.” he explains. Dr. P. explains the intricacies of declensions while calling on a wide variety of students for answers. Next, the students leave their seats and make their way to one of the three white boards in the classroom. They write one of their homework answers on the board, and then Dr. P. enthusiastically reviews the responses with the whole class. Words and phrases I have not heard since I took Latin in 8th grade are flying around the classroom, such as “nominative” and “accusative plural.” I am very impressed at how much the students know after just four months of Latin. My rust is falling off, and I am starting to remember old Latin rules, when the bell rings to end class!

Class #30--6th Age Math

2011-01-05T10:46:00.003-05:00

Wednesday, January 5, 10:10 A.M. 6th Age Math Class. Class #30 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” project. With today’s class, I have achieved 60% of my 50 classes goal, with still half of the school year remaining. I am confident I will complete—and hopefully exceed—my goal. Eleven chipper boys and girls sit down around two tables and eagerly look to Mrs. DeLorbe as class begins. A worksheet is projected onto the board, and the students have the same worksheet in front of them. The students are reinforcing subtraction skills by “crossing off” teapots and by learning how to move along a number line. Mrs. DeLorbe explains, “Put your pencil on the 6 teapot and then hop back 3 spaces and that is your answer. 6 minus 3 equals 3.” Students try some problems on their own and then come to the board to write and share their answers. Student helpers erase the board and collect the papers, and then the class moves on to the next activity—learning about the numbers 9 and 10. Through mathematical software that has been projected onto the board, the students count a variety of objects (that are in groups of 9 and 10), such as basketballs and birds sitting along a telephone wire. Mrs. DeLorbe reinforces the importance of counting in order, rather than jumping around. One of the directions in the lesson is to “circle” a group of 9 basketballs in a line, but a very perceptive student comments that it is not actually a circle she is supposed to draw but an oval! The students work individually in their workbooks as the period comes to a close, with Mrs. DeLorbe attentively works with anyone who needs assistance. The class earned a marble from Mrs. DeLorbe for their good behavior today!

Class #29--Pilot Class Reading

2011-01-05T00:37:00.006-05:00

Tuesday, January 4, 8:45 A.M. Pilot Reading Class. Class #29 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” expedition. Happy New Year to my readers! I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season. We started up again here at Calvert on Monday, and we have an incredibly busy stretch coming up, including admissions events, dramatic productions, interscholastic games, and re-enrollment for the 2011-12 school year. I kicked off my 2011 class visits by spending a delightful 40 minutes in Pilot Class with Ms. Reinhardt’s enthusiastic reading class, comprised of six students. Ms. Reinhardt’s lesson was thoughtful and effective, as she incorporated listening, speaking, reading, coloring, and moving within the classroom. Class began with students sitting on individual squares on the rug. The students played a letter recognition game. Ms. Reinhardt showed a card with letter on it to two students, and then they competed to see who could say the letter correctly first. The students then learned about the letter of the week—U—including what it sounds like, how to write a lower case and upper case U, and short U vs. long U sounds. Ms. Reinhardt then led the class through a "U bucket" exercise: students listened to clues, found correct objects on a nearby table, determined whether it was short or long U word, and then placed the object (unicycle, umbrella, bug, duck, etc.) in the U bucket. After a read-aloud of a book about Umbrella Bird, the boys and girls moved to the table and colored objects on a piece of paper after listening to clues, such as “I am thinking of something warm in the sky.” The answer was sun, of course! In the final few minutes of class, the students picked out books, moved back to the rug, and read books individually. Congratulations to Mrs. Reinhardt and her class for getting so much done today!

Class #28--6th Age Reading Class

2010-12-15T23:23:00.009-05:00

Wednesday, December 15, 8:45 A.M. 6th Age Reading Class. Class #28 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. A group of 12 enthusiastic students bursts into Ms. Clark’s classroom on this chilly December morning. Ms. Clark knows this age group well and has activities planned that take advantage of the students’ natural energy and curiosity. For the next 45 minutes, her classroom will brim with vowel sounds, laughter, and learning! Ms. Clark takes her yardstick and points to specific letters on a large alphabet strip above the chalkboard. The students say the letters aloud, and then in the next round, say the sounds made by the letter. The class plays a game called “At the Table” to review vowel sounds. Ms. Clark says a sound, and the students have to act out the sound—after a “u” sound, the boys and girls sit under the table, while after a “o” sound, they (politely!) sit on the table. What fun! The students cut out consonant letters and then see how many “op” words they can make. The students choose letters to make different words, such as “chop,” “hop,” “cop,” “shop,” “stop,” and “flop.” While they are cutting, Ms. Clark reads “funny” sentences, and the class answers “yes” or “no” in unison. She asks, “Do your eyes chew? Can you save money? Does a tiger have stripes? Can a window stretch? Is a ribbon thirsty?” The students take a few minutes to read silently a small booklet called Mop. Ms. Clark reads it aloud, and then the class reads it aloud together in a choral fashion, followed by partner reading. Ms. Clark circulates to each pair of students to see if anyone needs assistance. She sits right on the floor with the children, and there is clearly a strong student-teacher rapport. The class ends with each pupil giving Ms. Clark a firm handshake (with good eye contact, of course!) and providing her an example of a “short o” word, such as “fox,” “mop,” “octopus,” “got”, “lop,” and “pop.” Again, the fundamentals were on full display today, in a very age-appropriate, interactive manner. Congratulations to Ms. Clark and her students for a great class!

An Amazing Decoration

2010-12-09T22:40:00.002-05:00

I was walking down the hall today in the Lower School when I saw an amazing decoration hanging from the ceiling of Mrs. Delorbe's room. Mrs. Delorbe made two of these "snowflakes" herself. How did she do it? Please enjoy the picture below!

Class #27--8th Age Math Class

2010-12-09T22:31:00.002-05:00

Wednesday, December 8, 12:50 P.M. 8th Age Math Class. Class #27 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” voyage. Fresh off reading 9th Age folders and a delicious lunch in our Lower School cafeteria of chicken pot pie and squash, I am in Mrs. Spadone’s math class. (Did you know Mrs. Spadone graduated from Calvert, in the Class of 1977?) Her eager pupils immediately begin exploring the number line and place value with a “count on” technique. They are mastering the “ones” and “tens” place and what happens to numbers when they are combined. For example, when 3 is added to 28, does the tens place change, the ones place change, or do both change? In this case, both places change and the sum is 31. Mrs. Spadone passes out a bowl of place value blocks to each student. The students place “tens” blocks and “ones” blocks onto a chart after listening to instructions, i.e. when Mrs. Spadone says that a great student received 26 stickers, the boys and girls place two tens rods and six ones blocks onto the correct sections of the paper. Next, Mrs. Spadone unrolls a large “10 x 10” hundreds chart with the numbers 1-100 each occupying an individual block. It serves as a very useful tool in seeing how numbers relate to each other. For example, the chart helps students literally see why and how 55 + 20 = 75. The students, in pairs, then play a game using a smaller, individual version of the hundreds chart. The boys and girls roll dice, and then move a small disk from number to number in accordance with the total shown on the pair of dice. Who will be the first to reach 99? It is interesting to see how some students move (or “count”) one block at a time while others understand how to advance ten spaces, for example, in one fell swoop. The students finish the period by working on a few workbook pages to reinforce the concepts covered in class. At Calvert, we pride ourselves on teaching the fundamentals of education, and today’s lesson was a clear example of the emphasis on two of the key building blocks of mathematics: place value and addition.

Class #26--5th Grade Science Class

2010-12-08T12:51:00.002-05:00

Wednesday, December 8, 12:15 P.M. 5th Grade Science Class. Class #26 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” expedition. Room 217 in the Middle School is a whir of activity as the students come in from lunch recess and settle down in science class. Mrs. Merwin, who serves the Middle School so well as both counselor and science teacher, begins class by reminding the class what is needed for their preparation for exams, including the exam review sheet, past tests, and lesson summary sheets. The students work quietly for a few minutes labeling the parts of a cell. Can you name a few? For those rusty science students of yesteryear (myself included), I share the following: cytoplasm, chloroplast, mitochondria, and cell membrane, to name a few. Next, through a story about Dr. Martire’s broken laptop, the students review the scientific method, which incorporates the following steps: Problem, Observation, Hypothesis, Experiment, Conclusion, which creates the acronym POHEC. For the next activity, students are given slips of paper with characteristics or descriptors written on them, such as “harsh environments,” “amoeba,” and “found in pond water.” The young scientists then get out of their seats to put their slips under the correct “Kingdom” posted on the walls, e.g. Bacteria, Archaea, Protist, Virus, and Animal. For the final few minutes of class, Mrs. Merwin and her students review plant parts, types, and functions. I am very impressed with how much material has been covered in this one class. Mrs. Merwin knew just how fast to proceed, and the students eagerly and effectively responded to the design of the lesson. I am confident the students will do well on their upcoming science exam!

Class #25--8th Grade Science Class

2010-12-06T10:38:00.001-05:00

Monday, December 6, 10:00 A.M., 8th Grade Science Class. Class #25 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. I have reached the halfway point of my 50 observations! It is really good to be back at Calvert and back in a classroom. Over the past week, my travels have taken me to New York City, San Diego, and San Francisco for a combination of Calvert alumni events and the National Association of Independent School (NAIS) People of Color Conference, at which I presented my dissertation findings. Although the trip was extremely worthwhile and productive, I am pleased to be back on campus. As today’s physical science class begins, Mr. Parker collects the lab assignments that are due and moves right into a discussion of mixtures and compounds. (Rust is literally falling out of my brain as the discussion revs up). Mr. Parker employs a “Brain Pop” video and quiz (which the class takes together orally) as an instructional aide. The biggest difference, the class discovers, is as follows: a mixture is created through a physical change, while a compound is created through a chemical change. Among many facts and nuances, the students learn how to discern between a heterogeneous mixture (cereal and milk, for example) and a homogeneous mixtures (salt water) and how to separate a mixture, including distillation and centrifuge. Mr. Parker’s visual aids are very helpful. After the Brain Pop quiz, Mr. Parker projects some fill-in-the blank slides on the screen, and the class works collaboratively to determine the correct answers and then uses the answers as the basis for their class notes. In small groups, the students work on a word scrabble handout in the final few minutes of class. Honestly, I learned a great deal in science class today, and I am confident the students did as well!

Class #24--Pilot Math Class

2010-11-29T22:17:00.003-05:00

Monday, November 29, 10:55 A.M. Pilot Math Class. Class #24 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” voyage. As the cute students enter class, I receive several hugs, which is certainly a great way to come back from Thanksgiving break! Mrs. Chasney explains that the class will begin to explore all sorts of shapes. She has small cubes, cylinders, cones, spheres, and triangles to pass around. The seven students eagerly handle the objects, while making insightful comments about the objects. Mrs. Chasney patiently and skillfully describes the objects and answers questions (and a wide variety of remarks!) from the attentive pupils. The students then line up in front of Mrs. Chasney, who has small household objects in a brown paper bag. One by one, the boys and girls close their eyes, put their hands in the bag, take out an object, and then place it next to the objects the class had seen in the opening discussion. Some of the new objects include a Rubik’s Cube, a toilet paper cylinder, a tube of lip balm, a small plastic Christmas tree, and a marble, which keeps rolling away from the other objects! Mrs. Chasney explains, “These kinds of shapes are everywhere. You should look for them while driving, at home, in the kitchen, so keep an eye out for them.” After a quick number game, the students sit on the floor…and I have the pleasure of reading them a book aloud! The book was perfect for the occasion as it colorfully described a wide variety of shapes and how they interact with each other and with people on a daily basis. In what was a truly fitting end to class, one student noticed that I had small, multicolored squares on my tie. Congratulations to Mrs. Chasney and her bright, enthusiastic students for accomplishing so much today!

Class #23--9th Age French

2010-11-22T15:19:00.001-05:00

Monday, November 22, 1:15 P.M. 9th Age French Class. Class #23 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” trek. Class has just begun as I walk into Madame Cooke’s bright, colorful French classroom. Eighteen attentive girls are already engrossed in the first activity, which is the sharing of homework. A number of girls walk to the front of the room and read aloud their homework, which was to cut out or draw a picture of a person and then describe, in French of course, what she is wearing. Madame encourages and praises the girls while correcting their pronunciation, when needed. For the second activity, the students come to the front and share items with French connections, such as cookies, books, and colored pencils. Quickly, the class is on to the next part of the lesson. Madame Cooke has six clothing items written on the board, in English. The girls attempt to translate the words into French; they each have a small white board at their desk and show the board to Madame Cooke after writing each term. For example, “red hat” is translated to “le chapeau rouge.” “White socks” becomes “les chaussettes blanches.” Madame reviews each phrase and makes sure the girls know the correct pronunciation. The students are soon working on a folder paper. Madame reminds the girls that “spelling counts” as they work to describe fully a picture of a woman. The students have to describe the subject’s name, nationality, place of residence, and clothing. The girls are working hard as Madame circulates through the rows answering questions and assisting students. I am impressed with how much the class has accomplished in 30 minutes. Bravo to Madame Cooke and her girls!

Class #22--6th Grade Spanish

2010-11-22T10:40:00.002-05:00

Monday, November 22, 10:15 A.M. 6th Grade Spanish Class. Class #22 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” expedition. It has been almost two weeks since I have observed a class! It is amazing how busy the school day and my schedule can be, but, as the saying goes, “Busy is good.” I am going to attempt a rare two observations today, with both being foreign language classes. As I walk into Room 305, I hear the sounds of another language. Indeed, it is Senora Sachar giving opening instructions, I think, to her class. I say “I think” because I do not speak Spanish and do not understand the dialogue! Interestingly, the fact that I do not understand Spanish allows me to focus on the mechanics of the class rather than on the content being taught. I am impressed with how Senora Sachar orchestrates her class, which is conducted almost entirely in Spanish. She makes sure to involve every student on the class, by calling on them and/or having them come up to the SmartBoard and circle and then translate a verb in the story. “More hands up,” she exhorts in Spanish at one point, even though several hands are already in air. Senora wants all of the students to be engaged and actively participating, and they respond to her dynamic style. Frequently, Senora gesticulates to help explain her comments. About halfway through the period, the class listens to a Selena Gomez song (in Spanish), and the students have to write down all of the words they recognize. I am bouncing to the song’s upbeat tempo as I type this! At the end of the song, Senora states, "I don't expect you to recognize all of the words. She has a different accent than what you are used to. It is important that you hear different accents during the course of the year." In the final few minutes of class, the students take a quiz, which consists of 20 matching questions (verbs), and 10 English to Spanish vocabulary translations. For an enthusiastic, productive class, I say "Gracias" to Senora and her students!

The Power of Great Teachers

2010-11-15T23:14:00.004-05:00

As my regular readers know, I am making a concerted effort to spend more time in classrooms and with students this year. To that end, in addition to my morning handshaking, monthly folder paper reviews, and 5th grade basketball coaching, I am attempting to observe 50 full-period classes, converse with all Middle School advisories (see November 3rd post about respect and effort), and meet individually with all members of the 8th grade. Although I have only conducted about five of the 8th grade "interviews," a theme is quickly emerging: the power of great teachers. I am asking each student a set of questions, and one of them is as follows: "What has made the Calvert experience special for you?" Thus far, all the 8th graders have immediately mentioned their teachers, all the way back to Pilot Class in some cases. While I am not surprised one bit at their assertion, it is certainly heartwarming to hear from the students what I already knew--that people make Calvert the special place that it is!

Class #21--5th Grade Math

2010-11-09T11:47:00.002-05:00

Tuesday, November 9, 10:15 A.M. 5th Grade Math Class. Class #21 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. As I walk into room 314, Mr. Rossi is reviewing the schedule for the next few days of class. He then asks a student to uncover the first objective for the day by using the “eraser” mode on the SmartBoard: to round any decimal up or down to deal with estimates in real situations. Mr. Rossi is an avid user of technology in his math classes. Whenever I walk by his room, he is using the SmartBoard, which the students really enjoy. The class briefly reviews decimal estimation with multiplying and dividing. The key word to remember when estimating, a boy mentions and Mr. Ross affirms, is “about.” An estimate needs to be “about” the exact answer, but one can save time by not finding the exact answer. Estimation is a very important tool in the math toolbox. Another student uncovers the second objective for the day, which is hidden in a different corner : to use metric units of mass and capacity. Here is a question to shake the metric rust off my readers’ brains: when converting from meters to kilometers, do you divide or multiple? The answer is…divide. Although it seems counterintuitive, when you convert from a smaller unit to a bigger unit, you divide, because you end up with fewer of the bigger units, e.g. 2,000 meters = 2 kilometers. Throughout class, Mr. Rossi has the students working in three groups of four. They are tasked with figuring out questions to ask the other groups related to the topics being discussed at the moment. For example, “Tom and four friends each won lottery jackpot of $2.541M in a lottery. About how much was the total jackpot?” After rounding 2.54 to 3, the class decided that $15M was the estimation. The class then had a discussion of whether to round a number like 247 to 200 or to 250 when rounding, as in “About how much is 247 x 2?” Mr. Rossi explained that estimating should, ideally, be done in your head, so either 200 x 2 or 250 x 2 is appropriate, given what each student can do in his/her head. He stressed that the purpose of estimation is to find an approximate, not an exact, answer. Bravo to Mr. Rossi and his students for an enthusiastic, chock-full math class!

Class #20--6th Grade Photoshop

2010-11-08T10:56:00.002-05:00

Monday, November 8, 10:15 A.M. 6th Grade Photoshop Class. Class #20 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” voyage. It is a crisp Monday morning, and with the time change, it just feels like we are starting school “late.” I must admit it feels good to be on class #20, with class #21 scheduled for tomorrow. I should be half-way done my goal of 50 classes within about a month. It has been such a pleasure—and so informative—for me to spend this “quality time” in classrooms across campus. Today in Ms. Cheston’s room, it is the first class of Photoshop, which is part of the 6th grade fine arts rotation, along with art, music, and art history. The purpose of Photoshop is to learn about some of the key elements of manipulating photographs, such as editing and resizing. Furthermore, the course allows students to explore their artistic side in a digital manner. Ms. Cheston, our Middle School Technology Coordinator and the 2004 winner of the Apgar Award for Excellence in Instruction, reviews some of the ground rules for the class before assigning the students to work in pairs on the computers in Room 201. The students log in and are quickly experimenting with Photoshop tools and shortcuts. For example, F12 will return the students to their original picture. In just this first class, they work on several activities, such as altering the brightness of a somewhat dark picture. The darkness of the classroom itself prevents me from taking any good photos of the students, but believe me when I say that they are learning a great deal and are truly enjoying themselves. I love the message Ms. Cheston tells her students: “I want you to make mistakes. I want you to play. I want you to look at the tools in Photoshop and figure our how they work. Play, make mistakes, and be creative. You will not crash the computer. Teach ME something in Photoshop this year.” I look forward to returning to Photoshop in a few weeks to see how far the students have progressed!

Class #19--6th Grade Art

2010-11-04T10:49:00.009-04:00

Thursday, November 3, 10:15 A.M. 6th Grade Art Class. Class #19 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. On a rainy, chilly Thursday morning, I am in Mrs. Kamp’s art class. It is the final class of the quarter for 6th grade art, so the students are hustling to finish their projects. If they cannot finish by 11:00 A.M., they must wrap up their work during study hall later in the day. After reading about medieval gargoyles and grotesques, the students have been sculpting their own creature for the last three classes. Mrs. Kamp spent the first few minutes of class demonstrating how they might create wings and last-minute details, and then the class members eagerly started their independent work. It is evident that the students are producing high-quality pieces while thoroughly enjoying themselves. There is a great deal of variety among the pieces. You can enjoy a few pictures below. Did you know that I am actually an assistant art teacher? That is not really true, but I have turned on the kiln on the weekend on numerous occasions for Mrs. Kamp. Perhaps I should put “Assistant Kiln Operator” on my business card! During class, one of the boys said, “Mrs, Kamp is a very good art teacher.” I agree! I have to sign off—time to meet with an 8th grade boys’ advisory.

Respect + Effort in Middle School

2010-11-03T12:17:00.003-04:00

As my readers know, I wanted to make a concerted effort to spend more time in classrooms this year. In addition to observing 50 full-period classes, I am aiming to meet with all of the Middle School advisories over the course of the next few months. Unless the advisor has a particular topic that he/she would like me to cover, I will have the students do some self-evaluation on the effort and respect they have displayed in school thus far in the year. Yesterday, I met with an 8th grade girls’ group, and today I talked with a 6th grade boys’ advisory. The students did some reflecting and writing about questions related to effort and respect, and then we discussed their responses. I am collecting all the worksheets and then will do some analysis of the responses once all my visits are completed. I will be interested to see, for example, how different grade levels judge their own effort and how students of varying ages and genders speak about respecting themselves, others, and Calvert.

Class #18--6th Age Math

2010-10-27T11:32:00.007-04:00

Wednesday, October 27, 10:10 A.M. Sixth Age Math Class. Class #18 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” trek. On a rainy, unusually warm Wednesday morning, I am here in Mrs. Miles’s colorful, vibrant classroom. I arrive just as class is starting, slightly out of breath after hustling up from the girls’ gym, where the Pilot Class students taught me how to do the “Chicken Dance”! (Fortunately, no photos were taken!). Mrs. Miles always has a variety of ways to teach and “reach” her students, whether the class is math, reading, or discovery. Mrs. Miles is using an overhead projector to show images of small leaves and pumpkins. She shows the images and then quickly covers them up, in an effort to help students learn what numbers “look like.” In other words, she wants her pupils to be able to see a group of five leaves and immediately recognize that there are five leaves rather than counting the leaves one at time to determine that there are five. I have never seen this teaching technique before, but it makes great sense and the students enjoy the competitive nature of the activity. The students then get unifix cubes (basically like Legos) and return to their spots on the rug. Mrs. Miles reads aloud Five Spooky Ghosts Playing Tricks at School, and the students follow along and build various stacks of cubes, in accordance with the storyline. By the end, the students have a pattern of cubes, as shown in this picture.

Students then look around the room and identify places where numbers are “in order.” The boys and girls find the clock and calendar, among other examples. Quickly, the class is on to its next activity. Mrs. Miles distributes ghost cut-outs, with a number on them (0 through 5). The students have to get themselves in order and stand in front of class. Mrs. Miles then removes a student and the class needs to figure out which number is missing. The students enjoy this game and the kinesthetic movement involved. For the fourth and final activity, the class members work individually at their seats, coloring and writing numbers, with Mrs. Miles actively circulating among the students to check their work and assist and encourage as needed. At one point, a boy says, “Mrs. Miles, I forget how to write a 2.” She replies in a song-like way, “Around the tree and back to you, that is how we make a 2.” The child then wrote his 2, and a classmate exclaimed, “That is really good!” To Mrs. Miles and her hard-working students, I enthusiastically share the same message: “Your class was really good!”

Class #17--5th Grade Math

2010-10-25T11:04:00.002-04:00

Monday, October 25, 10:15 A.M. 5th Grade Math Class. Class #17 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” expedition. I arrive just as Mrs. Nessler’s math class is beginning. Mrs. Nessler used to teach a 5th grade girls homeroom; now, in addition to teaching math, she coaches cross country, teaches fine arts, and serves as Middle School Academic Support Coordinator! The students have just finished snack (cornbread, which is always delicious) and recess, and they are ready to go. A math challenge problem is on the board. The number 5 is circled, and the following numbers are written around it: 1, 3, 6, 8, 4. The twelve students are racing to find the right order of operations, using the numbers above, to equate to an answer of 5. It turns out that there are a number of correct answers, but the student who gets to a correct answer first shares this:

[(4+8) -3] – 4 x 1 = 5

Another correct answer is shared, and then the class pulls out their math homework, which is a chapter review in preparation for Wednesday’s test. The students are working on decimals and approaching them a variety of ways: greater than/less than, place value, estimating, and computing. At 10:35, the class moves on to its third activity, one which involves group work and problem solving. This is not your average group activity, however! Once the group (either two or three students) has the answer, the team members have to determine how they will teach the class to solve the problem. Then, each group comes to the board and explains how to approach the question and work through to an answer. An example of one of the word problems is: “A local frozen yogurt shop offers three flavors of frozen yogurt and four toppings. How many one flavor, one topping combinations are possible?” The group in charge of this problem shows the class how making a chart is an effective way to arrive at the correct answer of 12 combinations. Four groups have a chance to present, and the final two groups will present tomorrow. The students really got a great deal accomplished in 45 minutes today! Based on what I observed, I am confident that they are in more–than-good shape for Wednesday’s test.

Class #16--8th Age Reading

2010-10-21T15:48:00.002-04:00

Thursday, October 21, 8:30 A.M. 8th Age Reading Class. Class #16 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. I arrive just as Mr. Shep’s reading class is beginning. (Most of my readers may know this, but Mr. Shep’s real name is Mr. Shepherd, but everyone calls him “Mr. Shep.” In fact, when I started working at Calvert in 2004, I thought Mr. Shep was his real name until someone clarified it for me!). Ten smiling faces warmly greet me. This is prime learning time, and the students are ready to go. Mr. Shep, as a change of pace on Thursdays, begins his reading class by reading aloud a “Tell Me Why” story. Today’s story, accompanied by a colorful PowerPoint slide, is about the invention of candy. While he is reading aloud (looking down at the book and directly facing the class), Mr. Shep employs some otherworldly peripheral vision (which is a special teacher power) to notice that one of his homeroom students has just arrived—in the hall! I honestly do not know how he saw the boy in the hall. Without breaking stride, Mr. Shep gives some instructions to the late arriving boy and then goes right back to reading. It was a small moment but one that demonstrated his veteran teaching expertise. (Did you know that this is Mr. Shep’s twentieth year at Calvert?!). After the candy story concludes, the students read independently for a few minutes. The class is quickly onto its third activity, which is a discussion and reading of Smiling Hill Farm. However, Mr. Shep has disappeared, and “Pioneer Pat” has arrived. A man who bears a striking resemblance to Mr. Shep but wearing a Davy Crockett-style coonskin cap is now teaching class! This actually happens often, with Mr. Shep “disappearing” and a variety of characters taking his place, including “Mr. History,” "Thor," and “King SWEN” (King of South, West, East, North for geography class). Mr. Shep asks some questions of the class to refocus them on the storyline and to contextualize the book . The boys and girls then take turns reading aloud, interspersed with questions and comments from Mr. Shep. He is patient and caring with his group of up-and-coming readers. The class is focusing on two key skills: reading comprehension and oral articulation. It is a pleasure seeing the students accomplishing a great deal this morning in an enjoyable, appropriately relaxed atmosphere! Young alumni that I encounter always ask about Mr. Shep; his outstanding rapport with his students has made a genuine, lasting impact on them.

Pictures from Class #15

2010-10-21T15:45:00.006-04:00

As promised, here are some pictures from Mr. Howe's reading class that I observed yesterday, specifically the book making project. Enjoy.

Class #15--9th Age Reading

2010-10-20T09:23:00.005-04:00

Wednesday, October 20, 8:30 A.M. 9th Age Reading Class. Class #15 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” marathon. WARNING: Get out your reading glasses, because this blog post is long! It has been a full week since my last observation. Time is really flying this school year. How can it be October 20 already? I am on my fifteenth class observation, so I am at 30% of my goal of 50 classes. The school year is not yet 25% complete, so my pace is good! I am in Mr. Howe’s reading class on this Wacky Wonderful Wednesday, as Mr. Howe describes the day. On Wednesdays, Mr. Howe explains to me, the class does some “out of the box activities.” Some fast facts about Mr. Howe: he is a Calvert graduate (Class of 1977), coaches baseball in the Middle School, and is a recipient of the Apgar Award for innovative teaching. The twelve students arrive and, clearly knowing the routine, open an independent reading book and begin to read silently. This is essentially a warm-up to get the students in the swing of reading class. After two to three minutes of silent reading, Mr. Howe explains that the students will be discussing a crucial “element” of every story—the title. Mr. Howe says to the class, “Studies show that the comprehension of the story begins with the title. The title influences how the reader thinks about a story. The title is a powerful part of the story.” A story about a whale, rabbit, and elephant is projected on the large screen on the wall. The title, however, is not given to the class. After a few students read the story aloud, the class offers suggestions about what the title should be, including: Small Animals and Big Animals, Rabbit’s Problem, The Elephant and the Rabbit, Big Animal’s Rudeness, and The Elephant’s Rudeness. Two stories are posted on red and purple paper on the classroom walls. Mr. Howe has the students get up out of their seats (movement is always a good idea in class), read one of the two stories silently, and then offer suggestions about appropriate titles. Their suggestions are outstanding! It is only 8:47 A.M. and the class is moving on to another activity. As I have said in prior blog posts, the pace is brisk but appropriate. The next part of class deals with another crucial element of a story—illustrations. Mr. Howe states, “Illustrations are powerful. They give information and draw the reader into the story.” The students take a piece of paper, divide it into quadrants, and then move into a creative activity I have not previously seen. Mr. Howe projects an image onto the screen for ten seconds, and removes the image. The students have approximately one minute to draw the image they just saw. There are three rounds, and the pictures are all different…but they turn out to be the different pieces of a jack-o-lantern shown in varying configurations! The students’ recreations are excellent! At 9:00 A.M., Mr. Howe, fresh off a bookmaking workshop he attended just yesterday, passes out sheets of paper and scissors and then walks his pupils through a variety of folds and cuts. The students will make a book out of a single sheet of paper. I am very impressed with their ability to follow Mr. Howe’s directions during this process. The class follows the same procedure again with a yellow piece of paper, only this time the directions are even more advanced as this version will be a pop-up book, made out of a single sheet of paper! Only six minutes remain in class and the students are working diligently to make every second count. Class ends at 9:20, with the students still fully engaged and wanting to do more. I honestly believe the students could have kept going for at least another 45 minutes. I look forward to coming back to see how the final versions of the stories look, with compelling titles and illustrations. Congratulations to Mr. Howe and his students for a wonderful class! I am sorry I do not have any pictures of the students' pop-up books to share today. I was so busy typing I neglected to take any pictures, but check back in the coming days as I plan to post some pictures.

A Great Alumni Event

2010-10-18T11:02:00.002-04:00

We had a tremendous young alumni event on Sunday. About 75-80 of our alumni (all of them in high school) came to watch the Ravens game in the Black Box Theater in the Middle School. There was a great deal of camaraderie, Calvert spirit, reconnecting with old friends...and lots of pizza, wings, sodas, and cookies! The only thing missing, unfortunately, was a Ravens victory.

Congratulations and thank you to the development office, Alumni Board, the technology team, and the maintenance department.

What A Day!

2010-10-13T22:02:00.007-04:00

One of the reasons I love my job so much is that I get to do so many different things every day. Between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday afternoon, here is a sampling of my schedule: attended the first 2010-2011 meeting of the Calvert Board of Trustees, participated in Pilot Class Pajama and Pancake Day, observed a 9th Age math class (see blog post below), helped supervise our annual lock-down drill, watched the 10th Age Crow-Canary field hockey game, coached 5th grade intramural basketball, and watched the Middle School football team battle St. Paul's. With days like that, I always look forward to coming to work! Below is a sampling of some pictures from today.

Class #14--9th Age Math

2010-10-13T09:19:00.004-04:00

Wednesday, October 13, 8:30 A.M. 9th Age Math Class. Class #14 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” It is a crisp Wednesday morning, and there is no place that I would rather be than in a 9th Age math class! Ms. Gentry has clearly already established a good routine with her seven students. As they arrive, they get their homework out, and then five students go to the board to complete one of the homework problems. The students are solving various addition equations and then indicating whether the problem is an example of the associative or commutative properties. The class then discusses the differences among rounding, estimating, and providing exact answers. Ms. Gentry reminds her pupils to look for key phrases in the word problem, e.g. the word “about” suggests that an estimate is required. Knowing that the students will get antsy if they sit in one place for 55 minutes, Ms. Gentry has the students stand, stretch, and then move to a different seat. Next, she projects a “Five-Minute Check” onto the wall to ensure that the students have a solid understanding of the concepts. (Our new Lower School math series (Math Connects) has a rich suite of online resources for faculty and students to use). The class is only 25 minutes old and the class is on its third activity. The pace is brisk but entirely appropriate. This “Five-Minute Check” is a win-win—the students enjoy the technology, and Ms. Gentry gets a good sense of her students’ comprehension. Still employing the projector, the class plays this really cool (honestly, “cool” is the best word here!) called Roboworks. It is an interactive game; if a student gets a correct answer, then a piece is added to the robot’s body, with the goal of constructing a complete robot. The students construct two whole robots with their correct answers! (One “cool” feature—the two robots that are made look entirely different). The period concludes with a preview of the night’s homework. Please enjoy the pictures below, one “old-school” (a student doing a massive addition problem on the board), and one “new-school” (Roboworks). Congrats to Ms. Gentry and her students for a terrific math class! By the way, here are two fast facts about Ms. Gentry: she is a Calvert graduate (a proud member of the Centennial Class of 1997), and she played collegiate lacrosse at Boston University.

"Superman" is a Must-See

2010-10-12T10:28:00.002-04:00

I enthusiastically recommend that all my readers take the time to see Waiting for Superman, an educational documentary directed by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth). The film follows five families in their quest for quality education for their children. Dissatisfied with the zoned public schools in their district, they turn to “lottery” public and charter schools, which do not have ample spaces for all interested students. The movie has received national attention and is now showing in Baltimore at the Landmark Theater in Harbor East.

I had the opportunity to see a screening of the movie two weeks ago and found it to be moving and inspirational. After digesting the documentary, I had three overarching thoughts: 1) sincere appreciation for the education I received at Calvert; 2) the need for Calvert to provide the best possible education for the students of today, and 3) the call for all Americans to take an interest in broader educational issues.

Nationally, public schools will always be responsible for educating the vast majority of children. Approximately 90% of students in the United States attend public schools, with roughly 9% attending parochial schools and 1% in independent schools. The long-term success of our country is directly tied to the quality of the education that children are receiving in all schools across the nation.

Since 2006, Calvert has joined seven local independent schools and eleven public schools in the Middle Grades Partnership (MGP), a program designed to offer “academically promising Baltimore middle school students the opportunity to excel in the city's most challenging high schools by providing them with comprehensive summer and after-school learning opportunities,” according to www.middlegradespartnership.org . In the summer, approximately 75 students from our partner school, Francis Scott Key Elementary-Middle, take classes at Calvert that are taught by faculty members from both Calvert and Francis Scott Key. Generously funded by the Baltimore Community Foundation, MGP significantly improves the chances that Baltimore public school students will attend selective high schools and then college. Participation in MGP also provides professional development for Calvert teachers across multiple grade levels and subjects and provides several Calvert alumni the opportunity to serve as program interns.

In closing, I again urge you to see Waiting for Superman. If you click the following link, you can access more information about the movie: www.waitingforsuperman.com

8th Age Folder Papers

2010-10-08T16:34:00.005-04:00

“Folder papers” are a hallmark Calvert tradition. We believe strongly that student-generated work is crucial to educational development. At the end of each month from 7th Age through 10th Age, students send home a representative sample of their work. (In the Middle School, folder papers are called “portfolios”, and they go home quarterly). The work is compiled during the month and reviewed and checked by the homeroom teacher. Then, each student meets individually for a few minutes with an administrator—the Head of the Lower School or Assistant Head Master for example—to review his or her work. I review about three or four homerooms of folders each month as well. Today, I sat down with the boys of 8-1 (Mr. Shep’s class) to look at their first 8th Age folder papers. What a treat for me to be able to speak individually with each of the boys about their work and their progress! Below, you will see some pictures of their papers and folder covers.

Class #13--10th Age Grammar

2010-10-08T16:21:00.002-04:00

Friday, October 8, 1:45 P.M. 10th Age Grammar Class. Class #13 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. It is Friday afternoon, the sun is shining, and it is grammar time in 10-B! Ms. Silberstein’s attentive girls are eager for grammar! As I walk in, the class is just beginning, and I yet I can already sense the enthusiasm from the girls. Ms. Silberstein—who also coaches Middle School squash in the winter—displays a PowerPoint presentation explaining declarative and interrogative sentences. The PowerPoint is not static; rather, it incorporates software which allows for interactivity. Ms. Silberstein clicks on a button that is projected on the board, and then a sentence scrolls across the screen. The girls take turns reading the sentences and then stating whether it was declarative or interrogative. Next, girls go up to the board and punctuate sentences that are displayed. The girls who are not at the board copy the sentences down on paper and make punctuation and capitalization corrections at their desk. In this fashion, all the students are working and engaged—not just the one student at the board. Everyone is working hard! In a relatively short amount of time, the information was presented in multiple formats, and from my observations, I can tell that the girls “get it.” The period was an excellent review of some grammar essentials.

Class #12--5th Grade Math

2010-10-05T10:55:00.002-04:00

Tuesday, October 5, 10:15 A.M. 5th Grade Math Class. Class #12 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” trek. The bell rings and Mrs. Liotta’s twelve 5th grade math students quickly get to work on the tasks at hand. Did you know that Mrs. Liotta graduated from Calvert, in 1979? Yes, she is an alum of the school and also a former member of the Board of Trustees. Mrs. Liotta has instructions written on the board: 1) check your homework (equations and mental math) with your table; 2) work on the problem of the day. The problem of the day deals with a pattern of numbers. There are two columns of numbers, and the students need to discern the relationship between the integers at hand. Mrs. Liotta does not just go over the answer to the problem; rather, she explains how to approach the problem, to figure out what is being asked, and then to attack the question. The class then moves to a chapter one review, starting with exponents, standard form, and variables. The students are quite participatory, raising hands, asking questions, and providing on-target answers. Next, the class reviews order of operations by playing a game. The student have learned about “PEMDAS” dictating the order of operations—Parentheses, Exponents, Multiply/Divide, Add/Subtract. The object of the game is to use the numbers and operations given to get as close to possible to 48. For example, the numbers are 4,5,6 and the operations are + and x. The winning equation in this case is (6+4) x 5 = 50. The students work in groups of three at their tables, sliding around cut-out cards of numbers and operations. Good work, class!

Class #11--10th Age Math

2010-10-01T12:34:00.002-04:00

Friday, October 1, 11:30 A.M. 10th Age Math Class. Class #11 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. The calendar has flipped to October, and the incredible monsoon-like rains of the past two days have finally left the area. I am on the terrace level of the Lower School, in Mr. Brian Mascuch’s classroom. Mr. Mascuch taught a variety of grade levels at Calvert (primarily 5th grade) from 1999-2007 and then left to pursue a unique, enriching opportunity to teach at Shanghai International School for a few years. He is now back at Calvert, teaching the 10-1 boys’ homeroom and coaching several Middle School sports, including football. As the thirteen students settle into their seats, a problem awaits them on the board: Guess the 6 digit number. All the numbers are the same and their sum is 24. After a brief discussion, the class agrees that the correct answer is 444,444. The students spend some time reviewing rounding concepts and adding three-digit numbers. Mr. Mascuch actively moves around the room, checking homework, calling on students, and making sure his pupils are on task and engaged. He then passes out two “Zip” game cards to each student. The cards are numbered 1 through 32 and have clues on them. The game incorporates listening, reading, and math; I decide to participate, and by the end, my brain is tired! The game starts with Mr. Mascuch, saying “I have 27. What is this number minus 9?” I have the 18 card, so I say, “I have 18. Who has this number divided by 2?” The game then volleys around the room, with the clues getting progressively harder. The students meet the challenge extremely well. I am impressed with their accuracy and speed. We move through two rounds and then Mr. Mascuch takes a moment to review the associative property of addition. Next, we transition to another game called “Right Price Race” which involves teamwork, rounding, and speed in discerning numbers from an advertisement chock full of numbers and words. The class is so enthusiastic for the game! Unfortunately, we run out of time; the period ends with a pledge from Mr. Mascuch to continue the game next time they meet. Kudos to Mr. Mascuch and his bright, energetic students!

Class #10--5th Grade English

2010-09-27T21:31:00.002-04:00

Monday, September 27, 1:45 P.M. 5th Grade English Class. Class #10 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” tour. After Mr. Little’s class, I stroll down the hall to Mrs. Lawrence’s 5th grade English class. We added several afternoon English blocks to the 5th grade schedule this year—to supplement the daily, morning class--so that we can spend additional time on this crucial, core element of the Calvert curriculum. Mrs. Lawrence, who teaches one of our 5th grade girls’ homeroom classes as well as 6th grade English, does not waste any time in getting started. She conducts a formative spelling assessment to see how well her girls know the words at the start of the week. Mrs. Lawrence says the fifteen words aloud, and then the girls write the word on their individual white boards. They hold their boards in the air (showing only the teacher) and then Mrs. Lawrence can see how many girls got each of the words correct. Here is a sample of the words: obedient, patient, pedestrian, burly, compatible, obstacle, retire, accustom, assign, budge, and concept. As it turns out, the girls know most of the words very well, so the test on Friday will only be on the seven words that most of the girls got wrong. This makes perfect sense—why should the girls spend time studying fifteen words for Friday’s test when they know eight of them already? Studying seven words will save them time—and allow them to focus on the most difficult words! Next, the girls give a short oral presentation on various letters of the alphabet. The girls have to “sell” their letter by making a small poster and then giving a short but persuasive speech. One by one, the girls make their way to the front of the class and make their pitch. I feel like buying lots of letters! What a productive, fun class—spelling and public speaking—what could be better?! By the way, did you know that Mrs. Lawrence played basketball in college? She is still a very good player! With this class completed, I am now 20% of the way to my goal of seeing 50 classes.