A Great Alumni Event

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!

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

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

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

“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

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

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

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!