News Detail
The First Days of Middle School
At our welcome assembly on the first day of school, I shared a quote that continues to remind me of the precious time we are gifted with our students:
At some point in your childhood, you and your friends went outside to play together for the last time, and none of you knew it.
It is my hope students take the time to be present and enjoy the year ahead. As parents, I hope you take comfort in knowing your children are surrounded by a compassionate community of dedicated faculty and staff. They are ready to partner with you to navigate the complexities of late childhood and early adolescence.
Student life is bustling in these first two weeks of school!
- The advisory program kicked off with critical social and emotional learning.
- Our CREATE space is in full swing and students are making LED lights for their lockers.
- The 8th grade students designed lessons for our fifth and sixth graders on digital citizenship and organization. This is especially important now that our younger middle school students have laptops in their care.
- Our Student Community Board (SCB) elections and Mentoring Youth Board (MYB) applications are well underway.
- Student-driven lunch clubs will meet next week!
These unique opportunities are part of the academic initiatives in our strategic plan. Our vision guides this plan and begins with three beliefs:
Challenging academics and masterful teaching remain at the core of what we do.
Faculty developed content-area-specific curricula for the first weeks of school that examine our community values of chesed (kindness), ometz lev (integrity), and tikkun olam (service). Our middle school students begin their time together unpacking these areas and looking to the year ahead of learning and growing.
Student-centered, inquiry-based, and real-world learning is the future.Because of this belief, we built a program that provides space for student choice specifically in our elective programs— in which students select their art courses and Friday electives—and in areas of student leadership and engagement— with student-led and student-driven clubs.
Ethics and spirituality are good for our children and for our world.
Middle schoolers now begin the important spiritual work of designing a better world and exploring their creative sides. Our community values are at the core of all programmatic work we do. These years come with complexities, and when students are given opportunities to academically excel, to feel emotionally supported, and to exercise added freedoms built into the middle school schedule (e.g. passing periods, leadership opportunities, and late starts for Kehillah Dalet), they flourish.
We look forward to an engaging year ahead! On our horizon are Kehillot retreats, our fall athletics program (cross country, girls volleyball, and soccer), 8th grade community partnerships with the San Francisco Campus for Jewish Living, and our 7th grade tzedek program. It will be fun and busy!
