January 8, 2024

Farmington High School

Students in the Introduction to Allied Health Professionals, Health Care 21, and Science Research classes had the opportunity to visit the Center for Education, Simulation, and Innovation at Hartford Hospital. While there, students were able to experience the training that medical professionals have while improving their skills in a simulated operating room, intensive care unit, delivery room, and trauma room. This is the third year that FHS students have partnered with CESI.

Irving A. Robbins Middle School

IAR’s South Asia Day- On December 7th and 8th, IAR welcomed FHS students into 7th grade social studies classrooms to celebrate and learn more about South Asian culture, history, geography, traditions, and identity/perspectives. FHS students from the Indian Student Union and Muslim Student Union worked diligently to prepare presentations for two South Asia Days. They designed their presentations to enhance the 7th Grade social studies curriculum, which includes an in-depth study of South Asian culture, history, and geography. IAR students experienced presentations and demonstrations about topics such as food, religion, architecture/famous sites, government systems, sports, clothing, education and more.  They also had the opportunity to ask a variety of questions about those topics and beyond as they finished their unit of study. Teachers and students appreciated learning more about South Asian culture, and our FHS students loved sharing more about their identities and culture as well. We appreciate our civic-minded contributors at FHS who support our younger students here at IAR!

Podcast Challenge 2024 Launches!

Empowered 7th-grade learners on Team C have started the Podcast Challenge for this school year, with their peers on Teams A and B commencing in January. At the start of the unit, the 8th-grade students who won their team-based podcast challenges last year returned to participate on a student panel in order to provide guidance and offer insight on how to be successful in completing a high-quality product of learning. These self-aware individuals reflected on the skills and habits of scholarship needed to create a high quality project, and they provided sage tips for collaborating, interviewing, recording, and scripting. Team C was buzzing with excitement about this learning thanks to our amazing 8th-grade experts!

IAR Students Facilitate “Telebration” at East Farms

Team A students visited East Farms to facilitate an oral storytelling “telebration” of the “treehouse narratives” they wrote in Language Arts. These narratives drew on research that students completed as part of their studies in Social Studies on an ancient river system in Asia. From that research, students crafted stories modeled after the Magic Treehouse books to share with younger students. Students worked diligently with Ms. Munafo to learn not only the best ways to weave research into narrative arcs, but they also practiced bringing their stories to life through storytelling traditions and technique: body language, emphasis, tone, pausing, etc. We are so proud of our engaged collaborators at East Farms and at IAR!

West Woods Upper Elementary School

It’s been a busy month here at West Woods! Students are continuing to learn about the world and deepen their understanding of how each individual is a global citizen that contributes to the world.

This month, grade 6 students continued their study of hurricanes in Science as a part of our Weather and Climate unit. Students examined maps of hurricanes that have formed in the past and were asked to theorize about the phenomenon, “why do we have hurricanes in certain places such as Puerto Rico?” There are three “ingredients” of a hurricane: first, lots of water evaporates, then the warm, moist air rises into the atmosphere. Then, layers and layers of clouds form! We have begun to dive deeply into each of these steps. We even conducted our first fair test of the year to understand how different variables affect evaporation rate! These experiences teach students how to make sense of the world around them.

In Social Studies, students are learning about global trade and interdependence in trade between countries. The students engaged in some simulations, including The Chain Game. This was an exciting lesson in which students were broken up into countries and were given a varying bank of “natural resources”. They were asked to make chains from their selection of natural resources, and were paid by the “world market” in currency. It allowed them to experience the unequal distribution of resources and how supply and demand impacts countries’ economies dramatically. Many students commented that this was their favorite lesson of the year so far!

Union School Elementary School

As empowered learners, second graders at Union School are writing nonfiction books about their personal areas of interest and expertise. In this unit, they are learning from authors, incorporating the elements of strong nonfiction writing into their work. Using models, they have developed an understanding of what it means to elaborate effectively and add details to their books. They are also developing collaboration skills as they work together to evaluate the quality of their work and make revisions to communicate more effectively with an authentic audience.

Empowered learning is also taking place in the music classroom at Union School. First graders from Mrs. Dale’s class recently engaged in a Music Makerspace. They have been learning rhythms and practicing quarter rests. Music teacher Inga Smith set up different stations around the room, providing different tools and activities for practicing rhythms that contain the quarter rest. Students chose how to practice, whether to work independently or interdependently, and were able to completely manage their time throughout the class. They were also able to reflect on how they worked in their centers and what they were able to achieve.

East Farms Elementary School

Third graders have exhibited empowered learning over the last few weeks at East Farms. In reading, we have become detectives as we read our mystery books. Our goal is to solve the mystery before the detective in the book. As empowered learners, students made predictions based on text evidence by tracking clues, suspects, motives, and red herrings.  

In writing, we are concluding our work with realistic fiction pieces. Students transferred the skills they learned earlier in the year when writing personal narratives to their realistic fiction pieces. Writers brainstormed ideas for their realistic fiction piece by using their personal experiences as inspiration. As empowered learners, students revised their work by applying a variety of elaboration strategies to their writing piece including character’s thoughts, dialogue, feelings, and descriptions.

In math, students have been working on multiplication! Our empowered learners explored many different efficient strategies to use when solving multiplication problems. One strategy students used often was the break apart strategy, where students built upon their prior knowledge of skip counting by 2, 5, and 10. For example, when solving a multiplication problem involving the digit 7 students would break apart the digit 7 into facts they know 2 and 5. When solving multiplication word problems, students utilized their close reading skills to carefully read and visualize the problem to determine the steps needed to accurately solve the problem.

West District Elementary School

Deeper Learning is only possible in environments of high expectations, high engagement, and high trust. Over their years at West District School, students develop connected, caring relationships with their teachers, paraprofessionals, and school staff, and look forward to seeing them often to reconnect, receive positive affirmations, and share a hug or a high five. In order to honor and celebrate these important connections, our Social Emotional Learning committee built in a week of morning visits to ensure that all students had dedicated time to reconnect with previous teachers. Affectionately called Homecoming Week and celebrated the week of December 18, each grade level had an assigned day to visit previous teachers, their principal, beloved specialists, our office staff, nurse, custodians, and our security monitor before instruction began for the day. Revisiting these important relationships and sharing a hug, a smile, or some goodwill reminded our students that they are loved and that our school is a better place because they are here. This practice is in line with our deep belief that Actions Matter, and communicates to our students that we believe in them and their ability to succeed and grow. Strong, trusting relationships with caring adults are the foundation on which Deeper Learning experiences are built and we hope to extend this practice of joyful homecoming several times throughout the year.    

Noah Wallace School

Kindergarteners at Noah Wallace are learning how to become empowered learners as collaborative feedback partners. During writing, students are using checklists and rubrics to write narrative stories.  Recently, they learned about the benefits of providing and receiving feedback in order to enhance their writing pieces.  The kindergarten teachers have found that this has allowed them to become more reflective and resourceful.  

Some students are working independently with partners while other students work in small groups facilitated by the teacher in order to improve their communication and feedback skills.  Students are excited to share their story revisions with their peers.