Tag Archives: middle school

A Spotlight on English Language Arts

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At North View Middle School we believe that teaching and learning approaches should accommodate the diverse skills, abilities, and prior knowledge of young adolescents, cultivate multiple intelligences, draw upon students’ individual learning styles, and utilize digital tools. When learning experiences capitalize on students’ cultural, experiential, and personal backgrounds, new concepts are built on knowledge students already possess. To ensure this happens, we use the nature of young adolescents to guide our instructional decision-making.

Because of this belief, our teachers spend a considerable creating engaging learning opportunities. These opportunities occur in all classes and today I would like to use this post to highlight science.

Grade 6
6th graders are enjoying a book together, Ghetto Cowboy, a story about the unlikely circumstances of Black Cowboys, kids, and horses set in a North Philly urban neighborhood. In addition, students are collaborating in multiple experiences with Reader’s Theater and Repeating Readings to improve confidence and execution of reading fluency. Lastly, 6th graders have been independently reading and journaling since school started. We have been busy!!

Grade 7
7th graders have been working on personal speeches as an introduction to our “Who Am I?” unit, working on fluency through repeated reading every week, and reading in class daily.

Grade 8

In eighth grade, students learned about the many book genres. By knowing the different types of genres, students can identify what types of books they like the best and expand their reading horizons as well. It’s important to have favorite genres and read those genres; reading other genres, though, helps students step outside their comfort zones, which helps in making new discoveries and shifting perspectives.

8th graders also participated in Book Speed Dating in North View’s Media Center, where they found the love of their lives – in a book! We continue to read daily in class, and it is the expectation that students read at home for 30 minutes a day

Currently, 8th-grade students are working on the unit “Defining America.” Students are learning new vocabulary words, how to figure out the meaning of words they don’t know, analyzing different perspectives on the American experience, and learning to work collaboratively.

I hope you enjoyed this spotlight. If you have any questions about this or anything else related to North View Middle School please connect with me here or follow me at @NVMSPrincipal. 

A Spotlight on Science

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At North View Middle School we believe that teaching and learning approaches should accommodate the diverse skills, abilities, and prior knowledge of young adolescents, cultivate multiple intelligences, draw upon students’ individual learning styles, and utilize digital tools. When learning experiences capitalize on students’ cultural, experiential, and personal backgrounds, new concepts are built on knowledge students already possess. To ensure this happens, we use the nature of young adolescents to guide our instructional decision-making.

Because of this belief, our teachers spend a considerable creating engaging learning opportunities. These opportunities occur in all classes and today I would like to use this post to highlight science.

6th and 8th grade Earth Science:

At the end of April, students embarked on a mission  to create an emergency response plan for a community living near an active volcano.  This plan included the completion of a brochure that outlined the precautions and preparations the community should take before, during and after a volcanic eruption. Creativity was encouraged.  Many of our students went above and beyond when creating their brochures.  They were beautiful. A few examples are below. Be sure to click each photo for a closer look.

Bruce: 

Jady:

7th Grade Life Science

At the beginning of May, students started their last unit on Ecology. Ecology is the study of how living things interact with their environment. We studied the Levels of Ecology, the 6 major Biomes found around the world, Symbiotic Relationships between animals and how Energy Flows within an ecosystem. See the animal brochures for more information on all of these topics!

Lucas:

Eily:

Musa:

I hope you enjoyed this spotlight. If you have any questions about this or anything else related to North View Middle School please connect with me here or follow me at @NVMSPrincipal. 

A Spotlight on Science

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At North View Middle School we believe that teaching and learning approaches should accommodate the diverse skills, abilities, and prior knowledge of young adolescents, cultivate multiple intelligences, draw upon students’ individual learning styles, and utilize digital tools. When learning experiences capitalize on students’ cultural, experiential, and personal backgrounds, new concepts are built on knowledge students already possess. To ensure this happens, we use the nature of young adolescents to guide our instructional decision making.

Because of this belief, our teachers spend a considerable creating engaging learning opportunities. These opportunities occur in all classes and today I would like to use this post to highlight science. The first unit of instruction I would like you to learn more about is from our sixth grade Science classrooms.

 

 Our students are in the fifth week of a five week unit covering “How do scientists conduct experiments?”. The key concepts studied are:

  • The Scientific Method is a way of conducting experiments?
  • How to measure using International System of Units?
  • How to collect and share data?

Our seventh grade students are in the second week of a three week unit covering “The Characteristics of Life”. The key concepts being studied are:

  • Explaining the six characteristics organisms must have to be considered “living” and determining if an organism is living based off of those characteristics.
  • Determining how scientists group all living things. What are the 5 kingdoms all living things fit into?
  • Comparing and contrasting living things. What characteristics do they share? What makes them different?

 

Lastly, our eighth grade students are in the third week of a four week unit covering, “Engineering and the Design process”. The key concepts being studied are:

  • How engineering and technology impact the changing world we live in.
  • What the design process is and how we use it.
  • How patterns and predictions impact the design process.
  • How our culture impacts our ideas.

I hope you enjoyed this spotlight. If you have any questions about this or anything else related to North View Middle School please connect with me here or follow me at @NVMSPrincipal. 

Pic of the Day!

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AVID students presenting at Edinbrook.

In case you missed it!

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At North View Middle School(NVMS) we believe that students and teachers should be engaged in active, purposeful learning. Because of this belief, our educators strive to ensure that culturally responsive practices and learning opportunities are present in every student’s daily experience.

One example of this, is the work Ms. Farrow, NVMS AVID Teacher, does to fosters a safe, open & college going culture in her classroom. Recently her students took college visists to Metropolitan State University and the University of Minnesota. Included below is a short video of our students getting the “411” on what it is like to be a student at Metro state.

Another example of students being involved in active and purposeful learning was the opportunity students were given last week to be the jury, judge and witness in the Dred Scott case.

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In addition to engaging in active and purposeful learning, we also like to have a little fun. One example of this are our assemblies. Our assemblies help develop school spirit; feelings of community and unity among students. It enables students to share stories and performances, as well as their abilities/talents. Assemblies also provide an opportunity to remind students of building wide expectations and recognize students who contribute to a positive school community through recognitions.

 

Our hope is that through this work we will make real connections within our school community to develop a positive school climate and culture that is supportive of all its members. Students taking part also have a chance to work with students they may otherwise not usually choose to; opening minds, broadening horizons. Included below is a video of our recent staff versus student competition during our assembly. The kids didn’t stand a chance!

If you have any questions about this event or anything related to North View Middle School please contact me here. or follow me at @NVMSPrincipal.