February 7, 2011

A Grandparent’s View
On Monday, February 14th, the middle school will be hosting grandparents on campus from 9am until about 10:30. During the first part of the visit, grandparents will meet Dr. Portnoy and Dr. Bishop. They will have an opportunity to get to hear about the current state of Emery/Weiner and to ask questions pertaining to the school. After our second period of the day, students will then go to the Commons to meet their grandparents, have a cookie and a drink, and visit with their grandparents. This will be followed by a Kallah that will include a grandparent/grandchild Minute to Win it, a video comparison of the two generations, and even a special musical performance by our music class featuring Dr. Bishop. It will be a Kallah for the ages…quite literally.

In talking with Dr. Bishop about this Kallah, we got to thinking about how many changes have occurred in the lives of our students’ grandparents. While I thought about what to write this week, I kept coming back to the idea of what our school would look like to one of our student’s grandparents. Without going into a history lesson, the changes in schools and education alone have been pretty drastic in the last 60 years. Couple that with the fact that we have grandparents that lived in pre-WWII Germany and Poland and one who even lived in Stalin’s Soviet Union. What they saw in the world is pretty extraordinary, so I wonder what our little school would look like to them?]

The first thing that comes to mind is the advancement of technology. I have students bring iPhones to my class so that they can confirm or dispute facts that I spew out at them as well as look up questions that I cannot answer. We have interactive white boards that project a computer screen and act as computers at our fingertips. Contrast those advances to looking things up in paper-bound encyclopedias and working on chalk boards. I’ve worked with a chalk board and they are messy (I always had chalk on my hands), dusty, and they don’t always erase cleanly. White boards are much easier and SmartBoards, well, they are awesome to use. The second thing I thought might be interesting is our Commons, Fine Arts Wing, and the athletic areas. In my elementary school, I ate my first school lunch (ugh, was that awful), shot my first basketball, and tried out for my first school play in the same room. I worked in one school where the teacher break room was a converted fallout shelter and another school where we had a cafetorium. Yes, it was exactly what it sounds like. Now, we have a facility that includes two theaters, several music and art rooms, a gym, a sport court, a library, and a dining room all in a single, yet separate complex. I would imagine that a tour of our campus does not bring back memories of school for our students’ grandparents. Instead, it is probably more a tour of amazement and pride; pride in their own hard work and accomplishments that meant greater opportunities to those generations which followed.

Thanks y’all and have a great week…it is suppose to be a little warmer.

Athletic Events this week:
• No games scheduled

Happy Birthday to the following students who are celebrating birthdays this week:
• Ethan Dryer – February 11th

No students are celebrating Bar/Bat Mitvzahs this week.

Kallah and Advisory:
• Monday –
All Students - Kallah

• Tuesday
6th – Havurah
7th – Advisory
8th - Advisory

• Wednesday
Clubs

• Thursday
6th/7th – Advisory
8th – Meet with Upper School registrar, Josh Blice to discuss scheduling for 2011-2012

• Friday
Kallah

Calendar Events:
• Monday, February 7th – Elective selection forms due to MS office
• 8th grade Cereal Sessions continue this week

Looking Ahead:
• Friday, February 11th – 8th Grade Shabbat Dinner @ Rabbi Masri’s residence - This event is optional, but it is for students only.
• February 14th – Grandparent’s Day
• February 18th – 12:30 dismissal
• February 21 – School closed for President’s Day
• February 24ish – interim reports due home (they should be emailed sometime around the 24th or 25th