MS Minutes: 03.28.23

Posted on March 29, 2023

Hello, Middle School Students and Families! Welcome back from Spring Break! Here’s a look at what’s happening in the Middle School.


Abigail Zimman ’28 and Naima Russell ’28 ran today’s meeting. You can check out the slides from this week’s meeting here.

THE WEEKLY FEATURES

THE BVR STUDENT

Mason Baker ’29 presented Is Disciplined with Technology.

Sometimes technology can disrupt learning. I make sure I close my computer when a teacher is talking. I keep my phone in my bag during class and ask for permission before I use it.


WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT

The Future FocusED conference took place yesterday and today at Beaver. We hosted a conference for educators and industry leaders to talk about expanding education—and the future of teaching and learning—in a space and format designed to effect change. Some Middle School students volunteered yesterday to help and greet visitors, and today nine 8th grade students presented their work: El Strom, Shirin Sakoulis, Grace Batycky, Elinor Grant, Phoebe Stoesser, Mabel Forkner, Allie Martin, Grace Batycky, Bee Ashburn.

The 7th Annual Film Festival is calling for entries. The theme for this year’s festival is film noir. Students are encouraged to make a black and white film (color films are also welcome!). Videos should be three and a half minutes or shorter. The deadline for submissions is April 14.

The final Middle School BVR Leadership Institute is happening next week on Monday, April 3 at 8 a.m. on the D-Level. The topic is Media and Changemaking. With leadership from some students in the Upper School, students will learn and reflect on leading for change and how to use their skills with social media to make our community and world a better place. A form from the Hiatt Center was emailed to students to sign up.

The spring mini-season of debate has three spots available. Debate runs on Wednesdays from 5 to 7 p.m. from April 12 through May 17. Students who are interested need to reach out to Coach Kuntz by Friday.

April is National Poetry Month! (We started early since we won’t have a MS Meeting next week due to Admission Revisit day). Ms. Kelley-Mudie read a poem called The Young Poets of Winnipeg by Naomi Shihab Nye. She encouraged students to volunteer to read poems aloud at MS Meetings in April.


THIS WEEK’S LUNCH & RECESS PROGRAMMING, CLUBS & AFFINITY GROUPS

Today’s RISE activity was coloring pages. Through fun activities, students learn how to deal with stress and worry.

This week’s advisory activity topic is intent versus impact. We will be discussing how making decisions responsibly and building relationships with others requires us to not only think of the intent but also the impact of our words.

Wellness classes:
English 8.1 has wellness on Friday

We showed the You Got In Video that was sent to all admitted students right before spring break, and Marwa Murphy ’27, Ruby Nielsen ’27, and Verveine Oringer ’27, this year’s head admission ambassadors, spoke about Admission Revisit Days happening Thursday for admitted 6th graders and next Tuesday for admitted 7th and 8th graders.

A perk of having the Future FocusED conference on campus today, we had the Cookie Monstah food truck today at lunch!