Inside the Hall: Middle School

Birmingham bound

Creating a music brand

Atextbook can’t always convey the magnitude of historical events. Sometimes the best way to comprehend pivotal moments and movements is to turn learning into an experience. This spring, 5th grade students traveled to Birmingham to see important landmarks from the civil rights movement in person after studying the history and reading “The Watsons Go to Birmingham.” During the trip, students visited the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and learned about the Birmingham Children’s March. They met with a participant from the march and learned how the bravery of the children who fought for freedom in Birmingham led to Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington. Their moving experience in Alabama helped to contextualize the stories they read in class, adding new layers to what they learned.

Didyou know that there are over 180 recording studios, nearly 500 music publishers, and 80 record labels in the Nashville area? With the vibe of Music City booming all around them, Brion Kennedy’s 7th grade Music and Culture class wanted to inject its own creativity into the industry. It started with a song. Students formed their own rock band and worked together to write, record, and produce a piece of music. They studied music marketing and created a brand for themselves, designing their own logos to match the goals of their brand. At the end of the project, they turned their song into a visual wavelength and designed promotional T-shirts with the wavelength. Keep an ear out for these budding artists in the future.

The politics of problem solving

WhenHarpeth Hall students see a problem, they want to solve it. This spring, 7th and 8th grade students traveled to the Tennessee State Capitol to address issues our state faces and propose bills to enact change as a part of Youth Legislature, a program in which students learn parliamentary procedure and act as senators or representatives to write their own legislation. Among the hundreds of students from across Nashville participating in the event, Harpeth Hall students introduced bills to reduce opioid abuse, provide more funding for mental health services for incarcerated youth, and improve self-defense education for students. Two of the bills proposed were placed on the docket for discussion, and a bill to improve water infrastructure throughout the state won the Outstanding Bill award.