16 minute read
Middle School
Conversation With Shawna Trujillo Mitch Neuger and
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Shawna Trujillo, Dean of the Middle School, and Mitch Neuger, a leader among the Middle School faculty, have in common their youth, their energy, a love of the process of building a small community, and a love for being in a classroom filled with what Shawna describes as "rowdy, hormonal, distractable, bright-eyed young people."
Together, they are taking the lead in helping the Priory faculty reach a laudable goal—understanding what makes those young adolescents tick, and providing school experiences that make the most of this stage in their lives.
Shawna comes to the task with a string of special training programs and awards. She was attracted to teaching this age because she remembers middle school as "not the best time of my life. I hope I can be a positive, empathetic adolescent supporter." Much of her day is devoted to chatting with students who drop in at her office or parents who phone for a quick consultation—and she enjoys this part of her work, she says. While wearing her administrator’s hat, she enjoys the daily trouble-shooting and the opportunity to help faculty attain their professional best, she adds. Shawna teaches in the eighth grade.
Mitch discovered teaching while working as an intern at a summer program devoted to ending world hunger. Part of his work involved reading the stories of teachers, and he was struck by the importance of their work. A Yale graduate in American Studies, he loves the opportunity to help students learn the critical thinking skills and supportive community attitudes that bring vitality to a democracy, he says.
Last year, Mitch stood in as acting Dean through the fall while Shawna took a leave of absence for the birth of her second child. In the spring, he headed the committee that, in effect, led to diversified learning, a current theme, in professional development. Shawna lives on the campus with her husband Chris, and children Taylor, 3 and Parker, 1. Mitch also lives on the campus. —C. Dobervich
Priory Middle School students seem to enjoy school. The record shows that they’re doing well when they go on to high school. What do you think is going right for these students?
S—First, they benefit from a great partnership among the Middle School faculty and parents. Families are very supportive and encouraging. They provide so many, many things that encourage success. These students have successful behavior modeled for them both at home and at school— they’ve GOT to succeed!
M—At school, students are surrounded by a group of caring adults. Each student may not connect with each teacher, but I think students recognize the adults in their school lives as being kind and open to them—making time and space even in class to talk about things that are important to them.
S—I think each student really connects with at least one adult here. That’s an important goal, and we work on it.
Is competition a factor when most of the students come to class highly motivated and expecting to succeed?
S—Students definitely encourage and chase one another in their learning. I think that for our students it’s usually a positive thing. It’s negative when students won’t allow themselves to do anything less than perfect work— and that happens. That need to be perfect actually interferes with their learning.
We think it’s important for all Middle School students to learn by making small mistakes. All of their teachers are really ready for that. We’re working on encouraging parents and students to understand that it’s okay. Middle school is the time for them to stumble. They pick themselves up, they dust themselves off, and they figure out how to do it next time. This builds resilience into them when the stakes aren’t so high.
Let’s take an example of an English assignment that was completed but forgotten. Isn’t it okay for a parent to drop the assignment off at school?
S—I’d rather the parent let the student deliver it the next day. When the student knows it’s his or her responsibility, it won’t take these students too many times before they figure out a way to get here with it. Then they have the benefit of thinking through what went wrong, asking for help if they need it, but getting a process that works for them. And nobody, nobody is going to fail our Middle School because of a forgotten assignment!
Does "mistake aversion" impact the way students learn the academic subject matter of Middle School?
M—Many of our students are used to absorbing and succeeding on their natural talent. "Learning how to learn" is new to them. But it is a skill they need to develop before high school and definitely before college. S—Children start out learning by spoon-feeding. They would be happy to continue being spoon-fed. But that isn’t how Middle School is supposed to look if they are to get anything of lasting value from it. There’s a quote in (Dean of the Faculty) Nancy Newman's classroom: "Perfection is the enemy of excellence." If you must be perfect, you can’t be, you won’t be excellent.
What works in creating a positive attitude among the students?
S—Differentiated learning is a teaching style that takes a lot of the heat out of the end product, one final test at the end of the unit. Instead, differentiated learning is about the process and making progress. Assessment occurs more frequently during the process. Things students try won’t work out all of the time, and they will learn from that and make adjustments.
Can you describe differentiated learning? What are students doing?
S—It’s a less traditional, project-based way of teaching that lets us start where the kids are. At this school, all of our students are outstanding or they wouldn’t be here. But they have different individual strengths and their rates of personal development are very different, which is normal at this age.
Differentiated learning speaks to each and every child. They make choices and make mistakes. In the process, they develop individual problem-solving strategies they can use in the next class and for the rest of their lives.
Their projects highlight their individual growth. Gifted students can really fly with this, and when it is used appropriately all of the students can.
"Learning how to learn" is a skill that students need to develop before high school.
Faculty member and counselor Dora Marròn has expertise with academic skill-building techniques that are especially suited to middle school students.
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Students up and moving, working independently and in small groups on a variety of projects while the teacher consults is typical of a diversified-learning-based lesson.
Differentiated learning is a less traditional, projectbased way of teaching. . . gifted students can really fly with this.
How prevalent is this or will it be?
S—It’s not new, but we’re looking at using more of it. Teachers will decide individually how much of the differentiated learning strategy they can use. I don’t see anybody going to 100 percent differentiation. We are still a traditional college prep school. There are certain academic skills that all students will have to acquire in traditional ways.
If I walk into a classroom where the teacher is using differentiated learning concepts, what will I see?
M—In sixth grade, we’re doing persuasive writing right now. If you walked in, you could observe the whole class talk about the building blocks of a good persuasive piece, then the different products—how people persuade each other in the world. Then, you’ll see kids choose their own topics, their audiences and their products.
Later on in the process, you will see some people creating a video, other people working on a poster or a pamphlet, people working on a whole variety of products. I haven’t reached this stage yet, but I am working towards it.
With some lessons, students won’t all learn the same thing, then. If they work on different products they will have different skills—photography versus producing a skit, maybe.
S—Before beginning, Mitch knew his desired academic outcome—the effective persuasive paragraph—and he shared that up front with the students. In the end, everyone learns that. He gave some ideas about topics and products—ways that his students can go about using their paragraphs in
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real life. The students can come up with their own ideas, too. One might want to do a radio broadcast, or write an article for a newspaper. This is where the flexibility and diversity comes in. Mitch can encourage each student individually to stretch his or her skills and knowledge. At the same time, he makes sure everyone gets that basic skill of writing a persuasive paragraph.
How do students like it?
S—I think they really like having us capitalize on their strengths. When we see that kids really love something we’re doing in our class, we can change the plan right on the spot to get everything we can out of that moment or that activity. A good Middle School teacher already has that capability. That teacher can stop right in the middle of a lesson and say, "Hey, this isn’t working—let’s try it a different way." The differentiated learning structure simply builds on that.
M—Students are more interested in their social lives than anything else and there are strategies we can use to capitalize on that. One is to make classes social. It means allowing a lot of conversation—talking to each other in the whole class or in small groups. It means sharing homework instead of just turning it in to the teacher. It means doing projects together instead of working alone. We find that our students really like to perform, so many of us give them opportunities to do skits.
Our eighth graders go on to high school with almost no academic "bump." This year, the overall change in GPA from eighth grade to Priory freshman year was almost too small to measure, and in many cases students improved. How does the teacher assure that everything the high school expects is learned?
M—As a teacher, it takes a really clear sense of priorities, especially when you are using differentiated learning. In addition to making sure
that each student gets the target skill of the lesson, you have to be sure you cover what the other teachers in the Middle School will expect. For example, when I teach sixth grade English, I know what the seventh grade English teacher expects. Following on that, we know as a Middle School what the High School expects.
What precipitated this interest in differentiated learning?
M—Tim (Molak, headmaster) asked the Middle School faculty two years ago to do a self-study. It involved a lot of things, but one outcome is that teachers wanted to look at contemporary teaching methods to maximize learning among a group of students who are at very different places developmentally. Where students are developmentally makes a big difference in how they learn best. So, when Shawna introduced differentiated learning this spring, there was a reaction of "Hey, this is great."
Middle school has received a lot of attention in the past few years. Are you making use of any educational models?
S—We’ve looked in the Middle School guides— (the Carnegie Commissions’s) Turning Point 2000 and the National Middle School Association reports, which address these same issues. I have books by Mel Lavine and Robert MacKenzie in my office. We’ve used Robert McKenzie’s classroom management strategies; we use these in an effort to promote learning through logical consequences.
We are building our own program. Ours won’t look like anyone else’s. We are always re-evaluating our programs. Every year, we will get better and be more effective.
A special class was created last fall for these students, who wanted to create and perform their own rock music. Opportunities to occasionally explore interests without comparison and competition help young teens define the older person they wish to become.
Sixth grade teachers use class meeting time to build a sense of community. It is designed to be a time when students can feel comfortable bringing up issues they want to clarify or talk about.
Middle School is a natural time for young teens to develop academic problem-solving and collaborative skills.
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Maas Family Commons Is Almost Complete
Winter Semester Activity: • The Maas Family Commons housing should be ready for families in mid-June. • Donor activities, architects’ preliminary work and meetings with Portola Valley town officials are on target for the Performing Arts Center. • More than half of the $7 million for the PAC is pledged.
Next Target: • Total $7 million for the PAC by year-end 2003 • Portola Valley approval of the Priory master plan by summer 2003 • Additions to the Priory Chapel by fall 2003
Monthly photo updates at: www.woodsidepriory.com/ campaignSee Maas Family Commons construction and a oneminute Flash presentation of the Performing Arts Center.
Despite the rainy late winter weather, construction on the seven units of housing in the Maas Family Commons stayed on schedule. Families should be able to move in mid-June. The lovely view of the hillside behind the campus is just outside their front doors. And the old barns are nicer to look at with their new façade.
Planning Begins for a More Spacious Chapel
Peter Kasenchak and Jane Yates, both longtime friends of the Priory campus and Chapel communities, are heading up an effort to bring more space to the Priory’s best-loved building.
Possible enhancements to the Chapel include addition of a 340-square-foot Receiving Chapel, panels of stained glass, and a new vestibule, possibly with an exterior double bell tower.
It would be most efficient to have construction and funding support going on simultaneously, because it is desirable for construction to take place over the summer (when classes are not in session), said Headmaster Tim Molak. Peter and Jane will begin meeting in late spring with Chapel friends and others who may be interested in supporting this project, Peter said.
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A double bell tower could be among the additions to the Chapel (computer generated illustration).
Golden Jubilee Campaign Fund Thank you for supporting Woodside Priory School... for now and our next 50 years!
$1 million or more Anonymous Parents and Grandparents (3) E. Alvin and Suzanne Maas Ray and Meredith Rothrock
$500,000 - $999,999 Jeffrey and Mary Ann Hiller
$250,000 - $499,999 Carmen M. Christensen Trust Terry and Dorothy Hayes Robert and Connie Klein Thomas Neff and Donna Wengert-Neff Hank and Lisa Plain Alexander and Leslie Schilling
$100,000 - $249,999 John and Linda Andreini James and Loren Archer Tom and Fran Dempsey Eugene and Judith Flath The Guzik Foundation Harvey and Barbara Jones John Kriewall and Betsy Haehl Rick and Amy Magnuson May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust
David and Virginia Taylor Robert and Charlene Ward
$50,000 - $99,999 Anonymous Parent L. James Archer Trust Andrew and Carol Duncan Albert and Susanne Ebneter Mark and Lindsay Farino William and Michelle Green Harold Harvey Estate Robert and Carolan Hass Nichola and Craig Johnson Richard and Mary Lemuth Robert and Katherine Maxfield Howard Neckowitz and Cheryl Kempton-Neckowitz Stephen Simons Allan and Heidi Will The Zaffaroni Foundation $10,000 - $49,999 Patricia Adams Daniel Alegria and Mary Hufty
Wayne and Cynthia Davison Hewlett Packard Company I.B.M. Corporation Judd and Mimi Iversen Steven Krausz and Alison Gold Krausz Stanley Kwong and Judy Koh Tim and Cathy Molak John and Nancy Newman Curtis Peterson and Lea Stublarec
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Art and Cindy Schultz Mary Catherine Shouse Shell Oil Company Foundation
Joseph Tabacco and Peggy Schmidt
Robert and Ramsey Waterman Marvin Wenger and Beth-Ann Schwabacher-Wenger
Up to $10,000 Archbold Charitable Trust David and Donna Arnold The Ayco Charitable Foundation
Douglas and Barbara Ayer John and Linda Bader Robert and Doris Barbagelata Jack and Anne Beaver Douglas and Marjorie Brent John and Kristin Brew Gisela Brugger William Budge John and Caroline Bulkeley Callie Cain Peter and Pamela Campagna Herman and Sheila Carmassi Sandro and Joan Centofanti Alan and Elizabeth Cirino Linda Davis Gerald and Nancy Dellheim Stephen and LuAnn DeMartini Anthony and Jeska DeSzily Thomas and Judith DeSzily Richard Dioli Mark and Carolyn Dobervich William and Mary Dunn Allan and Suzanne Epstein Edward and Suzanne Eyre Arthur and Carol Graham Andrew and Patricia Haines John and Anne Hannigan Thomas and Helen Hennig Paul Holland and Linda Yates Michelle and George Huertas Peter Kasenchak John and Barbara Keller John and Patricia Kilmartin Gail Kimball Matthew Lincoln and Leanne George Genevieve Mager Frank and Patricia McGinnis Thomas and Sandra McCarthy Magdalena and Clay McCarty John and Nancy McCrady David McDaniel William and Mary McInerney Dean Miller John Miller Donald and Elizabeth Myers John and Janiece Bacon Oblak
Ward and Mary Paine Jedd and Leslie Roe Ronald and Lila Schmidt William and Ruth Schooler Philip and Maya Sewald Robert and Annie Simon Robert and Helen Stein John and Marianne Stoner Charles Thieriot and Elizabeth Huntley Bruce and Anne Wagner Stephen and Molly Westrate Elaine and Hubert Willman James and Ellen Wilton
Promote each student’s strengths • Preserve community values • Provide for the future
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Yours for the Bidding!
The exciting and unusual will tempt bidders at “In the beginning...Woodside Priory 1957” auction and dinner dance. Story on Page 6.
Keep the monk of your choice close to your heart with these caricature ties hand crafted by Priory faculty member Mitch Neuger. Suitable for formal occasions or with your swim trunks.
This immaculate all-wood canoe was lovingly hand crafted by Priory students and science faculty member Dave Hafleigh. It may be the last in the Priory’s famous canoe line. Dave, who began the program a few years ago, will retire this spring.
A family of four or five will spend the day on the set of a feature film being produced by Jerry Zucker, well known for his previous films Airplane, Naked Gun, Rat Race, and My Best Friend’s Wedding. Mr. Zucker will provide passes and the opportunity to meet the production crew and actors. The filming location and date are not yet set, but probably it will be Los Angeles in 2003 or early 2004. Transportation is provided.
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