April Happenings

Recently our 5th grade students came to tour the middle school in preparation for their move to 6th grade next year.  As such, several advisory groups welcomed 5th grade visitors into their class for the day.  Not surprisingly, during their time with our middle school advisories, the 5th grade students heard about the activities our students participate in each day with their adviser.  To help get our students excited to share the Advisory program with our visitors, we celebrated Advisory Pride Week.  The week consisted of making posters, slogans and chants representing each advisory group.

Ms. Toms' Advisory spelling "T-O-M-S" with their bodies during their chant

Currently in Advisory we are talking about the word integrity.  Each advisory group is working to design their own two week project focusing on the concept of integrity and what it means in our lives.  Some groups are creating videos, others are considering ways we can remind each other to practice integrity; it seems I hear a new idea from a group every day.  It's exciting to watch students take charge of their own learning by designing projects around their interests.

I also wanted to share with you that yesterday we wrapped up stress management lessons in Wellness classes.  Each group met to discuss what stress is, how it affects us and how to keep it to a minimum.  Students in each grade learned about our "Fight or Flight" response and how our bodies physically react to stress.  We discussed how slowed breathing and physical activity can counteract those instinctual responses in our bodies.  6th grade students were then guided through creating a Stress Action Plan.  7th grade students talked about how to think through what one can and can't control in a stressful situation.  8th grade students took an informal stress checklist to assess how high their stress levels are currently or have been this school year.  8th grade students had the chance to privately request an appointment with me upon completing their stress checklist if they wished to discuss their stress further.  I am happy to say that overall, the 8th grade group reported low stress levels and many had little trouble thinking of strategies to keep their stress from building.