Seabury Middle School - Digital Parent Night part 2

How to Upload a Math Assignment Using the Google Classroom app and Smartphone or Tablet with Camera

Some students are still struggling to post math assignments correctly. This is the easiest way to do it.

Ways We Can Communicate

The following video is just a reminder of all the ways you and your student can communicate with us about assignments, worries, concerns, and to get help.

Seabury Middle School: A Digital Parent Night - Post 1

We thought it might be helpful to share some information about what digital school looks like and some tips that might be useful to parents when navigating the at home aspects of digital schooling.

Thank you!
First and foremost, thank you for everything you are doing to help digital schooling run smoothly. We are so appreciative of your communication, your time, and your patience. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We are so fortunate to be in this together.


How to Help Your Child(ren) Make Daily Schedules/Manage Their Time

1) See if they can do it on their own--this is a great learning experience, and we are here as a safety net. They might have some missed assignments and meetings, but better to learn how to mange their time now than later. They will be okay. We are being really flexible during this transition.

2) They have made the transition pretty seamless and are mostly managing their time well in terms of assignment completion.

3) Google Classroom connects to Google Calendar, and that is a great tool!

If the video does not work, I am also sharing it as a Google Drive link:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=16GbIpZRnF-J0kylWJWk3Bvnr5sASoPLK


Attendance and Flipgrid

1) Flipgrid is an app the teachers are using, but that students do not need to download (unless they are using it on a phone or ipad instead of a computer).

2) The only people who can access our Flipgrid our people with seabury.org email addresses.

3) Right now, students are using flipgrid to post "morning talkings," which we are using in place of morning journaling. We will likely also use it for classwork in the coming weeks. In the past, some students have used it for current events assignments in social studies, for example.

4) Attendance: We are checking students in each day by whether or not they having completed morning talking by noon. It would make things a little easier if they could try to make sure they do that. If they do not submit it by noon, Jenn and Gabrielle will contact you and them.

5) Students should not share any other students' images or videos from flipgrid without explicit written permission from the other students' parents.

6) Here is what Flipgrid looks like:

Prioritizing Deep Thinking and Skill Building

Right now, we are trying to lower students' workload as compared to before the school building closures: they do not have homework in addition to school work, and they should have a little less than a full day's work load. In part, that is because sometimes assignments take longer at home. In part it is because families have a lot going on right now, and some students are spending a good portion of each day helping younger siblings with their work or doing tasks for their families.

At the same time, we want to make sure our students are still feeling challenged and having opportunities to engage in thoughtful and meaningful learning. We are also highly aware of the skills they need to continue moving forward academically. As we continue with digital school, we continue to prioritize necessary skill building and work in accordance with best practices in gifted education and learning sciences.

If you feel like your child is taking an extremely long time to complete work or is overwhelmed, please email us and let us know (or have them do that!!!). It is possible that a quick conference with us can help them with time management and focus. It is also possible that your middle school aged child is extremely adept at switching between a game screen and word: we have become experts at identifying the signs of screen switching. Perhaps you will too! Remember: this, too, is a learning opportunity.

Tune in for post 2:

Turning in Photos of Work (Mostly for Math): Tips and Tricks

Avenues of Communication

Dystopian Literature

In a recent conversation with a middle schooler about the role of the teacher in a project based learning school, the student said, "So, you are the back seat driver to my education."

The more I think about it, the more I feel like he hit the nail on the head.

As we have worked to make school remote, that conversation has been in the back of my mind. How are we, as teachers, coaching the students to continue being in the driver's seat. What opportunities are we giving them to discover themselves as learners. Where do we need to push and where do we need to let go a little?

Teachers should consider themselves life long learners, and this national switch to digital schooling exemplifies the strength of the teaching community: teachers who love technology have embraced the switch and gone out of their way to provide resources and assistance to novices. Novices have put their toe in the water and slowly waded in. The national teacher community is modeling project based learning for students on an enormous scale.

In an exploration of new tools and technological resources, I have made a commitment to expand my digital repertoire and learn some skills I have always wanted to learn because they seem like they would be so helpful to students.

Over the course of the past month, students have inductively identified major characteristics of dystopian stories. While reading "Harrison Bergeron," watching Wall-E, and reading Fahrenheit 451, the students observed common characteristics. Then, through discussion, they honed their ideas. Today, I asked them to post their findings. As the posts came in, I realized that their collective ideas deserved more than to just sit in our class notes document waiting to be used as a resource for when the students write their own dystopian stories.

To that end and in the spirit of being a lifelong learner, I learned how to make an infographic. I used a design rubric that an art teacher friend made with me years ago, and I set to work.

Now they can see how professional their trend assessments look when presented in this manner, they can use the information more easily when crafting their own stories, and they have a starting point to use when creating their own future infographics. I have no doubt that they will surpass me.

Made with Visme Infographic Maker

Out and About in Tacoma: A Recess Walk to the Spanish Steps

At Seabury Middle School, we have the chance to be out and about in Tacoma, and now that spring is springing and the weather is pleasant, we sometimes take walks during recess.

This week, we visited the Spanish Steps, and students asked questions about the Spanish Steps in Rome. Last week, we went to the Bridge of Glass, but I forgot to take photographs (sorry!).

It was a beautiful day for some sunshine. The walks are also a healthy way to add movement into our day and give students space to think and interact outside of the school's walls.

They have the chance to enjoy each other's company,

and talk with their teachers outside of academic contexts.

Model UN Practice: WHO Committee

In preparation for our Model UN conference in just over a month, the students participated in a World Health Organization Committee, representing nations ranging from Japan and China to the US and France. 

Gathered together, they worked to address what the nations of the world can do to destigmatize mental health, working to stay within the mandate of the committee and their nations' policies.

Throughout the process, they also practiced following the rules of procedure and using Model UN terminology.

While we have much work to do to prepare for their actual committee, this first run showed that their public speaking and conflict resolution skills will serve them well.

After a long morning of work and a short afternoon session, the presented a draft resolution that was unanimously approved by the committee.

Recycling Right!

Community experts are frequent visitors to Seabury Middle School. Whether they come as part of a community outreach or are here to help us evaluate student work or to be a real world audience for student presentations, experts are a welcome benefit to learning in downtown Tacoma.

Featured here is Preston Peck who was a recent visitor from the city's residential recycling program. He is a project specialist focused on community education about recycling. He provided our students with a presentation on where our recycling goes, what is safe to recycle, and how recycling is a business that is affected by the community's knowledge of what and how to recycle. We learned how important to the environment it is to sort our recycling properly. Our student's were highly engaged and shared great ideas about recycling now and in the future.

The knowledge and connections students gain from expert visitors, is part of an integral part of the education you receive at Seabury School.

Presenting to Experts: Authenticity when Crafting Fictional Worlds

This week, the middle schoolers had the chance to present their prototype societies to a panel of experts. This process of presenting their ideas and receiving in-person feedback on those ideas is a little nerve-wracking, but the middle schoolers were brave and thoughtful. They confidently presented their societies and fielded a wide range of questions.

We were so lucky to have so many thoughtful and interesting experts volunteer their time on our two days of panels.

Here are the expert's bios:

January 21st

Sandi Wollum

Dr. David Muller

I graduated in 1988 from Stanford University with a bachelors in sociology and honors in humanities.  For my undergraduate studies, I had specialized in organizational behavior, thinking that I would go into the business world as a management consultant or advertising executive.  However, my plans were waylaid by an opportunities to milk dairy cows in Belgium and to teach beginning piano in Seattle. Both experiences led me to think that perhaps teaching would be a better profession for me, and so I attended the University of Washington for a few years to earn minors in both mathematics and English, as well as a teaching certificate in both subjects for grades 4 thru 12.  I took some more time off to bicycle tour California, Arizona, New Mexico, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand, and Alaska. Promptly after returning, I moved to Colorado, where I taught high school mathematics for 1 year, then 1 year in New Mexico at a Preparatory School for Native American Students, 1 year in Arizona on the Hopi Indian Reservation, and then for six years in Tucson, AZ, also at a high school for Native American students.  While teaching in Tucson, I earned a masters and then a doctorate in math education, and married a math post-doctoral assitant (not necessarily in that order). I moved back to Washington in 2008, where my wife began her professorship at Pacific Lutheran University. For the past ten years I have had a practice in house-husbandry, as well as mathematics tutoring. I bring to this panel my expertise in having pursued for the past 30 years my own imagined Utopia.

Cameron Seib District Scheduler for Representative Kilmer 

(he/him)

I went to the University of Washington and graduated in 2015 with an English degree. A few months after graduation, I moved to DC for an internship in Rep. Denny Heck’s office, where I eventually came on as a full-time Staff Assistant. After about a year, I moved back to Seattle and began working at the UW, helping with career services for information science students.

I was there for three years before joining Rep. Kilmer’s office in July 2019. As his District Scheduler, I help plan and implement the Congressman’s schedule when he’s back in the state. This involves liaising with community members and constituents to set up speaking engagements, roundtable discussions, town halls, school visits, etc.

Peter Plastrik (Skype) 

he/him

Peter Plastrik, an educational and environmental consultant and former speech writer for the Governor of Michigan, has written several books. He studied journalism at the University of Michigan and completed graduate students in Education at Michigan State University before pursuing other fields of work. He as written several books: Banishing Bureaucracy, Life after Carbon, and Connecting to Change the World: Harnessing the Power of Networks for Social Impact. In addition, he has helped start and run University Prep, a charter school in Detroit, MI. Peter has traveled the world and seen many different societies. He also works with groups and organizations to help people work together better and more efficiently.

Robert Zwirner

he/him

Robert earned his B.A. in English from the University of Michigan. He is a world traveler and a soccer fan. He is an avid table top gamer and a student of the world. Robert has written travel narratives and has done literature graduate work at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Vicki Pastore

she/her

Vicki’s areas of expertise are managing a workforce of 70, marketing, event planning, interviewing, with some expertise in music. Vicki attended Eckerd College, where she earned her B.A. in Humanities; Literature, Philosophy, and Theater. She is one of the associate directors of admissions at the University of Puget Sound. She is also Isaac’s mom and the owner of two dogs.

Dr. Jessica Lensch Falk

she/her

Jessica Lensch-Falk is a scientist and educator who teaches hands-on science and engineering to K-8 students. She believes that all students are naturally scientists and are capable of  amazing and difficult accomplishments when given the opportunity and resources. Her previous work includes research on nanomaterials for energy applications at Sandia National Laboratories. She has also been involved in non-profit management as a current board member at her synagogue and former president of her children's PTO. Jessica holds a PhD in Materials Science & Engineering from Northwestern University and a BS in Materials Science & Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.  In her free time Jessica loves spending time with her husband and two children, playing board games, reading, and baking.

January 22nd, 8:45-9:45

Tiffany Price

Jenn Parker

I graduated from the Univ. of Massachusetts at Dartmouth with a BFA in Art Education in 1994.  Upon graduation I was an art teacher at St. Mary’s Catholic School (a private school in Melrose, MA- a town outside of Boston).  During my summer breaks I did a little traveling -I rode a motorcycle across the country going East to West one summer and then rode my bicycle across the country going West to East the following summer.  So, to make a little extra “travel cash” I started working part time at a Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop on Newbury Street in Boston scooping ice cream after school. During this time the owner of that scoop shop asked me if I would consider managing a new scoop shop that he was opening.  After much consideration I chose to leave teaching and jump into business management. Over the course of 6 years at Ben & Jerry’s I won the “Best Promotions Ever” contest, was awarded the “BIG-O” award for having the best franchise in the world, trained several perspective franchise owners from around the world, taught workshops at corporate meetings, and was promoted to the highest honor, which was to manage the corporate Ben & Jerry’s “Flagship” store in Burlington, VT (home of Ben & Jerry!) 

Over the years I traveled a bit more, managed a few other high profiled VT businesses, and participated and graduated from a continuing education program called, “The Women’s Small Business Program” at Trinity College in VT. This is where and when I wrote a couple of business plans.  One plan was to open my own bakery café which is what I did in 2005. In 2010 I hung up my apron and sold my shares of the bakery to my business co-owners and became a full time Mom. In the summer of 2016, my family moved from Vermont to Washington. That fall I began to work as a substitute teacher at Seabury and in the Tacoma School Systems.  In 2017 I started to work full time at Seabury doing what I am currently doing.

Dr. Toska Olson

she/her

Toska (Sulli's mom) is a social scientist who teaches at The Evergreen State College in Olympia. She studied anthropology in college and earned a Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Washington. Toska teaches about a variety of topics, including criminology and criminal profiling, gender and sexuality, privilege and oppression, and health and well-being. She and her students have explored dystopias and utopias in many classes, especially as they relate to gender, race, and the body. Her students have researched, designed, and built 3-D models of their utopian visions in the forms of games, playgrounds, toys, and museum exhibits. 

Dr. Diane Bartels

she/her

My name is Diane Bartels and I’m a pediatrician In Gig Harbor, Washington (and Marc’s mom).  I grew up in Austin, Texas. I attended Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas for my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. I then attended UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas and completed a Pediatric Residency at Dell Childrens Hospital in Austin, Texas. After completing training, my family moved to Gig Harbor. We live on a 10 acre farm and have dabbled in homesteading including vegetable gardens (unsuccessfully), beekeeping (successful until they attacked me and I got stung 100 times), and (successfully) raising meat and egg chickens and turkeys and larger livestock (goats, sheep and now horses). We love to travel especially by boat and I love to read. I will be most helpful to your Utopia project with advice in public health and agriculture. 

Mark Friedman

he/him

EDUCATION

Oberlin College, B.A. 1975

Georgetown University Law School, J.D. cum laude 1980

Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, MSFS, 1980 (Joint Degree Program)

Columbia University School of Business, MBA, 1986

PROFESSIONAL AND OTHERWISE

I am a retired attorney whose twenty years of practice encompassed a variety of legal specialties and practice areas, mostly in greater Los Angeles. These included commercial litigation; negotiating and papering transactions for corporate clients at a major law firm; acting as regional counsel to Mitsui (U.S.A.), the subsidiary of a gigantic Japanese trading company; and serving as the general counsel of Core-Vent Bioengineering, one of the nation’s leading dental implant manufacturers. I have lived in Port Orchard with my wonderful Aracelly since 2004, and we now have two Seabury kids, Judah and younger brother Asher.

Steve Plastrik

he/him

Steve grew up in Michigan, but lived in Japan, Switzerland, and Vermont before settling in Seattle. He studied Political Science and Japanese at the University of Michigan as an undergraduate and then went back to Michigan to obtain a law degree. Steve has worked in immigration law as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a Project Specialist for Amazon, and in private practice. In his free time, Steve loves to travel (which led him to a career in immigration law), go hiking in National Parks (he's looking forward to Joshua Tree in a few weeks), and play Nintendo Switch (Mario Maker 2 right now).

One of the most powerful aspects of having experts ask questions in person is the way that the students refined their ideas in advance of the presentations. I saw some students pacing in circles, talking to themselves about their utopias, some students gathering with others to hash out their ideas, and some students digging into resource and reference material. One student wrote all over the white board walls, and another filled pages of a journal. Students had a chance to develop their ideas in ways that felt natural and useful to them. They also refined them mid-presentation, adjusting language and wording as they fielded questions.

Hearing their presentations one after the other also helps me, as their teacher, notice trends across their societies and target particular instructional needs. After their presentations, the students are focusing more on using the language of the discipline to be more precise with their terminology.