Confederacies

This week, the 7-8s continued their study of early America and the Constitution. We reviewed Haudenosaunee, an Iroquois confederacy from colonial times, noting its influence on John Rutledge, Benjamin Franklin, and other Framers. We delved deeper into the Bill of Rights by examining scenarios through the lens of the first ten amendments, figuring out which of the ten were most relevant in each case and debating the various decisions.

In addition, this was the week when we began working on the all-school play in earnest, reading through our Norse script, revising it, and beginning to plan movements. The kids have lots of good input on this. We also read through the myths that the kindergarteners and 1-2 classes will be performing, from Ghana, the Arctic, and India. The 7-8s will provide narration for these scenes in performance.

The Constitution Past and Present

In this three-day week our focus was entirely on American government. Since many Americans were surprised by the results of Tuesday's election, we spent much of our time together on Wednesday processing the results. We discussed the logistics of a Presidential election. The Electoral College was a key element of this conversation. We also touched on the way the three branches of government interact, which was a useful transition into our work on the often excruciating, yet also amazing, process by which the US Constitution and Bill of Rights were drafted and ratified. Finally, the kids got their new sixty-page anthology built on this topic and began their now-habituated process of reading and annotating.

Place-Based Learning in Lansing and Ann Arbor

Our recent excursions into the wider world have taken us to several locations beyond Summers-Knoll.

• We visited the Hatcher Graduate Library at the University of Michigan, where we saw two exhibits. One was a large set of maps, old and new, related to the National Park System. Our students made interesting connection between this collection and the Americana I assignment, in which each student designed a trip to a different region of the United States, complete with itinerary, budget, and map. (One student was able to actually take the trip he had designed along with his family.)

• Another exhibit at the library showed artifacts and information from a 1966 effort to restore and preserve ancient books in Florence, Italy, after a devastating flood. This exhibit substantiated our work in science class on climate change and flooding.

• Two other trips followed up on this scientific and societal work. We travelled to the Broad Museum in Lansing, Michigan, to visit an exhibit of photographic and video work by Gideon Mendel called Drowning World. Mendel After a docent-led tour of the museum, students traipsed down to the banks of the Red Cedar River, possibly the most striking of all the photos. Here, two of Mendel's photos were mounted in the river itself, the height of the water matched to the height of the floodwater in the photograph.

• We also went back to the University of Michigan, this time to the International Institute, to visit and review a exhibit of photographs and text called Sinking City, a portrait of Djakarta, Indonesia, a city whose metropolitan area comprises nearly 28 million people. The city's water table is rapidly becoming depleted as the population rises.

• With an eye toward our work on American government in advance of next month's election, we embarked on a docent-led tour the State Capitol in Lansing. We previewed the tour by identifying the parameters of the three branches of our republic's government as they manifest at the state level. In Lansing, the students saw the headquarters of each, and asked many (great!) questions throughout the tour.

• We visited the Pop X art exhibit in Liberty Square in downtown Ann Arbor. Here, artists each was able to produce a work steeped in social commentary in a small quasi-shack. Students wandered among the exhibits on a rainy day, adding comments and thoughts where invited to, and otherwise interacting with each artist's wor

Fall Overnight: Olney Friends School

Every autumn, the 7-8s embark upon an overnight trip. In recent years, we've gone to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, to Iowa, and to Detroit. This year, we went to Olney Friends School, a Quaker institution founded in 1837, located in Barnesville, Ohio, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Like Summers-Knoll, Olney is a progressive school.

What follows is a brief account of our trip.

At the Main Building, built over a hundred years ago.

The Bus Ride
We left on time--seven in the morning, an hour-and-a-half before a usual SK day begins. The kids were wonderful on the bus--no small feat, given that we spent eleven-plus hours in those cramped quarters between the long trip down and the mercifully shorter trip home.

Owen and Niko on the east side of the farm.

The Classes
The kids were attentive, proud, and participatory in every class: Japanese, Ecology, Statistics, Humanities, Chemistry, Visual Communications, and Spanish. Leonard the Ecology teacher passed out handwritten handouts and sent his six kids out with our three to observe different ecosystems: forest, meadow, and vernal pool, beginning with ten silent minutes, which strikes me as a quintessentially Quaker thing to do. Carrie the Spanish teacher helped the students write a story, building vocabulary as they went. The group of seventh graders were positively brazen in a Humanities class in which they conceived and designed an original early civilization (that kind of activity is right up Summers-Knoll's alley). The 7-8s got a taste of high school, and they found that it was good.

Cave painting, before we turned out the lights.

The Activities
In the evening, the kids frolicked on the school's central green. They participated wholeheartedly in a group sing, nominating songs and occasionally finding harmonies. Best of all, two teachers set the kids up with an activity whereby they painted pictures in the style of early humans. They used pigments and materials that would have been available to prehistoric humans (berries, turmeric, charcoal, sticks; candlelight to mimic the illumination of a cave). They painted wolves, arrows, giraffes (!), and other images, most of which called forth a successful hunt or fruitful collecting.

Oli and some of the goats he named.

The Farm and the Food
When we were arrived, Aaron, the Admissions director, led us downstairs to the cafeteria for fruit, water, bread, and a spicy Israeli stew called shakshouka. We ate pulled pork at other meals, bean & corn salads, hard-boiled eggs from the farm, soft tacos, produce from the garden. The kids observed a moment of collective silence before the meals (as well as collection with the entire school at other times). The food was wonderful, but the organic farm was even better, especially the chickens and the baby goats. Anyone will tell you that the baby goats were the highlight of the trip.

Hothouse flowers.

Facing the pond after classes.

Graduation

We said good-bye to the seven members of SK's Class of 2016 in June.

Graduating students present or perform something at graduation. This year, Margaret & Karenna, with help from Kaeli & Lee, did an encore performance of their Founding Framers scene from our fall play, A Sort of Complete History of the United States of America (Abridged).

Lee offered advice for the returning SK students, pointing out, among other things, that teachers are allowed to make mistakes too, and that they deserved the benefit of the doubt from their students too.

Nik and Kaeli both gave impassioned, hilarious and tender speeches about their classmates and teachers.

Ada privately shared plans to add a corn snake to our menagerie of SK animals.

And Matthew tinkered with his valedictory soliloquy from the end of The Tempest to commemorate his departure from our particular island. It was a beautiful gesture of love and a poignant good-bye.

As is our tradition, the students each collected unique diplomas, each one featuring a different piece of artwork from a younger Summers-Knoll student. These diplomas are on display, framed and hung at the meeting point between the middle school commons and the atrium.

Each year, Joanna writes a poem for each graduate. Somehow, she managed a sonnet for each this year. She did this in honor of a sonnet the 7-8s wrote for her. As a last word on the 2015-2016 school year, here is that poem, our fondest of farewells for the great Joanna Hastings in her final year as Head of Summers-Knoll.

OUR DIANA

A SONNET by the 7-8s

The head of SK is named Joanna

She’s the best head of school we could ask for

She is pretty and strong like Diana

She will always be part of our school’s core

She likes to lead us through one hen two ducks

We all can recite it, even today

We know that her life is now in some flux

But she’ll still be home in hearts at SK

We hope that you like the sonnet we wrote

The 7-8s made this poem for you

We're trying to help you leave on the right note

We will all miss you that's certainly true

We all are very sad that you will leave

And we thank you for what we will achieve

The Big Chart

Here are the 180 boxes we said we'd fill this semester.

I am happy to report that we got through everything.

BIG CHART	JAN	FEB	MAR	APR	MAY	JUNE
Science Projects	conduct	complete & exhibit	state fair	--	--	--
Science Exhibitions	schedule; prep	conduct	--	--	--	--
Polis Projects	Greek poleis	original poleis	--	--	--	--
Einstein's Dreams	read	--	--	--	--	--
Innovation & Systems	begin reading	finish reading	--	identities	identities	--
Storm Project	begin	tend	complete	--	--	--
Detroit	DIA	--	--	Heidelberg	Earthworks	City FC
Lit Publication	revise fall prompts	4-6 prompts	4-6 prompts	big paper	final prompts	revise & publish
Athletics & PE	winter sports	tournament?	spring hikes	Mile Week	SK 5K	field day
Student Government	new goals	pursue	HHF week	new goals	pursue	--
High School 101	shadow days	lotteries	--	advice	advice	graduate
Our Whole Lives	gender	relationships	media	behavior	dangers	communication
Work Crews	second rotation	second rotation	second rotation	third rotation	third rotation	third rotation
Frankenstein	--	read	finish	--	--	--
Monkey House	--	--	read	--	--	--
Americans	slavery	reconstruction	Douglass	big paper	--	--
The Tempest	rehearse	rehearse	perform	--	--	--
Civic Project	conceive	narrow	select	conduct	exhibit	--
Civic Exhibitions	--	--	schedule	rehearse	conduct	--
Place out of Time	--	assign	engage	complete	--	--
Assessment	portfolios	prepare goals	conferences	--	complete portfolios	reflect
Frederick Douglass	--	--	read	finish	--	--
Jayhawker	--	--	--	--	read	--
Retro Projects	--	--	--	plan	conduct	exhibit
Retro Exhibitions	--	--	--	schedule	rehearse	conduct
Whale & Shorts	--	--	--	--	read	finish
Spring Trip	plan	communicate	prepare	pack	travel	--
Legacy Projects	determine	pursue	pursue	pursue	complete	exhibit
Legacy Exhibitions	--	--	--	schedule	rehearse	conduct
Graduation	--	--	diplomas	performances	prepare	graduate

Legacy Projects

By the end of every year, the eighth graders have completed Legacy Projects, which can take many forms: an event, a system, an installation; something that is left behind, or continues a tradition, at Summers-Knoll.

Margaret took on the Herculean task of clearing hundreds of costumes off the floor of the attic, organizing them by era and type, and hanging them up on spanking-new costume racks.

Kaeli followed on last year's community service project by setting up a relief effort for Syrian refugees. She contacted a local charity for advice on what was needed and then set up a middle school assembly line to make tote bags out of reused t-shirts and then fill them with a long list of useful sundries. These were then delivered to the charity's headquarters.

Nik built a spiral labyrinth out of inset stones in the little forest on the north side of our playground.

Matthew composed a Summers-Knoll anthem! Here it is:
https://drive.google.com/a/summers-knoll.org/file/d/0Bw82GcH5cpfpY0lHcERjWDRBVjQ/view?ts=575e00c1

Leander thought it would be fun if each homeroom decorated a ceiling tile. He scheduled meetings with each homeroom teacher, then with the classes; worked with each on design; gave them the supplies to carry them out; collected the completed tiles; and installed them in the art room.

Karenna met with Valerie Tibbs-Wynne to set up a Kinderbuddies program. She partnered each kindergartener with one of our 7-8 students and scheduled regular times from us to come down to Val's playground for spend time getting chased around by Summers-Knoll's littlest kids.