Issue link: http://latinschool.uberflip.com/i/96436
Betsy Thompson preserving strengths At the same time, the fifth grade will retain its homeroom structure, which offers an important community-based support system for students in this age group. ���Throughout the planning we���ve stayed really focused on maintaining the homeroom,��� says fifth-grade teacher Betsy Thompson. ���Fifth graders need to have a place to go back to that feels like their home.��� Fifth graders also will continue to receive narrative progress reports and participate in the beloved Lorado Taft and Medieval Times field trips as well as a number of other hallmarks of the lower school fifth-grade program. ���throughout the planning we���ve stayed really focused on maintaining the homeroom. Fifth graders need to have a place a Fifth/sixth grade Community to go back to that feels One of the greatest advantages of the move like their home.��� will be the relationship between the fifth and ��� Betsy Thompson, fifth grade teacher sixth grades. ���The potential for connections is very exciting,��� says middle school English teacher and sixth-grade dean Mary Jo Houck, who will be working closely with Thompson and a newly hired reading specialist on the English and Language Arts program. ���As a teacher, it is thrilling for me to have another team of people to work with who have the same passion and interests as I do. For the kids, the bond with another grade, similar in age, will create an amazing sense of community. The third floor will be a lively, fun and safe space. ��� Meanwhile, the sometimes awkward job of trying to develop age-appropriate programming that would appeal to both sixth and eighth graders will fall by the wayside because fifth and sixth graders will join together for performing arts, socials, co-curriculars, athletics and some assemblies. Moving Forward Ultimately, the move from the lower school, although in some ways bittersweet, is a logical next step for the fifth grade and will provide students with new challenges that they are ready and eager to embrace. Exposure to technology and the internet alone have made this generation of fifth graders approach learning in a different way, according to Thompson. The infrastructure they will have in the middle school will allow them to take on new challenges in working with technology and other digital tools that will become even more important as they move further into the 21st century. More fundamentally, Thompson believes her students will benefit greatly from the fifth/sixth grade dynamic. ���Being the oldest group in the lower school is extremely special,��� says Thompson. ���They learn how to be leaders and other invaluable skills. But they also are budding adolescents who are ready for new challenges.��� Being part of the middle school ���will allow us to be more aligned with what the next step is doing. It���s forward thinking ��� We know where our students are going, and we can prepare them,��� she says. ��� Evelyne Girardet Deb Sampey 34 Latin Magazine