The WHMS Middle School's Project Inspiration Conference |
The Middle School teachers shared that the wide-ranging consequences of the COVID pandemic have had a huge impact on the lives of our entire Middle School community, both at school and outside of the classroom. Aside from hindering meaningful academic pursuits and the social interactions that are so important to the growth and development of young adults, the cancelation of the annual GCAP conference in New York City in October for the second year in a row was another disappointment.
In its place, the WHMS Middle School Team created a grassroots-style conference about community service and global citizenship to further engage our MS students with unique service initiatives happening in our world.
The Project Inspiration Conference was held on December 1 and 2 and featured presentations from leaders in public service and global citizenship, with topics including refugee aid initiatives, international diplomacy, local/global food insecurity, environmental concerns, and the role of volunteers in organizations like the US Peace Corps.
On Wednesday, WHMS Middle School teacher Evan Kelly discussed his experience in the Peace Corps, along with the aspects of the Peace Corp community engagement at a local and international level.
On Thursday, the class listened to six presenters, five of whom were current or former WHMS parents. Leah Penniman, co-founder and farm manager of Soul Fire Farm delivered a pre-recorded virtual keynote address entitled: “Uprooting Racism, Seeding Sovereignty,” detailing the powerful work the organization does to promote food justice using Afro-Indigenous farming and land-use practices.
Steve O’Malley shared his experiences working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in South Sudan.
Sarah Ward talked about her work with humanitarian aid organizations, refugee populations, and economic development in post-conflict zones around the world.
After a catered lunch from Sunhee’s Farm & Kitchen, a Troy restaurant and community serving traditional Korean cuisine with the goals of creating positive food culture, encouraging community engagement, and promoting immigrant/refugee empowerment, the students heard from Dr. Scott Kellogg and Dr. Stacy Pettigrew, founders of the Radix Center in Albany. Their work promotes ecological literacy and environmental stewardship with a focus on educational programs and sustainable technologies
The final speaker of the conference was Mike Saccocio, the Executive Director and CEO of the Schenectady City Mission. He discussed the goals and programs of the Schenectady City Mission as they work to meet the basic needs (food, shelter, and clothing) of struggling individuals and families as they strive to transform their lives.
The day was powerful and motivating. The teachers help that it will spur further calls to activism and engagement with the challenges facing our world.
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WHMS Annual Meeting: The State of our School
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You are invited to join us for the WHMS Annual Meeting: The State of our School on Wednesday, December 8 at 6 p.m. in the WHMS Great Room (Middle School). The meeting will be recorded and shared afterward.
Board President Tamara Gatchell, Head of School Michelle Edwards, and members of the administration team will present highlights from the last year, along with reports on our finances, enrollment, advancement, and ABAR work.
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The WHMS Fund kicked off two weeks ago. This year's Fund is supporting JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion) initiatives at Woodland Hill.
Earlier this week, Head of School Michelle Edwards filmed this video to highlight the importance of JEDI work, which can bring communities together to collaborate on complex issues that are often deeply interconnected.
To date, we have raised almost $16,000 toward our $65,000 goal. We thank all of those families who have donated or pledged to date.
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On Saturday, December 11, WHMS will be hosting a watercolor masterclass with our next FLOCKart gallery artist-in-residence, Ritvik Sharma. The class will be held in the WHMS gymnasium and run from 12:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.The cost is $20 per person. Attendees must be fully vaccinated and masked.
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FLOCKart EXHIBIT SCHEDULE
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Ritvik Sharma — Nov. 29 - Dec. 17
- Fenando Orellana (Lego robotics) — Jan. 5 - Feb. 19
- WHMS Curator Club Gallery Shows — March and April
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Liz Zunon, May 2 — June 10
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Five Facts from our Faculty |
We will profile WHMS faculty each Messenger with five facts about them. This week features Melinda Putney, who has worked at WHMS since 2018.
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I’m from Albany; born at Albany Medical Center, grew up in Delmar. My mother was a high school history teacher at the (then) Albany Academy for Girls, and so my sisters and I attended that school instead of Bethlehem Schools. Later I went to boarding school and then to Yale. After college, I waited tables in NYC and took classes with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company. My first peek at Montessori school was as an after-school dance teacher at the Montessori Family School in Manhattan.
I lived in North Carolina for 23 years, teaching in a Montessori Public school — Lower El and Upper El — and raising my two children, who are now 21 and 15.
Under my previous married name, Melinda Farbman, I’ve written two books for 9-12-year-olds (Enslow, 2000, 2001), many book reviews, and a few articles on education.
My favorite things to do during COVID lockdown were walking to and from Washington Park, working jigsaw puzzles, and teaching myself how to read tarot cards.
Aside from teaching, my favorite job was editing. I read scripts for Circle Repertory Company and manuscripts for Novello Festival Press. I love sitting with young writers and guiding them as they learn to tell the stories that live within them. My father, a very patient man, sat with me and taught me to scrub every sentence. As a result, I am happiest in writing conferences with young people, practicing patience and encouraging them to write.
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The Upper El hosted an Oxfam Hunger Banquet on the day before Thanksgiving break. The banquet provided an opportunity for the students to experience the fact that far too many humans are food insecure. The students were assigned a lunch at random, in which they were assigned a high-income (20% of the world's population), middle-income (30% of the world's population) or low-income guest (50% of the world's population). Low-income guests sat on the floor and served themselves a simple meal of rice and water. The middle-income guests sat at tables and ate rice, beans, and water. The high-income guests were seated at a decorated table and ate "fancy rice," beans, sweet potatoes, apple juice, and dessert.
The UE teachers in each class served as emcees. The Oxfam script explains the facts about food availability and access. Melinda says that the UE teachers "hope to engender gratitude for the food given to students and inspire them to support those who are less fortunate."
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Author, storyteller, cultural and wilderness educator James Bruchac gave a presentation to the Lower Elementary classes on November 19. He told stories, sang a greeting song, showed replicas of tools, molds of animal tracks, and talked about how Native Americans had many festivals to give thanks for what they had throughout the year. |
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Mac & Cheese lunch returned to WHMS after an almost two-year hiatus. The MS students cook and serve the lunch as a fundraiser for the annual class trip. They cooked 205 lunches on November 16. Their next Mac & Cheese lunch is on December 14. |
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On Friday, November 19, Sara Howard read the book Rabbit’s Snow Dance by Joseph and James Bruchac to her Lower El class.
Sara shared this story afterward:
In the book, Rabbit is very impatient for winter to start. It is summer and not the time for snow, but that doesn’t stop Rabbit. He takes out his drum and sings his snow song, “EE-OOOO, Thump! Thump! EE-OOO, Thump! Thump! Yo-yo-yo, yo-yo-yo!”
After the reading, the children went out to recess and did a snow dance, and sang Rabbit’s song. And guess what happened?! It snowed! Three students came inside and told me the temperature dropped after they sang and danced. Then as the students were coming inside at the end of recess, it began snowing.
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Cassandre and Kristen's Primary class worked on special Thanksgiving projects for their parents. |
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Middle School students are working on their 'can'struction project. On Monday, several of the 8th graders will head to Crossgates Mall to build their final sculpture which will be judged against other local Middle Schools as part of the KIDS CAN BUILD competition. |
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The South End Children's Cafe benefited from donations for a Thanksgiving basket from Cassandre and Kristen's class. |
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Jessa and Jeanne's Primary class made 40 cards that were delivered by Equinox as they brought Thanksgiving meals to those who were home alone. |
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Our Hanukkah display is in the front lobby for all of the children to see. |
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Pickleball is a favorite activity in PE class! |
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In Shania and Vinita's UE class, their math work has focused on fractions, extending from the magic zero to decimal, fraction, and percentage work. Students have been exploring the relationships between decimals, fractions, and percentages using their classroom materials. They are doing lots of work using the decimal board, which Shania reports that they all love. |
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All of the students in Melinda and Julio's Upper El class chose an animal to research. They classified them as chordate (has a backbone or spinal cord) or non-chordate, before learning about their vital functions: digestion, support, circulation, respiration, and movement. |
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Antiracism Working Group for White Parents |
At WHMS, we want all community members to know you are needed to create a more just society and school community where we build an antiracist future together.
We are on a journey to build an antiracist community, and we recognize that each of us as parenting adults has our own role to play. It is an unjust truth that racial equity work falls disproportionately to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) members of any given community. Diversity work can be a source of unintentional pain and exhaustion, ultimately creating distrust and disunity – the opposite of its purpose.
Race is a fictional construct with very real consequences that we must address for it to lose its power. Since most white adults in the United States were taught as kids to be “colorblind,” to name and talk about race can feel unfamiliar, uncomfortable, or even divisive. Yet, in order to make progress, we need to have these conversations, ideally without creating additional work for and causing additional harm to our BIPOC community members.
The Diversity Committee, at the recommendation of its BIPOC members, formed this working group to help white parents practice talking more productively about race and hold each other accountable for taking action beyond talk. See it as a training ground for allyship; a place to ask uncomfortable questions; and a space to share, receive, and process more information than can be offered in diversity meetings without holding up other antiracism work in progress. We work closely with the larger Diversity Committee as one avenue to build trust for this important journey together. Our meetings are open to all parenting adults in the WHMS community however they identify racially.
The next meeting of the Antiracism Working Group for White Parents is on Zoom on Monday, December 13.
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Student-Led Anti-Racism Workgroup Book Recommendations |
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Inside Out And Back Again By Thanhha Lai
With the horrific, recent events of the murders in Atlanta, people in Vietnam are wondering about the Asian experience in this country. This National Book Award winner and Newbery Honor Book is inspired by the author’s own experiences: leaving Vietnam, as a child, and moving to the American South. Written in verse, its beauty and insight are staggering.
Ages 9-13
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Clap When You Land
by Elizabeth Acevedo
Camina Rios lives for the summers when her father comes to the Dominican Republic to visit her. But this time, Camino arrives at an airport filled with crying people…In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office where her mother is sitting, waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has perished in a plane crash. Separated by distance, and their Papi’s secrets, the two girls are thrown into a new reality in which their father is gone, and their lives will be forever changed. And then, when it seems as though they’ve lost everything, they learn of one another…
Ages 11-13
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Priya Dreams of Marigolds and Masala
by Meenal Patel
Priya lives in the United States, but she is transported to India, where her family comes from, through her grandmother’s stories. One day, she decides to share the magic of India with her classmates. What will happen?
Ages 4-8
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Ben Ofori-Okai, Ph.D., who graduated from the Montessori School of Albany (as WHMS was then known) in 1999, recently received the prestigious 2021 Panofsky Fellowship at SLAC for his work in high energy density matter. Ben aims to study "strongly coupled materials.”
Ben is the first Black recipient of the Panofsky Fellowship.
This article about the fellowship from the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory says that "Their work helps reveal the inner workings of cells and the behavior of matter under extreme pressures and temperatures."
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