GMS Principal's Corner
Sarah Shannon
GMS STEAM WEEK... Arriving Soon!
Our job as educators is to provide students with a different experience, one that meets the needs of a 21st century learner. Changing the student experience will take time and we must start the work now. At the Galvin, we are starting this shift by introducing our students and staff to STEAM Week, the week of October 21 - 25, when every student and staff member will be engaged in an immersive program that transforms Galvin into a STEAM Learning Lab. During this week, regularly scheduled course periods will be dedicated to hands-on, interdisciplinary curriculum that asks teachers and students to work in teams to solve real-world problems encourages critical thinking and collaboration as teaching techniques to engage and inspire students. (i2learning.org)
Over the course of the week, 6th grade students will be building lunar colonies and answering the question "If humans continue to deplete resources on planet Earth, will there come a time when we need to create a settlement somewhere else in our solar system?" Seventh graders will be "introduced to key concepts and skills of kinetic sculpture, including balance, gearing, energy sources and design-oriented thinking". Eighth graders will discover what it's like to be a physician and a surgeon as they "investigate how the body works by participating in a range of hands-on activities such as dissections, simulated surgeries and practicing the type of problem-bases learning taught in medical schools."
At the Galvin, we are very excited to embark upon this STEAM experience. Our teachers have been preparing for this week and are excited to provide a learning experience that is truly interdisciplinary, problem-based, hands-on and relevant. We know that our students will gain content knowledge over the course of the week as the units are based on grade-level state standards. Equally as important, your children will gain insight into the value of design thinking, trial and error and perseverance. In addition, we anticipate that this STEAM experience will help us develop community in our teams as well as the develop a school climate where each person feels like they belong. The survey data we gathered from last year's Student Speak Up Survey revealed that students want experiences like these and we can't wait to be able to provide this one for them.
We think this week is going to be awesome and we want to share it with you. Parents, guardians and caregivers, are invited to participate in the experience as well. On Friday, October 25 we will host a presentations of learning. We hope that you will be able to visit us to walk through the school to see the work that students did throughout the week and to talk with students about their products, learning and experiences. We invite you to visit the 6th grade projects from 11:15 - 12:00 and 7th & 8th grade projects from 12:45 - 1:30. Presentations will be informal. You will not need to stay for the entire time and are welcome to travel through when you arrive, ask questions, learn and leave when you are ready. We do ask that you wrap up your time with us at either 12:00 or 1:30 to make space in our parking lot for our new group or the busses and to allow for teachers and students to have time at the end of the day to debrief their week and to clean up.
We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of STEAM week and can't wait to share it with you. We hope that this will be the first of many learning opportunities that pique you child's curiosity, build their excitement for learning, and allow them to engage with the world in authentic and rich ways.
Eighth Grade Trip
Over the next two weeks, we will be visiting with 8th grade students to share more details about the trip and to get their input on some itinerary details. As decisions need to be made, we will keep in communication with you as well. This includes keeping you up-to-date on what the roommate process will be and when that will happen. Choosing roommates is one of the hardest parts of the trip and can often cause worry and stress in our students. For this reason, we will be looking at our roommate selection process and will be inviting students into that conversation. My advice to you as parents guiding this process is to remind your child that we won't actually be asking students to engage in the roommate selection process until the spring and to reach out to Ashley Caron, 8th grade guidance, for assistance if your child is feeling anxious about finding roommates or if he/she/they think that they'd rather not attend than choose a roommate.
8th Grade Trip Fundraising Committee
As a result of the 8th grade trip committee, we are starting a fundraising committee to (1) offset the cost of the trip for all families and (2) to raise money for scholarships. This committee will meet for the first time on Monday, October 28 @ 6:30pm in the GMS Library. We hope that families from all three grades will join us as the funds raised by this committee will be used for this and future trips. Please reach out to Jim Spillane with any questions regarding this committee.
If you have any other questions regarding this year's 8th grade trip, please contact either Sarah Shannon or Jim Spillane.