It’s a Tuesday afternoon and the students of Arthur Morgan School are having free time. They are skateboarding on the slab, working in the pottery studio, or playing board games in the meeting room. It’s a very different scene from many other middle schools today because one activity is missing: none of these teenagers are […]
At Arthur Morgan School, we believe heavily in Maria Montessori’s vision for education, we strive to make our classes interdisciplinary. In one math class, we integrated our study of linear relationships with the U.S.’s incarceration rates amongst different races. In another, students studied the planets of our solar system while they learned about scale. Many […]
Middle school sometimes gets a bad rap. Dealing with young adolescents’ unpredictable emotions and behaviors is hard. It makes us forget that middle school is also a lot of fun. Learning evolves into something bigger during this age. Instead of just memorizing multiplication tables or vocabulary terms, middle schoolers also want to ponder larger concepts. […]
Every spring the middle schoolers of Arthur Morgan School embark on 18 day long field trips. The trips are the culmination of a five week academic unit in which the students have learned about a specific topic. Sometimes these topics are science based. Other times they are social studies or art based. This year we are […]
Two years ago while on an 18 days field trip to Florida, a group of our students visited a city council meeting . On the agenda was addressing the disappearing coastline. To some, a city council meeting might seem boring, but our students were fascinated. They watched the adults in the room talk about how […]
The theme of one our three 18 day field trips this year is teaching about forced migrations. In the course preparing for the trip, we will focus on the push/pull factors that have driven three important mass movements of people: the Trail of Tears; the post-Reconstruction “Great Migration” of Black Americans and today’s humanitarian crisis […]
Middle schoolers don’t always appreciate learning history. Although they tend to be very curious, they are also at an age where they are more socially motivated than academically. They want to engage with their community and prove their worth to other people. In this context, learning historical facts and figures can feel obsolete. However, once […]
Technology is a complicated issue for many teachers. Educational apps, documentaries, and podcasts, provide valuable and fun learning experiences. However, the frequent use of technology often leads to less interaction between students and may causes a reliance on computers. Just ask any middle school math teacher. The calculator, the most basic form of technology, causes […]
There is no question that field trips offer wonderful educational opportunities. Being able to interact with professionals doing actual work allows students to see the real world applications of what they learn in the classroom. They become inspired and see actual evidence of what they can achieve if they work hard and apply themselves. A lot […]
Up until middle school, students understand how math is relevant. Combining numbers, multiplying fractions or calculating the area of a shape are skills that students understand will help them make sense of the real world. But walk into most middle school algebra classes, and you will invariably hear the question, “When am I ever going to […]