In these challenging times for educators and students, you might be impressed to learn that the Telstar Middle School community has worked hard to make learning as seamless as possible. For sixth graders, who are new to the middle school experience, it has been especially important to the teachers to make sure that their students’ experiences are fun, and at the same time, engaging. We interviewed the 6th grade teachers to see just what it is that they do to make this happen. All in all, they report that they have been very happy with how all students are handling this weird time. Teachers discussed both their remote Rebels and their in person Rebels, stating that they have all made great efforts to normalize their classroom experiences, and that it’s “business as close to usual” for the sixth graders in spite of the pandemic!

To make learning both engaging and something to look forward to, Miss Davis’s ELA classes are studying and reading novels in groups, but in a fun new way. They use a computer program called Flipgrid. This internet based video discussion experience is simple to use and enables discussions based on a topic that classmates can engage in together. Students can send in a video of themselves talking about their novel, and classmates can then comment and chime in just like a normal book group.

At times, we have all had to go remote for Covid 19 related reasons. Ms. Killam used this opportunity in Social Studies to have her students continue learning about Ancient Egypt in a more hands on and creative way. She assigned her students with a task to create an Egyptican artifact right in their own home. Some examples of student creations were hand painted canopic jars, 3D pyramids, and one student even turned himself into a mummy!

Meanwhile, collaboration within the subject areas continues in Miss Crockett’s science classes in conjunction with Mrs. Davis’ math classes. In science, students collected volume using displacement and mass with electronic scales. They used these measurements to calculate the densities of various items. They then used that data in Math for analysis as they were introduced to a statistics unit. In this unit, they also began learning how to analyze data that connects to the real world. Even when TMS had to go remote, Mrs. Davis did not miss a beat! She had her students use a number generator to create random data to study.

Even though learning in this pandemic has been challenging, the 6th grade teachers have tried their best to create a “business as usual” experience for their students as they go through their first year of middle school. The teachers all agree that the 6th graders have done an exceptional job of navigating their learning under such challenging circumstances.

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