The four years that span Middle School are a
remarkable time in youngsters’ lives. From fifth through eighth grades -- day
to day, month to month and year to year
-- so much happens developmentally and intellectually. It is a time of both
rapid changes and careful consolidation of skills, interests, friendships and
an ever stronger sense of how to find one’s individual way within a community.
Our devoted Middle School faculty works alongside our students every step of
the way. We offer encouragement, support and challenge that are based on
knowing every child under our care. Finding the right mix of challenge and
support is a constant, nuanced focus for teachers. We link everything back in
middle school lives to supporting diversity and individuality while mediating
through a commitment to community. To be a member of the Middle School means
learning to have both an “I” and a “we” voice, respecting what is best and
unique about oneself while learning to respectfully engage with and consider
the needs of others.
Our students love coming to this school. Students
develop strong relationships with their adult mentors, are supportive of the
accomplishments of their peers and are proud of the multiple ways they
increasingly master the challenges of school
In all of our curricular work as a
middle school we are guided by essential questions that provide a clear guiding
focus for students and teachers.
Passionate engagement by students with the world of opportunities that
surrounds them in school develops a tremendous love of learning and the
opportunity to develop a clear, thoughtful and engaged sense of voice.
Berkeley Carroll students, not only
in the middle school, but through their high school experience as well, learn to listen, to research, to analyze, and
to deploy solutions for the problems, conundrums and challenges that they need
to embrace in their apprenticeship as citizens of a democracy. The art of
effective communication--learning how to give a persuasive speech, act out a
Shakespearean scene, debate the merits of a claim by an opponent, or how to
coax music out of an instrument you’ve only picked it up for the first time as
a sixth grader--supporting this drive and necessity to reach others develops
confidence and ever-deepening engagement in the academics and the arts.
Our Middle School is a busy place. One of the
great pleasures as a division director is to roam the building. I am always
struck by the school as a buzzing hive of activity--classroom to classroom, gym
to performance space, art studio to band room--over the course of a day so many
separate worlds, each unique and fascinating, embody the pleasure of
enthusiastic teaching and learning. There is no more exciting place to be than
a healthy and engaged school.