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Hershey Students Just Run!

Hershey Students Just Run!

May 30, 2023 | Featured Posts, School News | 0 comments

Hershey Montessori School wound down this year’s Just Run®  program with its last practice on Thursday, May 25, with a total of thirty-one students. The program readied students for the Just Run 5K race that was held on Saturday, May 27, in Fairport Harbor. Thirty students participated — Hershey’s biggest group ever to represent our school community.

          

         

We are grateful to Cheryl McGovern, Hershey Elementary Assistant and Outdoor & Physical Education Coordinator, for leading Hershey’s Just Run group, and to Jennifer Finan, Johan van der Wee, Lakisha Wingard, Saren Peetz, and Venus Kohler for their assistance with the program.

Pictured left to right: Lakisha Wingard, Jennifer Finan, Johan van der Wee, Venus Kohler, Cheryl McGovern

“The energy before the race was palpable and contagious!,” said Cheryl. “They kept up their energy during the race, with the first Hershey runner crossing the finish line in 30th place out of 768 runners!”

A total of four Hershey runners placed in the top 50. Eleven finished in the top 100. One Hershey runner placed in the top 10 Female Runners category, and another placed in the top 20.

“Most importantly, all who began the race crossed the finish line, with our last two crossing holding hands with smiling faces!” enthused Cheryl. “One of my favorite parts was that so many [Hershey runners and supporters] stayed around as the race was winding down that we were able to provide loud cheers for the very last runner! The young girl went from looking a little confused to wearing a broad smile as she realized the cheers were for her.

The sense of community was strong throughout the event, as a school and in our participation with the Fairport Harbor Just Run 5k community.

           

           

We congratulate all the students who took part in Just Run and extend gratitude to all the families for their support.

Just Run is a free, multifaceted youth fitness program developed by the Big Sur Marathon Foundation. It promotes fitness, healthy eating, good citizenship, and pride in accomplishment. It promotes exercise and the sport of running. Virtual runs across the USA and Europe link points of interest and geographical and historical sites, making it educational as well.

Hershey Middle Schoolers Build Computers, Experience Digital Age

Hershey Middle Schoolers Build Computers, Experience Digital Age

May 3, 2023 | Featured Posts, School News | 0 comments

In Hershey Montessori School’s Adolescent Community, studies in Humanities give adolescents the opportunity to connect with the whole of human history through integrated scholarship, including research, experiential investigation, and expression.  

This quarter, some students explored the Digital Age. Students, led by Humanities guide Nicole Lederle, first began their exploration by learning about the evolution of communication, from the invention of the printing press to today’s growing use of A.I. (artificial intelligence).

Adolescents researched the ins and outs of computer functions, creating their own presentations on selected topics involving technology and communication. 

The next step was to begin the hands-on execution of building their own computers. Students worked in teams of three to build Piper Computer models. The Piper Computer comes in a kit and is designed to give a hands-on STEM learning experience. It also provides students with the fundamentals of electronics and coding through the use of Minecraft Pi and a Scratch-like coding language.

Each model was put together like a puzzle and students got to see how the parts of the computer connect and work together. The adolescents took two class sessions to strategize, problem-solve, and build their fully functioning model. By the end of the second building session, students basked in the glory of their final product, eager to show the other Humanities class what they had accomplished.

The Piper Models consist of a wooden shell fully put together by the students, a Raspberry Pi motherboard, a screen, a small mouse, breadboards, and wiring for controls.  

Hershey middle school students engaged individually, and collaboratively, in sophisticated academic and multisensory, project-based learning. 

The hands help the development of the intellect. When a child is capable of using his hands, he can have a quantity of experiences in the environment through using them. In order to develop his consciousness, then his intellect, and then his will, he must have exercises and experiences.

Maria Montessori, The 1946 London Lectures, p. 130

Bringing lessons to life through an experiential, hands-on learning process is what truly captivates the student. Dr. Montessori knew this. Her approach to educating the whole child in this manner is what makes the Montessori method the sought-after education model families love providing for their children and adolescents.

Hershey Adolescents Undergo Suicide Prevention Training

Hershey Adolescents Undergo Suicide Prevention Training

May 1, 2023 | Featured Posts, School News | 0 comments

Mental health training professionals from the Integrated Student Supports and Prevention Services for the ESCWR (Educational Service Center of the Western Reserve) came to Hershey Montessori School’s Huntsburg Campus to lead Middle and Upper School students in QPR Training. They were impressed with the students’ openness, respectful demeanor, and thoughtful questions.

QPR stands for Question, Persuade, and Refer, and its mission is to reduce suicidal behavior and save lives by providing innovative, practical, and proven suicide prevention training. Just as people trained in CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver help save thousands of lives each year, people trained in QPR learn how to recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis and how to best help.

QPR training teaches both adults and adolescents to identify signs that other people, especially adolescents, may be at risk for attempting suicide. QPR is a nationally recognized, research-based approach to providing life-saving, short-term support and refers people to the professional help they need.

Hershey’s Huntsburg staff was fortunate enough to receive this training earlier this year and will now be able to share a common language with the adolescent students. Providing social-emotional support is not only a focal point in Montessori education but it is also a renewed commitment by school leadership and staff to ensure that every student has the support and the tools to navigate social and emotional challenges they or their friends and peers might encounter.

Through Hershey Montessori School’s close partnerships with parents, our Social-Emotional Learning program, our collaboration with mental health professionals through Family Pride of Northeast Ohio, regular student check-ins with staff advisors, and our holistic, adolescent community-centered Montessori approach, our goal is to guide and support students to recognize and respond to mental and emotional health needs for themselves and others.

For more information about the QPR student training, please visit the QPR website at: https://www.qprinstitute.com/ :

Hershey Spanish Students Volunteer to Tutor at HOLA Math Workshop

Hershey Spanish Students Volunteer to Tutor at HOLA Math Workshop

Mar 2, 2023 | School News | 0 comments

HOLA Ohio and Painesville City Schools held a bilingual math workshop titled, “Counting on a Better Future” on Feb. 22, 2023.  Approximately 30 students signed up for the program, which was designed to use gameplay to build math skills for Painesville City elementary students. As part of the project, Hershey Montessori School’s Spanish students volunteered to serve as tutors. To prepare for this community service opportunity, they had to first participate in a tutor training session.

“¡Qué experiencia tan maravillosa para los estudiantes | What a wonderful experience for the students!” stated Brooks Cavin, Hershey Middle School Director.

The free tutor program consisted of eight weekly sessions from 6 to 7:30 p.m. for students in grades K-2 and for students in grades 3-5. At each session, HOLA’s chefs provided a free dinner made for all students, parents, families, volunteers, and staff. During the workshop, HOLA also provided a wrap-around component and met with parents to assess and provide services or resources to support any household needs.

“Part of my main goals with the [HOLA] community center was to create a culture of learning in the Hispanic community and improve educational outcomes,” said HOLA Ohio Executive Director Veronica Dahlberg.

Addressing the need for math skills, Painesville City Schools Director of Teaching and Learning Wendy Camper explained, “As much as we are all focused on literacy and improving literacy skills – we’ve really seen – since COVID – a massive decline in basic math skills, which is leading to significant challenges as the children move up [through the grades].”

Hershey students had fun while serving as volunteer tutors and helping the students with their math skills while playing the games. Math skills are rooted in gameplay and are a fun way to learn.  Some of the skills taught include: taking turns, strategizing, rotating, counting, logic, telling time, problem-solving, and developing fine motor skills.

During the event, HOLA also provided a wrap-around component and met with parents to assess and provide services or resources to support any household needs.

Hershey Montessori School looks forward to deepening its community connections with HOLA and the community service this relationship provides for its international and domestic students.

Middle School Students Thrive with Hershey’s Integrated Academics

Middle School Students Thrive with Hershey’s Integrated Academics

Feb 28, 2023 | Featured Posts, School News | 0 comments

Students Excel with Experiential Learning, Using a Global View, Whole Systems Approach

Nicole Lederle, Middle School Guide

It started in the classroom and then continued in the woodshop, where collaboration met conceptualization, which ultimately led students to a new marketable product.

Nicole Lederle, leading Hershey middle schooler’s Industrial Revolution Humanities class, invited collaboration with Sean Wheeler, Hershey’s Woodshop Manager.

Students were assigned readings about the historical context surrounding production in the late 19th century, including an analysis of quantity vs. quality with cottage industries and factory production, noting related working conditions for minors and adults. Nicole wanted students to have a sensorial experience of a working assembly line. Sean proposed a wooden cell phone amplifier for a case study.

After a thorough safety orientation, students took detailed observation notes in the Program Barn as Sean made a single amplifier as a craftsperson would. The process required seven different power tools and the application of polish to reveal the wood’s rich, cherry color. Students were trained at different workstations in the following class, and in a future class, they will run a real assembly line, including counting how many amplifiers can be produced in the time it took a craftsperson to make just one while working alone.

Additionally, the middle school Humanities class seamlessly linked to the campus Microeconomy program, a cornerstone of Montessori education, which is structured to provide adolescents with purposeful opportunities to participate in and manage small business endeavors in order to grow through the personal experience of economic activity. Students were tasked with conducting a cost analysis.

Student-crafted wooden phone amplifiers

They learned that the phone amplifier’s raw materials cost about $5 per unit. Each finished cell phone amplifier sells for approximately $30 at market.

After playing music 30% louder than the phone’s unaided speaker, Sean measured a flat board that had been milled from a felled tree on the school’s campus. Each board was long enough to make just over four amplifiers. Stacking the boards, he counted by increments of $120 as students’ eyes widened: “$120, $240, $360, $480, $600…”

As adolescents use their brains and hands, working and growing in responsibility, they gain respect for the value of labor and learn that they, too, are capable of it.

Dr. Maria Montessori advised that educators should not give more to the brain than we give to the hand, and Hershey’s middle school guides are doing an incredible job balancing that, while creating a collaborated, whole systems, experiential approach for their students.