Week 11
As a child, I remember school as something you wanted to be good at and do well in, but I don’t remember school being a place where we regularly left the classroom and engaged with anything real in the world around us. As an early teacher, I thought that a room full of engaged students meant that they were paying attention and doing their work. Over the past couple of decades as an educator, I have learned that engaged might be loud, engaged might appear disjointed, engaged might look messy. What I have mostly learned is that engaged might not look like how we expect learning to look and what they are learning might not be obvious. As we have hit that beautiful flow of learning in the fall when fieldwork is in full effect and students are deep into their project studies, I have been going into classes asking what does it really mean to engage learners? It means African drumming lessons in Dance, building benches in Math, hosting a pie-eating project to raise funds for a fall festival in Advisory, and dry ice experiments in Science. It means that parents prompt fieldwork at Herring Run Park and drive kids to the National Museum of the American Indian in DC. And this is all within this past week! I’m only describing a few of the many other engaged learning activities in all of the classes! When you sit around the dinner table in the evenings, instead of asking your child, “How was school today?” Ask your child, “What did you do today?” You might find you get a very different set of answers.
Happy Week 11, all!
~Shyla.
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Maryland Voted YES to Question 1!
A Message from our Director of Family Participation
Did you know that you can count time spent at Parent-Teacher Conferences toward Family Participation hours? You can! Click here to log Your Family Participation Hours! As we approach the end of the first trimester, 14 families have recorded more than 13 hours of participation, well on track to complete their 40 hours required for the year. Way to go! Not sure how many hours you’ve completed? There’s a new button on the website to request your tally : http://cityneighborshamilton.
Arts Showcase: How you can help!
We are entering our 11th week of school, and are excited at the prospect of sharing what we have learned so far with you! On Thursday, December 6th you are cordially invited to our Arts Showcase from 6:30-8 PM. On the chart below, you will find what your children have been studying in class, and what we need in order to support the plans for our performance. Please email me at bmason-campbell@cityneighborshamilton.org if you have any questions or if you are able to volunteer. Thank you!
~Ms. Breai
| Grade | Description | Supports/Donations needed for December 6th | Parent Volunteer Opportunities |
| 1 | African Dance– Students learn geography of Africa, discuss, observe and participate in elements of culture through dance, and consider the timeline of African-American culture, beginning on the African continent |
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| 2 | Breaking– Students learn about the birth of hip-hop, and how Breaking played a role in resolving conflict between groups of young people from different neighborhoods. They will learn about the first recordings of Hip-Hop music and how that contributed to the spread of the culture. |
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| 3 | East Coast Swing– Students learn about the practice of segregation in American society and the role that rock and roll music and dance played in uniting communities. |
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| 4 | Vernacular Jazz– Students will learn about the movement of jazz from New Orleans to Harlem, by way of the Chitterling Circuit, vaudeville shows and minstrel shows. Baltimore’s Pennsylvania Avenue as a locus of jazz culture will be central to this study. The Great Migration will be evaluated. |
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| 5 | Locking– Students will discuss the Civil Rights Movement and analyze the role that Soul Train played in supporting Black culture. |
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Does Your Company Contribute to the United Way Campaign(or Combined Charities Campaign)?
Open House Dates Set for City Neighbors High School! |
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Did you know City Neighbors Hamilton is a registered Charity with United Way of Central Maryland? Follow the company directions to access your United Way Campaign. When selecting where your funds are to go, select “Direct Gift through United Way of Central Maryland.” Search for City Neighbors Hamilton or use code 43909. Thank you!
 Policy Review: Birthdays
Birthdays are special occasions for young children. Please check with your child’s teacher before bringing a special snack to share with the class, so the teacher can plan accordingly. Because some students may have food allergies or dietary restrictions, please do not distribute snacks to students without the guidance of the teacher. If you plan on distributing invitations to a celebration, please make sure that everyone receives an invitation. If you are planning to distribute invitations selectively, please do so outside of school grounds, i.e., via email or snail mail. |
Calendar Change: Arts Showcase to Replace Winter Arts Festival, December 6 (NEW DATE) Instead of hosting one Winter Arts Festival in December, Ms. Cohen (Visual Art) and Ms. Breai (Performing Arts) will be presenting an Arts Showcase at the end of each trimester! The first trimester’s Arts Showcase will be held on December 6, 6:30-8:00 PM. In order to align with the end of the first trimester, we are moving the Arts Showcase to December 6. Mark your calendars! Remember, this event replaces the Winter Arts Festival on the calendar for December 13. |
City Neighbors High School Interns at CNH
We are excited to welcome an intern, Kyelle, from City Neighbors High School! She will be working with Lauren Clements in the Culture of Care center on Wednesdays. Kyelle aspires to become a social worker and this internship will provide her the opportunity to see some aspects involved in being a school social worker. Kyelle would like to mentor some students, so she will be involved in some lunch bunch groups and possibly with some classroom activities. She will also assist once a week with Ms. Clements’ advisory. We are still working to find other opportunities within the school to make this an impactful and fulfilling internship for Kyelle. She is very excited to bring some of her ideas to CNH and we know she is going to be a great asset to our school community! We have a team of other interns helping out in our elementary classrooms, just as we have had in the past. It is a wonderful opportunity for our young people to get to know some of the high schoolers in the same building! We will be sure to share updates on the good work they do in our classrooms. Enrollment 2019-2020
8th Annual Progressive Education Summit Registration is Open!
The Progressive Education Summit brings together hundreds of educators from around the region and the country to share best practices, work with great educational thinkers and practitioners, connect with other educators, and work to bring alive the child-centered, democratic ideals of progressive education. This year, we welcome David Sobel, author of Place-based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities, as our Keynote Speaker. And, as we consider how to use our place as the context for learning, we introduce new Summit experiences, including a Baltimore Storyteller series and a Baltimore Resource Fair. Of course, the day will still have great workshops, complimentary breakfast and lunch, master classes and the wine and cheese reception at the end of the day.
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We are currently accepting enrollment applications for 2019-2020. If you wish to enroll a sibling of a current CNH student, you MUST submit an application by 
The Summit will take place on Saturday, January 26 at the City Neighbors Hamilton campus from 8:30 – 3:45, including breakfast and a wine and cheese reception to cap off the day. As you know, we offer all of this free! Register