Upper School faculty members are so excited for students to be back in the building tomorrow morning! We’ve been working hard to prepare a fun start to the school year.

Model United Nations

Upper School is moving into its second year of offering Model United Nations as an elective for students. High school students were invited to participate this year, as well, and teachers are excited to have their leadership in the classroom. The class will be team taught by Ms. Courtney Brown, Mrs. Michelle Brown, Mr. Powers, and Mrs. Smith. Teachers met last Wednesday morning to begin collaborating and worked to plan the first month’s unit: debate. Teachers will model proper and improper debate techniques before asking students to choose an issue they would like to debate. 

History & Language Arts Integration

Mrs. Smith and Ms. Courtney Brown have been discussing ways to better integrate and align course content between history and language arts in Upper School. To begin the school year, middle and high school students will be taking field trips to the Library Center to learn more about the resources that are available to be utilized. This will be especially beneficial to high school students enrolled in Missouri and Local History, as the library has an extensive local collection. 

Before School Conferences

Upper School teachers met as a team with individual sixth grade families this year on August 8th and 9th. Led by Señora Leighninger, these conferences enabled families who are new to the Upper School to meet their students’ teachers, ask questions about middle school, choose a locker (which is the highlight for students), and review their schedules and goals. 

On August 12th and 13th, Upper School conferences continued with the other grades.  Seventh grade conferences were led by mentors Rob Powers and Michelle Brown, eighth grade conferences were led by Emma Smith, and high school conferences were led by Becky Breckner and Courtney Brown. Upper School also saw a good turnout for Meet the Teacher, where students spent a fair amount of time working on their lockers.