Parents! This is a new site for the 2022-2023 year. This page is meant to give you a glimpse into our classroom to get a feel for our teaching styles and the curriculum. All daily assignments for the students will be in Google Classroom, not here. Thank you for visiting.
Mrs. Laurie Hewitt
English Language Arts
Middle School- Let's do this!
ELA novels and short stories anthology
READING, READING, READING!
Helping students find their voices through all three types of writing: informational, opinion, and narrative
Throughout the year, I schedule time in the spacious MSMS library for learning. It has floor to ceiling windows, cozy seating, and ample tables. Another favorite spot for escape are the long glass corridors, with the natural light spilling though the windows. In the spring, I love to take the classes outside for reading, plays, and speeches.
Breaking up the routine, these days feel like mini field trips.
One of our favorite ways to teach is to incorporate movement in the room. Whether it is moving to the back heater to read a book, book "tastings," acting out scenes from a novel, or using a Simon Says style game to review reading and writing tips. How can we do this in 2021-2022 safely? We know for sure that some of our best activities and lessons the students said were most memorable, happened to be the ones we changed by incorporating movement and creativity? Learning needs movement and FUN! We promise to try our absolute best to do this.
(I have PTSD from previous years...please may we never have to do this again).
The Kindness Project started several years ago for a way to spread happiness, teach the students to see the best in each other and themselves. It is a confidence booster. While one student sits in the "hot seat," other students write kind messages in Expo markers. The look on the student faces for the reveal of messages from classmates is priceless. It visibly improves everyone's mood.
One reason we love teaching Literature is how we can learn to be a better person by experiencing someone else's viewpoint.
Reading by the "fire."
Group work- The best way to learn is with each other...whether in the same shared space, or group texts, and check-ins. Find your study buddies. Push each other to understand and grow, especially when you feel confused.
Collaborated with the Tech Ed. teacher...students used the 3D printer to design a collar for Bandy, the main character's dog and our class Mascot while we read "Zane and the Hurricane."
QUICK FACTS
-TEACHING middle school 18 years
-3 kids of my own
-Favorite place- the beach, Ocean Park, Maine
-Orders too much from Amazon Prime
-Takes too many pictures of my kids and nieces and nephews
Somedays I feel like the best mom and teacher, and others...I feel like the just "okayest" at both. Parent and students, give yourself the grace to learn there is more than one way to do something. There's always room for improvement and growth. I have three of my own children at home, and they all have very different personalities and learning styles. When I first became a mom, I thought I would be sooo good at it. Wrong! My own kids keep me guessing every day. We are not magicians. We teachers are regular people too. We do the daily dance of trying to keep everyone happy and healthy with a balance of discipline, fun, and patience. Thank you for all you have tirelessly done for your children during the pandemic. I am very proud of how resilient the kids are and what they learned among all the chaos!
Growing up, I always wanted to be a teacher. I vividly remember sitting in literature class, watching my 7th grade teacher and wishing I could be just like her. Mrs. Asquith started my love for reading. My other source of inspiration was my father, the man, the myth the legend, Neil Lusas. He worked at MSMS as a teacher and administrator for over 40 years. Some of you maybe even had him as a teacher. Do you fee old now? I feel old.
I love kids! I have 3 of my own. Families parties, I am the aunt that is in the middle of the group, doing piggy backs, coordinating games, helping keep the kids in line....yet also and making them a little too loud.
The first spring of the pandemic when I was at home with my husband and kids, going months without seeing my students and my own nieces and nephews (that live in the same town were the most difficult months of my life). I remember the first time in the backyard when my kids were playing with their cousins after being a part for so long. In that moment with the sounds of their laughter in the air, I realized that the sound of kids playing and laughing is the best sound in the world. This is also true when my middle school kids learn and laugh together in the classroom.
The start of the 2022 school year already feels and look much more normal. I am both relived and excited that middle school students are in a full classroom, can travel to specials all over the building, have lockers, and go to the cafe as a full grade! Please, please stay positive with how you talk about teachers and schools in front of your children. The only way the show works is if we have trust in each other.
As students, parents, teachers, citizens... We are all balancing a lot of worries with this new way of living and learning. The only way to go now is forward from the pandemic, and help the kids recover as many skills we can.
Let's hope that we can fill in the gaps and and experience education as it is meant to be one day again. I feel like instead of going "back to school" we are going forward. After surviving the last two years as an educator and parent...I know we can handle any obstacles that come our way with grace, understanding, and humor.
~Mrs. Hewitt
My family...My husband, Scott is a Graphics teacher and lacrosse coach at Shawsheen Tech. in Billerica.
My oldest daughter, Lucy (age 11, Grade 5)
My wild-child middie and mini-me, Juliette (age 8, Grade 3)
and my "baby" boy Jack (age 5, Kindergarten)
Mrs. Hewitt and Miss Brosnan- co teachers
