Dear HKMS Families,

I am early in reading a great new book about learning and parenting titled, The Disengaged Teen Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better (2025), by Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop.  The statistic that grabbed my attention reported that 74% of  children report they love school in third grade, and only 25% love school by the time they are juniors in high school.  This is not a recent effect of social media, phones, video games, or other recent trends, but a long standing and well-accepted characteristic of adolescents.  As they progress through school they generally become less and less engaged.  This weeks' amazing spelling bee was a great example of this lack of engagement.  25 students qualified for the final  competition, but only 18 accepted the invitation.  7 of those 8 who declined the invite to compete were eighth-graders.  Its likely you, as an adult, can relate and identify with this phenomenon.  As you grew up it became more challenging for you and your friends, siblings, family to be really authentically engaged in school.  Why? 

As children age they become more specialized in fewer areas, could be one reason.  The fear of failure and humiliation combined with the desire to fit in, is definitely an influence.  Anderson and Winthrop hypothesize that this is a developmental feature of a growing adolescent.  Their need for more independence in a system that increasing limits students choices and sense of agency is a great formula for disengagement.  That's always been true. Today's teens are also growing up with less free play and independence outside of school.  

So, what can we do about it? The authors propose we help students build up their "agentic engagement."  This new term for me combines agency (opportunity to make decision, have some control) with engagement (being fully present, cognitively, emotionally and socially). Agentic engagement is not a coincidence (something our kids stumbled)  but a skill that needs to be fostered and purposefully developed. One way do do this outside of school is to encourage your child to follow a passion or interest of their choosing.  Playing an instrument, skateboarding, crafting, building stuff, anything (preferably without a screen attached) that they want to follow without your encouragement or coaching. Of course, being supportive is essential, but the agency muscle needs to be developed and flexed by each individual.  You know when your child has found this when they "lose a sense of time" and are hard to pull away from doing this activity. Once developed, that skill can be transferred to other areas, including school, chores, and eventually work.  If we want our kids to be independent, able adults, we have to foster these opportunities at younger ages. 

This week at HKMS we had some great opportunities for agentic engagement.  The spelling bee was an amazing school wide event, congratulations to Nora (our champion) and all the participants for taking this opportunity to challenge their spelling skills and manage their performance anxieties.  Our eighth graders continue to develop their personal interest projects (PIPs) and music classes shifted gears to reflection on their winter concerts and starting work toward their spring performances. Sixth graders created and set New Year goals with Mrs. Terry, and seventh graders began to develop their argument essays on a topic of their choosing (that's agency).   We also included the video for the entire instrumental concert (from our go-pro cam above the stage!).  All of this and tons of amazing middle school teaching and learning in this week's newsletter! 

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Steve Clapp, Ed.D.

ILA students are about to start writing their five-paragraph argument essays.  Mr. Rogers models this essential type of writing by having students craft a claim about of rats are good or bad for our world.  They review multiple resources and work together to annotate them.  

Mr. Jockers' legendary class warm ups include the homophone game (construct a logical sentence using two or more homophones, this example was  "feat and feet") and the pun of the day! Can you figure out today's pun? "The girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I never met ______." (answer at the very bottom of the newsletter)

Creating 3-D Op-Art style rings was on the agenda for 6th grade art classes this week! 

The 2025 HKMS Spelling Bee!

Congratulations to all our contestants and to Nora our school champion!

Answer to Mr. Jockers' the pun of the day: "The girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club but I never met herbivore." Bahah!