Thank you to the many families and staff that attended the 7th grade parents night, the various team breakfasts this week, and the 6th grade BBQ on Saturday. So much teacher work goes into these events that it is gratifying that our community comes out to participate. While there is a lot to do in the Deal universe, we try mightily to avoid scheduling events just for the sake of having them. Who has time for that? The goal of our planning is to determine what is needed and then do the best job providing that. 

This  past week saw some very fun events at Deal. Our final Hemlock trip was concluded with the weather mostly cooperating. These are just great fun for students and staff and we look forward to these a year in advance. Mr. Zhi, our excellent Chinese teacher, secured a Wu Shu Team performance from the Tianjin Institute of Technology for our 6th grade on Thursday. The skills and determination on display were impressive. At the conclusion, Deal was presented with a plaque from the Confucius Institute identifying the school as a "Confucius Classroom" and providing Deal with more than $10,000 in Chinese instructional resources. 

This week we are looking forward to our student's first Spirit Week. With a school of our size, it is essential that we build smaller communities so that students can connect - thus our emphasis on clubs, activities, Viking Time, and sports. Spirit Week gives our students a chance to unite around the idea of supporting participants in our fall activities. It is kind of goofy and fun, so very appropriate at the middle school level!

We are still putting together a master list of clubs; I will get this posted on the website by the end of the week. Our Period 8 offerings will start up in a few weeks and I will tell you about these as we get closer; they are like clubs but do have more of a commitment to them. Cooking club hasn't been able to find a partner since Whole Foods had to reduce their presence at Deal, but the teachers and I haven't given up. One new activity starting up is a Strings Ensemble. We didn't have someone who could lead such an ensemble when the year started; on Thursday at 6:00 at Deal interested families can meet our new Strings leader (special thanks to the ADCA for helping make this a reality!). There are proposals for nature clubs and sporting activities that aren't yet on the calendar; we are working to match up teachers with these as well.

If you didn't know by now, Deal teachers take their curriculum very seriously. With the IB program, there is greater expectation on teachers that they will write and implement curriculum; this is an added challenge to the work of the teacher. I hope you are as aware as I am of how knowledgeable and prepared our teachers are for this type of work; they take seriously the need to create a rigorous and caring environment for your children. In order to share this work with families, we have a number of smaller events. On Thursday, for example, 8th grade Team Suva held a meeting to explain the new IB Community Project they are piloting for 2015-16. There is a National History Day evening coming up on October 28 for 8th grade parents. These are great ways to understand what is happening and to probe a bit deeper.