Many in our community had the opportunity to view some, or all, of the Inauguration proceedings on Wednesday, January 20, 2021. It was a rich experience, filled with history, symbolism and inspiration. We would like to share how our Middle School teachers brought this event into their classrooms, in their own words...

"In the sixth grade, we were aware of the inauguration, but we did not watch it. On Thursday, I showed the students Amanda Gorman’s performance of her amazing poem while we were quietly eating lunch. We discussed word choices and what parts we liked. All were impressed! As part of our Cyber Civics class, we discussed the events of the previous week in more detail—the storming of the Capitol, electoral votes, etc." –Liz Reading

"While our seventh graders listened to the swearing in ceremony on the radio, they responded to some the announcements they heard, such as "please rise as you are able." I believe they truly participated because they had to rely on their sense of hearing alone. We turned off the radio after the actual swearing in, which was accompanied by applause in my class. On Thursday, I shared the transcript of Amanda Gorman’s poem and we read and discussed it together. We were also finding references to Hamilton, and This Land is Your Land in her poem. The class is currently writing a poem themselves in which they are trying to send a message to other young people (a la Amanda Gorman). I can't wait to read what they come up with! We also talked about the power that social media platforms have on influencing people’s opinions. We linked that to Terms of Service of these platforms with regard to the Cyber Civics lessons.” –Jeanette Voss

"The theme of the eighth grade year is Revolutions, so we have been paying close attention to current events all year. We watched the results of the election as it unfolded in slow motion. We talked about the meaning of a free and fair election, and what happened on January 6th with an insurrection interrupting the certification of the election. Yesterday, we watched the Inauguration. Some of our favorite bits from the proceedings were the historic significance of Kamala Harris as a female VP of color, the theme of unity that we could hear in Biden's speech, and the visionary poem by Amanda Gorman. We are also hearing about the French Revolution at the same time, so we have an interesting counterpoint to the American tradition of a democracy with a peaceful transfer of power." –Lauren Smith