Coupla Things v5 (9/20/13)
Post date: Sep 21, 2013 7:32:47 AM
Hello and Happy Friday!
Greetings from the waterfront of the SF Bay. I drove up here this afternoon in order to scout out more/better routes for our CalCoast Walkabout. An evening exploring the lakes and trails of Golden Gate Park and then a fantastic sunset along the Lands End trail kept me here late, so I decided to join some friends and stay overnight at Fort Mason so that I can be here to watch more of the America's Cup races tomorrow!
It has been one day short of a month since school started. Even in that short time, I feel fairly connected to this group of kids and some of their families. I'm excited about the places that our time together will take us and the routes we will likely use to get there (literally and metaphorically). There have been some bumpy parts as we (the kids and I) negotiate our assumptions about and expectations of each other and 7th grade, but the cohesion outweighs the discord and I see some excellent progress for all of us. The school year goes by quickly and not one of our days together should ever be wasted or taken for granted.
Behavior Issue Again: I was at home on Monday and the substitute had quite a hard time keeping much of the class productive and behaving maturely. When I returned on Tuesday I was admittedly upset but determined to use the situation as a learning experience. After a bit of probing and demanding a candid conversation, we had a good class discussion about the specifics of the situations and I was encouraged by the honesty and self-expressed culpability of most of them. As I've said before, I have very lofty expectations for this class and they apply even more so when it comes to behavior in situations like a sub in the room. As it turns out, Mrs. Tulloch (the sub) will use the interactions as a learning experience and has volunteered to come help out a bit in the class in order to see how things run "normally" and get to know the kids a bit better. As for me, I will continue to invest in improvement in their self-regulation by increasing rather than decreasing their exposure to opportunities for autonomy and accountability.
Science:
The First Science Unit Ends: Since the beginning of school, most of our attention in science has been focused on learning how science does its job and experiencing the attributes and benefits of good experimental design. This week the kids got some practice with tools for measuring mass and volume. Many felt challenged by a homework assignment that involves reading various scales and discerning the appropriate degree of accuracy. I glanced through the ones that they turned in and it seems apparent to me that I have a "bi-modal" group -- There are some kids that invest great effort and thought into an activity like this, and others that give it only cursory attention, planning, and execution. Not much middle ground with this group so far, and I'm hoping to push each kid into a different level of personal challenge.
Fall Simple Experiments: Almost all of the students have gotten one of their project proposals approved by me which gives them the go-ahead to start a materials list, procedure, and data collection plan with me next week. Most of these actual experiments will take place at/near home and I'm really looking forward to hearing how things went and how the data comes out. You can monitor their progress (please) via the "control sheet" that they should have already created and filled in.
English:
At the beginning of the week we wound up the Reader Profile assignment and launched into their first thesis-support essay via a fairly sneaky and circuitous route. In fairly short bursts we watched "How To Train Your Dragon" and the kids wrote down a set of messages that they felt the story contained, and then also wrote down a bunch of "yeah, like when.... " statements for each of the four themes they were tracking. The Wordy Wednesday routine continued as usual and next week I'll be collecting their comp books in order to score their first 5 sets of entries. My hope is that the 20 words contained in those pages will become a part of the students' operational vocabulary. Lastly, there was an assignment that taught about the proper use of apostrophes in a variety of situations.
Social Studies
This week marked the beginning of the student led current events sessions. Some of the students came in very well prepared and engaged their groups in excellent discussions for all of the 10 minute session. Others didn't have anything prepared and so their group had to just waste the time and opportunity. To me, little is more crucial in social studies than the creation of an informed and engaged youth who can understand and shape their quickly-changing world. I will not lighten my expectations based on the lack of performance by some kids -- instead I intend to simply move forward with those that being diligent and responsible.
This actual history topic was "Life in Medieval Towns". The students seemed to really understand why the urban life arose and what opportunities and challenges it offered. They did another "each one teach one" session one day and took my quiz thereafter. Again, for some the scores aren't great and yet I know that they are beginning to understand the level of communication and accountability between students is necessary in this jigsaw type of collaborative process. I'm confident that Monday's chapter 4 quiz scores will be much higher.
Lastly, in geography, I had the kids explore MapMaker Interactive and/or Google's World Wonders Project and learn what amazing things can be seen and done with those sites.
General: I am sorry that some parts of this newsletter and the previous one have been uncharacteristically critical of student behavior. Although I do prefer to focus on the many (many!) positive attributes and achievements of this group, I also know that much maturity and high-level learning is waiting in the wings and without the irritant of interruptions, repeated (!!!) instructions, and lapses in self-control, this class will know no bounds.
Upcoming Events:
September 30: Beginning of parent work shifts in the classroom.
September 30: Walkabout donation "due" (payable online... instructions are given at the bottom of this page)
October 8, 9, 10: Cal Coast Walkabout (we need one more driver to take 5 kids)
October 11: No school, staff learning day
October 21-25: Goal setting conferences (early release day)