Coupla Things wk16 (12/10/17)

Post date: Dec 11, 2017 12:28:40 AM

Dear Parents,

Sorry for the late email. I took Olivia and 10 friends to SF for the weekend for her birthday and came home a few hours ago then promptly napped for the past few hours. The beautiful and fun-filled days continue this winter! Below are four quick topics:

1. Angel Island: Tomorrow afternoon the kids go to Bonnie for preliminary training in preparation for their time as Union soldiers manning their post at Camp Reynolds, Angel Island. The kids and our 5 chaperones (Diane, Stella, Marie, Bharath, and Andrea) will learn a lot and experience even more during their 24 hours defending the fort in the mid 1800s. Kids, please bring a white(ish) t-shirt to school tomorrow, and parents (and kids), please make sure that the required forms and payment (or arrangements) have been made.

2. Physics: For the past few weeks the kids have been learning about the interactions of objects. This coming week we'll get into Newton's laws and the next few sections after that get into the forces involved with fluids. The nightly reading and daily quiz process seems to be going well for most of the kids, and the daily discussions and interspersed activities/labs are hopefully effective for everyone.

3. Buddy Class Games: During our time with the 5th graders of room 15, our kids came up with 5 games that they organized and ran during quick rotations this past Wednesday. I was impressed by the way they hosted the activities and modified them as needed to keep all of the kids engaged and having a good time.

4. Interest-Driven Knowledge: This whole "find something that really (!) interests you and dive into it deeply" idea has been very interesting to watch and discuss. All of the kids have chosen their topics and most are really embracing the "no bounds or external parameters" aspect of this thing and pursuing it with complete autonomy and internal motivation. When I get asked questions like "is this good enough", I can only reflect back to them that the topic (and process) should be one that continually beckons them to learn/do more -- their initial investigations questions should lead to as many new questions as answers.

Calendar

-December 13-14: Angel Island "Living History" overnight with Bonnie

-December 22 (Friday): Class party and early release day

-December 23 - January 14: Winter break

-January 24 (Wednesday): 8th Grade Panoramic Photo

-January 26 (Friday): End of first semester

Student Article: Elizabeth on Writing A Book

-Writing a Book-

Writing with another person is a lot easier than writing individually, especially when we both bring different things to the book. Emma is really good at moving the plot forward, while I tend to add more detail. When we come up with a plot, it really helps to add on top of each other's ideas. Together we really balance each other out. One thing I really like about writing together is that it makes sharing it easier.

It was about the middle of the school year, in seventh grade, when Emma and I had the idea for our first book. The book definitely leaned towards fantasy, and had many backstories to develop the characters. Mrs. Sindelar was a great help in planning out the plot. Even with her advice, we were overwhelmed by the complicated plot, and writing a series. Maybe the prospect of writing three books before the story we really wanted to tell could be fully told. Another problem, was that, looking back on it, I feel like we overworked the plot. I still love the plot, and we do plan to come back to it someday.

The book Emma and I are currently working on will be a single book, which makes it feel more manageable. When we began, we both wanted to write a mystery. As we texted about it, we formed an outline of a plot. The problem was, neither of us could think of a motive for the perpetrator. Turns out, the original lack of motive was what made the story. It sparked the idea of writing the book from three different perspectives.

The first perspective is the sister of the victim, Sophea. She is desperate to find out how killed her brother, Tom, so she attempts to find the culprit. Our second perspective is the detective, Shep, who himself was close to the victim. The third perspective is flashbacks; It’s told from Tom’s perspective, when he was alive. It goes through the story and emotion leading up to his murder. In addition to adding depth to the story, having multiple perspectives has made it much easier for both Emma and I to write at the same time. Emma can be working on a chapter, and I could be working on something three chapters behind her.

Probably the worst part about writing is the criticism. We have one quote at the top of our document, “So you’re writing Romeo and Juliet, but bad?” from one of our classmates. Maybe two thirds of the time the criticism is really helpful, the other third is just rude. Someone said, “You can’t polish a turd.” referring to our writing. We just laughed, until tears were streaming down our faces. Personally, I don’t think it was that bad, though in retrospect, it probably wasn’t the best idea to put three questions in a row. In my opinion the worst criticism is when people don’t like what you really like about your writing. I suppose my opinion on criticism is either it is helpful feedback, or it’s just mean and you laugh at it, and brush it off.

We still are not done with the first draft of our current book, and hope to make several more. So far, the book is completely unedited, and there are probably a ridiculous amount of grammar errors. When we do finish a draft, we’ll probably print a few copies, and share it with our families. In the long run, our plan for the book is to complete do at least one draft, the current one has some plot changes that need to be made. Eventually, it would be amazing to possibly get it published, but that’s a big aspiration.

Here is a link to the prologue of the book, it is mostly unedited accept for grammar and spelling.