Coupla Things v33 (5/6/11)
Post date: May 07, 2011 6:36:22 AM
A true "village effort" made this week happen! The math team and Ms. Devine took care of organizing the STAR testing, the Spanish teacher put on an afternoon CInco de Mayo assembly, the staff got together to celebrate two upcoming births, a student brought in an article on mag-lev trains that fit perfectly into our lesson, and parents helped get materials for lessons and present them, as well as (most importantly) shopped for the groceries needed to have yet another "feed-me Friday". Nothing says 'community' quite like food, song, and conquering standardized tests. :)
English:
The student copies of the mystery books they've chosen are trickling in slowly so I'd like to urge you to get a copy by Tuesday so our book clubs can hit the ground running on Tuesday.
To get into the mood of the mystery genre and hone our sleuthing skills, we watched the recent Sherlock Holmes movie and answered some questions that I wrote to best put the movie to an academic purpose.
The current writing assignment is a position paper on the topic of year-round schooling and there are more details on my website. This is an important issue and one that, as far as I can tell, most students are engaged in. I'm eager to read their well written papers and see evidence of their expanded knowledge.
Science:
My plan to move out of the current (ha) topic, electricity, on to waves did not come to pass, but we did have some good lessons this week.
On Monday, the kids got a demonstration from a parent, showing how current and resistance can create intense heat.
I showed them two videos, with quizzes afterwards, on electricity and magnetism.
Today (Friday) the students made simple electric motors using coils of wire, a magnet (thanks Andy), and a D-cell battery. It was a good time and (hopefully) an effective lesson.
Other Stuff:
Using some parent contributions we now have a plastic liner for the waterfall, and, thanks to another donation from Patrick at Peninsula Building Materials (and a truck I borrowed from a neighbor) we now have the remaining rock needed to finish the streambed. Water should be flowing within a week or two, as well as solar powered by the time school ends!
In other "construction news", Mr. Burnell and I will be working with some kids to build redwood benches that will be placed near the pond -- another "Team DCS" effort is underway!
Have a good weekend.