Coupla Things v34 (5/14/11)
Post date: May 15, 2011 4:54:40 AM
Good Afternoon Rm 25 & 26,
I'm writing to you from the messy construction site that is the DCS Middle School Alley! Some friends and I have the place quite torn up as we are taking the next steps in building the waterfall and building a small gardening tool-storage closet in the gap between rooms 25 and 26. We'll hopefully have something good to show for it on Monday morning.
Week in Review:
English:
There were three activities from English class this week that stand out in my mind. The first was a sleuthing scenario that the book club groups did on Tuesday. Each group was given a set of 16 “stolen checks” in random order, a few at a time, and the group had the task of creating the story that could be explained using the checks as clues. It was quite an engaging session and the stories each group created were great.
The second big task of the week was the completion of the year-round school essay, and (for my class), the creation of an audio file of the students reading their essays into GarageBand. In addition to me being able to hear the essays with the cadence and intonation with which they were intended by the author, the kids were able to notice areas for improvement that become apparent during the process. I’m hoping to reserve the laptops for a class session next week in order for the HR26 kids to do the same thing.
Lastly, and certainly most important (to me) was the students writing of private letters to themselves that I will send to them after high school graduation. My 8th grade teacher had us write such letters, and when I received it during the summer before college it was a wonderful surprise. Reading my letter to the kids last week provided laughs and a little (private) lump in my throat even after all the years.
Science:
This week we finished up the unit on electricity by getting into some modern electronics. Clusters of eight kids did an "each-one-teach-one" on a section and wrote quiz questions. The scores weren't great so I hypothesize that the teaching sessions didn't have enough structure or time to be effective, or the test questions (many altered by me) didn't accurately assess student grasp of the content. As always, I think that more time and more hands-on interaction with materials would help.
The next and final unit for the year is "waves" -- great stuff. We started with the anatomy of the eye and the ear, about which the students seemed familiar (feather in the caps of the seventh grade teachers). This coming week we'll use ropes, Slinkys, and water to explore wave characteristics including constructive and destructive interference, wavelength, frequency, and amplitude.
Other Things:
Graduation plans are coming along well and I'm looking forward, with mixed feelings actually, to this very significant milestone. The future is in good hands with this crew dispersing into the great world, and I never cease to appreciate the short but valuable time that I've been able to spend observing and facilitating some of their growth.
Next week I'll be posing to each class what I consider to be their most important "assignment" of the year -- the formation, execution, and reflection upon a "pay-it-forward" style deed. I introduced the idea to my class on Thursday and was pleased but not surprised by their interest and positive response. I'll post a page on my website describing the idea and the forms it takes.
Have a wonderful evening.