posted Apr 26, 2012 9:40 AM by Steve Carlson
[
updated Apr 26, 2012 6:28 PM by Sue D
]
Ummmm.... I am not writing this from my iPad.
We were visited yesterday by Sahib Sahir and he was very generous with his time during a presentation about Islam. He gave his experiences as a 1972 convert and what it means to be Muslim. This experience was certainly a valuable one for us as we expand our understanding of this religion, its history and its contributions to civilizations.
Today, we discussed some of the things that Sahib talked to us about. Much of this was what we have been covering, while some was new information.
Workshop saw many folks reading To Kill a Mockingbird and groups will meet about this book tomorrow.
Sue is currently talking to a group of students about ions and valence electrons and energy levels and such. Next door to me on the computer, a student is building a boron atom. This student had no comment when asked about the experience. |
posted Apr 23, 2012 4:11 PM by Sue D
[
updated Apr 23, 2012 4:12 PM
]
Yahoo! I'm typing this post from my iPad. The students loved the NOVA elements app, which is the reason I have this loaner, and I promised to bring it back tomorrow so eveyone can try out building elements and exploring electon energy levels.
But I'm getting ahead of myself....
We began the morning with a giant spring cleaning. After some initial groans and covert attempts to do the Spanish HW, everyone tackled their notebooks, cubbies, hallway spaces and then the rest of the classroom. We can be a messy group, but everyone took up the challenge and after a lot of rearranging, dusting, and dumping, the place looks GREAT! Even better, after workshop we had a brief class meeting that included a lot of student generated comments about how to keep everything looking great. I love that it was a non-teacher led campaign that seems to have support.
Brief science lesson on chemical bonding. More details on that as the week progresses.
Spanish. Lunch and afternoon workshop with math lessons, reading To Kill a Mockingbird, mosque studies, journal entries, and more.
|
posted Apr 18, 2012 9:29 AM by Steve Carlson
Students have been working hard to read about the 5 Pillars of Islam and the early spread of Islam. We will have a short quiz on the Pillars tomorrow. Yesterday I gave them an assignment to create a small model of a mosque and today we watched some news clips about the situation in Syria. We also watched the very powerful film aimed at President Assad's wife asking her to do something about the situation there. Students worked hard during workshop and they are currently working with Sue on molecules and atoms. Math happened throughout the day. |
posted Apr 17, 2012 10:47 AM by Sue D
Another wonderfully busy and productive day up here on the 4th floor. Steve introduced some new work about mosques today; students continue to deepen their understanding of Islam. During workshop we saw a lot of science (atomic structure), cultural studies (Five Pillars), and art work happening. Spanish was lively, followed by lunch and soccer outside.
A small acting troupe visited during PE to present an energetic play about bullying. The students seemed to enjoy it, but I haven't had time to chat with them about it yet. They're currently in art, doing their work and talking to reporters about the art show that's coming up - first Friday in May.
|
posted Apr 13, 2012 11:32 AM by Steve Carlson
Students started to work on their own Five Pillars. They are, in form, based on those found in Islam, but they are not necessarily of the religious variety. In most cases they will be a secular Five Pillars. We went to Conestoga View after Cultural Studies and students were split up throughout the building. It was, overall, a positive experience and many positive interactions occurred between residents and members of our class. We celebrated a birthday in the afternoon, had Lit Studies meetings, did math, worked on art and completed Cultural Studies assignments. |
posted Apr 12, 2012 9:32 AM by Steve Carlson
We started to look at the spread of Islam today. We looked at maps and talked about the spread as a slow process eventhough the land area that was controlled by Muslim leaders was very rapid. While they controlled a lot of land within 100 years of Muhammad's death, it took a long time for percentage of Muslims compared to total population to grow. Workshop - Cultural Studies, math and science figured prominently. We heard from three groups of Eighth Grade students who presented parts of King Lear. They enjoyed telling the Seventh Graders about the story. Sandy is in for Sue who is home today and they are currently working through a science lesson. Math and Music also in the afternoon. Tomorrow we go to Consestoga View. Everyone will need to wear closed-toe shoes. |
posted Apr 10, 2012 9:38 AM by Steve Carlson
Before our four-day break we started our study of Islam. We have started with the Pillars of Islam and talked quite a bit about the purpose of these from an adherent’s perspective. The learning curve has been high during this unit and we will continue our experience with a study of trade and Islam and the contributions the Islamic world has made to humanity.
Workshop: lots of math, lit studies and science.
Spanish.
PE.
Art.
Sue has been preparing a whole science set-up all day. I look forward to seeing what comes of it. |
posted Mar 22, 2012 8:11 AM by Steve Carlson
We continued work started yesterday on migration. Yesterday we watched a video and I presented an assignment about Burmese migrant workers in Thailand. Today we looked at a map of the United States that showed the percentage of foreign-born residents by county. We talked about what this map showed and made some connections about what we know about US geography and the percentages shown on the map.
During workshop, students worked on science, journal entries and riddles for Riddle Quest.
In voices, we shared some of our riddles.
Spanish at 10:30.
In the afternoon, the class continued their study of buoyancy. They also made clay boats and tried to sink them. They were successful on all counts.
|
posted Mar 20, 2012 11:10 AM by Steve Carlson
First day of spring! We started work on our next era of human history Big Era 5 (300-1500 CE). We looked at a power point presentation about this time period right after looking at the time lines that students created yesterday. The list of events for the timeline was created by the students and a vast majority of these took place after 1500 CE. Clearly, there is room for our understanding of this era to grow. Students worked on riddles for Riddle Quest and also worked on their artist studios. Science, math and Spanish also received attention. In the afternoon, students went to PE and art class. |
posted Mar 19, 2012 11:28 AM by Steve Carlson
Welcome back from Spring Break! We split into Science and Writing Groups from the start of the day. Students had a lesson on fluids and pressure and were given an assignment related to these topics. During the writing lesson, students discussed their Spring Breaks and we talked about how to write about the week without it reading like a list of events. Students chose a couple of foundational events or activities that took place over the week or picked out general themes for their week to write about. The pieces they came up with were wonderful. We also brainstormed world history events that occurred after 0 CE and students spent time during the day compiling a time line. We will discuss what we all came up with tomorrow. Math, Art projects, science graphs and Buddies in the pm today during workshop. |
|
