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The Anxious Generation Book Club
The Anxious Generation Book Club
The Anxious Generation Book Club.pdf
6th Grade - Oct 21
6th Grade - Oct 21
Question of the Day: What do you want to get out of the rest of your sixth grade year? (GATE and regular class)
During their Question of the Day discussion, the 6th graders expressed wanting to feel prepared for 7th grade, have fun, and show gratitude to their former teachers. There seemed to be a lot of anxiety that your performance in elementary affect your junior high experience, and your junior high experience effects your high school experience and so on. I reiterated that it is normal to go through ups and downs in life and that struggling sometimes is okay and can ultimately help you grow and learn. It is okay to change paths and learn from mistakes. Struggling during a season of life is not the end of the world. 🙂
Today was the final work day for the leadership/career unit! All students also handwrote thank you cards to the professionals they interviewed. They definitely needed a refresher how to write and format a thank you note, and it was a great opportunity to compare and contrast professional email formatting.
Next week, all students will present their interview findings and experiences, research, and interactive presentation elements.
A few early finishers started putting out feelers for our field trip planning. If you know anyone who might be able to get us get our foot in the door at a location connected to the following industries, please reach out! If they are in or near Downtown Boise, it's a bonus!
E-sports
Entrepreneurial business
Video game design/coding
Behind the scenes of a restaurant
Aviation
or contacts to help us put together a half to whole day (9:45am-1:15pm) exploring different careers and points of interest at BSU
5th Grade - Oct 22
5th Grade - Oct 22
THAT'S A WRAP! *Almost* every group was able to finish their environmental PSA project today! I am very impressed by the students' willingness to fail, try again, edit, add to, troubleshoot, and improve their video projects. Except for two students, this is their first video editing project ever, and they were using multiple shots, green screen, music, sound effects, and visual layers to create an entertaining and succinct video with a message. Way to go 5th grade!
Next week, we will host our film premiere for our class, and then I will share out the videos with the Lowell video announcements team, the other sending schools, and families.
Click through the photo carousel below or click the post to view directly on Instagram.
Click through the photo carousel below or click the post to view directly on Instagram.
4th Grade - Oct 23
4th Grade - Oct 23
Question of the Day: Why might it be valuable to learn about the brain?
This week, the 4th graders dove into pre-assessments, neurons, and learning about brain health. In their digital portfolios (linked below), they completed the "What I Know" and the "What I Want to Know" columns of a KWL (Know Want Learned) chart and filled out a brain anatomy pre-assessment. I will review the "Want to Knows" that the students inputted to drive the direction of our brain study. At the end of the unit, they will fill in the "What I Learned" column and take the post-assessment to measure their growth of knowledge.
The class discussed the function and anatomy of neurons and demonstrated the process through a game where they created a neural pathway with their bodies and passed a tennis ball "action potential" down the line as fast as they could. We also used this model to demonstrate somatosensory and motor nerve function during a reflex response.
At the end of the day, I shared some pretty cool information about brain health that I learned at a professional development training this summer by Kathie Nunley of Brains.org.
We unfortunately only got to have half of our Choice Time because some students were having an especially difficult time staying on task today and that made our lessons take longer than planned.
3rd Grade - Oct 24
3rd Grade - Oct 24
Question of the Day: What do you do when you feel stuck?
Since some of the 3rd graders are feeling stuck on their invention ideas, our Question of the Day helped to facilitate a discussion about how to get unstuck.
Next, the class got a really cool opportunity to check out a sample of "The Shoe That Grows", an invention by a local Nampa man who invented a shoe that grows 5 sizes with the child. The company gives shoes to communities in rural Kenya and around the world who have trouble accessing properly fitting shoes. The students especially liked seeing the vast range of prototypes shown in this video as well as trying on the sample shoe! Definitely check out this awesome local company!
The students then learned about elevator pitches. They watch two example Shark Tank pitches by kids, the Baby Toon and the Touch Up Cup. It was very sweet because some of the students thought that they would actually be going on the show Shark Tank to pitch their inventions. I had to disappoint them and let them know that we will just be adding videos of their pitches to their digital portfolios.
The rest of our work time was spent doing one of three tasks based on the readiness of each student. Some students that were stuck in the brainstorming step worked directly with me to settle on an idea, some students finished their patent research, and some students worked on writing and recording their elevator pitch. A couple were able to add their pitches to their digital portfolios (linked below) and the others will add theirs next week.
Click through the photo carousel below or click the post to view directly on Instagram.
Click through the photo carousel below or click the post to view directly on Instagram
2nd Grade - Oct 25
2nd Grade - Oct 25
The 2nd grade finished their fractals and Fibonacci study today! We started the day trying out a new Question of the Day format. The students discussed the questions listed below the photos. They also spent some time looking for and sharing when they saw a classmate showing leadership qualities today.
After reviewing fractals a bit, the students learned about the difference between isosceles, scalene, and equilateral triangles. They then used toothpicks and marshmallows to build an equilateral triangle. Then they used 4 equilateral triangles to build a tetrahedron. They then combined 4 of those to create a 2nd iteration Sierpinski tetrahedron. Finally, the whole class came together to create a 3rd iteration Sierpinski tetrahedron.
The day ended by students completing a unit relection in the digital portfolios (linked below.) Feel free to check out your student's book and ask them about their experience and their work.
Next week, we will start a new unit comparing and contrasting spiders and their webs with abstract artists and their work.
Donation Link & Amazon Wishlist
Donation Link & Amazon Wishlist
If you would like to help fund our tech needs, supplies for students, brain puzzles, etc, please click on the link below to donate to my Boise Foundation Account. You can also check out our Amazon Wishlist.
A Special Note
A Special Note
Some of the district's other pull out GATE programs serve higher-need communities and aren't able to secure many funds for their programs due to the nature of voluntary donation systems. These teachers regularly pay for project supplies out of their own pockets. If you feel led to donate, please consider blessing these deserving students and teachers by giving to their programs. A few Lowell families donated to these programs last year, and they made a huge difference! Lowell family donations were actually the ONLY donations Garfield received last year. Thank you so much!
The programs most in need are [GARFIELD/GATE/TUCKER,KATIE], [PIERCEPARK/GATE/ALEXANDER,LEONA], and [MOUNTAINVIEW/GATE/WELLER,LYNNETTE]
Secure quick link to the class Foundation Account donation page
Parent Lending Library
Parent Lending Library
The Boise School District has a Parent Lending Library to help educate, inform, and support parents as they raise gifted children. If you are looking for my information related to parenting gifted children, please reach out to Helga Frankenstein, GATE Supervisor, (helga.frankenstein@boiseschools.org) for more information.
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