August 25th, 2021

The first day of GATE was all about familiarizing ourselves with the classroom, our classmates, and remembering what it is like to work as a team. Students were first about to explore the classroom and ask any questions that they had about what they saw. They learned that Ms Gabrielli has a lot of artifacts from around the world in her room, especially East Asia. She'd love to collect art and instruments from even more regions of the world to share with her students! 

Students then created Selfie Sculptures using a guide to create an abstract art piece unique to them based on how they like to learn, how they react to stress, and what their interests are. After lunch, students took a shot at their first "Free Choice" period, where they can explore whatever interests them for half an hour. Ms Gabrielli will be recording students' choices during this time to track how time is used and guide them toward purposeful choices. In fact, Ms Gabrielli will be taking a lot of notes throughout all our GATE work in order to help individualize feedback and praise for each student.

Students also dabbled in a deceivingly simple teamwork challenge this week. Table groups were given 10 plain pieces of copy paper and 10 minutes to build the tallest tower possible with no extra supplies. This work will help us as we explore the engineering/design cycle later during the year.

Starting next week, we'll start working in bits of our upcoming Unit Work with teamwork and get-to-know-you work. So be ready to start ramping up the creativity and CHALLENGE!