October 12, 2022

Activist case studies

This week, the students carried out a research and created a product teaching about a famous activist. They learned that an activist is someone who uses their words to fight against injustice. They started by reviewing the ethics unit vocabulary words with round two of the flyswatter game. We had a great chat before the game about the benefits of practicing winning gracefully and losing gracefully. They did an awesome job and showed a lot of improvement in vocabulary understanding and sportsmanship compared to last week.

The students then browsed through 33 Epic Books (as well as several hard copy books) about famous activists. Each student chose the activist that they found most interesting, then took notes, and then created a product (book poster, digital poster, slideshow, etc) that fulfilled the established success criteria. Next week, the students will share their work and practice transferring their understanding to see if there is any injustice in their world that they could positively impact.

THANK YOU!

Thank you so much to all of the families that have donated allergy-friendly snacks for the 2nd and 3rd graders who don't have lunch until 12:45pm and 1:00pm! We should be all set for the year for the students that have allergies. If you happen to come across a screaming deal for less expensive, not-necessarily allergy-friendly snacks, we could still use some of those on back-up.

Yay Drones!

Thank you so much for all of the donations to the classroom Foundation account! I was able to use the donations to buy 6 drones just for our GATE classes, which means that we can have more students use them during the entire year! Last week, I submitted a grant proposal to get 6 iPads to use as remote controls and iMovie editors, but if we don't get those, we can control them through the class Chromebooks.

GATE Conferences

I don't have the capacity to have conferences with all 100 of my students' families, but if you have any questions for me about my observations from the first 7-8 GATE classes, feel free to shoot me an email or arrange a time to chat on the phone/video chat. You can also ask your student to show you around their Book Creator Portfolio reflection that they will be adding next week in class.

🐾 A Note on Lowell Elementary School-Wide Newsletters 🐾

I know that it can be annoying to get even more emails, especially from a school your child only attends once a week. However, we need to keep you on the Lowell parent communication list because that is how we efficiently communicate to parents in the case of a school-wide emergency. Our admin assistant, Sam, is really good about only sending out a couple school-wide messages per month, so feel free to just delete those non-emergency emails as they arise.

Consider Donating to the GATE Classroom

As we begin our school year and face new challenges, we are seeking new ways to enrich your child's education both in person and virtually. Our current wish list includes a set of classroom cameras (~$100 ea), Rubiks Cubes ($12), and a hand-held vacuum cleaner! I just put in a grant application to get 6 iPads (and accessories) for our classroom, so I will cross my fingers! Please click on the link below to donate to my Boise Foundation Account. [LOWELL/GATE/GABRIELLI,AUDREY]

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THOSE WHO ALREADY DONATED!

IT WILL BE PUT TO GOOD USE RIGHT AWAY!

Click Here to Donate Now

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Username: GabrielliGATE

(I'll start posting as soon as I have confirmed which students from each school are on the No Photo List. Thanks for your patience!)