We have spent the last week reviewing proportional relationships, a topic covered heavily in 7th grade.

We are beginning our exploration into non-proportional linear relationships. This is a big and important concept for the 8th grade.

Here is the family resource

Eighth grade scientists worked with environmental educators at a nearby stream to collect data on physical, biological, and chemical measurements of the water. Good news! Our stream is healthy! They also analyzed how human activity impacts waterways.

It's revision week in the short story writing unit and students will spend most of this week in Writer's Workshop. In this mode students share completed rough drafts of their stories and ask peers for feedback, usually on specific questions they want to work on. 

After students get feedback from their peers and from Mr Potts, they will make adjustments and proofread their final drafts. Next week we will be adding cover art and hanging the stories on the wall as a library.

Hopefully soon we will find time to have a celebration day with tea and cookies while everyone takes turns passing the stories around and enjoying them.

Much like the founding fathers did in the form of the Declaration of Independence, students wrote break-up letters to King George III last week. This exercise laid the groundwork for the government that would follow; a representative democracy based around natural rights.

In the meantime, we are just five days away from our national election, and this week we looked at modern issues, political ideologies, and how these align with candidates. Each student completed THIS INVENTORY to help figure out which candidates they agree with the most on various issues. As the results slowly roll in this year, it's important that we remain respectful and present, as our kids may want to discuss what these results mean.

This week we wrap the first unit of the year. We have studied similarity, dilations, and how to find the slope of a line. 

We will be completing the assessment for this unit on Thursday and Friday.

Stay tuned for more information on our next unit, linear relationships. We will be kicking things off by reviewing proportional relationships, a big idea from the 7th grade.

Team Aqua young scientists are utilizing ecology vocab and data collection and analysis skills through simulation, modeling, and playing games. After all our preparation and learning, it's about to get real. Prepare to dig up your family's galoshes for a field excursion for stream data collection with UVM and the Lake Champlain Sea Grant next week (10/22 & 10/24)! (Image courtesy of Bailey Schraut.)

Screenplays! 

Short fiction forms the foundation of much of our popular media from films and television episodes to podcasts, comics and animation. Most of the time these stories pass through the form of a screenplay. 

This year our short fiction creative writing unit will take the form of two project options--a narrative short story or a screenplay. 

First drafts of the project are due Wednesday, so you can ask your child now about their story idea! It's in development.

So far, our studies of government have included a lesson on who rules within different forms of government (which we represented using gummy bears), and the Rule of Law. Through a series of skits performed in groups, we concluded with the message that we are a country ruled by laws rather than by people.

Several times each year, we shuffle our core class groupings to allow students to work with all their classmates and to build new class dynamics. Tomorrow (10/3) will be our first remix.

Students are analyzing interactions within ecosystems. They are simulating the levels of energy within ecosystems and diagnosing problems with the potential to cause unsustainability.

Our Short Fiction unit is in full swing right now as students are reading short stories such as "Hallucination" by Isaac Asimov and "The Monsters are due on Maple Street" by Rod Sterling, a teleplay that was the basis for an early episode of the Twilight Zone television series. 

Part of our focus during the reading unit is on cultural expression and another aspect we are learning about is the way short stories underpin most of our modern media landscape, from podcasts and radio drama to stage, television, film and video games.

Look for more on the topic in the coming weeks!

Before we delve into the foundations of the U.S. political system and the origins of government, we are taking a look at why government is necessary in the first place. Basic human survival instincts often leads humans to act in selfish and tribalistic ways. We experienced this first-hand by simulating the the Prisoner's Dilemma and a social conformity social experiment. Moving forward, we'll take a look at the philosophies of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes and human nature and the purpose of government.

Please join us this Thursday, September 19th from 5:30 to 6:30 for our Open House. This is an opportunity to meet the teachers, explore the space, and discuss curriculum. See you there!

HUMS's PTO is up and running! A primary goal for this organization is to raise funds for our winter skiing program. Please click HERE for more details, and come find the PTO table at Open House this Thursday.

In our first unit, students study dilations and similar figures.

 We will be using similar triangles to explain and understand the concept of slope.

A dilation is a transformation that makes scaled copies. It has a center of dilation and a scale factor!  

A helpful family resource here

Our young scientists know that systems are all around them and can model and analyze the parts of a system. They are currently either making a marble run, which represents a system, or reading about the systems that shape and are shaped by the Winooski river. 

Students experienced The Tragedy of the Commons firsthand by simulating villagers fishing in a communal lake. In this case, a sustainable food supply is dependent on villagers fishing for only what they need. As some hungry students found out, focusing only on individual desires ("Me") quickly resulted in the everyone going hungry, as there are no more fish to reproduce. Students concluded that things are more likely to work out for everyone if the group can come to some understandings or rules. Stay tuned! This will lead us to the foundations of American Government.

Despite a few surprises and challenges, most groups of stranded passengers were rescued at the end of the Island Survival simulation. (Yeah!)

Now, summer may be over, but in English, we are looking back on the high points of our time away. It's time to write our summer stories!

Students should have emailed themselves a photo from summer that will be used during the project, and you will be able to see their writings on Open House Night.

The mission of the HUMS PTO is to fund the middle school ski program.

Join our mailing list to be notified of upcoming meetings and events. We also have a website!

PTO is a great way to meet other families and support our school.

Harwood's school photo day is scheduled for Wednesday, September 11th. Students will be receiving picture forms to bring home this week.

In science, students experienced or considered several systems (the system of their life, the Yellowstone ecosystem, and a spiderweb game). Systems thinking is helping students build a foundation for understanding interdependence. The concept of interdependence will be the overarching theme for life science investigations. 

Each class, we practice a little mindful moment, review our agenda for the day, and then participate in activities like games, writing, videos, or reciprocal teaching (in which students do the teaching) designed to teach the concepts of ecosystems, systems, and interdependence. 

Next, students participate in a team challenge as another example of systems and interdependence. Then they will begin to collect data, linking their experiences with systems and the living world. 

English classes are off and running! In the first couple of lessons, students have been to the library and learned some strategies for finding books that are ideal based on reading level and interest. 

Each day we read a little, write in class journals, and discuss what is happening in our books. At the same time we are also practicing discussion skills that will be increasingly important this year. In a future newsletter, I'll explain more about our teaching and learning method, the Harkness Classroom.

Right now students are in the middle of a group problem-solving game called Island Survival! Let's hope they succeed.

8th grade Social Studies is off to a great start! In our first unit, "Me vs. We", students are learning about the concepts of Individualism and Collectivism. History is full of cultures, events, and decisions made for the benefit of an individual or the benefit of a larger group. Students experienced these concepts through team challenges and exercises. We will use our learning to examine American culture; Do we have a "we" society or a "me" society?

Welcome to 8th grade math! Things are off to a great start! We have been exploring various problem solving opportunities through the lens of collaboration and norm setting.  

This year we will be focusing on number sense and operations, algebra, geometry, and spatial, measurement, and data analysis and probability.