Post date: Nov 03, 2012 4:43:23 AM
Hello There Parents and Students,
This is your Friday night good-times report for the week of October 29 to November 2, which marks the beginning of second quarter and time for another well-deserved batch of praise for the kids in my classes -- thank you for working so hard, treating your DCS community and experience with the respect it deserves, and for being such wonderful and kind people. As I walk middle school alley so many times each day, my appreciation for the human spirit rises every time. Although it may sound dramatic and hyperbolic, I really do feel a great sense of security and faith in the potential of our species as I watch the kids play, work, and just hang out together. Although I am quite tired when I leave school each day/evening, I usually come away with my head spinning and yet an eagerness to help create effective activities for the next day.
Science This Week: Properties and states of matter were the topics of the week. The readings, animations, websites, videos, worksheets, and an experiment should have made the topics understandable. Even activities as seemingly simple as cutting and cooking apples as well as putting things in a vacuum chamber should help to give relevance and real-world connections to the concepts. By now, the nightly textbook reading should be a routine at home and I'm hoping that, time permitting, students and parents can spend a bit of time each week discussing the topics and examples.
I know that the chapter tests have been taking almost 15% of class time, and they present a challenge to some students. I have been very impressed by those kids who are learning how to maximize the effectiveness of their reading and note-taking styles and benefit from them. Those skills will serve you well in high school and beyond. Additionally, it is very rewarding to watch the kids during class activities and labs as they connect the reading content with the interactional content, ask great questions, and make intelligent connections to real life. The read-note-test-redo experience has not been a positive experience for everyone. For any student interested, I will be offering some "tutorials" on reading and note taking strategies as soon as some of our core times (Tues/Fri block A) open up for some student-choice configurations.
This week I also started collecting the lab reports for the Fall science experiments. As with all things, there are some students who have been keeping up with each step of the entire process (and thus done by now) and others who have barely started (gulp). The students and I will discuss evaluation criteria next week and I'm looking forward to hearing some insightful reflections as well as a couple of (voluntary) presentations by some teams.
Upcoming Events & Ongoing Appreciations:
We're headed into a season of great trips, holidays, and special projects. This calendar shows upcoming events, and you Google calendar users can subscribe to that calendar by clicking on the "+" sign at the bottom of the calendar.
Lastly, I want express my strongest appreciation to all of the parents who are supporting me and giving very valuable feedback, supporting all levels of classroom (and grade level) endeavors, and enhancing the attitude/achievements of the students. It is such an honor to work with/for all of you.
Chris