Post date: Jan 19, 2013 10:19:50 PM
Hello 8th Grade Parents (and whatever few kids read my newsletter)!
We are at the half way point through the year. I really do hope that science and other things at school are living up to (or opening up) your aspirations. Nothing much really changes at the junction between semesters, except for a clean slate on the gradebook and the opportunity for renewed commitments to learning and embracing the opportunities that the grade and the school provides. My resolutions involve a cleaner room with more interesting stuff on the walls, more labs, and hopefully moving forward with an optional overnight trip similar to the "Cal Coast" that some kids and I organized in the Spring of last year.
Recap of the Week:
The Periodic Table of the Elements was our dominating topic of the week. The project involved teams of kids created an adding-machine-paper "strip" of all 118 elements, and then snipped it apart into rows of repeating characteristics to become a table. By hiding the transition elements, the ingenious organization and layout of the table became evident, and the groundwork has been laid for the depth that they will (hopefully) get in high school chemistry. Some groups got organized and efficient and really learned a lot from the activity, but others struggled with those things and didn't finish -- a lesson unto itself, I suppose.
The chapter 12 test took only a part of Thursday's science period (10 minutes for the first done, actually), which is what I've been hoping for -- those weekly quizes should not take up much class time.
Upcoming & FYI:
Report Cards: The gradebook is "locked" for semester 1 and the grades part of the report cards will be printed soon. The comments part of the report card packet will be created by students and teachers together in a collaborative document process to be spearheaded by Ms. Sindelar -- specifics to follow.
Parent Meeting: On February 6th, from 7:00 to 8:00 we will have a meeting in homerooms to start planning graduation and to discuss various other things including a high school panel meeting (DCS alum from various high schools come to field questions from our kids about high school, strategies, hints, social life and other issues). Most importantly, it will be wonderful to have us all together again.
Math Circles: Paula Simka has organized an evening of math puzzles, challenges, and discussions for kids (and parents) at all grade level clusters in the school. She sent a flyer through the Yahoo! parents group and people have been signing up on this document. Room 25 will be selling pizza dinners that night as well!
Science Fair: The school-wide science fair date has been set for April 18th (k-5) and 19th (6-8). Over the next few weeks much information will be posted on Science Fair page of the dcsscience website and we are all looking forward to helping the kids learn more about the parts of the scientific method and it application to a wide variety of student interests. The 8th graders have quite a head start since they have already done one round of this during the Fall.
Budget: Thanks to a PG&E "Bright Ideas" grant that Suds Jain wrote a few years ago, I've received approval to buy some physical science curriculum materials.
New Selectives: Starting on Monday 2/4, students will be starting their second semester selectives. I'm excited to have a new group of kids that are eager to participate in woodshop, digital life, and GPS classes.
Thanks: Again, I appreciate all the help from parents who did workshifts this Fall, send in class supplies, and even gift cards to help finance some of the "feed me Fridays". You are all wonderful people and I am honored to be able to serve.
Chris