Post date: Mar 15, 2015 8:7:5 PM
Hi Room 25 Families.
I hope that your pi day (yesterday) was good -- mine was well rounded (ha, sorry) with work time, family time, and a bbq at a neighbor's house. You(r) kids probably had a good time sleeping in on Friday! Our staff development time on that day was spent looking at various forms of report cards and discussing what might be the most useful type of document for us to adopt as a middle school. I'd love to get your views on that topic. We spent the afternoon reading the writing samples that all middle schoolers did 2 weeks ago (narrative about a field trip) and giving the Writing Task Force some ideas about their next steps to enhance student writing. Your thoughts are welcome there as well!
Science:
The kids should be back into the routine of reading the science textbook sections on electricity (calendar) and connecting that content with the activities that we do in class. Tomorrow they will be learning some basics of home wiring and assembling the components of a typical residential circuit (receptacle, switch, light). If your kids asks to borrow any wire strippers you have in the garage, that is why. Sometime last week you should have received an email from your kid inviting you to their "Science Expo Status Sheet" that they will be using to monitor and share their progress each day. Here is a spreadsheet that links to each. They had more than 3 hours last week during school to work on projects and I hope that their document shows progress worthy of that time investment. The expo is only 2 weeks away.
Social Studies
The Constitution & Government intensive started this week with an interesting discussion of if and why we need government at all, and if so, how much? Since we (some) watched "Lord of the Flies" last year, there was much material for discussion and examples. The kids' views were varied and well stated. Next, I explained a bit about the Articles of Confederation and its limitations and the kids diligently took traditional ol' notes on their Chromebooks. By the middle of the week we were deciphering the Preamble and explaining it's text in more familiar language. Debby Perry came to class to give some information and insight into the history and charter of our school, and the kids used that material to write out what a DCS constitution might look like. Here is their document so far. By Friday we were ready to get into the design of our government and the kids split into three groups, each of which will learn more about one branch of government and then teach the others later this coming week.
English
When I was in 8th grade, my english teacher had us write letters to ourselves at 18, which she kept and sent to us just before we graduated high school. So, I read mine to the class and asked them to do the same. Many have given those valuable sealed envelopes to me, which I will send out in 2019. On Thursday I sent the ones from my first DCS class (2010) and have been thrilled to read the chatter about them on Facebook as they hit home mailboxes over the weekend.
Another thing that we did this week in ELA was to find out what are the rules for capitalization are and how are they applied. The kids created this document, and I gave them a big three page six sided teaching/practice worksheet (which is due tomorrow, by the way). We also had four good speaking sessions this week and I'm looking forward to the 5 that are coming up starting tomorrow.
Calendar:
March 17: Larry Cohen at Westgate 7 PM
March 27: Middle School Dance
April 1-3: Science Fair
April 6-10: Conferences
April 14-18: Spring break
April 28: Levi Stadium Tour
May 6: Courthouse
May 9: Spring Auction
May 15: No school for kids
May 29: Middle school dance
June 3 to 5: Rafting the South Fork American River
June 12: Field Day
June 18: Last day of school
June 19: Staff work day