Post date: Apr 04, 2015 9:56:20 PM
Dear Room 25
What a beautiful weekend! Amy, Hannah, Abbi, and Olivia hosted a tea party this morning, went to "Spelling Bee" in Woodside tonight, will do Easter stuff tomorrow, then they'll head out for a weeklong tour of colleges in Northern California, Oregon, and Washington. Busy time for them! I'll be working to finish some house projects during that week alone as well as enjoying conferences with you. Summer is coming up fast.
Science: The Science Fair is over and it was amazing to see the quality of middle school experiments and constructions. I was especially impressed by some of the elementary and 7th grade projects as well as those 8th graders who tackled the new "product prototype" option that we added this year. My big task now is to find a fair and useful way to assess their effort and outcomes in terms of points for the grade-book. For those that did an experiment or product, their trifold should have been turned in already, and for those who did the tower or catapult, their write-ups are due Monday.
The other science activities and assignments for the week were all about electro-magnetism. Thomas came in on Thursday and demonstrated how electrical current creates magnetic field (and vice versa) in a logical progression with a good level of explanation and background knowledge provided at each step. It is impossible to say how much we all benefit from his knowledge, skills, devotion, and passion! Concurrently, the kids also read chapter 18 at the rate of about a page a day, and then took the chapter test Friday.
**Could you please (if convenient) provide your kids with a D-cell battery (or two) for next week. We'll be making motors as well as series and parallel circuits sometime next week.
Social Studies: We are in the middle of learning about the 27 amendments to the Constitution. Each kid has been learning about one, or a portion of one, and their peer teaching sessions will start next week. Kids can choose to do their teaching in whole-class , small-group, and/or one-to-one situations. This presentation system is flexible to the kids' preferences and quite time-efficient. The result is that each kid is responsible for teaching every other kid as well as learning from every other kid. **Please, if it is at all possible, ask your kid to practice their teaching session with you as the learner.
In addition to the study of the amendments of the Constitution, I'm hoping to get them re-engaged into some sort of current events discussions, especially those that are relevant to the topics we've been studying.
This past week, as part of the exploration of the historical fiction genre, I showed them the movie "Power of One" which dealt with some important historical issues and the nature of social structure, prejudice, and change. Ask them about it.
English: The kids have chosen some great historical fiction books for the next book club sessions. Please help them get a copy of their book before Thursday's meetings. For vocabulary this week the kids had to find quotes (book, movie, speaker, etc) with great words and put them into their comp books. The 16 that were turned in have been scored and are in Powerschool.
That brings me to the last, and potentially most important informational item of this email: I've decided that after vacation, the kids won't get credit for late work anymore (unless allowed for by absence policy or IEP). Too many kids have been depending on that option in increasing amounts all year, and scoring/logging late work has taken me too much begrudging time each night. It will be better for all of us if we go cold turkey on this issue. I know that it will be hard for those who don't attend to due dates or instructions, but this is a great time to endure the pain and learn to establish better habits to carry with them to high school.
With that I bid adieu.
Calendar
April 6: Deputy DA Visits rm 25
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 10: Maker Day
June 12: Field Day
June 18: Last day of school
June 19: Staff work day