Post date: Apr 21, 2012 12:51:51 AM
Dear Parents and Students,
Before I leave school and get swept up into the activities of the weekend (beach, garden, bbq!), I wanted to get a few of the most important reminders entered into this newsletter:
STAR Testing next week. The assignments page of my site has a calendar that shows which tests are on which dates. Come well-fed and willing to concentrate for hours. Also, please bring a book to read during the gap between when you finish and when the test period ends... the room has to be silent during the whole test session.
Thursday we have a field trip to Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts to see Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Bring bag lunch and make sure that you turn phones off and leave any food out of the theatre.
Astronomy Night on 4/26 from about 8:30 until about 10. Mrs. Stuart has sent out more information via the Yahoo! group.
Student-planned trip to San Jose on Friday 5/4. The coordination team will send out an email with more details next week, but here is a quick overview: VTA to downtown SJ, movie, GeoCache, Johnny Rockets, games in the park, razor/blade Guadalupe River trail, museum/library/tour, VTA to DCS.
Recap of the Week:
English: We got back into the editing process on Monday, but at a higher level than those ol' daily edits of last semester. The kids read a historical fiction article (Titanic) and identified some general and specifics strengths of the writing, then did a "Lazy Editor" exercise from SCOPE magazine as well as an exercise in identifying extraneous information in writing. On Tuesday we had session one of the autobiography book clubs, during which each student explained a bit about their book and the reasons that they chose it.
Wednesday, for vocabulary, the students did a few activities from this site, and then entered four great words into their comp books. Yesterday, two staff members from TheatreWorks gave an interactive preview of the play next week, and the today we began our Class Newspaper project -- more on that later.
Science: The unit on waves continued this week, with a focus on sound. On Monday I got to actually teach a bit of biology -- the parts and functions of the ear. That, along with some annoying but informative BrainPop videos (waves and sound and EM spectrum) should have given a good understanding of the hearing process. On Wednesday I posted some released test questions from old STAR tests and asked the kids to go through them and identify areas that need refreshing using this document format. After the chapter 21 test on Thursday, the kids got to learn more about waves, sound, and electromagnetism by playing with some speakers, magnets, and an oscilloscope that were brought and demonstrated by Thomas Zscherpel and a couple of other great parents from other classes. Lastly, today the kids watched a wonderfully involving (and graphic) video about brain trauma and recovery.
One Last Thing:
Although the 8th grade gift has been decided upon, I'd like to test the waters for adding another one as well. Does anyone want to go in on a tree with me? I'd like get a nice healthy native tree and add it to the ever-growing landscaping outside our rooms, perhaps with a small engraved sign saying something about the class of 2012. The redwood benches were the gift from last year and it was fun to build, sand, seal, and install them with the kids. In similar fashion, I'd love to work with some families to choose the tree, dig the hole, provide irrigation, and get/post the little sign. I'm a bit cautious about stepping on toes, so this idea has no "official" role or merit... just a small gesture to honor the families of this class and my ever-growing joy to be a part of this community.
Chris