Post date: Sep 21, 2014 5:42:32 AM
Dear Room 25 Family.
I appreciate that so many parents came to school on Wednesday night to visit and year my ramblings about our adventures (in and out of school) for this year. I felt a bit self-indulgent as I tried to give you a bit of a forced flavor of what the class atmosphere and my teaching style are like, and there was, of course, much important stuff that I forgot to mention and discuss. These newsletters, however, hopefully provide a good vehicle of ongoing and detailed communication between us and I'm hoping that it becomes more of a two-way dialog. Before I get into the details of the week, let me just say that I'm very happy with our class' first month together. The diversity, demeanor, and general tone of this group is excellent and I come to school with zeal each day!
Recap of the Week:
Science:
Two big "forces and motion" concepts took our attention in science this week: friction and gravity. The book provided some good pictures and definitions of static and kinetic friction, but it wasn't until the kids began to experiment with a few things that the ideas really set in. I gave them some spring scales and pull sleds and asked them to experiment with manipulating single variables, observing results carefully, and thinking of further questions for exploration. I also had the kids sand some redwood planks in order to observe the effects of surface roughness on friction (and also to prep the bench boards for varnish and installation into the middle school alley. There was also some reading to do regarding gravity and the factors that influence it on a small and large scale. For homework, the kids are to come up with a way to test Galileo's idea that air resistance, rather than mass, is a major determinant of the acceleration rate of falling objects.
With one chapter under our belt, I asked the kids to answer the publisher's 20 review questions as homework on Wednesday night. When we reviewed it the next day I was very impressed that almost everyone had done almost all of the work, and could readily contribute to the discussion of each question. That assignment, by the way, is the first piece of graded work and is the only score entered into PowerSchool at the moment. If any kid is dissatisfied with their score, they an regain any points missed by doing the redo "Q.A.R." process described here (this is true for all graded work, by the way).
One fun activity we did was the stick bridge challenge. I gave groups of kids about 20 pieces of wood about the size and shape of a ruler and challenged them to build a bridge that could span a distance far greater than any one of the sticks. They came up with a variety of designs, but the process was most interesting to me. Engagement and enthusiasm peaked and waned as did their patience. A bit of a competitive spirt emerged once I showed them a video of a bridge from my last 8th grade class, but even given the "design solution", only a few showed the persistence necessary to actually build the structure correctly.
Social Studies
Since Monday was my day to do current events for the class, I showed them a 10 minute video that attempts to explain and simplify Ukraine and Russian history and current events and then followed it up with a discussion about important topics such as news bias and the imminent complexity that arrises when one attempts to understand an issue at anything but a superficial or sensationalistic point of view.
To continue with the physical geography lessons, I gave each kids a big US map and we made a list together or what kind of geological and political elements to show and label (list). Given that they only had about 25 minutes to work on this map, many are off to a great start and I'm hoping that we'll make more progress in class next week.
The National Parks project is in phase 2 and the kids should all be at the research phase. I've asked them to clip some important informational elements from websites and then organize them into their own documents. Next, they'll be reviewing that information and rewriting it into their own narrative. At this point each kid should have their document started and linked from this spreadsheet.
English
The big thing in ELA this week was the great vocabulary discussion that we had on Thursday. I was very impressed that so many of the kids had a positive view of vocabulary development and definitely recognized the advantage of being articulate, elegant, and educated (their words, I thing). The vocab program that all 8th graders will use seems novel and effective and the kids and I will be learning many aspects of it in the coming weeks. Each kid has started a cover for their "vocabulary collection comp book" and as the process becomes routine I'll be asking you parents to go over the results with your kids about once every month.
The other novel event was the lyrical analysis session that our class did with Susan Leftwich on Friday. She extended the kids usage of "claim, evidence, reasoning" and applied it to the lyrics of Hotel California. Our class will switch with room 22 for the latter 3 days of next week as well.
Other:
1. The parent lessons/demonstrations have been great. This week we can add the topics of sewing, Arabic, Alaska, Argentina,hygeine, and ice cream to our list.
2. Parent Workshifts: I'm eager to be working with so many of you starting in October when workshifts begin. In the mean time I'm putting together some materials for the writing coaches, literature circle facilitators, and daily task team. Needless to say, this is just the kind of "it takes a village" stuff that makes DCS the awesome school that it is.
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Coming Up:
Calendar:
September 22: Google Science Fair (please arrive at school by 8:20 so we can depart at 8:30)
September 22: Fall Portraits (1:40 for room 25)
September 25: 8th Grade Graduation Committee meeting @ DCS
September 29: Selective start
September 30: Math Curriculum Night 8:00 for 8th grade
October 3: Room 25 to Ropes Course
October 15 or 22 (TBD): 8th Grade Parent Meeting #2
October 24: Teacher Learning Day (no school for kids)
October 25: Fall Festival
October 27-31: Fall conferences
October 30: 8th Grade to "Sweeney Todd" @ MVCPA
November 11: Veteran's Day (no school)
November 24-18: Thanksgiving Break
December 11-12: Room 25 to Balclutha, Age of Sail
December 22 - January 9: Winter Holiday
January 20-23 - SanFracramento Trip