Post date: Oct 11, 2013 3:47:26 AM
Dear Parents and Kids,
The highlight of the week was, of course, our 36 hours along the coastline from Santa Cruz to San Francisco. I'll let the kids' impressions and experiences speak for themselves but I'll add that I have realized once again that the best experiences are often those that occur beyond the homey little cube of room 25 -- the Bay Area has so much more to offer us and I hope to explore it often and well with this great group of travelers. There are, of course, pictures. Here is an album taken by Michael Tuason, and here here (DCS Room 25 ) is the dropbox folder for all of our class photos for the year (if you want to add some and haven't received an invitation, please let me know).
Science: On Monday I explained a bit about the theory of evolution and showed some of the types of evidence used to support it. This coming Monday I'll add some details the mechanism of natural selection to the explanations as well as the examples proposed by Darwin.
I used Thursday afternoon to have the kids who were ready (and it should have been all of them, but it wasn't) conference with me about their "Effect of This on That" experiments and get the go-ahead to start the actual experiments over this weekend.
English: I've read a smattering of the three essays that the kids have turned in so far (My Name, Reader Profile, and Theme-Evidence) and we certainly have a wide range of writing abilities in the class. Since the best way to improve anyone's writing is through 1:1 assistance, I will be asking parents to help out a great deal with the writing-improvement process in a variety of ways. I'm not sure how much your kid has asked you for assistance during the writing and/or editing process on any of the writing pieces so far, but for the next one I'll be writing to you in advance with some specifics and strategies about how to help your student elevate their writing quality, regardless of the current ability or experience level.
In the vocabulary world of ELA, the students' comp books were combed by me and a team of amazing parents who spent hours carefully reading each student's word-definition-sentence assignments for the past 6 weeks. We kept the bar high, expected accurate and articulate work, and graded their work accordingly. The scores vary widely and are not high overall, but there will be many more iterations of this process to come during which the quality will likely be higher across the board.
Social Studies: I'm eager to have the kids take the next steps on their "dig deeper" projects to wind up the medieval unit. They've chosen topics and done research and now it is time for them to choose their next step -- presentation/outcome. On Tuesday Mr. Gilmore will come to class to show the kids an iPad app called "Doceri" that they might want to use to create great little presentations about their topics.
Conferences: From the 21st to the 25th of October we'll be having our first round of student-parent-teacher conference sessions. We'll be working out the details what we will do during our time together, but to facilitate advance planning I've created a calendar of appointment slots using Google calendar. Please click on that link and click forward to week after next and then click on an available time slot that fits your schedule. I'm hoping that it is an easy process -- I've used it for two years now and without problem, but let me know if any arise.
Paying It Forward: Day three of a trip often pushes the kids into new areas of challenge and also provides an environment that is very conducive to some personal and group growth. Since we didn't have that day while on the trip, I tried to think of an in-class experience that could provide something close. The best I could think of involved watching "Pay it Forward", which is a powerful and edgy movie about a 12's attempt to make the world a better place through personal acts that are heart felt and hard to do. The kids were very mature and reflective during our discussions and, although we're not sure where we will take this, I'm hoping that this leads to great things -- for the kids and for the world. (oh, here is a page on my site about this stuff).
As always I appreciate the opportunities you give me to spend time with our amazing kids and catalyze their growth this year. I'm always eager to engage in further conversation with you.
Chris