Post date: Jun 04, 2017 5:33:36 AM
Four things come to mind to write about:
Student Writing: During the first half of the year I gave essay writing assignments at the rate of about one per three weeks and walked the kids through pre-writing, organization, theme-evidence, and single-topic paragraphs. That worked fairly well, but big improvement was only occurring for those students who were working hard towards it. So, during most of Spring, we went with a more focussed approach, during which the kids were to work 1:1 with someone for longer sessions on a single essay. Although improvement is subjective and hard to measure, we can compare the writing sample that they did in the fall ("Describe the perfect high school") to the spring writing sample that they created last week ("What Influences/Impacts You?").
Rafting: The highlight of the week was obviously our camping/rafting trip and it was one filled with adventure, camaraderie, and an ever-growing love of the family that this 8th grade has become. I really appreciate that you parents continue to support us teachers and your kids by allowing us to do these excellent but expensive experiences. Whether it was during meal time, campfire time, or river time, there were many important and impactful moments to be had/created out there. There is something absolutely magical about the energy and atmosphere created by groups of kids in natural environments and it has always permeated deep into my core -- it is where love grows strongest and I'm so glad that I got to spend some time there with this group out there.
Wayman lent GoPro equipment so I was able to capture some on-river times (but I of sadly missed some of the best scenes), and Kristen and Katy purchased (<$!) a huge collection of photos of all of our boats from the local riverside photographer and will be writing to us about access and cost sharing. Most importantly, though were the "cardiac moments" (vs. Kodak moments... yes, dating myself) -- those times that the kids will remember in their hearts!
Science Fair: There were two parts to our school’s science fair this year. The first part happened a few months ago when kids performed some kind of experiment using the scientific method and wrote it up (and/or demonstrated their findings) on a trifold board. Kids and parents visited most of the rooms in the school, hopefully chatting with the kids about their projects.
The second part of the science fair happened Wednesday, May 24, and it focused on design and engineering rather than the experimentation part of the scientific method. We want kids to tinker, play, build, and improve a thing. There were the three “traditional” construction projects: making a toothpick bridge that can span 70 cm and hold a progressively heavier load; building a toothpick tower that is at least 25 cm tall and can hold up a progressively higher stack of textbooks; and a made-from-anything catapult that can throw a ping-pong ball into a trash can 3 meters away. The "competition" part involved a formula based relationship between the weight of the bridge or tower and the amount it held up -- in all categories, our class members rocked it -- Caedon's unbreakable bridge, the Ken/Mikey no-crush tower, and Thomas' one-shot-wonder catapult. The 8th grade, or possibly just our class, has also added two other categories: project prototype (Maya's track blocks, Neha's glove dryer, Max's Chromebook projector, Lena's human recipe) The “unbuild” category should involve carefully dissecting a mechanical device, figuring out the details and specifics of how it works, and then creating some sort of demonstration board that they can use to show others what they have learned (Amiri/Rhema food dispenser, Gwen's toaster and Taran's toilet).
Last Call for Sex Ed Objections: This coming week's main morning curriculum will be about "sex ed" stuff (not the current politically correct term, I know). The class and I and Stella had kind of a "setting the stage" discussion this past Tuesday during which I gave them an overview of the topics that have been covered in the past and showed some of the questions that were written by student of previous years. This class shows a good attitude about this stuff and also a high level of knowledge and willingness to share. There is also a good level of curiosity and comfort on the part of those who may be less knowledgable and therefore willing to ask things. This is all to say that I think that this year's discussions will be at a fairly advanced level and will delve into areas beyond just puberty, reproductive anatomy, prenatal development, and child birth. There will likely be questions asked about gender identification, homosexuality, sex, contraception, masturbation, dating, rape, pornography, and maybe others that I can't think of right now. Given that these topics are (and should be) fraught with moral, religious, and personal views and values, I wan't to make sure that parents know that there is certainly an opt-out option. Please let me know if you want to discuss that.