Post date: Dec 18, 2010 10:20:34 AM
Hello again --
Friday was a day that I will remember with warmth and awe for a long time to come. At the beginning of the day I was given a letter by Suzy, telling me that many of the families had pitched in together to help pay for part of my daughter Hannah to attend the DC trip with DCS. This is such an amazing gesture and message -- hard for me to describe how it feels. Your support, inclusion, and generosity brought tears to my eyes and a feeling in my heart that I have never felt in a work environment. To have you be so caring and supportive of me and my family is the greatest honor and blessing. The rest of the day played out similarly -- gifts for each other, fun 'white elephant' exchanges, food, music, and wishes for happy holidays. I've come to appreciate the close village that is DCS and to see that what makes the school magic is the collection of interconnected families that know, love, and build each other so very much. If it weren't quite so awkward (and raining so hard) I'd be up on the rooftops telling the whole world just how progressively more wonderful life at DCS is becoming for me.
Recap of the Week:
In English, we tied up some loose ends and finished the collaborative writing project (except for those who choose to add finishing touches over vacation). I am encouraged and impressed at the improvement in students writing. The word choice, tone, and overall effort is great. My biggest goal is to have the kids become excellent and effective writers that are well prepared to meet the challenges and expectations of high school writing, and there is much progress towards that end. I'll post links to those stories on my website over the next few days. Happy reading.
In vocabulary world, the students continued entering words from their books onto a collaborative spreadsheet wherein they include definitions and specific meanings. I'm a big proponent of a powerful and purposeful vocabulary use and this seems to be an effective way to build one's repertoire of excellent words. Additionally, these GoogleDocs that the student create are adding a level of interactivity and interdependence (and responsibility) that raises the bar for overall quality and effort.
The three-minute speeches ended today as well, and some hidden talents were revealed. For most it was a big challenge to be in front of the group, but all did quite well. Some hidden talents were revealed and I'm thrilled that even those that are shy or scared rose to the occasion and delivered something good to the group.
In science the kids used KidsDiscover magazine to learn more about simple machines, and I used the CPS "clickers" to guide and assess their exploration of the student magazine. By the way, I wrote another grant on Monday. This time to fund the purchase of our own set of clickers for the middle school to share. I'll find out during the first week of January. The students also added a "machines" page to their site upon which they embedded pictures and links about how a particular simple machine works. That page will grow a bit after vacation, and the students will likely build models and/or demonstration devices about their machines.
I tried two new things this week. First, I created group accounts for an online service called Quizlet that allows students to create, use, and share sets of flash cards to use for vocabulary, science, history, or whatever. Within just a few minutes of launching their accounts, some students were challenging each other to compete for times and "play" the challenges that the site offers. Best of all, this one is free so I won't be hitting you up for another little contribution this week (remember Pixton, ScienceWorld, and Scope?)
The other new thing was that for one of the days I created a to-do list for each person to fill out as the progressed through the tasks of the day. They checked off completed items and got confirmation initials from another student and I collected them back at the end of the period just for the sake of accountability. I'm a "list guy" and thought that I'd see how it worked for the kids to try it as well. None resisted too much and some actually liked it. I'm thinking that it will become common practice for a while and then optional for those that are able to maintain their own focus and productivity without it.
Upcoming After Break:
I'll be doing a lot of essay reading over the break and that will give me some indication of what we will do in January. I'd like to build in some grammar lessons in a painless way as well as have the kids be able to do quick-write compositions in a range of literary styles. More on that as the thoughts develop and research is done.
In science, be prepared for a New Year's resolution to conserve energy. I'd like to get the students to do an energy audit on their home using power meters and contributing to an online database of appliance energy use. At the risk of being invasive to your home life, I would like the next unit on "energy" to hit as close to home as possible and seed the possibilities of lifelong practices and attitudes that help them conserve energy. To initiate that process, they'll be testing the power draw of anything at home that is plugged into a wall.
My most heart-felt thanks go out to all of you for treating me, the classroom, our time, and each other with such value. We are all fortunate to be able to work together.
Sincerely,
Chris Heumann
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