Post date: Jan 23, 2011 6:58:27 AM
Dear Parents and Students:
I left school early on Friday in order to spend some time with a friend of mine who lost his mother the night before. As we traveled the length of the Los Gatos Creek Trail that afternoon, I realized that it is a blessing and obligation to be able to be loving of family, compassionate towards friends and colleagues, and to tenaciously pursue our own greatest potential. Some events, whether our own or experienced by proxy, demand that we restate our priorities and passions in life and assure alignment between those and our daily actions. Our time here and together is never to be taken for granted. I mention all of this because it relates directly to my glorious indoctrination into DCS over the past few months and the inviting path that lies ahead.
Here is what we worked on during this four day week:
English:
During book club meetings on Tuesday the students presented book projects to their peers and received some complimentary and constructive feedback. This is my first time assigning the projects on the list and I'm pleased that many of the students have done such thoughtful and creative work. The walls of room 25 are well adorned with some excellent creations and I'm pleased with the results of their efforts. The scores for those projects are up on PowerSchool, and the scores for digital projects (those housed online) will be up by the end of the weekend.
For vocabulary this week, the students helped to enter definitions and sentences onto the 1000 words list from the book that I recommended for purchase last week.
Another great collaborative effort was the formation of a class-wide information document about John Steinbeck's life and works (Heumannoids version and StuCrew version). The students all contributed valuable information and from it formed a clear impression of the man, his subject matter, and the details of some of his major works. Armed with that knowledge (and some subjective descriptions from me) the students chose book club groups for the next few weeks. Steinbeck's style and stories will hopefully keep the kids engaged as well as encourage some insightful analysis and commentary.
Science:
In order to gauge the student's interest in the next chapter, I had them browse it on Monday and submit questions about a topic of personal curiosity or interest. My intent is to use those questions to guide specific areas of study. A fantastic NOVA video provided a strong introduction into our (unfortunately short) unit on thermodynamics. The kids attended fully, questioned appropriately, and understood the scientific as well as social and historical aspects of our knowledge of temperature and heat energy. We also received the first issue in our ScienceWorld subscription and the kids read about "Extreme Labs" as they completed a jeopardy game during class on Friday.
Coming Up:
The second semester starts on Monday and that means A+ grades for all! (0/0=100%). Seriously, the clean slate provides the opportunity for all students to establish and maintain an excellent performance record. For me, the new semester means the start of the woodworking selective -- an exciting challenge that I'm hoping will take hold and grow at Discovery. I'm counting on this initial group of 12 students to create great works for themselves as well as the school.
Sincerely,
Chris Heumann