January So Far...

January is off to a rollicking good start in the 5/6. (Snow Days excluded, or perhaps enjoyed.) Here's a long, rambling recap of some of the things we've done with these first eight days of January.

A quiet work period in the middle of a very busy two weeks. 

Evan explains the ideas supporting the exploration of Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs).

This month has a strong science and social studies focus. Our new school theme is Journeys, and we're exploring that by beginning a unit on manned exploration of space.

Last week, the students split up into small groups to learn about a possible destination for a human habitat outside of the atmosphere. The groups each read an article about the logistics of putting people in one of the following places: Low-Earth Orbit, Near-Earth Asteroids,  Luna (Earth's moon), Venus, or Mars. (Ask your student about the destination that they researched!)

Marcellin and a guest student explain a proposed mission to Venus. 

Prior to presenting, each student had a specific role in their group: The Data Specialist was responsible for making notes on the key points in the document. The Mission Commander was responsible for presenting the groups report to the whole class. The other students in the group were given mini-rubrics to help the Mission Commander prepare the short presentation, as well as being responsible for the initial reporting.

Each group then presented a summary of what they learned to the rest of the class.

This week, science has been focused on the wide variety of technologies that have been developed or enhanced as a result of Space Exploration (Insulin pumps! Whale tracking technology! Helmet padding!) . Each student is investigating two specific NASA created (or developed) technologies.



In math, we are doing a small project on data collection, display, and analysis. So far the students have crafted questions suitable for analysis ("What month were you born in?" "How tall are you in inches?").

Today we talked about how to collect and organize the data as it's being collected, and then moved on to actual data collection. A few students have begun to transfer their data to a Google Sheet (the spreadsheet program in Google Drive). Next week, we'll be working on analyzing and presenting the data and making conclusions.

Owen collects data about student's favorite sport to play.

We've also wrapped up our book group presentations. As mentioned in a previous post, we've been reading novels in small groups. Each group has completed their book and prepared a presentation for the rest of the class to share about the book and their experiences. Some groups spoke in the first person as characters from the book, some read excerpts, and everyone gave enticing summaries about what was valuable and interesting about each book that they read.

Eleanor, Emma, and Adri talk about Out of My Mind. 

Jonah, Evan, Gabe, Ben, and Oliver discuss First Light. 

Niko reads a selection from A Wizard of Earthsea, as Marcellin, Luke, David, and Owen await their turns to share. 

We've also been having some group discussions about the media, society, and how we interact with each other. On Monday, we wanted to gauge how kids were processing anything that they may have heard in the news about various terrorist acts. Students' awareness of the news stories varied widely, which lead to a productive discussion about how we consume media, and why certain stories stick out in our minds. For example, of all the current events that were mentioned, the only one that almost every student had heard of was the semi truck full of fireworks that was involved in an accident on I-94. We talked a little about why that story has stuck out in their minds. ("It's sort of scary." "It's exciting.") We eventually hit on the idea of personal relevance and/proximity: Something happened that feels close to you. Car accidents on I-94 feel much more relevant than car accidents in Nevada.

We eventually also talked a little bit about the incidents in France recently, trying parse through the rationale for such a senseless act. We talked about the concept of satire, fundamentalism, freedom of the press, and the challenges (and strengths) of living in blended, multicultural societies.

Finally, we had a long sprawling conversation yesterday about our personal interactions at school. We frequently have these kinds of discussions on a small scale, sometimes in response to a specific conversation, and other times preemptively, but yesterday's chat was particularly in depth.

We talked a lot about how to navigate the constantly shifting power dynamics of the middle school world. We talked about "being your best self" as often as possible, with the understanding that no one can always achieve that. However, if one of us happens to fall short on a given day or in a particular moment, as long as the rest of us hold ourselves together, things will be okay. We also talked about how to prevent situations from spiraling out control, not carrying the grudges of other people, and strategies to help things run smoothly during these occasionally turbulent pre-teen years.

This is a spotty snapshot of some of the things that were discussed. We'll be revisiting this conversation regularly in the weeks and months ahead.

---

Oh, one more item worthy of note:

In writing last week, we went over the rules of using quotation marks when writing dialogue in stories. As practice in this, kids were required to write a dialogue between three or four characters using proper punctuation. The dialogue did not have to be a self-contained story, but it did have to give some sense of what the larger plot was, where the setting was, and a bit about the personalities of the characters involved. They are still trickling in, as they're not formally due until tomorrow (Friday), but on the whole, they've been both excellent and hilarious. Since the assignment only asked for a scene, many kids seemed content to come up with some bizarre and creative ideas. Nearly everyone of them is a cliffhanger begging for the larger context of the unwritten story. They're great.

On a whim, we staged a few of them as impromptu mini-plays in class the other day, much to the delight of everyone.

Scenes from the final week of 2014

Now that the energy and excitement of the play has crested, we have a week left before a well-earned break. The final week in December can often be a tricky one, as people are starting to burst at the seams, but we're still getting a lot done! 

On Monday, the first of our book groups presented to the class, telling us a bit about the characters and themes of Mockingbird, the book they had read. 

Later in the day, Gabe and David gave a presentation teaching us about tiling and tessellation, which included a group activity designed to illustrate what shapes are able to tessellate. (It's difficult to photograph a slideshow in low light, so please know that David is actually pointing out a detail of a tiling, as opposed to just a blob of white light.) 

In Math today, what was meant as a warm-up exercise wound up taking over much of the morning, as kids worked together (using manipulatives, drawings, paper, and white boards) to solve a logic puzzle involving checkers on a board. 

Today was also one of our days for PE, so after working through the morning, they were ready to run off some energy in the afternoon. 

Our class lately. . .

It's been difficult to adequately sum up what's been happening at school lately, as we've been very busy! 



First and foremost, our upcoming school play looms over everything. Rehearsals for Alice have taken over this week, and things have been coming together nicely! 

A full dress rehearsal underway in the atrium

Meanwhile, the students who aren't in the play are working on a variety of other projects. 

Gabe and David are working on a tessellation presentation. Marcellin and Keira are working on creating a fraction game. 

Owen began working on an S-K themed newspaper, and Oliver has started contributing as well. 

Meanwhile, our entire class continues our investigation into water, water purity, and filtration. Here, Sam uses a student-built filter to see if it can remove green food coloring from a cup of water. (It can't! Why not?)

Nick shows off a jar of water that has been driving a lot of our investigations. It was pulled from the standing water just behind the S-K playground. We've been watching as it settles and changes, and learning about the processes that cause the jar to re-pressurize every time we open it and re-seal it. 

We've also been conducting an experiment in evaporation. We placed the same amount of water into differently shaped containers. At what rate will each evaporate? (If they're different rates, why might that be?) Not only is it an exercise in surface area, evaporation, and filtration, but also one involving experimental design and good data collection. (Students are also writing a set of procedures that are precise enough that someone else could replicate the experiment.) 

On top of this, we're also continuing with our book groups. Some groups are finished with their books and have moved onto preparing presentations to share with the rest of the class. It's a busy time! 

Book groups

Joanna talks about A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LaGuin.

Starting next Monday, we'll begin our new book groups. Each group of four-to-five students will be reading one of five different books:

Not pictured: Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. (Our copies are on order...)

Rachel Goldberg, our resident librarian, came in and gave inspiring book talks about each novel on Monday. We then asked each student to rank them in the order of greatest-to-least interest. We'll be announcing the groups soon, but everyone seems likely to get their first or second choice.

Each group will be led by an adult, who will be reading the novel along with the students and guiding discussions. Everyone seems very excited about it!