Week 9 in review

Yet another newcomer has taken up residence in the Middle School Commons. Drop by to take a peek at the lovely new habitat the next time you're in the building!  

It was a short week, as we had parent/teacher conferences on Monday and Tuesday. What time we did have was very heavy on Art. In addition to our two regularly-scheduled sessions, we also had an additional all-middle school gathering to hear about and see the work of visiting artist Leslie Sobel. Check out Monica's Middle School Art Blog for more info (and to see some of Leslie's work). 

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In my Journalism elective, we unveiled the very first issue of the Summers-Knoll Wall Paper, which is our school-newspaper-on-a-wall. We opted to publish one large edition in a public space, rather than printing out individual copies in order to minimize the use of resources, as well as to create a space where students can gather to read and talk about the articles and features. (A blog version is also in the works...) The S-K Wall Paper is located right across from the large community chalk board as you enter the school. Take a look!  

As you can see, it's a team effort from kids ranging from 3rd grade to 8th grade. 

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Last week in homeroom, we decided as a group that our collective geography skills could use some substantial work. There are a lot of ways to address this, and something that clicks for one kid doesn't necessarily work for others. One thing that has worked for at least a subset our group is a very competitive (but friendly!) attempt to get the highest possible score in the shortest possible time (with 100% accuracy) on this online Place the State game. (It's sort of like Tetris, but with states.) 

There are a few kids who have gone from near complete ignorance of the 50 states, to borderline mastery of them. (Of course, knowing the names and locations of the states is fairly arbitrary without learning more about the states themselves, but this has been an excellent first step for many kids.) 

Two kids who have consistently achieved excellent scores have been tasked with a new project: Freehand drawing all fifty states without a reference. Here's Kaz delighting in how challenging it can be: 

He has pleaded with me not to show a close-up of his work, but I can tell you that his first draft is probably substantially more accurate than most people in the country could manage. (And his second draft will be excellent.) WARNING: I've suggested that kids start challenging the adults in their life to try their hands at this. Study up! 

For inspiration, here's Senator Al Franken drawing a map of the United States of America freehand and from memory: 

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Finally, in addition to making progress in our class read aloud Esperanza Rising, we're also making sure to devote chunks of class time to free reading. Student choice in reading material has a significant impact on their motivation and enjoyment. Here we see Eva flaunting the gendered implication of this anthology of short stories: 

Jason's Documentary elective

As I'm sure you know, we recently started our second round of electives for the year. My (Jason) elective is Documentaries, where we'll be both watching and creating films. We've met a few times so far, and I thought you might like a peek at some of what we've watched together: 

We started off with a viewing of Roger & Me, the film that put Michael Moore on the map. Love him or hate him, he certainly knows how to provoke reaction, and we used his film to talk about the different ways a filmmaker can manipulate an audience to make a point. It's more of an essay than a strict documentary, and we talked a lot about how Moore uses contrasting footage (some would say unfairly) to make his points. You don't necessarily have to agree with Moore's politics to appreciate this film, and for some kids, it was surprising to learn that documentaries could be used to humorously advocate a philosophy. (It's also filtered through the history of Flint, Michigan, which helped illuminate some of the problems Michigan has had in recent decades.) 

(Note: We didn't watch this film completely unedited. I opted to omit some some of the more graphic imagery [if you've seen the film, you might recall the bunny scene. We skipped that, but talked about it.] and some of the sections with particularly strong language or adult content [who knew Bob Eubanks had such a mouth?]. If you revisit this film with your child, be aware.)

Since then, we've screened a number of short form documentaries, most of which are available online as of this writing. Check them out!


Sticky
Frankly, I think the less you know about this one before watching, the better. I will tell you that it's animated, lovely, and about twenty minutes long. 


Sticky from jilli rose on Vimeo.

If you must have more context before diving in, check out this brief article. 


Lost Buildings
This was a collaboration between the popular radio program (and podcast!) This American Life and graphic novelist Chris Ware. It was originally meant to be shown during a live show in an ornate theater. It was projected on a very large screen, so the images would at times tower over the audience, and at others be small windows into the story. It's about twenty minutes long. 


Lost Buildings from Kobey Teef on Vimeo.


Gan-Gan
A very short (about three minutes) documentary memorializing a departed loved one. It's a stop motion piece, lively and bittersweet. 


Gan-Gan from Gemma Green-Hope on Vimeo.


TMB Panyee FCThis short is upbeat and fun, and we talked about how it's a little deceptive. While watching it, it quickly becomes clear that it's a recreation with actors, rather than a pure documentary of actual events as they occurred. We talked about the ethics of this. Two of the earlier documentaries are animated, so they're clearly recreations as well. While those didn't trigger any ethical issues, this one did. Nevertheless, it's a fun, interesting little story about a football club in Thailand. 




We've got plenty more ahead, especially as we shift toward making our own films. We've been talking about ideas, and started making plans to bring them into reality. It's been really fun and engaging so far, and we look forward to sharing our work in the future!