Week 11 -- Myth, music, and math

There was a big focus on performance this week. The most public example of that was a substantial amount of preparation for the Friday night’s Music Cafe. Keyboards, drum sets, music stands, and the occasional harp were dragged to and fro as kids found places to practice their pieces for the show. We also received our parts for the school play, and we began our first proper run throughs of the script. We also began reciting our Summers-Knoll myths to each other. You may recall that we’ve been writing stories that convey some aspect of the culture of Summers-Knoll. Now, we’re telling them to each other and seeing what aspects resonate with people and survive later retellings. In addition to being audiences for each other, we were able to spend part of Wednesday morning attending the poetry exhibitions of the 7/8s to see what they’ve been studying. Finally, some we were visited by some actors from the Stratford Festival, who engaged the entire middle school in some acting exercises. 

Our journal writing prompt this week was, “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” It’s a thought that speaks to the spirit of risk-taking and courage that emboldens these kids to stand up in front of each other and our community to tell stories, sing songs, and share themselves so openly and publicly with the world.

In math, some students took a risk of another sort by participating in the AMC-8 math competition on Tuesday. Math competitions aren’t exactly a common occurrence at Summers-Knoll, but they are certainly an interesting thing to opt into for a unique experience. Meanwhile, our class began investigating the concept of multiplication, discovering that there are actually dozens of ways to perform this seemingly mundane mathematical operation. It’s an investigation that we’ll be continuing in the weeks ahead, learning different methods and then evaluating them for precision and speed.

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There was some time after Science class for some fall fun on Friday:

Week 7 - Where we've been, where we're going

We go outside unless the weather is truly dangerous, which means we endure the occasional rain shower. This inspired some kids to come up with a hands-free way to hold umbrellas. 

Much of this week was spent reflecting on what we’ve done this year to inform what will come next. The monarchs have flown, and planting season is far away, so our milkweed and monarch thoughts have turned toward what next steps we’d like to take in this developing program. On Monday, we shared our brainstorming for what we’d like to do during this year (make videos, write guides, author books), and what we’d like to see happening with the project five years from now (S-K families making gardens at their homes, collecting scientifically useful data, partnering with other schools and organizations). Some of these projects will be completed this year, others will be things that we build toward over time.

We’ve also shifted the focus of our study of the Yanomami, turning toward the myths and legends of their culture. This year’s school play will have a mythology theme, and our class will be adapting one of their myths for our portion of the script . To that end, we’re also learning about what myths are, especially in terms of how they are passed down to teach the values of a culture. Studying the stories that a culture shares can give insight to what that culture values. (If you dare, ask one of the students about the story of how humans first obtained fire.)

As always, we’ve also had a couple of writing prompts. In our journals, we responded to the Theodore Roosevelt quote, “Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right,” while our creative writing prompt was, “You are a dragon raised by a family of turkeys. Describe the moment that you discovered your true identity.” Responses varied.

In math, we continued to work with Sam’s math group on learning the various ways to plot data about monarch development, while also devoting two days to work on our individual Singapore progress.

Week Four: POP X, magical items, masters and beginners, and hand feeding butterflies

This week we took an impromptu field trip this week, traveling to downtown Ann Arbor’s Liberty Plaza to visit POP X, an art installation. Students explored the exhibits in trios, making note of what intrigued them, then returned to school and designed their own exhibits in the spirit of what they saw.

In homeroom, we discussed the elements of a story, focusing on what makes writing compelling. We then wrote a couple of lackluster stories together, then worked individually to make them more engaging. We also had a writing prompt about taking ordinary items (flashlights, paintbrushes, etc) and making them magical, and a journal prompt that asked students to consider the quote “the master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.”

We also continued our close reading of The Tiger Rising as a group, analyzing the writing to discern the author’s intent.

On top of all of that, we also had a talk with Rachel about banned books, and toured a project gallery of a recent project by the 7/8 classroom.

We're committed to getting outside as often as possible, which sometimes makes for rainy recesses. 

The muddiest kick line ever 

In math group, we spent two days working in our Singapore books, and spent the other two days playing an assortment of math games, identifying what mathematical concepts were involved in each (pattern recognition, symmetry, arithmetic, etc.)

On Friday morning, we partnered with Sam's class to lead the all school assembly, where we talked about our ongoing work with Lisa and monarch butterflies. 

Lisa hand feeds one of our monarchs. 

Learning to wrangle monarch butterflies safely 

Jason's Class: The Trailer

It is astonishingly difficult to get ten different kids to 1.) smile, 2.) keep their eyes open, and 3.) look at a camera at the same time.  

In this blog post, enjoy the many attempts that I made, along with a smattering of various happenings from the last few weeks. 

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Here's a video that you may have seen over email. Ella has called it "the trailer for our class." 

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We've had a few birthdays lately. It's a class tradition to allow the birthday person to choose a class activity in celebration. On Ella's birthday, she opted for "class karaoke." Watch the video below at your peril. 

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There has been a lot of wetland exploration at recess.

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Shan was unexpectedly out sick for PE one day, so we picked a park, got on a bus, and headed over to check it out. 

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In Math, kids are doubling down on their book work, setting personal goals for the end of the year. Some classes are spent working toward those goals, others are spent playing math games. Here are a couple of moments from a class game of Farkle, which is a favorite. 

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There have been a number of presentations lately. We've been learning about the American Revolution, and Nick prepared a lecture on the military tactics of that time. 

Later, Miel and Bora presented on guinea pigs, complete with a guest appearance by Miel's pets. 

Oliver the human meets Oliver the guinea pig. 

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Our milkweed & monarch project continues to require a significant amount of work. The good news is that our beds are almost prepared. 

This was on Juna's birthday. This probably wasn't how she planned on spending it. 

Rest for the weary. 

Our impact study. We delicately examine logs, looking to see what might be living in the area where we were digging. 

Here's what we found! These are the mystery eggs discovered beneath a log (pillbug provided for scale). Any ideas on what they are? 

This is the site where we harvested soil for our beds. What is the impact of our actions? What did this site look like before, and what will it look like after we've gone? Now that we've seen the small impact that we made, we were led to wonder where soil purchased from stores comes from? 

When we return from our spring trip, we'll be forging ahead to get things planted and established before the end of school.