A few photos from our last day!

Well, we've closed the door on another year! Our final weeks were fun and productive, and our final day was a maelstrom of wrap up and farewells. Here are a few quick snapshots, far from comprehensive:

Gabe and Marcellin: Newly-minted 7th graders

Maddy and Adri tending to a new honorary member of our class: Jason's new baby Abe. 

Josh commandeered a small squad of students to help him pack up the music room, including these mysterious fellows. 

Going through the pictures that I snapped, I'm starting to realize just how many kids held Abe that day. None of you were sick, right? RIGHT??

Outgoing Eleanor holding incoming Abe. 

Adri and Abe.

Ariana and Abe. 

Ah, they grow up so fast.

Thanks for a wonderful year!

Collaborative Writing: Crafting a class "choose your own adventure" story

Adri wrote and illustrated a children's book:
The Very Fairy Princess Goes to Mars.

It's been an unusual few weeks in our class. I (Jason) was out on paternity leave for two weeks, and then the class was gone on the spring trip all of last week. We're finally all back together and at school now, so things are back to normal, if only for another week or so. 

Nick wrote and drew a comic in the style of
Berkeley Breathed (creator of Bloom County,
Outland, and others)

Our last full week together is still packed full of things to do. Many kids are wrapping up projects that they've been working on, and we'll be sharing and presenting our work to each other in the days ahead. Many projects are currently on display in the Middle School Commons, so take a peek if you find yourself in the building this week! 

Kit has been working on a comic adventure in the
style of Tintin creator Hergé

We also started a new writing project today, which has been a fun exercise in creative collaborative work. As a class, we're writing a Choose Your Own Adventure story. We started out by brainstorming some details about two characters, then began pitching in ideas as I typed the story onto a large computer screen. We quickly brought our characters to a point in the story where they had two options, and then we broke into two smaller groups to begin writing them. After advancing those two story lines, each of those branched, creating even smaller groups. As it stands, we have six possible stories in the work, and we'll continue to branch off until each student writes their own ending, which means there will be at least 22 possible outcomes of the story. 

Marcellin adapted the design of the Wright Brothers famous
plane to make it more suited to the atmosphere of
Mars

Rereading what I just wrote makes it seem a little complicated, which is fair, because it has been. But it's also been very fun, and everyone has worked really well together. 

We'll continue this project this week, but  if you're interested in checking out our story so far, click here. (Disclaimer: This is decidedly still a work in progress.) 

Eleanor wrote a short story in the style of author
Wendy Mass

Spring Trip Day 3: The UP

We boarded the busses and headed out over the bridge for two stops in the UP. First was Whitefish Point to see the Shipwreck Museum and hear the tale of the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. They said they might post some pictures taken at the Museum on their Facebook page today.

At Whitefish Point

Looking for boats through the fog.

Listening to Bev (the lighthouse guide) talk about the original
lenses used in the lighthouse. (She was quite a character.)

In the museum looking at artifacts.

Our lunch stop, "The Berry Patch" in Paradise, MI.
Good Pasties.

After Whitefish Point, we stopped for lunch at a well recommended local establishment for a quick lunch.

Our final stop of the day was Sault Ste. Marie for a guided boat tour of the Locks, dinner and mini-golf.

On the Locks Tour, looking at a Canadian Steel Manufacturing Plant.

Spring Trip Day 2: Mackinac Island

All aboard!

It's been another exhausting day for us up here on the Straits of Mackinac. After last night's late arrival, we slept in a little and began with a lovely carb-rich breakfast at our hotel. We boarded the 10:00am ferry for the Island.

On the Island, we took a tour by horse drawn carriage. Our first stop was at the Butterfly House (where we warmed up from the rather cold day).

Preparing to fire the cannon.

Look at me! I'm on a HORSE!

After a few more stops, including Arch Rock, our tour ended at Fort Mackinaw. Then, somehow, I ended up on a horse. (Shan and I both took groups of kids riding. I've never been on a horse for more than five minutes before.)

We had dinner on the Island and then took the last ferry (7:00pm) back to the mainland. 

You can just see the Bridge in the right of this one.

  It's a little cold on the boat.



Our day ended with some time at the pool and lights out at 10:00pm. Tomorrow morning has us shipping off to Whitefish Point, the Shipwreck museum, and the Soo Locks.

Spring Trip Day 1

View off the balcony.

Day one of the trip was a lot of driving, sand, and raining (and sometimes driving rain). Shan took a lot of photos; right now I'm just posting a few that I had on my camera.

The hotel has worked out really well, there are two rooms with a hallway between them that has the bathroom off of it. The adult room has the standard door; the kids, much larger room, has a balcony looking out on Lake Michigan.

At Sleeping Bear

The Villager Pub in Charlevoix were great hosts
for 20 unannounced 5/6s

We found a great spot for dinner in Charlevoix (original plan was scrapped because of the weather). Ask the kids about "deep fried macaroni and cheese bites."

Today we're going to catch the 10:00am boat for Mackinac Island. The weather is supposed to hold out, though we might experience a little light rain--nothing like the storms from last night.

Guest Student Post: Projects, Projects and More Projects

This part of the blog post was written by Lindsay as part of her continuing study of Vivian Maier:

The last couple of weeks the 5th and 6th graders have been creating projects based on their M.O.O.T (Mars Out Of Time) characters. M.O.O.T is a website where 5/6s act as historical figures of their choosing and solve problems related to creating a Mars colony. They have been making paintings, stories, games, and more all week. Here is what some of the students have been creating.

Oliver S. (Andy Warhol) is painting a picture in the style of Andy Warhol in a Mars theme. The painting will be either of the rocky surface of Mars, or of a spaceship. Andy Warhol made the famous ‘Campbell’s Soup Cans’ painting.

Evan (Gengis Khan) & Ben (Shigeru Miyamoto) are making a board game about Mars. The goal of the game is to conquer the Martians on the planet Mars. Genghis Khan was a warrior, and Shigeru Miyamoto was a video game designer.

Kit is portraying Georges Remi, also known as Hergé. Kit is drawing a comic in the style of Hergé. The comic is about a few kids who live in the Mars colony. But when disaster strikes, it’s up to them to make it right. Hergé is the writer and illustrator of the famous comics, called Tintin.

--Lindsay

In addition to the MOOT projects that Lindsay wrote about, students are working one or more other projects as well including: video documentaries, book projects, and/or completing a story. [--Sam]

Oliver S is working on his documentary and Olie is making a game for his book project.

Trials, Bias, Prejudice, Baltimore, and Polygons

Some social issues that we've been exploring in class recently have given some context for the recent events in Baltimore. 


A couple of weeks ago, we watched the 1957 film 12 Angry Men. It's a classic that remains captivating nearly 60 years later. It's a film that builds slowly (the story essentially unfolds in real time), and the bulk of it takes place in one room. 

I was interested in screening it for the class because offers a number of ways to begin talking about the basics of our legal system, but it's also a great film to watch when teaching writing. The story is built methodically, and the characters are efficiently, but vividly drawn. All twelve characters are distinct and recognizable (if not particularly well fleshed out). 

If you've seen it, you know that film addresses bias and prejudice, particularly the type that most people profess not to have. This idea alone inspired quite a bit of discussion. 

The film is a good introduction to aspects of our legal system. The right to a fair trial is one of them (though how fair the trial actually was is part of the story). The concept of being judged by a jury of peers is another, and we talked about what that meant for the defendant: He was a kid from the slums, and the jury of his "peers" was a group of older, mostly middle or upper class white males. This reflects the time of the film, but jury selection remains an important part of the process. What would a true jury of one's peers look like, and why is that important? 


We've also talked about the concept of unearned privilege and unconscious bias. This is a giant issue, but this video provides a good point of entry for such a complicated conversation: 





We've talked a lot about bias, prejudice, stereotypes, and privilege, particularly terms of race, economic status, gender identity, and other ways in which we tend to view people. The conversations have been open, engaging, and lively. 

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Seemingly unrelated, we also spent some time going through this thought-provoking activity: Parable of the Polygons. It involves these little guys: 

The entire post is well worth reading , but here's the gist: All of the shapes are slightly shapist. They don't dislike each other, but they also don't want to be the only one of their kind living in a neighborhood. Here's a breakdown of their rules for happiness: 

While the shapes don't want to be a strong minority in their neighborhoods, they're actually happiest in a diverse situation, as shown in the middle. As you can see on the right, they're actually a little less happy in a completely homogenous environment. 


So each of these little shapes values diversity, but has a small bias. The game allows you to move a shape only when they're unhappy. Under this rule set, it's amazing how quickly the "neighborhoods" becomes segregated: 

Again, reading through the entire post is really worthwhile. Everyone in class was able to work with the site for a while, changing variables and making observations. The big lesson was that small, seemingly inconsequential biases can lead to a larger, systemwide bias. 

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All of this eventually led to a discussion of the events in Baltimore, Ferguson, and beyond. We talked about what we had heard about the story (and there were a lot of misconceptions about the basics of those situations), and made some connections about why these issues might be occurring. Why might some communities be so segregated? Why might there be a disconnect between a community and the police department that serves it? What role does bias play in these interactions, and our understanding of them? 

Of course, these questions don't have easy answers, but we've found much of value in the conversation.