Week 19 -- Introducing our Place Out of Time characters

We received our Place Out of Time character assignments back from the University of Michigan on Monday, so we have spent the majority of our homeroom time digging into them. Students are focusing on getting a broad overview of their characters, creating timelines of personal and historical milestones, while slowly filling in the massive P.O.O.T. research log. What were Ella Baker’s parents like? What did Heddy Lamar keep in her pockets? What is George W. Bush’s greatest regret? Does Peter Jackson have allergies? Some of the questions they’ll be asked will be unknowable, but by the time we peak with the Place Out of Time simulation, everyone will be able to make educated guesses on how their character might react to a wide variety of situations. Our next big assignment will be to compose a “resume” for their character, written in their voice, which will be posted on their profile page on the Place Out of Time message board.

Our cast of characters:

Hedy Lamarr

Stephen Hawking

Ella Baker

Emma Watson

Robert "Bob" Ufer

Bill Gates

Peter Jackson

J.K. Rowling

George W. Bush

Jazz Jennings

Steve Jobs

In math group, we have spent the week focusing on making progress in our Singapore books, balanced with math and strategy games.

Week 18 -- Move-up day, leading assembly

Demonstrating "Mystery Person."

This was an unusual week in a few ways. First of all, between the holiday and the ice day, it was quite brief. Second, Thursday was our annual “Move-Up Day,” during which everyone is temporarily promoted to the next grade level and spends the day in the appropriate classroom. Our sixth graders all became seventh graders and joined Karl and Rachel upstairs. In their places, we welcomed visitors from Chris and Spencer’s classes and made them honorary fifth graders. It was a novel way to spend the day, and everyone got a glimpse of what next year might look like for them.

Finally, our class led the weekly all-school assembly on Friday, and planning it took most of the small chunk of homeroom time that we have on Wednesday. For this assembly, it was decided that the kids would organize and run everything, and that I would be completely, 100% silent for the proceedings. (Apparently, I spoke a little too much at the last assembly we were in charge of. Ahem.) Assemblies are partially intended to give a view into the happenings of each classroom, and our class decided to spotlight two things. The first was Sana’s S-K myth (accompanied by an interpretive play), and the second was “Mystery Person,” which is a brief, collaborative game that we regularly play at the end of the school day.

Meanwhile, our math group met twice this week. On Thursday, we combined with Sam’s math class to play math games with our guest students, and Friday was devoted to work in our Singapore books.

Week 17 -- Mr. Thomas Jefferson and the Forehead Game.

We began 2017 with a visit from an especially distinguished guest speaker, Mr. Thomas Jefferson, primary author of the Declaration of Independence, the first Secretary of State, and the third President of the United States of America. We had an informal and wide-ranging conversation with Mr. Jefferson, learning about what schooling was like in his day, what he did in his leisure time, and a bit about his on-again/off-again friendship with fellow founding father John Adams.

If you’re wondering why you didn’t hear about such a momentous visit on the news, or at least on the car ride home from school, it’s probably because it was only me portraying the man, doing my best to accurately portray Jefferson based on what I’ve learned about his life and times. It was our introduction to Place Out of Time (also known as “POOT.” Get used to hearing that term. You’ll be hearing it a lot in the weeks ahead), which is an annual middle school project in which students research and portray a notable figure in a series of in-class and online conversations. It’s a fun and intensive project, and the 5/6s have spent much of the week compiling a list of three different figures who they’d be interested in portraying.

Much of our week was devoted to this assignment (take a look at the assignment here), which was scaffolded with mini-lessons on internet research, the differences between primary and secondary sources, and a host of short conversations about various famous and infamous characters throughout history that kids are considering portraying.

In Math, we introduced two games geared toward practicing our basic math facts. One is called ‘Beat the Calculator,’ in which two students tackle the same problem, one using paper and pencil, and the other using a calculator. The other is called… The Forehead Game, which is a terrible name for it, but it’s fun to play. It’s easier to see it in action than to describe it, so take a look at the video below from my math group last year. We also spent two day working in our Singapore books.

Week 16 -- Writing stories, making art, bowling, and sledding

The week before a big break is one that always threatens to descend into chaos. Happily, we have a few projects that have kept us busy and engaged in these last days of 2016.


The artwork for our biome games is coming along marvelously, but it’s a lot of work. Each team needs to make a total of 41 cards, each with unique artwork, and each student has taken responsibility for some portion of that. We’re also in the process of assigning point values to each card, which need to accurately represent the organism’s place in the trophic level of the biome, while also being a functional card in the mechanics of the game.

Artwork for Into the Great Barrier Reef 

Artwork for Into the Great Barrier Reef 

Everyone also started a new story from their choice of one of the following writing prompts; “Write a story in which a young superhero gets a part-time job to support his/her secret identity. Unfortunately, s/he is hired by a super villain.” “Write a story about a magician who has a terrible act… until s/he discovers a mysterious portal to another dimension.” “While digging in the woods, a child stumbles across five ancient dragon eggs…”

The rest of the week was peppered with other activities. We made more progress in When You Reach Me, which is our current read aloud book. The highlights of the week, however, are both the work of PE superstar Shan Cook, who arranged an all-middle school bowling trip on Wednesday morning, and a sledding trip for us on Friday. Here are 45,000 photos for you to peruse (it's difficult to shoot photos in a bowling alley):

Finally, we kept things simple in our math group, devoting one day to Singapore work, and the other to a spirited session of math games. Have a lovely break!