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Jonathan

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 1:46:27 pm

NOTES from Humanities...

English: Work continues apace in English 8. We have been reviewing material on The Crucible. The final test will be on Friday, March 19, 2010. Students have prepared their own tests for review and they seem to have enjoyed presenting their original tests to others in the class. We continue to rehearse Act I on the stage, but results at this point are mixed. Some students have not not as yet memorized their lines and this is definitely holding progress back. Please encourage your child to do his or her best on this worthy project. Thank you! I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend.
Social Studies: Students juggled three distinct tasks this week all directly related to building skills that will be applied to their Research Projects. Students worked to submit and present their Mapping Projects within the March 17th to March 24th window, taking into considerations the penalties for late submissions versus the points awarded for thorough completion of the project. The project introduced use of NoodleTools, bibliography development, and referencing multiple sources of information. Students also continued to read from and take notes on Hakim’s “The History of US,” Book 5. This week we explored the Gold Rush, whaling, the technological advancements of the early 1800’s, and the changing scene of American politics in the 1840’s, including the rise, influence, and fall of the “American” or “Nativist” Party, a.k.a. “The Know Nothing Party.” Student note-taking focused on following logical format and “sectioning” and “labeling” of class notes. Finally, students worked with Virginia Remsberg on their Research Project. Students were to have presented at least 50 note cards today to demonstrate that each was not only progressing in identifying and documenting critical information, but that they were doing so in a systematic and well-ordered way. Students achieved these goals with varying degrees of success. Aldo, with the impending end of the marking period, students were informed this week of any assignments from Book 4 that were not completed in class and were then given an option on how best to handle the situation. Students are welcomed to submit the work missed (usually as a result of an absence) for a homework grade or not submit the work and receive the same percentage that they did on their Unit 4 test, since, it is assumed, they used their chapter review questions and answers as a study guide for the test. In any case, all 3rd quarter materials are due on Wednesday, March 24th.
NOTES from Technology...
Math 8-A: Eighth grade math spent the week in two ways. We began to become more familiar with quadratic relationships and we prepared for our experience on Friday, March 19 when we acted as teachers to the sixth grade math class. We helped the sixth grade review and practice multiplication of fractions and mixed numbers as well as division of fractions. Next week we will return to quadratic relationships in earnest.

Math 8-B: The closing of the third making on Wednesday, March 24 also marks the end of our unit of study “Growing! Growing !Growing!” for Math 8B. This has been a lengthy unit, which has included a wide scope of topics on exponents and exponential growth, each of which has been explored in significant depth. These topics will be revisited in future algebra and pre-calculus courses, and provide the mathematical underpinnings for many areas of study in physical and biological science. On Thursday, we took the in-class portion of the unit test, which consisted of short answer questions emphasizing understanding vocabulary and related concepts; the take-home portion of the test, which focuses on problem solving, was distributed at the end of the day, and was due completed by 8:00 on Friday morning. Because of the proximity of the end of the marking period, there will be a short turnover period for revisions-the tests will be returned on Monday, March 22, and revisions will be due on Tuesday, March 23. I also remind you that final versions of the sci-fi short story on out-of-control exponential growth is due on Monday, March 22.

The next unit that we will be studying will center on quadratic functions, and will include such topics and investigations as the distributive property, factoring, fixed perimeter problems, and projectile motion. We will also study solutions to quadratic equations, including factoring and the quadratic formula. Quadratic functions will be studied as a special case of, the more general topic, polynomial functions. This unit of study is entitled “Frogs, Fleas, and Painted Cubes”.
Science: We reflected on the science fair. What did we learn of science and ourselves? What might have been done differently to make the fair even more enjoyable for students and visitors? Wha

 

Jonathan Huxtable

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:41:42 pm

NOTES from Humanities…

English: Eighth graders have been busy with just about everything that a teacher can think of. We continue our work with SSR and reading logs and have had a vocabulary test. Students made their own tests for The Crucible and then had the pleasure of taking one of mine. We continue to struggle a bit with our acting, but many students are really getting into it now. I hope that you will be pleased when you see our production on April 25. We also have been working on turning in make up work for the third quarter. I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend!

Social Studies: Students wrapped up their reading of Hakim’s Book 5 this week and engaged in conversation and note-taking about the book’s organizational concept. Rather than presenting information primarily chronologically as she has in books two through four, Ms. Hakim examined the theme of “expansion” in this book: westward, rights, technology, transportation, communication, government, etc. These are all noted in the study guide students received today in advance of their Unit Test on Thursday, April 1st (really). Students also presented Mapping Projects and examined the possibilities of relationships between such seemingly isolated variables as areas of corn growth in the US and state by state outcomes of the election of 2008 to average annual rainfall and the national system of highways. Finally, the students tackled the organizational concept they will pursue in their Research Project (otherwise known as the Major Topics of their outline) and developed a skeletal outline (Major topics and sub-topics). Students also identified the number of note cards they’ve generated for each sub-category which should aid them in directing any further research they need to conduct. Updates on Research Project progress will be made through the interim comments.

NOTES from Technology…

Science: Monday, students brought science news articles for sharing, a practice resumed from previous years and one that seemed to capture students' scientific interests and imaginations. Teacher, while learning much himself, endeavored to underscore connections: despite a superficial randomness to what students found interesting, there are patterns and links that serve our iterative learning. In further discussions, we revisited some widely misunderstood concepts in evolution, particularly the matters of “fitness” and changes that may occur over time. Due to a field trip rescheduled from a February snow day, Tuesday class was postponed until Friday. Wednesday, we did part of a laboratory and data analysis activity, using popular materials -- M&M’s -- to introduce and practice skills in using a balance, understanding tare weights, understanding the difference between mass and weight, observing variation and error subject to statistical analysis, and getting an experiential handle on masses including grams, kilograms, and milligrams. Sidebar illustration of best explicative plans gang agley: as we were learning there are two kinds of numbers in science (exact, obtained by counting things like fingers or toes, and inexact, obtained through measurement), it was revealed one of the students was born with twelve toes, but the extra two weren’t exactly toes. Upcoming activities will reinforce what we learned about solutions, concentrations, and the role of membranes (here, dialysis membranes) in managing concentrations of different solutes on either side of the membrane.

Math 8-A: This week in eighth grade math we continued to investigate quadratic equations.

Math 8-B: In Math 8B, we finished our GrowingGrowingGrowing unit with a test and collection of our sci-fi short stories, coinciding, coincidentally with the end of the marking period.

We “launched” into our new unit, entitled “Frogs, Fleas, and Painted Cubes” (really), dealing with quadratic relationships and functions. I say “launched” because one of the investigations we will be undertaking involves projectile motion, for which I am interested in any parental expertise in launching toy rockets (for the purpose of analyzing the flight path mathematically)—please let me know if you are interested in helping with this. This particular investigation ties in very nicely with what is being done in 8th grade science, and Dr. Schmaljohn and I will be working in conjunction as we develop this activity. “8B-ers” will also be developing other skills related to quadratic functions, such as solving quadratic equations by factoring and the quadratic formula. We will also briefly expand our world of quadratic functions to include polynomial functions, of which quadratics is a subset. It is my hope to have this unit of study completed by April 22.

We will also be working to fortify our techniques and format with which we solve various types of equations. At th

 

Ajf6

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:45:22 pm

Early to bed, early to rise, make a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

 



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