Exponents Madness - more math with MM

Hello fellow mathematicians,
We've been powering through (pun intended) exponents and raising numbers, variables and combinations thereof to different powers. All these skills help us to find the most efficient ways to simplify expressions, a skill which will prove extremely useful next year in high school. We've also begun taking more frequent, short quizzes at the beginning of class to hone these skills and get faster in their application. This will undoubtedly also help as we prepare for our Chapter 10 test next week.

In other news, please remember your student will need to obtain a copy of Painless Geometry by Lynette Long. Next week, after our Chapter 10 test, we will begin an intensive geometry unit. Books can be purchased both new and used from Amazon.com for under $10, or alternately, check the library and reserve a copy.

GAOC VideoBlogging & the Spanish-American War

As you've aready seen, we've stormed into the "Web 2.0" world this week with Videoblogs galore. The girls successfully brought their new and improved GAOC reports onto the web and into their blogs they used last term. You can see them all from our class blog here and then clicking on the countries on the sidebar to the right. They did a great job working through the process and technical challenges of the first go-around and I'm looking forward to the coming week's performances.

We started our conversation on Thursday and Friday of last week about the Spanish American War and America's emergence as a global power. On Thursday and Friday we examined two poems, "Let me be blesséd for the peace I make." by Katherine Lee Bates (who is better known for writing "America the Beautiful"); and "The White Man's Burden" by Rudyard Kipling. We had a great conversation about the emotional appeals to religion and patriotism contained in both, each with a different conclusion on the right path for the U.S. This week, we continued our conversation about jingoism, underlying racism in turn of the century ideas of social progress, as well as differences within the Black community at the time about the appropriateness of offering volunteers to fight in this war. We then turned our eye to the role of the media and the concept of Yellow Journalism and looked at the front pages from The World and the New York Journal following the explosion on the Battleship Maine. We finished yeaterday by discussing how all of these themes related to current events in the world today. As always, they drew fantastic connections and the conversation was rich. Lastly, I handed out the assignment sheet for their final project, a video documentary on the relationship between the US and their country from the past to present. They'll be starting work on this next week.

Women's History Music Discussion with Core A

Here's what we were doing in Sally's core this morning! At this juncture we're discussing Pink's controversial hit "Stupid Girls" and are ferreting out its overt and well as covert messages!



A huge "Thank You" to our resident tech-spert, Bert who just taught MM and me how to post videos! When and where will it end, I wonder???

Visit Math Class...for 20 seconds

Ever wondered what MM's math class is really like? Now is your big chance to find out!
Since students are learning to video blog, Bert thought Sally and I should learn as well. Since I am a closet tech nerd, I jumped at the chance. The video clip below gives you a 'fly on the wall' glimpse of class today.

And the beat goes on!!

It feels good to be back in the midst of it all after nearly a week away in Colorado Springs at the 8th annual White Privilege Conference. This intensive four day battery of non-stop workshops, focusing on a myriad of anti-bias issues, was attended by some of the biggest names in social justice work: Peggy MacIntosh, Paul Kivel, Allan Johnson, Dr. Jamie Washington, Kevin Jennings, Paula Rothenberg, Jean Kilbourne, James Loewens…to name only a few! I came away with renewed commitment to equity work and will be sharing many of my new and renewed insights with the class in the days/weeks to come. In the past two days we’ve been getting down to business vis-à-vis our Production. We’ve generated a shot list, determined locations, created a prop list and envisioned our costumes. We’re also rehearsing vignettes and will begin practice filming as early as Thursday, with formal filming beginning on Monday. To that end we will be calling upon all our favorite chauffeurs to help us get to our various locations…we’ll let you know just as soon as we know! Thanks in advance for your willingness to help us out with this logistics nightmare…err…I mean challenge!!

The Production: so much creativity - so little time!

What more can you say than "wow"? This week we've spent every afternoon working though our draft script of the Production. Thursday and Friday we spent completing our first "read through" where students put together each of their individually conceived scenes in order (mostly) and read them aloud to the rest of the group. Then we used a similar critiquing process to what is used in Art with Trina. After each scene we heard both appreciations as well as concerns/questions. Now we'll refine our scripts and start rehearsing, gathering props, planning scene shots and assembling costumes!

In thinking far, far ahead make sure the premiere of the Production is on your calendar. We'll be showing our feature length film on Friday, June 8th at the Museum of Flight's Allen Theatre. Doors will open at 6pm and the film will begin promptly at 6:30pm. This is a great way to end the year. We hope you and other family and friends will be able to join us!

I'm looking for a few good women!

Two members of the 8th grade are invited to join MM to speak about Mission to Mars at an educational conference on Saturday, April 28th from 10:50-12:00noon. If your student is interested, she should talk to MM directly. She would make an informal presentation about what she did to prepare for Mission to Mars and what she learned during the process. There will likely also be time for attending teachers to ask students questions about their experience. It should be a fun experience!

Also, the Math Olympiad is coming up. It will be hosted at Seattle Girls' School on Saturday, May 5th from 8am to 1pm. We are looking both for "mathletes" as well as volunteers for the event. Students interested in participating in the math competition or who would like to volunteer should contact Ava in the 7th grade.

We're baaaaaaack!!!

As sick and wrong as it may sound, it's actually good to be back from Spring Break and see all our delightful 8th graders again!! We started our first morning back together with a "Show and Tell" slide show of baby Logan! (aka: CUTE!!) It's so good to have "our Bert" back - and after some riveting tales of parenthood, he got right back to work on world geography. (See attached photo if you don't believe me!) The girls challenged themselves with an online geography quiz which tested their ability to correctly identify countries, with graduated levels of difficulty. The hitch seemed to be that one needed to spell the names of countries correctly! Picky, picky, picky!! (If you'd like to test yourselves, here's the link: sheppardsoftware.com ... check out the "geography games." )

Starting midday tomorrow, I will be out of town - I'm headed to Colorado Springs for the national "White Privilege Conference." (For further details, see http://www.uccs.edu/~wpc/) This is a conference I've longed to attend for the past six plus years, and when I realized that I could combine it with a quick visit to my darling grandchildren (Janie - age 9 and Ryan - age 5) who live in Manitou Springs, a Colorado Springs suburb, I MADE IT HAPPEN! I'm eager to apply all I know I'll be encouraged to examine at the conference to our considerations of Power and Innovation in this third and last term of 8th grade.

And then of course, there's our Production! With a bit less than 8 weeks to go, we will be working fast and furiously to create our envisioned masterpiece. Be sure that your calendars are well marked for our grand premiere: Friday Night...June 8th at the Museum of Flight's Allen Theatre...doors open at 6...cameras roll at 6:30 sharp!

I'm Baaaaaack!

While it was hard to tear myself away from a sleeping baby this morning, it is really good to be back for the duration. I dropped in for a few afternoons the week before Spring Break to help with Production happenings, but other than that have really soaked up some quality time with my family. It's been a really intense month, but completely fantastic.

We jumped right back into social studies this morning and, as I told the girls, will be moving forward in history to the 20th century and taking a look at US hegemony and globalization. We will begin this week with a look at the Spanish-American War and America's entrance onto the global stage. Using the same lenses as our survey of the Early Modern period we will examine the ideas and ideologies, economic drivers, social movements, and technologies that surrounded this conflict and it's aftermath and that set the stage for what became known (beware the hubris!) as the American century.

I will also be introducing the next set of projects the girls will be working on to document their learning. These will fuse our past work with GAOC and find them connecting the dots between current global events and their recent historical causes in the 20th century. They will be bringing their video skills to their blogs, creating a set of dynamic "vlogs" and podcasts about the past and present of US engagement with world.

In closing, I just can't help but share one more picture of Logan. Enjoy!

Engineering and Math with MM

Welcome back! I hope you all enjoyed a lovely spring break. We've hit the ground running this morning and have begun the peer editing process for the Engineering Grand Challenge Essay. The ideas are really fantastic - from feeding garbage to black holes to building energy "smart" houses to talking to animals! The first peer editing guide is due Wednesday, April 18th.

In other news, we've finished Chapter 9 in our study of Algebra and will be beginning Chapter 10 which focuses on Simplifying and Solving Rational Expressions. Thinking ahead, we're projecting our Chapter 10 test to be May 8th. After that, we'll be moving on to an intensive study of Geometry which will assist with the high school math transition. As part of this study, students will need to obtain a copy of Painless Geometry by Lynette Long. I checked online and Amazon.com offers new copies of the text for $9 and tons of good-condition, used copies for around $5. Alterately, the library also has copies which students might want to reserve if they would rather not purchase a book. Painless Geometry offers a very readable text with practice problems and exposure to basic concepts and key postulates. I anticipate this unit will be a fast paced, fun and interesting way to finish up math for the year!

Shhh...Don't disturb the readers!

We’re now an hour into our Friday “Read – In” – an event that many of us have dreamt about but didn’t ever really imagine we’d see it come to pass! We began our day with a circle discussion of the books we’re currently reading (some titles I remember: A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb, Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinor Pruitt Stewart, Katie.com by Katherine Tarbox, The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom, The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult, Lisey’s Story by Stephen King, the Children of Men by P.D. James…) as we snacked on the delicious pastries provided by Talia and her mom…with Marja’s homemade cupcakes waiting for our afternoon dessert! It will be interesting to see just how long the girls will go with their “silent, sustained reading…” It occurred to me that we should have attached a fundraiser to this project. At a penny a page, this year’s 8th grade could easily earn several hundred dollars!

Yesterday’s visit to Half Price Books was eventful as well! Traveling with 18 girls (versus the usual 32) felt luxurious – much like a fun outing with good friends. Come to think of it, that’s exactly what it was! Some purchased the books they’re reading today, while others took the opportunity to buy gifts for family and friends. Most importantly, the girls were introduced to the wonderful world of used books with its ever-evolving inventory. And how cool is it that the #8 bus that arrives less than a block away from school will take us directly the Half Price Books on Belmont?

And they're off!

This mid-day we bid "Adios" to our ten amigas who will jet south to Mexico tomorrow morning! We'll be anxious to hear of their many adventures upon their return at the end of Spring Break. Meanwhile, the rest of us will be engaging in some welcomed, much deserved even, activities - academics mixed with fun...it doesn't get much better than that! After an afternoon trip to Half Price Books on Belmont tomorrow afternoon, we will engage in our long-awaited READ IN on Friday. An uninterrupted day of SSR...silent, sustained reading, interspersed with a few snacks, lunch with book talks, that kind of thing. More than any previous 8th grade class, this year's 8th graders are reading machines...almost to a girl, they live to read! I'm continually impressed with the titles they put away: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf, Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher and Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons, to name only a few. It's rather easy for me to forget that we're talking 14 year old girls here, as our 8th graders are notably sophisticated in their ability to synthesize material and discuss concepts as well as negotiate sophisticated literature. They're more than ready for high school!

Tears in Heaven…

Ah yes…it IS that time of year again in 8th grade! The convergence of spring (and its accompanying fever) with the Production (and its intense sharing / clashes of creative ideas and energy) with letters from high schools (both exhilarating as well as terribly disappointing) with the burgeoning awareness that our three years together at SGS are careening to an end can be rather overwhelming to even the most stalwart of 8th graders. (Woah…these girls have learned how to write run-ons from the best!!) Fact is, our Friday drew to a close amid an impressive display of tears and tension, and I can only imagine that a few members of our 8th grade community might well have continued to let down once they made it to the psychic safety of home. We have reached an emotionally charged and tender time in 8th grade, to be sure…and while it’s fairly common, it’s always somewhat difficult. Each girl will respond in her own individual manner – from what seems like high drama to little or no outward reaction on any given day. Three common behaviors we see or hear about are:

• a certain emotional malaise or listlessness that sometimes manifests itself in a lack of motivation or attention to academic details. Grades slip, homework is neglected, assignments are not turned in on time…that kind of thing.

• surliness, “attitude,” generally rude behavior – (this usually occurs at home, thank goodness for us!!) – which can make parents wonder just where they went wrong!! Fact is, outward displays of anger and moodiness often mask inward sensations of real sadness. A quote that carried me through my three children’s teen years was “A child needs the most love when she’s the least loveable!” At this juncture, JUST LISTENING is an amazingly effective antidote – if you’re able to pull that off!

• tears, accompanied by dramatic declarations like “I’m the ONLY one who didn’t get into School X…” or “Everyone is going to Y…” or “How come I NEVER X,Y,Z….” Whenever you hear red flag words like “everybody, nobody, always, never, all, none, only…” take note of what feelings lie right below the surface. I always found it interesting, if not downright amazing to note that the body processes any intense emotion (good or bad) as stress! That went a long way to explain why a girl who seemed to have the world by the tail was almost as flummoxed as one who was grappling with a barrage of challenging issues.

In the days to come we as an 8th grade community will be processing individual feelings as well as examining group dynamics. We’ll do some writing in our Curiosità Journals and will undoubtedly engage in some small and large group discussions and activities designed to both defuse mounting tensions as well as hone much needed interpersonal tools as we prepare for high school and beyond. …All this as we generate an original, full-length feature film!!