As we continue to investigate some basic physical laws such as Newton's Laws and the Universal Law of Gravitation (my personal motto: Gravity - not just a good idea, it's the law) we've been discussing the inherent difference between mass and weight. So today we brushed up on our graphing with Excel by plotting our relative weights on different planets in the solar system. This involved students converting their known weight in pounds to kilograms and then calculating with Newton's 2nd Law, F=ma. This was a nice combination of some algebra review of linear graphing, applied technology and some good basic physics. Ask your daughters a bit about how to lose weight without losing mass, or how you can simulate weightlessness near Earth. We'll be experiencing this when we do our neutral buoyancy scuba dive in March. Hurray for microgravity!
-MM
Friday, September 28, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Aviation Events!
Thank you for your support of our fabulous flight day last Friday. The girls seemed genuinely delighted by their experience and we were fortunate to have stellar volunteer flight instructors as well. This week your daughters will all be writing thank you notes to those who made our Young Eagles Flight Day possible including her pilot, our ground volunteers and Peter Morton, board member and the person who coordinates the daunting logistics for getting 35 girls up in the air.
We have another exciting aviation opportunity in the near future. 13 students from the SGS 8th grade have been invited to attend the Pathfinder Awards Ceremony at the Museum of Flight on Saturday, October 6th at 5:30pm. Pathfinders honors those who have made significant lifetime contributions to the fields of aviation and astronautics. If your daughter is interested in attending she must submit a letter of intent by this coming Friday. More information about the event itself can be found on my website. If you hear your daughter talking about this, please encourage her to turn in her letter explaining why she would like to attend. It is a wonderful event (black tie optional) in which your daughters will have the opportunity to meet many influential people in the aviation community and be wonderful representatives of SGS.
-MM
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
This Week in Sally's Core
Dear 8th grade families and friends!
We’re off to a predictably busy start in 8th grade! In an effort to keep you abreast of what's afoot so you can stay ahead...I'll do my best to post weekly reports to let you know what we've been doing in our Language Arts / Humanities cores.
In this week we sharpened our focus on the original Renaissance Man, Leonardo da Vinci and his concept of "Curiosità," defined as "an insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning." Our goal is to emulate Leo's insatiable curiosity as we explore the many facets of our 8th grade year. Having each recorded one hundred "burning questions" in our Curiosità Journals, we're now in the process of generating ten "power questions" per student - i.e., ten questions from our one hundred that seem the most important or pressing. I look forward to assembling, surveying and then discussing these questions on Monday. We will work extensively with these “power questions” and will spend significant time reflecting on them in our journals.
In addition to Leonardo's concept of Curiosità, we delved more deeply into self-examination and awareness through our recent teambuilding / "True Colors Workshop," conducted by facilitator, Chris Youngberg of Canfield and Associates. Our students determined their personal array of colors - complete with personality traits and tendencies. Be sure to ask your 8th grader whether she's primarily a gold, orange, blue or green...and what it all means! We will return to their findings as we work on teambuilding throughout the year. We also discussed and experienced Dr. Martin Seligman's online "Signature Strengths" assessment (see "Authentichappiness.org" for more details) and will return to these results as well as we seek to capitalize on our innate strengths rather than lament our ubiquitous deficits!
Our "Word-of-the-Day" (henchforth referred to as WOD) routine is already well entrenched with impressive results. Basically 8th graders encounter words in their every day dealings that alternately intrigue or perturb them...and then each student investigates said word as her own individual "WOD." The student then brings her WOD to her table, where one word is selected by the members of each table group for an all-group consideration. Today alone we discussed such words as penury, epithets, calamity, allocation, and - my all-time favorite - sycophant!
Looking ahead, in two week’s time the 8th grade will begin a reading/writing/reflecting project called "The Significant Adult Book Reflection." Basically, each girl will approach a "significant adult" in her life and ask what book particularly impressed him/her when he/she was her age. Then the student will read that book, conduct an in-depth, guided interview, and then
write a reflection paper about that experience. Soooo...in the off chance that your 8th grader might consider YOU a "significant adult," I wanted to give you fair warning!
See many of you at Flight Day...my fingers are crossed for cloudless skies and gentle breezes!
Sally
We’re off to a predictably busy start in 8th grade! In an effort to keep you abreast of what's afoot so you can stay ahead...I'll do my best to post weekly reports to let you know what we've been doing in our Language Arts / Humanities cores.
In this week we sharpened our focus on the original Renaissance Man, Leonardo da Vinci and his concept of "Curiosità," defined as "an insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning." Our goal is to emulate Leo's insatiable curiosity as we explore the many facets of our 8th grade year. Having each recorded one hundred "burning questions" in our Curiosità Journals, we're now in the process of generating ten "power questions" per student - i.e., ten questions from our one hundred that seem the most important or pressing. I look forward to assembling, surveying and then discussing these questions on Monday. We will work extensively with these “power questions” and will spend significant time reflecting on them in our journals.
In addition to Leonardo's concept of Curiosità, we delved more deeply into self-examination and awareness through our recent teambuilding / "True Colors Workshop," conducted by facilitator, Chris Youngberg of Canfield and Associates. Our students determined their personal array of colors - complete with personality traits and tendencies. Be sure to ask your 8th grader whether she's primarily a gold, orange, blue or green...and what it all means! We will return to their findings as we work on teambuilding throughout the year. We also discussed and experienced Dr. Martin Seligman's online "Signature Strengths" assessment (see "Authentichappiness.org" for more details) and will return to these results as well as we seek to capitalize on our innate strengths rather than lament our ubiquitous deficits!
Our "Word-of-the-Day" (henchforth referred to as WOD) routine is already well entrenched with impressive results. Basically 8th graders encounter words in their every day dealings that alternately intrigue or perturb them...and then each student investigates said word as her own individual "WOD." The student then brings her WOD to her table, where one word is selected by the members of each table group for an all-group consideration. Today alone we discussed such words as penury, epithets, calamity, allocation, and - my all-time favorite - sycophant!
Looking ahead, in two week’s time the 8th grade will begin a reading/writing/reflecting project called "The Significant Adult Book Reflection." Basically, each girl will approach a "significant adult" in her life and ask what book particularly impressed him/her when he/she was her age. Then the student will read that book, conduct an in-depth, guided interview, and then
write a reflection paper about that experience. Soooo...in the off chance that your 8th grader might consider YOU a "significant adult," I wanted to give you fair warning!
See many of you at Flight Day...my fingers are crossed for cloudless skies and gentle breezes!
Sally
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Upcoming Field Trips and Off-Campus Events
This week is a busy one for the 8th grade! Here are a couple of key reminders as we kick off the week...
Tuesday, September 18 - We'll be at the Museum of Flight for programs related to our upcoming flight day. Many thanks to all the wonderful parents who have offered to drive carpools. We'll be meeting at SGS at 8:30am and departing as soon as possible. After a full day of activities at the Aviation Learning Center and a Flying Gizmos Show, we'll depart the Museum of Flight at 2:30pm to make sure we are back at school well before the end of the day. Students should bring a sack lunch and snacks.
Friday, September 21 - Young Eagles Flight Day! Please remember that students should be dropped off and picked up at Galvin Flying. I sent an email to the 8th grade family distribution list with driving instructions. If for some reason, you did not receive that email - please let one of the 8th grade faculty know and we'll have your email added to this all important list. But until then, you can retrieve directions on my website under Flight Day Info. The link can be found in the sidebar to your right.
Thanks again for your ongoing support.
MM
Tuesday, September 18 - We'll be at the Museum of Flight for programs related to our upcoming flight day. Many thanks to all the wonderful parents who have offered to drive carpools. We'll be meeting at SGS at 8:30am and departing as soon as possible. After a full day of activities at the Aviation Learning Center and a Flying Gizmos Show, we'll depart the Museum of Flight at 2:30pm to make sure we are back at school well before the end of the day. Students should bring a sack lunch and snacks.
Friday, September 21 - Young Eagles Flight Day! Please remember that students should be dropped off and picked up at Galvin Flying. I sent an email to the 8th grade family distribution list with driving instructions. If for some reason, you did not receive that email - please let one of the 8th grade faculty know and we'll have your email added to this all important list. But until then, you can retrieve directions on my website under Flight Day Info. The link can be found in the sidebar to your right.
Thanks again for your ongoing support.
MM
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Welcome to the 8th Grade Blog
Happy Start of the School Year!
We've been enjoying getting to know your daughters over the last few days and are all anticipating a great school year. We have lots of exciting activities and events in 8th grade and this blog is an opportunity for you to follow along with what's happening in each of our classes. It is designed specifically to let parents and families get a bird's eye view of daily life in the 8th grade. Check it at your convenience and see what is going on here at SGS!
We've been enjoying getting to know your daughters over the last few days and are all anticipating a great school year. We have lots of exciting activities and events in 8th grade and this blog is an opportunity for you to follow along with what's happening in each of our classes. It is designed specifically to let parents and families get a bird's eye view of daily life in the 8th grade. Check it at your convenience and see what is going on here at SGS!
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