Motion Labs

This week’s science labs found us using motion detectors to explore the difference between distance, velocity, and acceleration. The girls used out Vernier data collectors to gather data on their own movements and graph them on the computer using Logger Pro. We will be tying them in next week to our work in linear algebra as we discover real world systems of equations.

Social Technologies Wrap-Up

The girls did a great job this week presenting their analysis to one another of the four articles they read on teens’ use of social technologies. Our discussion focused on what the authors’ main points were, whether they agreed or disagreed and why, and how they felt the article might be useful in supporting their conversations with all of you about home computer use.

You should be on the lookout next week for a contract template of a Home Computer Use Agreement. If you are participating in our computer purchase or rental program, you’ll need to fill this out and sign it before your daughter can take a school computer home. As before, the content of this contract will be determined by your family but we’ve given you some guiding questions to get you started. Please feel free to let us know if you have any questions. Also keep an eye out for more information from Rafael and John about the laptop program itself if you are interested.

This is the week that was...

There's so much going on in 8th grade on a daily, if not hourly basis that it's laborious to even reflect on it! As you all know, we enjoyed a rich and interesting day at Galvin Flight Center on Boeing Field last Friday (9/19)...in fact, we did everything BUT fly, as Mother Nature was less than cooperative. In the carefully orchestrated day on the ground we cycled through a series of "Ground School" activities: visited a Lear jet, tried our hands in the sophisticated flight simulator, and toured the Boeing Field communications tower. We filled any down time with a viewing of the historically accurate film The Tuskegee Airmen, starring Laurence Fishburne, among others. Our 8th graders were impressively patient and then understanding when it turned out that they wouldn't get to fly that day. Flash forward seven days and our girls took to the skies in droves...or at least in eight single-engine planes! While the conditions weren't as perfect as we would have hoped, we did manage to get all but two of our students aloft. They reported exciting mid-air adventures and were thrilled with the experience. A HUGE THANK YOU to our "Aviation Godfather" - board member Peter Morton and his crew of pilot friends who make this stellar experience happen for SGS' 8th grade year after year. In addition, we're very grateful to all the parent volunteers who supported this effort. (Thank you notes should have reached you by now...via your 8th grader. If you haven't seen them, ASK!)

When we weren't engrossed with all things aeronautical, we continued our work in the realm of Curiosità – reflecting in our journals, compiling and then submitting our “ten burning questions” which will coalesce into an all-class list of questions which we'll consider as we work towards deciding our Term 1 Theme, and delving into aspects of self-awareness as well as peer-perception. We accomplished this last feat by responding to Dr. Martin Seligman’s (of Positive Psychology fame) Signature Strengths Questionnaire. (See http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu if you’re curious…or better yet, ask your 8th grader!) After we’d obtained our own signature strengths results, students then sat down with a peer and each girl rated the other according to her perceptions. In this manner we were able to begin answering one of the questions that appeared repeatedly among our burning questions: How do my peers perceive me? We will continue this work next week as we prepare for our Warm Beach Retreat.

On Thursday and then again on Friday morning before our delightful Art Walk (stay tuned for a report from Trina on that!) we sat in a circle as an “all group” and delved into issues - both past and present - that have impacted how we relate to one another both as a class and as groups within that class. Our goal in 8th grade will be to build a team of thirty-nine girls who relate to one another in respectful, yet REAL ways.

Math Week of 9/22/08

Welcome back fuzzy math brains! We have spent some time at the beginning of the year talking about WHY our brains are slow to warm up after summer break? The reason: we have to re-grow the math region of our brains as we get back into the swing of being back in school! For more info on our brains and math check out: http://www.brainrules.net/

With this in mind, we have spent the first couple weeks reviewing algebra concepts from last year, such as solving for x and graphing linear lines. This week we are jumping back in where the students left off last year solving systems of equations (finding the point of intersection of two linear lines). We are practicing using two different methods: the Equal Values Method and the Substitution Method. If your brain is feeling fuzzy as you help your daughter with her math, check out the CPM website http://www.cpm.org/. There you will find a parent guide and the text we are using is called: Algebra Connections (AC).

I have encouraged girls who would like to work one-on-one to schedule individual meetings with Bert or me during lunch and after school. We are also offering to give girls extra practice with review topics. If your daughter is having trouble and needs review with a particular topic, please encourage her to seek out extra help or practice problems from one of us!

Also, an interesting article on math from the NY Times: Gut Instinct's Surprising Role in Math

Curriculum Night Presentation

For those who weren't able to make it to Curriculum Night or for those who wanted to revisit anything, we have it here for your viewing pleasure. You can press the full screen button in the lower right corner to get a larger view if you'd like. As always, please let us know if you have any questions.

SGS 8th Curriculum Night

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Appropriate Use of Social Technologies

We started our conversation last week with the girls about their experiences using social technologies (cell phones, texting, IM, MySpace, Facebook, etc.). We had a great class conversation about their own and their families' norms concerning the use of these technologies. This week, we took a look at a PBS Frontline special from earlier this year called "Growing Up Online." It gave portraits of many of the dilemmas faced by youth and their parents in wrestling with social technologies, such as screen time, cyberbullying, online safety, and digital privacy. The girls were completely lit up by the portrayals and dug into the conversation that followed (you can click here to watch the show online and find more resources).

On Wednesday, they started a critical analysis of several articles dealing with these same issues and will be presenting their findings back to their classmates on Monday followed by further class conversation. All of this work will be leading to a conversation with you about appropriate computer use at home. We encourage you to read the articles, as well, so that you can be up to speed and prepared for these conversations (you can find them here, here, here, and here).

For those of you who are going to be participating in our computer rental or purchase programs, we are requiring that you and your daughters have an expicit understanding of your rules and norms for your daughters' computer use at home. We'll ask that you make a contract stating these norms that is signed by both you and her. We will be providing a template to get you started on this path, but the actual content of the agreement is for your family to decide and should come from your own understandings and relationships. We'll be posting more on this in the coming weeks.

Off We Go...

In an effort to keep you abreast of what's afoot so you can stay ahead...I'll do my best to post descriptive blogs each week to let you know what we've been doing in our Language Arts-type adventures:

We jumped right in on our second academic day with our "Word of the Day" focus - known henceforth as WOD! Basically 8th graders encounter words in their every day dealings that alternately intrigue or perturb them...and then they investigate said word as their own individual "WOD." Each 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. This week alone we discussed such words as evanescent, masochistic, halcyon, propensity, attrition, nihilism, nominal (to name only a few!)... from sources as varied as our parents, the news coverage of the election, our teachers, popular songs, the speakers at yesterday’s “International Space Congress” and independent reading ventures.

In the past week we sharpened our focus on the original Renaissance Man and one of the premier flight aficionados, 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 delve into the many facets of 8th grade this year. Having each recorded one hundred "burning questions" in our journals last week, we then generated ten "power questions" per student - i.e., ten questions from our one hundred that seem the most important or pressing. These ranged from "Is there such a thing as 'perfect'?" to "Can the world be completely just?" and everything in between.

After watching and taking notes on the A&E Biography: "Leonardo da Vinci: Renaissance Master," we engaged in a rip-snorting Jeopardy-eque game where four tables competed for mastery of da Vinci trivia. (Did you know that he was left-handed and thus wrote his copious journals - some 14,000 pages – in "mirror writing?")

Through an examination and exercise with "delving questions" next week, where one power question naturally evokes subsequent questions of further depth, (ie Why do birds fly? ...leads to... What role do feathers play in flight? Are birds taught to fly by their mothers or are they born knowing?...You get the picture!) we will experience first hand how good, probing questions are more energizing and inspiring than pat or facile answers.

Looking ahead, in October 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 her/him when she/he 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!

Well, that's about it! We're off to a good start with lots of excellent energy and raw talent! I'm grateful to be in constant contact with such delightful young ladies!
Thursday evening’s Curriculum Night, Sally

Integrated Curriculum Articles

Here are two articles I found that relate to Integrated Curriculum. The first article is a rationale for using integrated curriculum especially in middle schools, and the second describes how student directed integration differs from other types of integration.

Integrated Curriculum In The Middle School

Organizing The Middle School Curriculum