A chronicle of the comings and goings of the 5th and 6th graders in Jason's class
(from 2012-2013. Further adventures can be found at http://s-k-5-6.blogspot.com/)
It's been a momentous week, and it's only Thursday night. Let's catch up:
A full dress rehearsal for Gilgamesh meant we had to dine when we could.
The kids are settling in with our new music teacher Mr. Riccinto. (I'm pretty sure that I heard a little bit of heavy metal playing as I listened from the hallway the other day...)
There was a tremendous amount of anticipation on Wednesday, as it was 12/12/12. It's the last time we'll see this sort of month/day/year configuration until January 1, 2101. Here are Lee, Laurea, and Matthew counting down the seconds until 12:12 (and twelve seconds) PM...
High fives all around at the historic moment!
Posing with the clock.
In Math, pyramid construction has begun in earnest. There have, however, been a few setbacks. Here you see the exact moment that Henry, Alexandra, and Christopher have realized that their pyramid is too wide to fit through the classroom door, and too heavy to tilt on its side. As a result, this fine ziggurat pyramid will be entombed in Karl's room forever, or until someone brings in a sledgehammer.
We spent some time talking about our Global Citizenship theme. Here we see Bob. He lives on an island by himself in a state of pure nature. He can do exactly what he wants, when he wants. All of the resources on the island are his to do with as he pleases...
... until, of course, Gary arrives. Now Bob's actions have an effect on Gary, and vice versa. Bob can no longer yodel at three AM without repercussions, and Gary can't eat all of the coconuts on the island. A community is formed, and each person has to surrender certain rights for the sake of their fledgling civilization.This scenario was an introduction to the concept of natural law, which is one the philosophies that influenced the founding fathers of the United States.
We also finished our read aloud novel, Esperanza Rising. We were able to use it to springboard into a conversation about globalization, immigration, shared resources, discrimination, and more. I originally chose this book because it fit well with our Farm to Table theme, but it has also provided some excellent conversation fodder for Global Citizenship.
Of course, above all, Gilgamesh has dominated our week. At long last, we premiered the show on Thursday.
Backstage at the premiere of Gilgamesh, everyone gets a hand in...
...then lets out a cheer for a great show!
Gilgamesh and Enkido contemplating a battle with Huwawa.
As you can see, it's been a fairly epic week, and I've only covered the elements of it that I was able to snap photos of. We also found time to work on our research papers, summarize an international news story, and write a poem about snow (ask your student about the trick I used to get them to think creatively about writing their poems! They HATED it... at first...).
On a gratuitously personal note, I also celebrated a milestone in my home life: Our daughter Violet turned one on Wednesday! As much as I love working with your kids, it sure is a delight to get to go home to this one!
We're a mere three days away from the premiere of our production of Gilgamesh (and a week and a half from winter break), and the energy around the school is palpable. Props and costumes are spread throughout the middle school commons, the hallways echo with the grunts and shouts of Jianmarco and Taylor practicing their fight choreography, and nearly everyone has the bulk of the script memorized, as evidenced by the frequency that I overhear people quoting lines to one another.
Our director giving notes during a full dress rehearsal.
Props
In addition to the spectacle of Gilgamesh, we'll have a range of student work from this year on display during the performances. Each student in our class spent a part of the afternoon selecting at least one thing item that they're particularly proud of for display. Some chose their Farm-to-Table reports, others are sharing stories that they've been writing, and others are writing up brief descriptions of math and science projects they've enjoyed. It's been exciting to watch them revisit their work and reflect on it. In many cases, students were eager to revise and improve upon their past work before display.
Gilgamesh has grown beyond the play: Lee has been adapting the plot of our play to create a computer game.
We also spent some time today moving our research papers along. By now, each student should have a thesis statement written and the major points of their outline completed. We worked today to start plugging research notes into our outlines, with the goal of writing a draft of the paper by the end of the week.
Discussion starters:
- Ask your student what piece of work they chose to display at Gilgamesh! Why did they chose that particular item? - Ask your student about their research paper. What is their thesis? Ask them to take a look at the outline they've written. - Ask your student about what world news story they read about during our warm-up this morning.
Earlier this week, I asked students to visit an online news source and read about an international story that interested them. They then summarized the details in a Google Doc. Today, we began sharing the stories that we read about as a way of introducing our new Global Citizenship theme. Cory told us about the recent Typhoon in the Philippines, Laurea told us about the latest from Israel/Palestine, and Alexandra and Matthew both wrote about Voyager 2 exploring the edge of our solar system. Sharing these stories helped us begin to think of the larger world around us, and our place in it. We also discussed the famous quote from Socrates, "I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world," and how that declaration might be interpreted. Socrates lived 2400 years ago, so our discussion moved to the present day, and what it might mean if someone said such a thing today. We talked about how our lives in the State of Michigan, in the United States of America might have an effect on people living elsewhere. How do our lives affect people living in China? In Africa? In Indiana? Many ideas were put forth. For better or worse, much of what we buy in Michigan was made in China. We may eat food that was grown in Indiana, or we may eat consume livestock that once grazed on clear-cut areas of rainforest in Brazil. A shirt that is dropped off in a donation bin in Ann Arbor might find its way to a new owner in Africa. Pollution from a factory in Pennsylvania might effect the fishing in Canada. A foreign country might receive aid from our government, which is made up of people who represent us. The more we talked, the more connections were made, driving home the idea that even if you've lived in Michigan your entire life, you've probably had an effect on many people around the globe. We'll be exploring many of these ideas as we begin working with our new theme.
We see a Global Citizen as someone who:
is aware of the wider world and has a sense of their own role as a world citizen;
respects and values diversity;
has an understanding of how the world works economically, politically, socially, culturally, technologically and environmentally;
is outraged by social injustice;
participates in and contributes to the community at a range of levels from local to global;
is willing to act to make the world a more sustainable place;
takes responsibility for their actions.
Of course, we're still not quite done with Ancient Civilizations! This week, we began composing thesis statements for our research papers, and constructing our outlines.
On Wednesday, November 28, we visited the University of Michigan Museum of Art. It's a lovely facility that many of our students are well acquainted with. There's a tremendous amount to see, so we chose to focus our trip on the museum's African and Asian art, particularly the pieces that tie into our studies of Ancient Civilizations.
A sculpture from a Cambodian artist made entirely of surrendered guns. While it wasn't exactly ancient, it was a powerful image.
Contemplating an African mask.
We admired a statue of Ganesha while hearing a few stories about him.
We learned a little about Buddha in front of this striking statue.
One of the biggest hits of the visit was decidedly modern: An interactive display that responds to hand gestures made in the air above it.
A group portrait on the giant, kinetic sculpture in front of the museum.
Of course, if we're anywhere near the Cube, we need to swing by to give it a spin!
Many thanks to our parent chaperones, Jenny and Russ!
Our next planned field trip will be to the City of Ann Arbor Materials Recovery Facility, which will tie in to our new theme, Global Citizenship.
As for our regularly scheduled read aloud, we're rapidly reaching the climax of Esperanza Rising, which has introduced the concepts of organized labor, immigration, undocumented workers, the Mexican Revolution, and more. Here are some discussion questions that have come up in class that you might enjoy discussing at home:
Finally, we're off on another field trip this afternoon. We'll be visiting the University of Michigan Museum of Art to explore their African and Asian collections as part of our Ancient Civilizations studies. Ask your student about the trip tonight!
Last week was a rare occasion for us lately: We actually had five full days of regularly scheduled school! We've had a lot of days off lately; one for parent-teacher conferences, another for Election day, and while our trip to Howell wasn't exactly a day off, it wasn't a day in the classsroom either. Of course, we're off for three more days for the holiday this week. Last week was an opportunity to get a lot done, so our weekly Things to Do list was lengthy as a result:
Happily, everyone rose to the occasion, working diligently to pace themselves throughout the week. We're skipping the Things to Do list this week, but we'll be back at it after the holiday break.
The bulk of our homeroom time lately has been devoted to our research papers. Students have been spending time researching an ancient civilization of their choice. They've been working with a packet to help guide their research that encourages them to learn about the geography, economy, social constructs, innovations, and more of their subject. Now that each student has done a broad survey of their civilization, they're ready to narrow their focus to one specific topic to research and write about.
Posing with source materials:
Working with research packets:
We're only in class for two days this week, so we'll be using the time to decide on the specific topics that we'll be researching and writing about after break. Today, we'll be talking about developing compelling research questions to guide their papers. After break, we'll move into the outlining process.
Of course, our students have a way of generating their own side projects as well. For example, Cory has been spent the last few days flipping through a copy of The Boy Mechanic Makes Toys, a reprint of an old book from the early 1900s that has a variety of interesting projects that a youngster from 1924 might be interested in constructing. One day, he came up to me and showed me this sketch:
It's a rough sketch for his proposed design of a perpetual motion machine, inspired by some of the projects in the book. If he builds it and it works, it will be a major coup for advocates of Project-Based Learning (and a massive blow to the Laws of Thermodynamics). I've encouraged him to work with Dr. George to build it, and Dr. George has agreed, but only if Cory gives him 1% of the profits of the machine if it works. It's a pretty good deal for all parties...
As you already know, Michael Paul Goldenberg recently joined the Summers-Knoll staff as a math instructor. He has also started an S-K blog to help connect families to the classroom. Check it out (and subscribe!) to it here:
Karl Sikkenga has written a blog entry that I'd like you to take a look at. In it, he discusses the current state of our middle school math program. While I've spoken about this to most parents individually, I think Karl has done a nice job of summarizing how our math program has developed, both in terms of philosophy and practice.
Take a look at the entry, and let us know if you have questions or comments!
Here's an example of some of the work that Michael has been doing with our students. They spent today taking this concept:
... and building it using manipulatives in order to truly understand it:
It's an example of students literally constructing their own knowledge of mathematics! Read more about the specifics in this post over at Michael's Summers-Knoll Math blog.
On a related note, parents will be hearing from me individually in the days ahead regarding individualized Singapore Math goals. I've been working with each student in the middle school to set weekly Singapore progress goals. I'm managing these goals with individualized Google Docs, which I will be making available to parents. I think you'll find this system helpful to gain insight into how your student is progressing throughout the year. As always, I welcome any feedback you may have!
On Friday, November 2, the students and staff of Summers-Knoll took their annual trip to Howell Nature Center. It was an exciting and exhausting day, and I have roughly 180,000 photos that I'd like to show to you.
For now,however, I'll just share these highlights:
We began our adventures sitting together for a whole-school meal.
Those seated at Dr. George's table were treated to a discussion on how to make a particularly effective potato gun.
Activity #1: Fire Building
After a tutorial on the essentials of fire building, our class was divided into three teams. Each was challenged to construct a safe and productive fire using as few matches as possible. It was no small task, given how wet everything was from the previous day's rain. However, the chill in the air provided an excellent motivator!
Alexandra, Kaeli, and Melissa prepare their site.
Henry, Noah, and Kathy try to breathe life into their fire pit.
Success! Aristea, Laurea, and Kaeli warm up.
Activity #2: Zipline!
Henry A. comes in for a landing.
Melissa zips across the gulf with gusto.
Frozen in time, Kaeli looks as if she's falling from the sky (or ascending into it?)
Kathy adopts the classic Peter Pan in Flight pose.
A video of Noah's run on the zipline:
Activity #3: Climbing Tower!
The class contemplates the height of the tower.
Laurea makes her ascent.
Henry and Henry on the wall.
Noah making progress.
Matthew was the first person to make it to the window!
Kaeli in search of the perfect handhold.
Lee braves the wall.
Alexandra was the only one who made it all the way to the top! It was amazing!
After she rappelled back down to Earth, I told her to throw up her hands in celebration of her triumph! This was her response:
An excellent climber and humble!
Activity #4: Shelter Building
Given a tree, some sturdy branches, and a trillion twigs and leaves,
each team was tasked with constructing a shelter that would fit everyone in
the group while providing protection from the elements.
Henry A, Noah, and Henry K begin framing their shelter.
Kaeli, Alexandra, Melissa, and Aristea constructed a shelter that was both spacious and well-insulated!
Lee, Matthew, and Laurea, warm and dry in their shelter.
Stomping through the wilderness from one activity to the next.
By the end of the afternoon, we were all spent. However, everyone managed to rally for several epic matches in the Ga-ga pits. Many of us had never heard of Ga-ga before Howell, but everyone sparked to it in a major way. Here's some footage of a game in action:
It was tremendous fun to watch. First graders often squared off against middle schoolers, with no guarantee of who would win. The number of strategies and playing styles were as varied as the individuals in the pit. For example, watch the above video and see if you can spot Aristea. She pioneered and mastered the strategy of calmly standing perfectly still along the edge of the wall for most of each match. Time and time again, she would make it to the last few minutes of a game, at which point she would spring to life, rested and ready to go against the players who had been running nonstop. Crafty!
Before long, students, teachers, and parents were suggesting that we strongly consider constructing a Ga-ga pit back at Summers-Knoll. It's an idea that hasn't waned, as evidenced by this makeshift pit I noticed on our playground last week:
Dr. George has already mocked up a possible design for a full-size pit, which would be a delightful and idiosyncratic addition to our evolving campus.
Dusk gave way to night, putting an end to the games. We sat down to a subdued group meal, then wrapped up our evening with campfires and s'mores.
It was a really wonderful trip for the school in general, and for our class specifically. The day was packed with different types of challenges, and I was proud to watch as each student rose to the occasion and was met with success.
I'd especially like to thank the parents who spent the day with us climbing, zip-lining, and tromping through the woods: Kathy, Paul, and Jenny: THANK YOU!
