Scenes from Summers-Knoll

Aristea takes aim during P.E.

Cory demonstrates his homemade Lego-crafted trebuchet during recess.

Henry and Noah engage in a spirited game of Jenga.

A class nickname may be taking root... (Sign by Melissa.)

Field Trip! Visiting the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology

Our theme for the months of October and November is Ancient Civilizations, and we recently had the opportunity to come face-to-face with some actual artifacts from some of the societies that we've been studying. On Wednesday, October 24, we took a field trip to the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan.

The Kelsey specializes in civilizations that bordered the Mediterranean Sea, so we were able to see a number of artifacts from ancient Greece, Egypt, and Rome.

The sarcophagus of Djehutymose, an Egyptian priest. (It may be worth noting that Djehutymose apparently maintains a Facebook page.)

A mummified cat (on the left) and hawk (on the right).

At each stop on our tour, students sketched items of interest, took notes, and asked questions. 

Lee and Augustus: Separated by millennia, united in profile.

We were extremely fortunate to have three parent volunteers on our trip. Extra special thanks to Russ, Amy, and Jenny for accompanying us!

We took a break in a recreation of a room from the Villa of Mysteries in Pompeii and tried to decipher the meaning of the scenes on the walls. Learn more about the room (including a video) here!

At the end of our tour, we were able to handle a few recreations of different artifacts, including ancient toys, pottery, and tools.

Henry takes a refreshing drink.

Matthew with an intimidating hair-removal implement.

Of course, we were so close to the Cube that we had to stop to give it a spin on our way back to the bus:

It apparently weighs 2400 pounds, but the students of Summers-Knoll held it up with ease.

It was a lovely and educational afternoon. The Kelsey is an excellent resource in our community, and it earned rave reviews from our class. It's well worth a visit when you're near campus!

Again, a huge THANK YOU to Amy and Jenny, our parent chaperones, and an extra thanks to Russ, who helped make our trip possible! Thank you!

End of the Week Check-Out

By now, you may have heard about our "End of the Week Check-Out" system. In brief, it's an organizational routine to help students learn to manage their work for the week and organize how they spend their time in class. Its intent is to help students to develop the skills to track their own workflow, both in our classroom and beyond.

Here's a quick overview of how it works in practice: 

Each Monday, students take a new Things to Do List. This is theirs to use throughout the week. I keep a version at the front of the room so that kids can compare theirs against mine at any time to make sure they're not missing anything:

Here's our class Things To Do list from last Monday afternoon. There are three items on it so far.

Throughout the week, I schedule "Work Periods" into our days. In addition to the things that had been assigned earlier in the week, I'll generally add a couple of additional items for them to work on. For example:

On Wednesday, I added two more items to the list. Students are given a one-hour "work period" to work on the new items, as well as those assigned earlier in the week.

One of the key points is that students are welcome to work on their list in whatever order they like. The catch is that everything needs to have been checked by me no later than Friday afternoon. I often give work back to students with notes for revisions and corrections that they need to make, so it's in their best interest to turn the work in for assessment earlier rather than later.

Later in the week, the list has grown.

Occasionally, we'll have a 15 minute "Get Organized" portion of class, which allows students to quickly arrange their work, compare it with their Things to Do list, and see exactly what they've done already, and what still needs to be done. It also helps them to think about budgeting their class time (and their time at home, if need be).

A "Get Organized" session from Friday. 

On Friday, we have "End of the Week Check-Out." When all of their work for the week has been completed, turned in, and returned to them with an acceptable mark (meaning they've made any corrections that I've requested), they are ready to "Check Out" for the week. I sit with each student individually and we go through their list, making sure everything is accounted for. Anything that isn't completed by Friday afternoon gets sent home as homework for the weekend.

When a student "checks-out," they are then able to use the extra time to work on their own personal projects tailored to their individual interests. For example, on Friday, one student worked with Dr. George to help pilot our middle school online portfolio system, while another sat with a computer teaching himself how to use Apple Pages, while two others worked together to begin writing scripts for an Ancient-Civilizations-themed play. 

We've been using this system for three weeks now, and everyone seems to be benefiting from it. As the year progresses, these lists will become more and more individualized, as each student is likely to have different project types, math goals, and assignments from their language teachers.

I encourage you to add this to your repertoire of school-related conversation topics: "How are you doing on your Things to Do list this week?" Checking in with your children on this topic helps them reflect on how they're using their time, while keeping you connected to the work that they're doing at school!

A Published Author in Our Classroom... DAILY.

A big congratulations to our friend Matthew! A short story of his was recently published in the latest edition of the 826michigan OMNIBUS!

Volume 4 of the 826michigan OMNIBUS. We've added a copy to our classroom library. Be sure to check it out! 

As many of you already know, 826michigan is a local tutoring and writing center in Ann Arbor. Each year, they produce a professionally printed collection of student work from the many creative writing workshops and classroom residencies that they offer. Not only was Matthew's story selected for publication, but he was also invited to read it at the book release earlier this month. Congratulations, Matthew!

Math: Applying What We've Learned

On the first day of our new math groups, I handed out a sheet of math problems to the group. It was a hodge-podge of items that included questions like this:

Divide 30 by ½ and then add 10. What is the answer?

At first, almost everyone came up with 25, which is, of course, incorrect. (If you're confused, you'll find an explanation at the end of this post.)

At one point, a student called out in mock anguish, "JASON, these are RIDDLES, not MATH!"

While there was definitely a riddle-like aspect to some of the problems, they all required students to read carefully, think both critically and creatively, and really consider exactly what it was that was being asked of them. These are vital skills when it comes to solving problems, whether they're based in mathematics or not.

This is one of the main ideas I'm trying to convey in math group: in the real world, no one will ever ask you to solve a traditional math problem presented as they are in textbooks. For example, outside of school, I've never, ever had someone say to me, "Hey, Jason! Given 5x²+12x-98, plot a parabola. Your job depends on it!" In order for math to be truly useful, you must learn how, when, and why to apply it to real world situations.

For this reason, I've been stressing the importance of developing strong problem-solving strategies in our math group. Too often, students get bogged down with how quickly they're progressing through math. For example, one day I challenged the group to calculate the volume of our very irregularly-shaped classroom as part of a larger problem. While most of the class was energetically taking measurements and arguing about how to deal the odd angles of our room, one student was hanging back. When I asked why, he replied, "They're doing 7th grade math. I'm not in that book yet." When we sat down and broke the larger problem into smaller chunks, he quickly realized that he did have the skills, but because I hadn't posed the question in the same way that his textbook presented things, he assumed that it was beyond them. I want our students to start thinking beyond their textbooks. Textbooks can be a vital part of math education, but it's merely one component of an education in mathematics.

To address this, I frequently greet the math group with a warm-up challenge. Some are more challenging than others. One day, I gave them this classic scenario:

Danielle, her alligator, her monkey, and her parrot have to cross a rickety bridge. She can only take one animal at a time, or she risks falling on deadly cheese (she's lactose intolerant, a fact that was suggested by a student). The alligator can't be trusted with the monkey or the parrot, and the parrot can't fly because of a broken wing. How can she get all three animals across the bridge safely?

On this occasion, most students figured out a reasonable sequence of events relatively quickly, and we moved on to other things. Last week, however, solving our warm-up ended up taking up the entire hour of math, and we ended up calling in Karl's math group to help us out:

Al says: Bob is lying.
Bob says: Carl is lying.
Carl says: Al and Bob are both lying.
Who is lying? Who is telling the truth?
There is only one possible answer.

This logic puzzle generated a ton of discussion and numerous suggestions on how to solve it. In the photo above, there are two different white boards and numerous pieces of scratch paper being used to puzzle it all out. We eventually got the correct answer. See if you can as well!

Karl's class returned the favor by inviting us to participate in an electoral math exercise. They created a map of the United States using Karl's amazing coffee mug collection (he has one from every state in the union). First, all of the states most likely to vote for Romney were put in one group, then those most likely to vote for Obama were put into another. The battleground states were left on the floor, representing a number of different possibilities for electoral victory for each candidate. Not only did it shed light on our political process, but it also made real world connections about where each candidate has been campaigning lately, and why. 

Engaging our math groups with this problem-based approach encourages meaningful connections with the material being covered, which brings us closer to our goal of true mastery of mathematics.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back to our original problem:

* The question is worded specifically: Divide 30 by 1/2 and then add 10. Most people read it quickly and divided 30 in half, and got 15. Of course, 30 divided by 1/2 (or, stated another way, 30 divided by .5) is 60. So the answer to the question "Divide 30 by 1/2 and then add 10" is 70.

If you need help solving the other problems, ask your child about it!

Farm to Table Presentations

As you know, our class has been working on researching, developing, and presenting projects based on our theme for September, Farm to Table. A portion of our homeroom time in the first weeks of October has been devoted to student presentations of their work. Students came up with their own research questions based on our class discussions, then developed a project from conception to presentation. While there has been a decided slant toward research projects based on the darker side of meat production (we've learned a lot about factory farming over the last few weeks), we've been treated to a wide range of topics:

Henry's report on food additives included a dramatic debate between a Hostess Zinger and a locally-produced cake from Zingerman's.

Noah shared information about the life of chickens in factory farms.

Melissa used a visual aid to demonstrate the average space allotted to a pig at a factory farm: three square feet. 

Henry A. reported on mechanically separated beef, more commonly known as "pink slime."

Lee created a game that takes the player on a journey that begins as a seed of wheat and ends as a loaf of bread.

We've learned a lot while working on these projects, and much of it has to do with the research process itself. We'll be taking what we've learned and applying it to our new Ancient Civilizations theme. We'll be working with this theme for two full months, which will allow for more rigorous and in-depth projects. 

Ask your student about their project! What did they research? What did they learn? How did their presentation go? (There have been a couple that have been rescheduled, so not everyone has had a chance to present yet.)

One related note, we'll be visiting the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology in Ann Arbor on Wednesday, October 24 in the afternoon. It should be a great trip!

Gilgamesh Auditions

Our theme for the months of October and November is Ancient Civilizations, and one of our culminating experiences will be a middle school production of the story of Gilgamesh.

On Monday, we joined with Karl's class to do a table read of the script. It allowed everyone to get a feel for the play, hear how the script sounds, and get a general idea of what we're all in for.

We held our auditions on Wednesday afternoon. To warm up, we played a few improv games, which everyone seemed to enjoy quite a bit, regardless of their interest in acting. 

Laurea and Alexandra perform an acting exercise: Laurea must ask, "why won't you tell me?" Alexandra replies, "I've already told you a hundred times." They repeat this exchange multiple times, making it as natural of a conversation as possible.

Anna, Taylor, and Noah rehearse a scene together while waiting to perform.

Melissa and Kaeli rehearsing.

Though everyone in the middle school will be involved with the play in some fashion, some students weren't interested in an acting role. They still participated in the read through process, but will take on other roles behind the scenes as the project progresses.

The cast list will be released soon. In the meantime, here are some potential discussion ideas for home:

- What do you think of the script? What about the story?

- Why is Gilgamesh important? How does the play tie into Ancient Civilizations? 

- Are you interested in an acting role? Was there one in particular that seemed like it might be a good fit? How will you feel if you get a small role?

(Just to be clear on casting: It was explained that everyone who auditioned and wants a role will receive one, with the understanding that no one can then choose to decline a role if they're disappointed with what they've been assigned.)

- What behind the scenes aspects are you interested in? (Designing and building sets? Costumes? Special effects? Music? There are a lot of opportunities!)

Math: Fermi Questions

Enrico Fermi, the noted physicist and architect of the atomic age, was also renowned for his uncanny ability to formulate fairly accurate estimates to seemingly impossible questions, often in his head. These exercises are now known as "Fermi Questions," or "Fermi Problems," and they're used in a variety of contexts, from classrooms to job interviews. In the classroom, they build problem-solving and estimation skills. With Fermi Questions, the methodology of the solution is far more important than the actual answer. In many cases, the exact answer is unknowable, but it is possible to calculate a reasonable estimation. The goal of a Fermi Question is to estimate an answer that's within one order of magnitude of the actual answer.

Today, my math group worked on a classic Fermi Question: How many piano tuners are there in New York City? The only piece of information that the students were given is that there are about 10,000,000 people living in New York City. (The actual population is closer to 8,000,000, but Fermi Questions involve a lot of rounding.)

Students worked in small groups, generating a lot of discussion and debate. Of course, the first instinct of many students was to ask for a computer to search for more information. I encouraged them to use their brains and each other instead.

Here are some helpful guidelines for approaching Fermi questions:

Focus on smaller problems
Estimate when necessary
Remember to round
Make realistic assumptions and state them
Include units

As a challenge, consider this problem yourself! How would you approach it?

After much discussion, the questions began to flow, each requiring a reasonable estimate:

"If there are 10,000,000 people, how many of them have pianos?" 

"How often is a piano tuned? Some may be tuned monthly, others never..."

"How many pianos can a person tune in a day? Does the tuner take a lunch break?"

"How many days a year does a piano tuner work?"

Discussion ideas for home: 

Work through this problem together! Ask your student how they approached the problem. What smaller problems and calculations were required?

Stumped? Click here for one possible solution, complete with the thought process. One of our groups today came to roughly the same conclusion!



Here's a huge list of Fermi Questions (along with a bit of educational rationale at the end). Try a few out!