Matthew summarizes the week

Matthew armed with a new pencil

Hi, this is Matthew, a student of Jason's class, A.K.A The Argonauts. Since October, we have been doing a research papers on ancient civilizations. We are now trying to finish them. Some people had to start over. For example, I am doing the Ancient Greek military. I think that many people are doing very well.

We have also been working on our Place Out of Time stuff. This week on P.O.O.T., we worked on something called a Bio-Cube:
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/cube_creator/.

Everybody is still trying to keep their own person a secret, and people aren’t succeeding much. So I won’t post my, or anybody else's, person.

In Music, we have been studying The Sphinx Organization, which is an organization for teaching kids without access to music to learn strings. Every year, Sphinx has a competition in musical skills, involving the people that Sphinx taught. We went on a field trip to watch three finalists compete for 1st. The three contestants were Lev Mamuya, Annelle Gregory, and Sterling Elliott. Lev Mamuya got 1st, Sterling Elliot got second, and Annelle Gregory got 3rd. They each got a prize of money; 1st: $5000, 2nd: $3500, and 3rd: $2000.

In Latin, we have been doing what we always have, and for people who don’t know what that is, I’ll fill in the blanks. We translate Latin sentences into English, and take single Latin words and find their English derivatives.

In Science, we are doing things on Digication. Digication is a online portfolio. We are using it to record our calorimetry projects. Here’s the link: http://www.digication.com. We are making a record of what we are doing and a “how to” on the experiment.  

Science Class.

Signing off, 
Matthew  

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Thank you, Matthew! 

As Matthew mentioned, we were able to take a school trip (including everyone in grades 3 through 8!) to the beautiful Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit on Friday to attend one of the competitions. It was a marvelous opportunity, and we're grateful to Mr. Riccinto for arranging the trip. (Speaking of Mr. Riccinto, have you subscribed to his new music blog yet? If not, check it out!) 

Inside the Max M. Fisher Music Center

While waiting to hear who won, we were treated to a question and answer session. Students were invited to walk up to the stage and ask the conductor questions about Sphinx, the symphony, or anything else that was on their minds. Our own Noah was the first person to rush down to the mic to ask a question, which opened the floodgates of students. I was particularly impressed to see how many Summers-Knoll kids went up to the microphone to take advantage of this unique opportunity. It was a genuine pleasure to be in the company of so many bright, polite, and questioning kids! I was very proud of them on Friday! (Of course, I'm usually pretty proud of them.) 

I hope everyone has a wonderful break!

The Week in Photos

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.

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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! 

Only one more week until Winter Break!