Friday, February 24, 2012

Socialism Day!









The day started out quite nicely, even though the scholars had no seats and had to spend the day in their "Community Circle" they quickly adjusted and decided it wasn't terribly bad after all. There was definitely some whining and complaining when they had to go to the "community ledge" to obtain a writing instrument, and someone else had absconded with "their" pencil.....yes, the advantages of "sharing".

Once the day began and we experienced our first socialized test on The Giver, the scholars were ready to get out of their floor positions and go and do some manual labor. After all, everybody has to share the work, even the dirty work, and then everybody gets to share the benefit.

We first dealt with all the pop cans that had been collected (see photos) and then emptied out the mail room from garbage that had been collected for days.....the scholars were fairly well-natured through this activity...at least "most" of them.

We then headed to the gym and provided them with a basketball. No directions, no rules, just a fun community game of basketball.....at least it started that way. It was more like total chaos. Scholars were looking to Coach and I for some direction, some leadership, some...should we say...."structure" of which we provided NONE. They then very quickly decided that the fun had turned into a "everyone for himself" game, and much sooner than later, the more advanced basketball players found themselves on the sidelines verbalizing how ridiculous the whole thing was. Of course every time there was a basket made on either end of the court, Coach graciously granted a point to both "teams". By the time the scoreboard read 8 to 8 the scholars were noticing, and becoming aware of what was taking place.......

Soon after, the entire group deteriorated to boys on the court and girls on the sidelines. Then, of course, the boys decided they needed "Captains" so they could play a "civilized" game. Were they insinuating that what they were doing was "uncivilized"? As soon as they had picked captains, and the girls were content on the sidelines, the experiment was over, and we discussed what had taken place. Right before their very eyes they went from "all for one and one for all", to "every man for himself", to chaos, to structure. They proved point blank that their socialistic game could not and would not survive.

That led us directly to our math test.....the photo of Oak taking a rest was taken right after I scored his 100% test, and he knew he had put in his "share of the wealth"....he was content with himself and let all the rest worry about carrying their load.

After math we had "lunch" where we collected all food brought and bought for the day and put it in the center of the room. Those without lunches had the first dibs and were more than happy to take from the goods produced and provided to serve their own hungry bellies. Some were a bit more bent out of shape about that......

Nonetheless, the overall experiment went well and I am quite certain that our scholars do not believe that man is inherently "good" or that sharing the wealth is a sustainable way to run a country.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Full Speed Ahead!

A scholar speaking this morning: "Mrs. Goers, will we still be moving at this pace once we make it into fourth quarter, or will we be done?"

Mrs. Goers: "Done!??? Seriously......this is the pace, we have kept and will keep the pace through the fourth quarter, how do you think we cover all the work we do?"

Scholar: "Good! I love "fastness".

Thus goes our day in the suite, covering novels, analyzing, synthesizing into our everyday lives ideologies, ideals, and practices that we learn and discover together. Busily the scholars are working on their Call of the Wild projects today, and they will have more group time together on Friday. They have science boards due TOMORROW for their science fair projects, which gives me a couple days to look them over, give them advice, and have them take them home to amend if need be. Friday we will be tackling our unit 8 math test on algebra since we have completed the unit as of today.

We have plenty on our plates for March : Scholars will be subject to socialism day, communism day, and then will be rewarded with utopia day, a day of their design. More info to follow on that. Please check your email. We have a Utopia project that they will produce for the 14th. This is a project that is basically their creation of what their utopia would be. They will write an essay, attach it to a poster board, and then use photos, drawings, 3D objects, etc in order to help us understand their utopia. Next week I will put up the entire March calendar.

Also in March we are learning about careers, having parents come in and present, and writing our research papers on the careers of choice. Research papers are due on April 5th right before the break. I am looking forward to seeing what the scholars put together.

please note: If you schedule a conference with me; I don't believe it's unreasonable to expect you to show up. I don't appreciate sitting at school when I can be home enjoying my family. Please check your schedules when you sign up on PTC. Thank you so much for being considerate! :)

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Chocolate, chocolate, and oh! More Chocolate! :)












What a crazy week we had last week as it started out with a surprise party on Monday morning....thank you all for your thoughtfulness! Nonetheless the consumption of sugar was the theme of the week, or so it seemed! We were busy dissecting hearts on Tuesday, and enjoying our trip to Mrs. Cavanaugh's on Wednesday, followed by preparing for our coffeehouse on Friday. It was a successful week with many fine memories made. Enjoy the photos!

Also, I have yet to receive a good group shot of the entire class from the coffeehouse. If you have one would you please share it with us, I would love it for the yearbook! Thanks! :)

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Cooperation - Put Your HEART Into It!











What a packed day we had as we began with a quiet chapter of the giver, and trying to explain what a color was, to deciding when we think it's best to be able to have choices and make decisions for ourselves.....

From there we set ourselves to the task of getting to the heart of the matter, and spent an hour on our heart dissection. All students were able to find the right atrium and ventricle and the left atrium and ventricle. Most were able to put their fingers and probes through the blood path (see photos).

We then spent some time on chapter 8 in our new book B for math. We are continuing with algebraic equations and today we found for "x". Most scholars picked up on this quite quickly and found it rather simple. Tonight they have some homework to practice before we embark on the next piece tomorrow.

This afternoon we started our cooperation unit and students were broken up in to teams where they had to cooperate together to lead a blindfolded person through the hallways and back up to our room. Those who were blindfolded decided that it was easier to direct someone AFTER having to be blindfolded because experience taught them just how difficult a task it is to listen to a bunch of voices at once.....this is just the beginning of cooperating.

The Call of the Wild Project that will be done this month is based in cooperation. It is a TEAM project and all scholars get the same grade. It's about working together for a common goal! They will get their assignments tomorrow and then have two class periods and their own free time (they can stay after school if need be so they can work together). The idea is that they work as a team, help with materials and put the project together to present as a team.

Tomorrow morning we will be talking about the science of candymaking before heading off to Mrs. Cavanaugh's. Please remember to provide a little cash to your scholar so they can purchase candy to decorate your table on Friday night for the Coffeehouse!

Thank you so much for all the Valentine goodies too! As usual, I am overwhelmed!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Celebrating our Mathletes!





We had a long go of it on Saturday, and the Mathletes performed their best. Adam, Oak, and Andrew were all 1 to 1.5 points away from the top ten contenders in the competition. Our team consisting of Oak, Andrew, Grace, and Jade came in 5th place due to a small error. They would have finished in third. It was a great experience for all of us and we expect to see our Mathletes continuing to compete in middle school competitions. We were the youngest of all competitors, and considering the students who won had 2 more years of math under their belts, we sixth graders gave them a challenge! Congratulations on your hard work Mathletes!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Brent Sass is in the LEAD!!!!






Follow this link to follow the Yukon Quest as it happens for the next two weeks. The class has sponsored mushers, will send them email notes, and has adopted sled dogs to run the race alongside the mushers. We will become friends with their families and learn all about their struggles as they run the race through from Fairbanks to White Horse, heading right through Dawson City, the main location of the Jack London's novel, Call of the Wild. We will be reading this novel during the month of February, and following the race each day.

http://www.yukonquest.com/site/race-updates/

the photos posted today are of the Math Counts Team that will be heading to Weber State University next Saturday morning to compete in the regional competition.
Also there are pictures of one of the experiments done in class, where students were tasting different types of Lemonade in a project put together by Grace Bailey. Some of the reactions to the sweeteners were rather humerus to watch.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Thank you, Thank you, and Thank you again.


























Thank you so much for the prayers and thoughts for my daughter as we walked through that trial yesterday with the accident. The scholars were real troopers and their holding it together helped me to hold it together after the phone call. Thank you so much for your concern, and the scholars also! We are blessed, a concussion, some whiplash and some residue burns....she will heal and we are glad she will be okay.

ALSO thank you for being so generous to help pay for our February science unit experiment. I am very encouraged with the help. The hearts and dissection kits are ordered. I believe the scholars will enjoy this learning experience.

ALSO thank you for volunteering to help out with all that we have going on this month. This is usually the most rigorous time of the year. We have a math competition, a field trip, a coffeehouse, and a science fair.....it's total craziness, and at the same time none of it would be able to happen without our awesome parental support. Thank you once more!

We finished our King Arthur unit, and the scholars got the opportunity to try and sport a genuine King Solomon Sword. It was fun to watch them lift it and attempt to keep it level. Enjoy the photos! I will load the rest up later this evening. They are currently resizing.

We are onto February and we have a very full plate!
Here is the tentative calendar. Some things may move due to covering material faster or slower, but right now this is the plan:

3 - Spelling/Vocab tests Science Research Due
7 - Latin Test
8 - Astronomy Test
10 - Essay, Poetry due for contest, Spelling/Vocab tests
11 - MATH COUNTS at Weber State
13 - Math Test
15 - Field Trip to Mrs. Cavanaugh's $1 per student
17 - NO SCHOOL - COFFEEHOUSE at 6:30 Wasatch Christian School
22 - History Test - Capitalism, Socialism, Industrialism
23 - Science Boards due for the Science Fair
27 - Call of the Wild Team Projects Due

March 1 - Science Fair 6:00 pm
March 9 - Utopia Project Due

You will be receiving packets for graduation soon. Not everyone HAS to participate in the ceremony, but if you choose to, you will have the information.

Also, there are quite a few scholars who are very close to qualifying for the National Speech and Debate Tournament in Indianapolis, Indiana this coming June 11 - 15. I will be getting packets out to families to start that conversation. We need to have the coffeehouse first to accumulate more points, but soon after you can be expecting to get some paperwork if your scholar has been active in Speech and Debate this year.

One more time, Thank you ALL for making this a fulfilling year for your scholars! :)