July 23, 2010

What We Did This Week...

Romeo and Juliet! We watched Buz Larhman's Romeo and Juliet and the kids really enjoyed it. Even though they had a hard time with the dialog, the understood the characters and the story. (I did provide some translation). We even had a talk about Love vs. Infatuation and then discussed how hate keeps us apart but love brings us together.

On Our Way to Mars!
Extremem weather caused us to postpone our polling... AGAIN! But we had fun in the shade. We learned about what it would take to travel to mars and tried to think of way to pack enough entertainment for six people who will be in space for 3 years--- and it all had to fit in an 2x2x2 cube. So all of those things will have to be measured by area... hmmmm.


What Will Be Doing Next Week....

Scripts! Last week my students saw a home-made movie and thought they would like to try something like that in their video class. So next week we will learn about the elements of Narrative (Character, Setting, Conflict, Resolution) and then turning that into a working script.

Next week, we will be finishing our polls and publishing them. Keep your eyes on the wall.

Student of the Week
 Alexander Mason
Alexander is an enthusiastic student with a lot of smarts and a lot on his mind. He loves Math and knowing things. He helps the class by eating the chakras of any evil ninjas that attack our class. (Don't ask)

Snack Family of the Week

the Givens Family!

July 16, 2010

Interesting Experience...

On Thursday, the camp went to see a play at the Museum. At one point in the play, the character asked the children to all yell out the subject that they feared the most. Imagine my horror as a few hundred children from all different kinds of schools, races, and socio-economic backgrounds yelled, "MATH!"

Now, to be fair, I grew up with the same anxiety when ever it came to Math class. I took this anxiety all the way through college. It wasn't until I started my education as a teacher that it occurred to me that I wasn't such a bad Math student, I had bad teachers. In their defence, we've all had bad Math. We've had bad Math teachers for the past 150 years. The tragic part is that we only seem to be getting worse.

So this is my passion as a teacher, I don't want to repeat the mistakes of the past. Who does? Can I create a classroom that extoles the positive, creative, and beautiful aspects of Math. Can I create a student body where the student who hates Math is the anomaly?

We'll see.

Right now I'm reading two books that are giving me new insight on Math and how I teach it. The first is "The Number Devil" by Hans Magnus Enzensberger. It's  like Euclid in Wonderland.
The second is "A Mathematician's Apology" by G.H. Hardy.  This is only a 50 page booklet and definatly worth the read, especially for educators.  Here is a link to the PDF.
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B0NTWkYLESW7ODkwOWMwMDUtNWY4ZS00NzhmLTk2MTQtNTI1ZWU0MTI1NzRh&hl=en&authkey=CK3iwrYM

What We Did This Week...

Do to some minor schedule changes, We were not able to have our quiz this week. So we will take it next week. In the meantime, we were able to have some book club-style discussions and do some comprehension exercises.

We made practiced entering poll data into a spreadsheet and then using the computer to change the data into graphs. It was a great experience because we got a chance to experiment and see which kind of graph did the best job of communicating our data. Here is an example of our work.

What We Are Doing Next Week...

We will be going to Treasure Island to take our poll.

On Monday we will be watching Romeo and Juliet. Bring some popcorn!

Student of the Week

Kamaal Power

Kamaal loves Math and hates chairs. He always has a good attitude and he's a good friend. He wants to be an engineer, so he helps us build Goldberg Machines to keep Tom away.

Snack Family

The Patterson's!

July 9, 2010

What We Are Doing...

I'm Sending Homework

I tried... I really did. I don't even believe in "summer homework". I mean, we've fought wars about this kind of thing, right. But, alas, in order to keep my students accountable for their reading assignments, I'm asking they they complete a vocabulary list of thier own design. I have made the copies and they are going home. I want them turned in on Tuesday, 13th.

We will be having a final quiz on Artemis Fowl, chapter's 1-9 on Wednesday.

This week we will start our polling project. We will be compiling questions that we will present in a public forum and then we will use Excel to compile and graph the data.

What can you do to help? Less GCI, more NPR (91.5). Most of our kids get very little news. Turn it on in the car or put it on television for an hour (if you call network news "news". I'm not judging.) This will give your child something to think and ask about.

What We Are Doing Next...

Romeo and Juliet! Here's the way I figure it: We've got romance for the girls and swordplay for the boys. Now if we can just lick that language problem--

Suffice it to say, this lesson is going to be a vocabulary builder.

I'm taking a unique approach to the literature. Traditionally, Shakespeare's plays are read first and then, if time and budget permit, they see the play. I think this is backwards. It's the equivalent to saying,

"Girl! Did you see Grey's Anatomy last night? You'll love it! Here's the script!"

Children all over the world have had the same experience with Shakespeare for the last 200 years. This is why most of us don't read any after college.

So next week we will be starting by watching Buz Larhman's Romeo & Juliet. You can prepare your child by having them read the King James Bible. The language comes from the same period as William Shakespeare's time. 

I
Student of the Week

Samir Ali

What can I say? Samir likes the dinosaurs. We went to the Field Museum this week and he tried to do my job. He had comments about every compilation of bones in the place. Did you know that the Brontosaurus would keep stones in it's belly so that it could digest the tough leaves that it ate? I have to admire and congradulate that degree of personal scholarship. And he's the only kid that can run to Sam's, pick up snack, and get back to camp in 2 minutes... on foot.

 

Snack Family

The Sutherlan's!

Ribs With a Side of Introspection

So It's The 4th! Great!

Why? Can your child answer these questions?

1. Name 2 people who signed the Declaration of Independence.
2. What year did America become a country?
3. What war did we fight to defend our right to be a republic?
4. Who was the general of the Continental Army?
5. What was the name of the first American to die in the Revolutionary War?

Click below for an interesting video about the Fourth starring Glory's Morgan Freeman.
http://www.history.com/topics/july-4th/videos#the-meaning-of-july-4th-for-the-negro

Important Notes

• Unless otherwise stated, you do not need to send lunch on field trips.

• Please send swim caps for girls.
  
• Don't come to Camp on Monday. If you do, bring a good book and a chair. The Camp will not be open.

• Camp tuition is due today. Campers without payment will not be able to return on July 6th.
  
• If there is an area of study in which your child needs practice. I can send home work (note the space, I don't want to freak anyone out by using the "H" word over the Summer)
  

What We Did Last Week

We made Math posters in the classrooms. You will see them displayed on the walls this Friday. We also started discussing and investigating the purpose of polls. This resulted in a very interesting debate about whether we need more or less strict gun laws.

We read and discussed chapters 4-6 of Artemis Fowl. In order to really understand our characters and their motivations we wrote essays about what we would do if we had the character's powers. We also wrote journal entries in the voice of one the character and read them in front of the class.

In Science we started our tinkering section. I've brought in some old toys, electronics and screwdrivers and let the students have at them. If you have any electronics that you've been planning to throw out, please donate them. I encourage you to watch the video called "5 Dangerous Things for Your Kids" in the Parent Resource Center in the right pane of this page.

What Are We Doing Next Week?
We will be finishing Artemis Fowl and following up with some Language Arts applications dealing with homophones and subordinate clauses. We will also be doing a resource use exercise.

As mentioned earlier, we will be using our Math skills to create, execute, graph, and present a poll. We will go to the local supermarket to get opinions.

To paraphrase my students, "Next week is going to be so BEAST!"

Camper of the Week

Kaitlin Patterson

Kaitlin is a hard worker and she doesn't care for giving up. She likes to get it right and she's an outstanding friend! This week she learned how to read a fictional language and she always checks the window for bothersome "puddy tats"

Below are some thoughts on Math.