Monthly Archives: March 2019

8th Grade Seminar Update — Week of 4/1 and 4/8

Leave a reply
I hope you had a wonderful Spring Break.  In Seminar, we are continuing to build understanding and background knowledge about To Kill A Mockingbird.  There are a lot of characters to track in the novel, so students will be creating a character map.  Character maps are really helpful both in creating a visual to better understand character relationships and in supporting students to find textual evidence in the novel.  We’ve also been exploring the link between TKAM and eugenics and we’ll also start to dive into the trial (finally!) over the next couple of weeks. Our schedule also shifts due to CMAS testing.  No class on 4/5 (ADI), 4/8 (CMAS), 4/12 (Holiday).
Here is the link to all the book group meeting menus.  To find the character map task description, scroll down to menu #5.
Students will have class time to do much of this thinking, but here are upcoming due dates:
Monday, April 1st:  Book group #5 menu should be complete (except for character map).  Students who have missed class should plan on completing the headlines and African American character chart independently.
Wednesday, April 3rd:  Students should have read or listened to chapters 15,16, and 17 by this time.  Book group meeting #6 will start on this day.
Wednesday, April 10th: Character Map due.  (I pushed this due date back a week)
Tuesday, April 16th:  Students should have read or listened to chapters 18-25 (finished chapter 25) by this time.  Book group meeting #7 will start on this day.
Thank you for all your continued support!
-JF

Co-op Update — Week of 4/1/19

Leave a reply
Hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful Spring break.  The end of the year is a bit of a whirlwind.  Here are a few co-op updates for the week of our return.
1) Community Service — if your student has not accrued their community service hours for the year, Spring break is a great time to get those hours.  Here’s a link to a bunch of community service opportunities.
2) Spring Trip — we’ll be introducing and explaining the trip to parents on April 9th at 5:30pm.  All parents are welcome, but this is particularly recommended for 6th grade parents.  In addition, we’ll be having a driver’s meeting for all parents who are joining us for our Mack adventure on May 2nd.
3) End of year conferences will likely be May 2nd – May 9th.  I’ll try to send out the conference schedule sign-up in my next update.  Here are a checklist of requirements that students should have completed prior to their conference.
4) Students have their final ADI on Friday, April 5th.   Students should check-in with their integrated teacher for necessary supplies on that day.  POLs are April 16th and 17th.  Spring trip core groups will start the afternoon of Monday, April 22nd.
5) CMAS (LA and Math) will be administered in the mornings of April 8th, 9th and 11th.  CMAS (Science — 8th Grade Only) and CMAS (Social Studies — 7th grade only) will be administered the week of April 22nd during the day.
Thank you for all your continued support!   -JF

Co-op Update — Week of 3/17

Leave a reply

Hi Co-op,

Just a few quick co-op updates.
If you haven’t heard already, we are super excited to bring the CHOICE program to Mack, Colorado where we’ll be staying at Highline Lake State Park May 13th-17th.  There is a parent meeting (especially encouraged for sixth grade parents) on April 9th at 5:30pm and a meeting for all drivers on May 2nd where we will share more details.  Students will be signing up for rotations in co-op early next week.  I’ve listed them below for your perusal.
April and May get busy.  Make sure to check the CHOICE calendar. A few dates of note:
Friday:  Athletic Day — Skiing or Apex Rec Center
Friday, April 5th:  Final ADI.  Bring Sack lunch
April 8th, 9th, and 11th:  CMAS Testing
April 16th and 17th:  POLs
April 19:  Last Day of Integrated.
April 22:  Spring Trip Groups Begin
Have a great week and a terrific Spring break!  -Josh Feiger

8th Grade Seminar — Weeks of 3/11 and 3/18

Leave a reply
We’ll be learning about “Atticus-isms,”  rapping/singing about figurative language, and continuing our conversations about To Kill A Mockingbird. Here’s a link to our book group menus to give you a taste of what this looks like in class.   As I have mentioned earlier, this is a super challenging text (especially at the beginning) and I encourage all students to listen to the audio and track as they track the book.  I have audio links available here (and on Google Classroom).
We’ll also be “speed dating” with books on the 13th.  Students will have the opportunity to “date” some books and see if there is a choice novel outside of TKAM with which they may wish to become more involved with over Spring break.  
 
Upcoming due dates: 
 
Every night:  Read 30 minutes (Can be choice novel or TKAM (but don’t read ahead))
Monday, March 11th:  Chapters 5-8 w/annotations.  There will also be a comprehension quiz on this day.  
Monday, March 18th:  Chapters 9-11w/annotations.
Thursday, March 21st:  Chapters 12-14 w/annotations
Wednesday, April 3rd:  Character Map due.  Chapters 15-17 w/annotations.  
 
Thanks for all your continued support!  -JF

Game of Stones Update — Week of 3/11 and 3/18

Leave a reply
Hi Everyone,
Not a lot of new information to report — we are busy in class, primarily focused on two items:
If you are looking for dinner table conversation questions, here are a few from class:
1) What’s the difference between the lithosphere and asthenosphere?
2) What is a convergent plate boundary?
3) What happens on divergent plate boundaries?
4) What about transform plate boundaries?
5) Any missing assignments?  Do you need to revise anything?  Have you checked IC?
6) Why is the center of the earth so hot?
7) What is air pressure?  And how does air pressure change to create weather?
8) What is your mission destination for your LTP? What science are you planning to conduct?
9) What is the title of your mission?
10) What is an annotated timeline?
Upcoming due dates:
Thursday, March 14th:  Last day for Plate Tectonic Makey-Makey exhibits.
Tuesday, March 19th:  Strong Draft of LTP turned in electronically via Google Classroom at 9pm.
Friday, April 5th: Final Draft of LTP turned in via paper copy by 8:40am
Our final ADI will be a scavenger hunt at NCAR.  (I almost secured us a tour of a weather news station in Denver, but because April 5th is Colorado Rockies Opening Day — all the newsrooms are unfortunately preoccupied on that particular day.)
Thank you for your continued support!  -Josh Feiger

Game of Stones Update — Week of 3/4

Leave a reply
I am so enjoying my time with your students.  Our ADI on Friday was not necessarily the most engaging fieldwork day ever, but your kids were super positive and we did get to see some pretty amazing dinosaur tracks.  It also provided a lot of great background information for our turn into Geology.  This week, we’ll be using the Makey-Makey kits along with cardboard, copper tape, and other assorted materials to build models so that we can better understand plate tectonics and Earth’s core.
We will begin the process of actually writing our LTPs. Here’s the full (very colorful) template.   Basically, there are seven components:
1) Title Page with Mission Logo
2) Mission Proposal (Written)
3) Annotated Timeline
4) Pictures
5) Bibliography
6) 3D reproduction of a piece of science equipment (To be completed in late March/early April)
7) Hypothesis Exhibit (To be completed in April)
Upcoming due dates:
TBA:  Plate Tectonic Makey-Makey demonstration
Tuesday, March 19th:  Strong Draft of LTP turned in electronically via Google Classroom.
Friday, April 5th: Final Draft of LTP turned in via paper copy
Thank you for your awesome students and all your continued support!  -Josh Feiger