Monthly Archives: April 2019

8th Grade Seminar Update — Final One!

This next week in seminar will be heavy on the workload as we wrap up To Kill A Mockingbird.  Two assignments:
We’ll be primarily focused on learning how to write a literary analysis, but here’s the full overview of what’s happening for our final days:
Monday:  Reading Reflections sign-offs for student portfolios.  Literary Analysis introduction
Tuesday:  Literary Analysis Work-time
Wednesday: Literary Analysis Work-time
Thursday:  Literary Analysis Work-time.  Trimester Rubric self-evaluations.
Friday:  No class. ADSTG. Literary Analysis due by 8:40am.  (Must be printed and stapled to rough draft template.  No electronic copies accepted). Unfortunately, I can not offer extensions.  Friday morning is the last day to turn in all work or missing assignments for the year.
Monday, May 6th:  I-ready. (Trimester Rubrics returned) All classroom library books due on this day (including annotation free TKAM copies)
Tuesday, May 7th: I-ready. 8th Grade Good-byes Introduced.
Wednesday, May 8th:  Thank you notes.  Final day of Seminar.
Thank you so much for all of your support this trimester.  I’ve really enjoyed working with your kids and I’m excited to celebrate their accomplishments over these last few weeks.
Best, -JF

Co-op Update — Weeks of 4/23 and 4/30

Hi Co-op,

Here’s what’s happening:
1) End-of-year Conferences.  Students have lots to do!
2) Integrated rubrics for second semester will be shared around April 30th.
3) 8th Grade Science CMAS (during Seminar).  7th Grade CMAS (with Rundell).  This will take place Mon/Tues/Wed
4) Spring Trip Groups start on the 22nd.  We also have ADSTGs (All Day Spring Trip Group Field trips) for the next three Fridays.  Students will be heading out ton different activities depending on their Spring Trip Rotations.  Students may not know where yet — but should know by Wednesday the 24th at the latest.  We’ll be leaving after electives and returning in the afternoons.  If you want to volunteer for our ADSTGs, sign up here.
5) Driver’s meeting for Spring Trip is on May 2nd at 5:30pm.  It’s not too late to join us.
Thank you for all your continued support!  -JF

8th Grade Seminar Update — Weeks of 4/16 and 4/22

Here’s what’s happening in Seminar over the next few weeks:
Character Map for TKAM due Thursday the 11th at the beginning of class.  This is one of two major assignments for this semester.   Full task description and rubric can be found on book group menu #5 (you’ll have to scroll down) and in Google Classroom.
Chapters 18-25 due Tuesday the 16th.  We’ll be having our final book group meetings that week. (#7). We’ll also be learning about the Scottsboro Boys and exploring the connection between that tragedy and To Kill A Mockingbird.
CMAS Science Testing during Seminar (No official class) on April 22nd, 23rd, and 24th.  Students who have opted out will be supervised elsewhere.
To Kill a Mockingbird finished by Thursday the 25th.  We will introduce the TKAM final project on this day — as we learn to write a literary analysis.  This will likely be due May 2nd — though the date may float.
Thank you for all your continued support!  -JF

Game of Stones Update — Final One!

I can’t believe that we are approaching the conclusion of our integrated class this semester.  Between CMAS, POLs, the forthcoming 4-day weekend — we have only two full “regular” classes left before our final day of Game of Stones on Friday, April 19th.  Lots of notes:
1) Thanks in advance for your students awesomeness during our ADI last Friday.  We had a terrific time exploring the exhibits up at NCAR while conducting our meteorological scavenger hunt.
2) POLs are happening on April 16th and 17th.  Here is the schedule of presentations.  Here is the POL task description and rubric   Students will be working on the following to prepare for their POL.
1) Notecards.  Presentation and delivery.
2) Slideshow
3) 3D Object
4) Interactive exhibit.  Students are preparing either Makey-Makey exhibits, scratch animations, Wevideos, educational board games, chemical tests, etc…  to share as part of their presentation.
3) PSR.  Students are selecting artifacts from the class and reflecting upon them for their portfolio.  To get signed off on their PSR reflection, students need to insert work into their portfolio and then reflect upon the work using the questions appropriate to the thinking demonstrated (deep knowledge, problem solving, communication).  These should be signed off by Wednesday, April 10th.
4) End of semester party.  As per CHOICE tradition, we’ll be watching a movie for the final day of integrated on April 19th.  (Not sure what the film will be yet — but students have suggested the meteorologically appropriate Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, but we’ll see…).  We’ll also be awarding our awesome science champions. Students tend to bring in treats for this event.  Sometimes the amount of junk food can be a bit crazy, so I have some guidelines. Thank you in advance for flexibility. Here they are:
Any treats need to be homemade.  Cookies, cupcakes, and popcorn are great.  (Or anything else if people are feeling creative)
Drinks should be in recyclable aluminum cans.  No cups, plastic bottles, etc. Please, no caffeine.
I’ll have a sign-up sheet, but if it’s “one thing too many” — absolutely ok to bow out of treat-bringing.  Optional.

5) I’ll do my best to keep IC up to date in these final days, please make sure to check in with this resource regarding missing work.

6) Still hoping to do one last topography mini project with students too, but we’ll see what time allows.

It has been so much fun to explore Earth science with your students this semester.  Thank you for all your support.  -JF

Co-op Update — Weeks of 4/8 and 4/16

Here are notes for the next few weeks:
1) Working on final touches of the Spring Conference schedule.  Students will be leading us through a tour of their learning through their portfolios around the first week of May.  No guarantees, but I’ll try to send out the schedule in the next week.
2) In the meantime, there is a lot for students to be working on towards the completion of their portfolio.  This past Tuesday, I gave all students a color-copy of this portfolio checklist to-do.  Students should be using the checklist to ensure that their portfolio is complete prior to conferences.  Among the tasks that students should be working on:
1) End of year visual
2) Contributions to CHOICE reflection
3) Evidence for goal completion.  Or if goals weren’t completed, two paragraph reflection on the lesson learned.
4) Community Service reflection
5) Rubrics
6) See the checklist for other items.
3) Lots on CHOICE calendar coming up:
April 8th, 9th, and 11th:  CMAS (LA and Math)
April 9th: Spring Trip parent meeting at 5:30pm
April 12th and 15th: No School
April 16th and 17th: Integrated POLs
April 19th: Last day of Integrated
April 22nd: First day of Spring Trip Groups (we’ll announce these on Monday the 8th)
April 22nd, 23rd, 24th: CMAS (8th Grade Science and 7th Grade Social Studies)
April 26th:  First ADSTG (All Day Spring Trip Group Field Trip)
4) Spring Trip Chaperones — if you haven’t already filled out the driver’s form, please do so.  There will be a driver’s meeting on May 2nd at 5:30pm.  If you still want to chaperone with us, it’s not too late.  Simply fill out the form and come to the driver’s meeting.
Thank you for all your continued support!  -Josh Feiger

Game of Stones Update — Week of 4/1/19

The end of the integrated semester is coming so soon — it’s a bit shocking.  Our final integrated class is April 19th and we have CMAS testing the week of April 8th so we’ll have a modified schedule for that week.  In other words, this is our last full week of Game of Stones!
We have a lot happening in class, including the following:
1) Final Draft LTP is due on Friday, April 5th at 10:30am.  For the final draft, students should turn in a paper copy (I am not accepting final drafts electronically.)  I gave lots of feedback to all students who turned in their strong drafts back in March and students should definitely meet with me if any comments were unclear or even just to check-in on revisions (we’ll have time for this during class). Many students still have additional research to conduct.  The final draft should have the following elements:
              A) Self-assessed rubric (I’ll hand this out in class — though it is the same as the template)
      B) Mission Proposal with pictures/captions. Students will need to cut and paste each paragraph from the strong draft graphic organizer to make it into a clean LTP.
              C) A picture of the 3D tool/object that they are going to create.
              D) Annotated Timeline
      E) Bibliography
2) ADI on April 5th. We’ll be headed to NCAR.  We’ll be learning about the atmosphere as we conduct a meteorological scavenger hunt.  We’ll also hopefully have the opportunity to meet with scientists there to learn about forecast modeling. Students should wear weather-appropriate clothes (jackets? sunscreen?) and bring a sack lunch.
3) POLs.  We’ll also be working on our Presentations of Learning (POLs) this week.  Here is the POL task description and the Presentation Schedule.  Presentations of Learning will take place on April 16th and 17th.
4) If time allows, I also want to do a little topography project with students — but we’ll see how the week unfolds.  (We also have PSRs to do as well.)
Thank you for all your continued support.  -JF