9/27

Dear Parents,

This week we will finish up our Astronomy block with the constellation poster-reports.  They will present them on Tuesday or Monday if they volunteered.  During this study, it has been a challenging task to visualize the apparent and true movements of the celestial spheres!

The students particularly impressed me when they were able to take three separate things (Stargirl, The Little Prince, and the change to a heliocentric understanding) and find many themes that wove them together.  The themes included; how we learn, imagination, what is reality and more.  Their ability to find connections to diverse subjects, shows that they are exercising their brain muscles to think flexibly and creatively.  This skill will help them in many aspects of life, including the workplace.

We also continued to clear the space in front of the middle school building.  Bill Brookreson brought us some native plants for the project.  He told us to come up with a strategic list of native plants that we want to incorporate into the garden and he would help us find them.  If you know of a material that we can use to line the garden, please contact me.

I look forward to seeing you at the Michaelmas festival on Saturday.  Please help by signing up for a short shift to help with the archery.  You don't need any experience and the list is on the class bulletin board.   Thank you.

9/18

7th Grade Landscaping Project began on Friday!

     Last year, when we heard Greg Mortenson speak, he mentioned his belief that our young generations need to hear the life lessons from our elders.  On Wednesday our class was able to hear Bill Brookreson's account of finding meaning and joy in native plant restoration.  Bill is a dedicated member of the Native Plant Society and was willing to bring in some plant species and share his story.  In our morning verse time with the middle school, he was impressed with the feel of the school. 
     Now our class will undertake a community service project to improve the appearance and habitat of our school with a native plant garden.  People notice the weed filled garden that surrounds the middle school building.  The goal is to have the students address this by planning a garden that can cope with our weather and eventually need less maintenance than a flower bed.  If you know of some available materials to line the garden such as railroad ties, please contact me or the school.

In main lesson this past week we have been trying to visualize the apparent movement of the stars and also the actual motion of the earth.  Combining the two perspectives has been challenging.  This process of visualization can really stretch one's mind.  For example; why do we use hours and minutes to measure longitude or celestial hour lines?  What is the difference between a solar day and a sidereal day? 
   

Snack time in seventh grade...mmmm  good

The class meets Nicolaus Copernicus!

9/13

Please come to the parent eveing: Tuesday 9/14 at 6:30 in the seventh grade room.

9/08

Hello parents,

I want to let you all know that I welcome your presence in class before and after school.  I enjoy saying hello and I think it can be a good way to see what we are doing in class.   

The dates for the parent evenings, parent-teacher conferences, vacations and other important days are now posted to the right in the dates section.  I hope this helps.  I will post regular homework due dates and long term projects so that parents can be in the know.  It is not a substitute for students writing assignments in their homework books.   

Last week I had individual conferences with the students.  They set some personal goals and I gave them something to work on.  I feel that the real work of being a teacher is to make time for each student and get to know them.  It was easy for the students to list subjects that they want to improve in rather than what they can specifically do to make progress.  If you can, it would be good to ask them about these goals to keep it in their consciousness.  I also plan to revisit these goals with them. 

In main lesson, we have been looking at the change from a geocentric, to a heliocentric understanding of the cosmos.  Ask them about this "paradigm shift" and the one they created in their writings.

I am happy to announce that Remy, from Texas will join our class!  I hope we can welcome him and his family into the community.   

9/2

I am happy to announce that we began our ambitious undertaking of a new handwork project.  Thanks to Amy Chartrey's volunteering, we will make our very own sweater.  Or "jumper" as they say in Ireland.  This project will test their ability to be persistent and also provide a good socail time for the class.  How many people in the world can make their own clothes?  I think this is a great opportunity to be self sufficient, have fun and learn useful skills!
If your student is not able to comfortably knit and pearl, they need to practice(more than once).  We have two weeks before the next class. 

This week our class has been exploring the theme of courage.  In addition to hearing stories from parents, we discussed insightful quotes and perspectives.  Now I would like them to connect what they learned about courage to their own life in a short in-class writing.  These lessons can indirectly address the normal anxiety that can come with starting seventh grade.  These difficult teenage years will also require some courage on their part.  Courage to risk failure; courage to start again each day; courage to be different; courage to show joy: these are all things we talked about.  I hope that by giving some time and thought to the social life of the class, we can grow as a healthy place to share the joy of learning.     

Just a reminder that the Cispus ropes course trip is next Thursday Friday; bring permission slips.

School Supplies:  I asked the students to have the following by Tuesday:  Indoor shoes, last year's dictionaries, last year's recorder, binder (1.5" or larger) with dividers and lined paper, last year's colored pencils (the class can supplement missing colors), calendar planner (to write homework assignments)

It has been a great start on the whole.  They may not admit it but they act very happy to be with each other again.  I am also so glad to welcome Emma and Ethan into the class.  They are fitting in very well and I look forward to seeing them grow into their new school environments.