April
2005
TEAM NEWS
by A. G. and Matt Victor
J. D., Platinum Team English teacher, said himself
that the 3rd term is often the hardest in terms of
maintaining good grades, but many students aren’t
having a problem. In Language arts, the kids are writing
essays, which is a big change from the recently completed
summaries. These essays are a follow-up of THE GIVER,
by Lois Lowry, but in an indirect way. They relate
to the book only in that they both deal with issues
of individuality and conformity. Topics range from
labeling and stereotyping to cliques and exclusion,
with much, much more in between. The students are also
reading books independently, focusing on the frame
of reference, including things the characters have
that we don’t and things we may take for granted
that the characters don’t have.
J. D. is also starting a new unit that deals with
racism. This unit will not require any written work,
but it will include a lot of learning. J. D. will sing
a song after every class, and the students will gauge
how much they’ve learned by how much they understand
the song, which no students understand at first. On
the first day of the unit after hearing the song once
through, students contributed what they thought about,
but no one was allowed to ask questions. Hopefully,
by the end of the unit they will be able to answer
their own. Between the projects, Platinum Team students
will be doing their best to keep their third term grades
high.
Many students on the Platinum Team have started acquiring
cars, yachts, and even private islands, and it’s
all thanks to math class. Students picked a profession
and researched the annual salary. Students then figured
out how much money they made weekly, and how much they
made hourly, if they worked 40 hours a week. When they
had checked all their answers, the students got to
start shopping. By the end of the project, each person
will have chosen 4 fantasy items and figured out how
long they would have to work to purchase each one,
with the 5% tax when applicable. Although this project
may mean students working over 2,000 hours to buy a
house, many people are enjoying it. Some advantages
to this activity are that it will help the students
brush up on long division, decimal multiplication,
rounding, and other essential math skills. So this
should be a good project all around.
Social studies this month is focused on teamwork.
Students of M. H. have finished their business discussion
that focuses on the middle east’s water problem.
Kids each assume roles as business managers and argue
about where the water should go. Currently students
are studying India and soon there will be another project.
J. R., the science teacher, has got the students
working on forces in motion. Which consists of gravity,
motion, forces, etc. Kids will enjoy this unit very
much, especially when it comes time to build solar
cars. After student will take a look at oceanography.
Literally and figuratively. J. R. will have a mini
tide pool delivered to the classroom.
by M. G. and J. T.
In the month of April, Jade Team has a busy schedule.
In science, A. R. will be helping her classes explore
the relationships of organisms and ecosystems, and
how energy is passed on through organisms. The students
will also be researching a genetic disorder of their
choosing and presenting it in the form of an oral,
or written, report.
L. N., a Jade Team assistant, is optimistic about
how students are improving in “...their organization
and academic skills. I think that Jade Team students
are progressing very well this year, ” says L.
N.
In English, Jade students have finished the book
ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY by Mildred D. Taylor and
are well into THE MIRACLE WORKER by William Gibson.
This book, which is written in dialogue form, is about
Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan, Keller’s teacher.
In social studies, J. O.’C. has finished teaching
his unit on Greece and the exploration of Alexander
the Great. J. O’C. will soon start a brief unit
on Israel followed by the rise of Rome. Students are
also working on their biography reports on a person
of their choice. This report is focused on teaching
students how to research and write a thorough paper.
In math, students are starting a new unit. “We
just finished a unit on percents and proportions. We
had a class store that involved percent and proportion
problems. They’ll be studying integers for quadrant
graphing,” B. M. comments.
by M. D.and R. J.
Red Team finished up Ancient Greece with a unit test
on April the 1st. Students will then be starting a
unit on Ancient Rome. In addition, they will be getting
ready for history MCAS exam. For the rest of the year
they will be doing small papers.
In science, Red Teamers will be finishing up evolution.
Then they will start a unit on classification of living
things. Students will be required to make posters on
the subject. After the posters, students will be doing
a research project on taxonomy.
D. E. will be leaving for her maternity leave and
V. G. will be taking over section 2. Students will
be continuing writing and reflecting on poetry. At
the end of the unit they will be creating an anthology,
a collection of different poems due April the 15th.
In math all the sections will be starting the solving
equations unit. They will be doing a lot of work on
equations to get ready for 8th grade.
by E. G.-M. and V. P.
The Green Team is swiftly moving through the month
of April with new units and activities.
In English class, Green Teamers are continuing to
read the infamous novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper
Lee. They will be taking part in activities, doing
projects, and writing essays that have to do with the
book. Students will be continuing to delve into the
novel thinking about symbolism and multiple meanings,
which the classic is known for.
Green Team social studies classes just finished their
Power Point projects on America’s Coming of Age.
They spent a month preparing them, doing research in
the library, rough drafts in the classroom, and putting
them together in the computer room with the help of
Marc Richmond, who works at the Ed. Center, M. C. ,
and R. M.
In science, students are finishing up their unit
on weather. They are being introduced to the Periodic
Table of rocks and minerals.
In Accelerated Algebra, students are studying inequalities.
The two Algebra classes are going to be graphing, while
the Pre Algebra classes are going to be doing MCAS
reviews. According to Ms. S., “All students need
to make sure that supplies are up to date. They need
to have pencils, paper, and a calculator.”
by B. H.-M.
In March, students were visited by Margaret Orr,
who works at Children's Floating Hospital and knows
a lot about mitochondrial disease. This disease is
when a person’s mitochondria, the energy making
organelles in the cell, are gone, or there are very
few. Scientists are still trying to figure out if the
disease in genetic, and if so, what gene and what chromosome.
Following Orr’s presentation, students learned
about evolution and how genetics and DNA fit into that
picture.
In social studies this month, students will finish
Greece with the play “Antigone”. After
that, they will start their study of Rome.
In math, students of all levels will learn more about
data analysis. Students will learn about bar graphs,
line graphs, circle graphs and the sort.
In English, students will resume their poetry unit,
which was interrupted by S. S.’s absence. They
will continue to discuss, read, and write poetry together.
Sometime during the month, students will put together
a book of their original poetry that they have chosen
to edit and finalize.
by A. S. and J. R.
Orange Teamers will be enjoying reading two great
books in their English classes this month. The first
book of this “dynamic duo” of sorts is
THE SUNFLOWER by Simon Wiesenthal. The team will be
finishing this book and then will dive into the American
classic TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee.
Social studies classes will have a month covering
many small topic. The topic connecting all of them
is a period of American history from 1800-1860 known
as “The Decades”. The unit will have projects
on the technology an innovations during the 1800’s.
Under this informational umbrella will be political
leaders of the time, including Henry David Thoreau,
Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Abraham Lincoln. Also, abolitionists
Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth will be covered in
April.
Math classes this month are continuing to be covered
by S. E. She is delighted to be back at Day reconnecting
with last year’s students and getting to know
more students. All four sections are covering some
aspect of graphing equations, so they will be using
graphing calculators and going to the computer lab
this month.
Science classes will be covering an interesting topic
this month: the atmosphere and weather. At this point
there is not much more to say according to Mark Murphy
as he has been working so hard on his current units
he has not had time to work on the next unit.
by N. F. and T. K.
In Blue Team news, the latest member of the Blue
Team family was E. B. who was born to H. W. on Saturday,
March the 26th. Currently, M. L. is taking over the
class for H. W. during her leave of absence.
For English students will be reviewing Harper Lee’s
one and only novel: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. It hit stores
in 1960 taking numerous prizes and selling 100’s
of thousands of books a year. But after 37 years of
silence she still touches the audience with the unfortunate
events of the Great Depression and segregation in the
South.
Also in social studies, students will be expanding
westward studying the Northwest Territory and the effects
of the Northwest Ordinance in the region near the great
lakes, Mississippi River, and towards the Ohio River.
In science, students have been studying some tragic
causes and effects in the terrible December the 26th
tsunami that hit Indonesia. After, they’ll soar
to the skies with a weather unit and will study what
might be coming next from the clouds by means of a
series of measurements in the atmosphere. So watch
out Dick Albert, Blue Team students are coming at you.
by M. D-P.
In language arts with J. C., the students just finished
up doing a project on a realistic fiction book of their
choice. First the students had to pick a book. Then
they had to write what the character’s quest
is in the book. Then the final step was to make an
interesting time line combining the events in the book
with the events in real life. In the future J. C. says
she wants to focus particularly on opening and concluding
sentences because most kids have the body mastered.
When asked what her favorite thing to teach was she
replied, “I think I enjoy teaching new writing
skills because I see a big difference in a child’s
work.”
In math with E. B., students are working in a book
called BITS AND PIECES. They are learning to do proportion
and tax and tip and discount. Right now students are
in the midst of a project called "if I were" in
which they are using those skills to buy fantasy items
that they would buy if they had certain jobs.
In social studies with T. M., students are in the
Asia unit and have been studying different regions
of Asia. An interesting fact T. M. thinks people don’t
know is, as she said, “...a lot of people think
that the Middle East is not part of Asia but it is.” When
asked what her favorite part of teaching social studies
was she replied, “...history of the place and
how history affects the life of the people today.”
The last subject, but certainly not the least, is
science with P. P. In science students have finished
a project on the periodic table of the elements and
a particular element, such as hydrogen. When they are
done with that they will start a unit on forces.
by M. G. and A. R.
The Copper Team is bustling with activity this term.
In M. P.’s English classes, students have just
finished reading THE ODYSSEY, the book version of Homer’s
poem of the same title. Classes will end the unit on
this story with some jeopardy games with questions
from the book along with acting out scenes that students
will choose and perform for the class. “I like
that students look forward to learning what happens
next in the story and seeing how they creatively respond
to the story,” says M. P. In the past, students
have enjoyed demonstrating their knowledge through
the games and performances. M. P. says, “[acting
out the story]…gives them chances to become
script writers, directors and etc.”
In math class, J. R. has been finishing the unit
of percents and moving on to the new topic of circle
graphs. Students will make circle graphs based on M&Ms
and Skittles to figure out the percents of the colors.
This activity will lead into geometry. “Students
look forward to this because the get to eat after the
activity…I enjoy eating candy, too, but it’s
also fun to watch the kids make graphs and have fun,” says
J. R.
In T. B.’s science class, students are completing
experiments on plants. The Copper Teamers have designed
an experiment that manipulates 1 variable chosen by
the student. The classes have looked at plant growth
over the course of a couple weeks. They have kept a
record in journals on the development of the plants
and have made oral presentations with the results.
Along with this, T. B. is finishing up the unit on
natural forces and simple machines. The next unit coming
up is oceanography, where classes have a chance to
observe over 50 tide pool animals from a coast. In
addition to that, students will work on material developed
by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI). “I
like using hands-on experiments and an inquiry approach
to watch students develop into scientists questioning
the world around them,” says T. B. This unit
gives students a chance to work with living things
and to see how organisms function right at their desks.
M. C.’s social studies sections just finished
up with their study of the first region in Asia about
which they will be learning. This region is the Middle
East, southwest Asia. In studying the Middle East,
students had some fun with Parchland, a fictional area
representing the Middle East. First, M. C. distributed
made-up group names, which represented companies and
towns that experience the problem of water shortage
and would like to help. An example is the “De-Salt-It” Co.
After researching some information, each class held
a conference where the groups proposed their ideas
and discussed the problems. The purpose of this activity
was to learn about the Middle East and the difficulties
that it is facing. Students also have learned how to
use Infotrack, a database, in the library. M. C. prepared
a scavenger hunt where students used Infotrack to find
answers.
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