Tuesday, May 25, 2010

General Announcements:

• Important End of Year Dates:
  • Thurs., 6/3: 8th Grade Project Presentations
  • Sat., 6/12: Hilltown's 15th Birthday Party
  • Thurs., 6/17: Summer Celebration at Overlook
  • Fri., 6/18: 8th Grade Graduation
  • Tues., 6/22: Last Day of School
• You must have an independent reading book every day. If you are getting close to the end of one, have the next one at school and ready to go.

Math:

• 7th Grade
  • Due Wed., 5/26: Complete 3.1 Follow-up on p. 24-25.
• 8th Grade:
  • Due Wed., 5/26:
    • Do #8 on p. 16 and #10 on p. 17
    • Bring to atelier materials for cutting out letters, etc.
    • Make a detailed (in color w/labels) sketch of exhibit board & layout
    • Bring project binder and journal to school.
    • Have a good breakfast and night's sleep.

Social Studies:

• Due Tues., 5/25: (8th Grade) Final draft of political cartoons.
• Ongoing:
  • Continue working on newspaper assignments.

Science:

• Fri., 5/28: Test on plant studies/genetics. See gold review sheet handed out today for details about what material will be included.
• Due Wed., 5/26: (8th Grade) Finish your illustrated version of Goethe's "Metamorphosis of Plants" (section we memorized).

Language Arts:

• Wed., 5/26: In-house writing assessment this morning.

Moment of Zen:

More News You Didn't Hear

Two weeks ago, on May 11, a bomb went off in Florida in a crowded building. Even though no one was hurt, you would think this would be news, with our heightened anxiety about terrorist attacks - the bomb discovered in Times Square on May 1 didn't even have to go off to become major national news. I guess no one's interested when the place being bombed is a mosque. The bomb, which went off during evening prayers at the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida in Jacksonville, is being investigated as a "possible hate crime" and is thought to have been planted at least partially as a response to the appointment of Parvaz Ahmed, who attends services at the Center, to the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission. However, this is not the first time in recent history that prayer services in the same location have been interrupted. On April 4th, a white man walked in during services and started yelling, "Stop this blaspheming!" before being removed.