Friday, March 11, 2011

General Announcements:

• If you ever notice something missing or wrong on the blog, comment to let me know about it - I don't always have the whole picture. -Grace
• March 16 (PM only) & 17 (all day) - Spring parent/student/teacher conferences. Conference sign-ups available in the River Classroom.
• March 16, 17 & 18 - Wed., 3/16 will be an early dismissal day (No Homework Club), and on Thurs., 3/17 and Fri., 3/18, there will be no school for students.
• Fridays: Hip-Hop Dance - The Prisms' next PE unit will be hip-hop dance class on Friday afternoons. Students need to wear or bring comfortable clothes and shoes for class.
• Wed., March 16 - Ukulele Club registration forms due. Download Ukulele Club documents here.
• Fri., March 25 - First Ukulele Club Meeting
• Eighth Grade Project resource page updated 1/24, including project deadlines through the end of February and downloadable documents. Page will be updated as I get new information.

Language Arts:
Your essay work for the weekend is broken down into three parts as follows:

• Friday Homestudy due Saturday, March 12: Write the fourth paragraph of the essay—the third “body paragraph”. Be certain that you have developed it with significant, specific details and/or examples.
• Saturday Homestudy due Sunday, March 13: Write the fifth paragraph of the essay—the concluding paragraph. Restate your thesis/position statement in a memorable way and show its importance to the reader—why s/he should care about the thesis/position statement. The first draft is completed here.
• Sunday Homestudy due Monday, March 14: Revise and edit the first draft of the essay. First, reword it so it is clear and has a variety of sentence types (questions, statements) and beginnings. Edit it for spelling, word use (their/there, its/it’s)capitalization, punctuation.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

General Announcements:

• If you ever notice something missing or wrong on the blog, comment to let me know about it - I don't always have the whole picture. -Grace
• March 16 (PM only) & 17 (all day) - Spring parent/student/teacher conferences. Conference sign-ups available in the River Classroom.
• March 16, 17 & 18 - Wed., 3/16 will be an early dismissal day (No Homework Club), and on Thurs., 3/17 and Fri., 3/18, there will be no school for students.
• Fridays: Hip-Hop Dance - The Prisms' next PE unit will be hip-hop dance class on Friday afternoons. Students need to wear or bring comfortable clothes and shoes for class.
• Wed., March 16 - Ukulele Club registration forms due. Download Ukulele Club documents here.
• Fri., March 25 - First Ukulele Club Meeting
• Eighth Grade Project resource page updated 1/24, including project deadlines through the end of February and downloadable documents. Page will be updated as I get new information.

Math:

Grade 7 and 8
• Test Thurs., 3/10 and Fri., 3/11 Continue to review for unit text using the review problems provided. Bring all to class to show preparation done.

Language Arts:

• Due Fri., 3/11: Write the third paragraph of the essay—the second “body paragraph”. Be certain that you have developed it with significant, specific details and/or examples.

Social Studies:

• Nada

Science:

• Due Fri., 3/11: Read pp. 188-194 in Physical Science text. In 1 ¶, write about 3 interesting things you learned AND at least one question you have or experiment you propose.

Spanish:

Moment of Zen:

Recent Photos from Antarctica

Field trip anyone?
(Also, read more about the Nacreous Clouds pictured above.)

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

General Announcements:

• If you ever notice something missing or wrong on the blog, comment to let me know about it - I don't always have the whole picture. -Grace
• March 16 (PM only) & 17 (all day) - Spring parent/student/teacher conferences. Conference sign-ups available in the River Classroom.
• March 16, 17 & 18 - Wed., 3/16 will be an early dismissal day (No Homework Club), and on Thurs., 3/17 and Fri., 3/18, there will be no school for students.
• Fridays: Hip-Hop Dance - The Prisms' next PE unit will be hip-hop dance class on Friday afternoons. Students need to wear or bring comfortable clothes and shoes for class.
• Wed., March 16 - Ukulele Club registration forms due. Download Ukulele Club documents here.
• Fri., March 25 - First Ukulele Club Meeting
• Eighth Grade Project resource page updated 1/24, including project deadlines through the end of February and downloadable documents. Page will be updated as I get new information.

Math:

Grade 7 and 8
• Test Thurs., 3/10 and Fri., 3/11 Continue to review for unit text using the review problems provided. Bring all to class to show preparation done.

Language Arts:

• Due Thurs., 3/10: Write the second paragraph of the essay—the first “body paragraph”. Be certain that you have developed it with significant, specific details and/or examples.

Social Studies:

• Due Thurs., 3/10: Illustrated timeline of Jerusalem. Use colored pencils.

Science:

• Due Fri., 3/11: Read pp. 188-194 in Physical Science text. In 1 ¶, write about 3 interesting things you learned AND at least one question you have or experiment you propose.

Spanish:

Moment of Zen:

The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of the Adolescent Brain

The excellent sociology blog Sociological Images had a piece the other day about connections between our changing construction of "adolescence" and incoming research about the brain development, which seems to suggest that teenagers do what they do because their brains aren't fully developed, and won't be until they're nearly 30. However, one researcher, Robert Epstein, (whose recent Scientific American article is linked in the post) theorizes that the differences in brain activity are a recent devlopment related to the way society treats teens because of how we expect them to act. There's no ready conclusion to be drawn from all the research, but it's interesting fodder for discussion about the way in which teens' actions and brain activity are related to what we expect them to be.

Which begs the question, what do we expect teens' brains to be?

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

General Announcements:

• If you ever notice something missing or wrong on the blog, comment to let me know about it - I don't always have the whole picture. -Grace
• March 16 (PM only) & 17 (all day) - Spring parent/student/teacher conferences. Conference sign-ups available in the River Classroom.
• March 16, 17 & 18 - Wed., 3/16 will be an early dismissal day (No Homework Club), and on Thurs., 3/17 and Fri., 3/18, there will be no school for students.
• Fridays: Hip-Hop Dance - The Prisms' next PE unit will be hip-hop dance class on Friday afternoons. Students need to wear or bring comfortable clothes and shoes for class.
• Wed., March 16 - Ukulele Club registration forms due. Download Ukulele Club documents here.
• Fri., March 25 - First Ukulele Club Meeting
• Eighth Grade Project resource page updated 1/24, including project deadlines through the end of February and downloadable documents. Page will be updated as I get new information.

Math:

Grade 7
• Due Wed., 3/9: Complete #5, 6, and 8 on pp. 66-67.
Grade 8
• Due Wed., 3/9: Complete #2 on p. 53 and #4 on p. 54-55.

Language Arts:

• Due Wed. 3/9: Revisit the graphic organizer to make certain there are significant, specific examples/details to support the main idea of each of the three “body” paragraphs. Write introductory paragraph of the essay making certain you have the thesis/position statement and a “map for the reader” of the three main ideas to be developed in the rest of the essay.
• Group 1 Due Tues., 3/8: Bring in photos and/or an object to share with your partner at Overlook. Have it to present in math class.

Social Studies:

• Due Thurs., 3/10: Illustrated timeline of Jerusalem. Use colored pencils.

Science:

• Nada:

Spanish:

Moment of Zen:

DIY Mapping: How It's Done and Why It's Important

Traditionally, mapping has been the province of the über-wealthy and powerful—those who could afford to send boats around the world or satellites into space. While those in charge of the maps couldn't change the land they were mapping (at least not always), they could control what people knew about them and how people saw them.

However, the state of digital imaging and communication technology is making this sort of big picture something that anyone handy can make or contribute to. Pictured above is a barebones mapping kit which can be assembled for under $100, put together by Jeff Warren, one of the pioneers of what he calls Grassroots Mapping.

The utility of making mapmaking something anyone can do came into light with last year's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The FAA was banning flights under 4000 feet above the affected area as part of a media blackout, a group of citizens calling themselves The Louisiana Bucket Brigade went out with cameras on kites and weather balloons and released some of the first images to really show the extent of the damage.

(See also Brooklyn Space Program)

Monday, March 7, 2011

General Announcements:

• If you ever notice something missing or wrong on the blog, comment to let me know about it - I don't always have the whole picture. -Grace
• March 16 (PM only) & 17 (all day) - Spring parent/student/teacher conferences. Conference sign-ups available in the River Classroom.
• March 16, 17 & 18 - Wed., 3/16 will be an early dismissal day (No Homework Club), and on Thurs., 3/17 and Fri., 3/18, there will be no school for students.
• Tuesdays: Hip-Hop Dance - The Prisms' next PE unit will be hip-hop dance class on Tuesday afternoons. Students need to wear or bring comfortable clothes and shoes for class.
• Eighth Grade Project resource page updated 1/24, including project deadlines through the end of February and downloadable documents. Page will be updated as I get new information.

Math:

Grade 7
• Due Tues., 3/8: Complete #1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 on pp. 64-67.
Grade 8
• Due Tues., 3/8: Complete #1 on p. 53 and #6 on p. 56. You will need grid paper for #1.

Language Arts:

• Due Mon., 3/7: Begin essay-writing assignment. Choose the topic, write a position statement/thesis and create a graphic organizer planner for a five-paragraph essay.
• Group 1 Due Tues., 3/8: Bring in photos and/or an object to share with your partner at Overlook. Have it to present in math class.

Social Studies:

• Due Thurs., 3/10: Timeline?

Science:

• Nada:

Spanish:

Moment of Zen:

Girl Walk // All Day
A Music Video of Epic Proportions

Slightly before anyone had mapped video from one thing on to audio from another, the mashup was solely the province of music - blending pieces of different songs to create a single track, ideally greater than the sum of its parts. Before that, it was mostly the province of potatoes.

In any event, Girl Walk // All Day aims to take hyper-mashup artist Girl Talk's most recent album, All Day, and film an improvisational dance video, drawing on a mashup of dance styles for the entire 71-minute run of it. Primarily following dancer Anne Marsen around New York City, the video available thus far translates the anarchic glee of the music into movement through the everyday in a remarkable way. The project has the interesting potential to be a document following this moment of music, the city, etc., depending on how the project.

If nothing else, you get tap dancing on a boat and a lot of puzzled bystanders.
Click the picture above to read New York Times 3/6/11 article about the origins of the project (video included), or check out the project's own website.