Friday, January 6, 2012

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
• Yoga Unit in PE on Fridays - Please wear or bring comfortable clothes to move in on Fridays during this unit.
• Student Art Exhibit at Meekins Library: This is an encore exhibit of last year's Prisms artwork currently on display at the Meekins Library in Williamsburg Center. Throughout the month of January, their 3-tiered drawings illustrating the history of the Connecticut River are on display.

Humanities:

• Due Fri., 1/6: Read Howard Zinn article and annotate.

Math:

• Graph paper link on the sidebar →
  All
• Due Mon., 1/9: Math's Mate 2.4, including any attached N/A problems, according to usual protocol:
  • no calculators
  • you must show work for problems marked with * on an attached sheet of paper

Science:

• Nada

8th Grade Project:

• Watch this space!

Moment of Zen:

A Working Origami Camera

Continuing from the post about long-exposure pinhole photography the other day, here's one that can be built out of paper. Click to see 22 other models of pinhole camera that can be made at home.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

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
• Yoga Unit in PE on Fridays - Please wear or bring comfortable clothes to move in on Fridays during this unit.
• Student Art Exhibit at Meekins Library: This is an encore exhibit of last year's Prisms artwork currently on display at the Meekins Library in Williamsburg Center. Throughout the month of January, their 3-tiered drawings illustrating the history of the Connecticut River are on display.

Humanities:

• Due Fri., 1/6: Read Howard Zinn article and annotate.

Math:

• Graph paper link on the sidebar →
  Grade 7
• Due Fri., 1/6: In Stretching & Shrinking, do #14 all parts on p. 53.

Grade 8
• Algebra A
  Due Fri., 1/6:: Complete solving multistep equations sheet handed out in class today.

Science:

• Nada

8th Grade Project:

• Due Fri., 1/6: Complete preliminary research

Moment of Zen:

It was a dark and stormy night...

...on the Empire State Building in 1938.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

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

Humanities:

• Due Fri., 1/6: Read Howard Zinn article and annotate.

Math:

• Graph paper link on the sidebar →
  Grade 7
• Due Thurs., 1/5: In Stretching & Shrinking, do #1-5 all parts on p. 47-48.

Grade 8
• Nada

Science:

• Nada

8th Grade Project:

• Due Fri., 1/6: Complete preliminary research

Moment of Zen:

One Picture, One Year

A year ago, Michael Chrisman put together a simple pinhole camera, aimed it at the Toronto skyline, then left it there for a year. A year later, he collected the film, which had captured a year from the same perspective, and developed it.

Consider this: most film cameras have exposure times that are measured in hundredths of a second. This is to capture an image with as little movement as possible. Long exposure requires careful light and a perfectly still camera, but captures movement in unique ways. This is an extreme of that.

The good news? Most of the higher technology of photography is aimed at being able to control a wide range of exposure times (shutter speed), but if you only want one long exposure, you can make a camera out of any box you can poke a hole in, much like Michael Chrisman did. Click the picture above to read more about Chrisman's Toronto skyline image or click here to read Make magazine's guide to making pinhole cameras.