Monday, January 25, 2010

General Announcements:

• Wednesday, Jan. 27: Final trip contributions due. Turn money in to Grace before 8:30 on Wed. morning. If you're not sure how much you have remaining to fulfill your $75, please check in with Grace at school or by e-mail (grace DOT mrowicki AT gmail). If you have a concern about being able to get all the money together by Wed., 1/27, please see Jane or John.
• Friday, Feb. 5: Prisms' Coffeehouse! St. Mary's Church, Haydenville, 6-9 PM — Dinner, dessert & entertainment! Tickets now available for purchase! $5/person, $20/family
• Eighth Grade project documents available here, including Phase 2 calendar (updated 1/22/10).
• 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 Tue., 1/26:
    • Have tools.
    • Complete Extension #7 on p. 33. Follow direction in book, plus cut out each pentomino and label each by writing the area and perimeter on the pentomino itself. Answer questions on separate paper, as usual. Place cutouts in envelope with tiles.
    • Rewrite an edited first draft of friendly letter to Reds and Oranges about their performance on Friday. Follow model format. Be specific, avoid, "cool," write in pencil or erasable pen. Staple first draft to model format.
• 8th Grade:
  • Due Tue., 1/26: Have tools. Complete 2.1 and Follow-up on p. 17-18. Record area of each figure next to the figure itself. You may show or explain the strategy in words.

Social Studies:

• Due Tue., 1/26: Complete worksheet on Connections (begun in class today).
• Due Wed., 1/27: Rough draft of essay on Caesar as a leader due (use Connections sheet to help you develop points and organize, and for reference to format and length).

Science:

• Due Tue., 1/26 (Gp. 2) or Wed., 1/27 (Gp.1): Read text, pp. 27-31. Answer #1-3 (p. 36) on lined paper.

Language Arts:

• Due Wed., 1/27: Memorize the list of subject, object and possessive pronouns on the form provided. There will be a quiz on Wednesday, 1/27 covering these pronouns and their function.
• Due Tue., 1/26 Group 1 Only: Bring in a different photo or other personal item to use as a conversation starter at Overlook.

Spanish:

• 7th Grade:

• 8th Grade:

Moment of Zen:

Images From the Factory Farm

Artist Nathan Meltz has taken the evocative idea of the "factory farm" in a very concretely visual direction in his recent art series "Animal Farm," where he imagines farm animals more as robots and integrates the same mechanical aesthetic into a wide range of farm-related images. Click the image above to see more from the Animal Farm series (including the "Chicken Coup" animation) and read an interview with Meltz by sociologist Gwen Sharp (from the fabulous Sociological Images blog, which breaks down a wide range of images from pop culture into what they can tell us about ourselves as a culture.).

Friday, January 22, 2010

General Announcements:

• Updated Eighth Grade project documents available here, including Phase 2 calendar.
• Friday, Feb. 5: Prisms' Coffeehouse! St. Mary's Church, Haydenville, 6-9 PM — Dinner, dessert & entertainment! Tickets now available for purchase! $5/person, $20/family
• 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 Mon., 1/25: Complete 3.2 according to directions. Also, glue your completed shape onto your homework paper.
• 8th Grade:
  • Due Mon., 1/25: Answer reflection questions on p. 16 of CMP book, using complete sentences and showing your current understanding.
  • Have a book to read regarding your research topic at all times.

Social Studies:

• Due Mon., 1/25: Complete worksheet and evidence for "Was Julius Caesar a good leader?"
  • Notes for evaluating the leadership of Julius Caesar (Part 3 of assignement)

Science:

• None assigned

Language Arts:

• Due Mon. 1/25: Grammar Sheet #6: Helper verbs, verb participle forms.
• Group 1 only: Have at least one origami figure completed that you could make again for Monday in preparation for Tuesday's Overlook visit.
  Links to origami instruction diagrams:
  • Origami Club
  • Origami Village

Spanish:

• 7th Grade:

• 8th Grade:

Moment of Zen:

You Are What You Eat?

Flamingos turn pink because of the shrimp they eat, humans who seriously overdo it on carrots can take on an orange cast to them. So what does this photo series of people's refrigerator contents by photographer Mark Menjivar tell us? Menjivar's photos are collected from the refrigerators and freezers of a wide range of folks in the US. Each picture is captioned with a few notes about its owner, including their job (everything from midwives to metal drummers), how many people the fridge serves, whereand some other kind of biographical information about the fridge's owner (e.g. "She can bench press 300 lbs," "Feels more comfortable among flora and fauna of his era than people."). A distinctly different kind of food-based voyeurism from What the World Eats but an interesting complement in examining that question.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

General Announcements:

• Updated Eighth Grade project documents available here, including assessment rubric for Phase 2
• Friday, Feb. 5: Prisms' Coffeehouse! St. Mary's Church, Haydenville, 6-9 PM — Dinner, dessert & entertainment! Tickets now available for purchase!
• Please sign up for Coffeehouse acts and raffle services (w/pay rate) ASAP.
• 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 Fri., 1/22: Complete 3.1 on p. 30 and #1-5 on p. 32 of CMP book. Answer all questions in complete sentences restating the question. Be certain you have the mathematical data to prove you answer is correct. Show your computations and strategies.
• 8th Grade:
  • Due Fri., 1/22: Complete 1.3 on p.11 of new CMP book according to directions. Continue from where you left off last Friday. Be sure to clearly label data points and figures.

Social Studies:

• Due :

Science:

• Due :

Language Arts:

• Due Fri., 1/22: Complete Grammar Lesson 5: Reflexive Pronouns.

Spanish:

• 7th Grade:
  • Due Fri., 1/22
    • In ¿Qué Tal?, complete 3 written activities of your choice.
    • Read ch. 1 of Piratas and create a vocab list as you're reading.

• 8th Grade:
  • Due Fri., 1/22
    • In Ahora, complete 3 written activities of your choice.
    • Finish reading ch. 1 of Robo en la noche and create a vocab list as you're reading.

Moment of Zen: One of the earliest, but still one of the most important cinematic visions of a dystopic future, the silent film Metropolis (Germany, 1927) is one that transcends its era. Although, as the linked article (click picture) from The AV Club describes, it still suffers from some of the "big" acting characteristic of silent film, it also is a rare silent film that lets me forget that it's silent. The Nazis felt that the film's sociopolitical vision threatened their cause so much that they tried to destroy it completely, and some pieces of the film have still not been recovered. However, an additional 30 minutes of film has been recovered in the last year, so, with any luck, it will be restored and released in fullness soon. A landmark of both cinematic technique and vision, it isn't hard to see why this is regarded as one of the most important films in cinematic history.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

General Announcements:

• Updated Eighth Grade project documents available here, including assessment rubric for Phase 2
• Friday, Feb. 5: Prisms' Coffeehouse! St. Mary's Church, Haydenville, 6-9 PM — Dinner, dessert & entertainment! Tickets now available for purchase!
• Please sign up for Coffeehouse acts and raffle services (w/pay rate) ASAP.
• 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 & 8th Grade:
  • Due Thurs., 1/21: Math's Mate 2.5, with work for * problems shown on separate paper and corrections for 2.4, written out on paper other than original worksheet.

Social Studies:

• Due Thurs., 1/21:
  • Complete drawing about change in mood in Rome in the dissolution of the republic into military rule
  • Read pgs. 99-105 in packet, underlining/highlighting important information.

Science:

• Due Thurs., 1/21: Complete Reflection questions based on post-assessment and other assessment.

Language Arts:

• Quiz, Thurs., 1/21: Quiz on grammar lessons 3 & 4 (subject/object pronouns, possessive pronouns). Use returned, corrected grammar worksheets to help study. Questions will include material from sheets 1 & 2 as well.

Spanish:

• 7th Grade:
  • Due Fri., 1/22
    • In ¿Qué Tal?, complete 3 written activities of your choice.
    • Read ch. 1 of Piratas and create a vocab list as you're reading.

• 8th Grade:
  • Due Fri., 1/22
    • In Ahora, complete 3 written activities of your choice.
    • Finish reading ch. 1 of Robo en la noche and create a vocab list as you're reading.

Moment of Zen:

Codex Seraphianus

Is it a guidebook to a far off planet? An encyclopedia to an almost-parallel dimension? Simply an atlas to one person's twisted imagination? It's not entirely clear, and may never be. The Codex Seraphianus appeared in a limited edition in 1978, the brainchild of Italian architect Luigi Serafini. The book is primarily a visual catalogue of fantastical images ranging from simply improbable to completely impossible phenomena, but indexes what approaches a whole world, ranging from plants and animals to people and their mechanical contraptions. However, the entirety of the book's text is written in an as-yet undeciphered script. Serafini has stated in the last year that the script used the Codex is not systemic and that his goal in the writing was to create the sense of a child who can't read yet looking at a book they know makes sense to grown-ups. It has been determined that the numbering system is a variation of a base-21 system. While the text, which feels just out of grasp, adds to the mystery of the book, the images stand alone as a reminder that the root of imagination is image. Click the image above to read a Wired writer's description of it (includes links to more images from the book), or click here to go to Wikipedia's entry on this unique book.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

General Announcements:

• Friday, 1/15: Remember to wear clothes to serve as a costume for your skit about segregation in Birmingham for this afternoon's MLK Day celebration.
• 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 Fri., 1/15: Complete #22, 23, 24 on p. 26 in CMP book according to directions and according to our class discussion today. Back up answers with specific data. Write in complete sentences. (area & perimeter)
• 8th Grade:
  • Due Fri., 1/15: 1.2 A1 only (not A2 or B). Write in complete sentences. State original question in answer.

Social Studies:

• Due Fri., 1/15: Copy the Roman Republic timeline using pencil and colored pencil.

Science:

• Due Fri., 1.15: Cover for science notes: Choose an image from our space study (including field trip to Amherst College) to draw as a cover for your science notes. Cover must be drawn in colored pencil. Title: Space Science

Language Arts:

• Quiz, Fri., 1/15: Quiz on grammar lessons 3 & 4 (subject/object pronouns, possessive pronouns). Use returned, corrected grammar worksheets to help study. Questions will include material from sheets 1 & 2 as well.

Spanish:

• 7th Grade:
  • Due Fri., 1/22
    • In ¿Qué Tal?, complete 3 written activities of your choice.
    • Read ch. 1 of Piratas and create a vocab list as you're reading.

• 8th Grade:
  • Due Fri., 1/22
    • In Ahora, complete 3 written activities of your choice.
    • Finish reading ch. 1 of Robo en la noche and create a vocab list as you're reading.

Moment of Zen: It's called the ampersand: a serpentine ligature of the Latin word et (meaning "and") which has inspired any number of interpretive versions of itself as it is separated more and more from its origin as two letters, and puzzled many people trying to coax one out of their pen. And now, for at least one graphic design junkie, it's inspirational enough for a whole blog. Click the picture above to see the gallery of ampersand. Click here for Wikipedia's entry with more history of the character, but here's a little background: "Traditionally, in English-speaking schools when reciting the alphabet, any letter that could also be used as a word in itself ("A," "I," and, at one point, "O") was preceded by the Latin expression "per se" (Latin for "by itself"). Also, it was common practice to add at the end of the alphabet the "&" sign, pronounced "and". Thus, the recitation of the alphabet would end in: "X, Y, Z and per se and." This last phrase was routinely slurred to "ampersand" and the term crept into common English usage by around 1837."

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

General Announcements:

• 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 & 8th Grade:
  • Due Thurs., 1/14:
    • Math's Mate 2.4 - work for * problems shown on a separate sheet of paper.
    • Corrections for Math's Mate 2.3 on a separate sheet of paper (can be same sheet used for 2.4 work)
• 7th Grade:
  • Due Thurs., 1/14: Complete #2-7 on pgs. 22-23. Measure accurately for #2 and #3 answers so you have data to support your responses to all questions. Write in complete sentences and restate question in answer. Edit.

Social Studies:

• None assigned :

Science:

• Due Thurs., 1/14: Cover for science notes: Choose an image from our space study (including field trip to Amherst College) to draw as a cover for your science notes. Cover must be drawn in colored pencil.

Language Arts:

• Due Thurs., 1/14: Grammar sheet #4 on Possessives

Spanish:

• 7th Grade: Read through ¿Qué Tal? revista

• 8th Grade: Read pgs 1&2 of Robo en la noche

Moment of Zen:

Improv Everywhere

This guerilla improv group takes Calvin's directive to "...make everyone's day a little more surreal" very seriously. Their "missions" have included getting dozens of people to freeze for a full minute in Grand Central Station in New York, turning a mall food court into a musical and creating a "cell phone orchestra" by having a large group of people check their bags in the same place and having other people call them en masse at coordinated times. The picture above, from a mission where people stood in store windows, doing silly things in sync and then holding up letters spelling out "LOOK UP MORE" sums up well their core goal: to use spontaneous goofiness to ask people to really look at their everyday surroundings instead of rushing by until it could disappear without their noticing. Click the picture to go to their website, which details all their missions and links to videos of many of them. Additionally: Following up from the video this morning, here's the Complaints Choir website for more information about other complaints choirs worldwide, including videos of many choirs for inspiration.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

General Announcements:

• 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., 1/13: Complete #2-7 on pgs. 22-23. Measure accurately for #2 and #3 answers so you have data to support your responses to all questions. Write in complete sentences and restate question in answer. Edit.
• 8th Grade:
  • None.

Social Studies:

• Due :

Science:

• Test Wed., 1/13 on unit on Astronomy.

Language Arts:

• Due Wed., 1/13: Complete Grammar Sheet 3 (about Subject and Object pronouns). Read the information at the top of the page carefully.

Spanish:

• 7th Grade: Read through ¿Que Tal? revista

• 8th Grade: Read pgs 1&2 of Robo en la noche

Moment of Zen: Click the picture for a gallery of x-ray photographs of seashells and the occasional watch. Not only is it gorgeous, but it highlights the spirals building based on the golden ratio.