Camp Hi-Rock Trip Documents

You may download the following documents for our upcoming trip this Wednesday, 9/15, through this Friday, 9/17. To download these files, click to follow link to download page (right-click downloads coming).

• Trip Details - Includes planned schedule and contact information.
• Packing List
• Emergency Procedures Sheet - We must receive this signed by all Prisms and their parents before leaving.

Friday, September 10, 2010

General Announcements:

• Fridays: Bring sneakers, clothes to run in and water bottle for Frisbee!
• Mon., 9/13: Permission Slips for field trip to Camp Hi-Rock due.
• Wed-Fri, Sep. 15-17: Prisms field trip to Camp Hi-Rock in Great Barrington, MA: Students should arrive at the school at normal drop-off time on Wed., 9/15 and will return by 3:00 PM on Fri., 9/17. See packet handed out Fri., 9/3 for additional details.

Math:

• 7th & 8th Grade:
  • Due Mon., 9/13:
    1. Write your personal, annual goals for learning this year.
    2. Complete Math's Mate Term 1, Sheet 1. Remember the following protocol for Math's Mate:
       • No calculators
       • Work independently of others students, but go ahead and ask parents/teachers for help on sticky problems.
       • Show all work for questions marked with * on a separate sheet of lined paper, which will be stapled to the back of the worksheet.
       • Make sure all answers are written in the appropriate space on the worksheet.
       • Any assigned question left blank or answered with gobbledigook (which ranges from ? to ☺ to random numbers put in to make it look like you tried it) will become part of your assignment for the following week.
       • No calculators. Really.

Social Studies:

• No homework

Science:

• Due Mon., 9/13: WRite a 1-2 ¶ reflection on your evaluation of the MI results for you. Use the following prompt:
  • Based on the various surveys of Multiple Intelligences I have taken, this is what I can conclude about my own learning style.

Language Arts:

• Due Mon., 9/13: If you did not present today, be prepared to present on Monday. Also, have an independent reading book that is new to you with you. It should be school appropriate. You may have already begun reading it.

Spanish:

• Grade 7
  • Due Mon., 9/13 : 1 "trabalengua"
• Grade 8
  • No hay tarea (No homework)

Music:

• Due Next Tues., 9/14: Online, research what the world's oldest instrument is.

Moment of Zen

Experiments In Improbable Physics

In considering the photo series the above image comes from, called "Manufactured Totems" by French photographer Alain Delorme, which features transport workers in Shanghai, China with towers of merchandise lashed to the backs of bikes, such that you have no idea how they're even upright. Click the picture to see more, including stacks of furniture, flowers and more.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

General Announcements:

• Fridays: Bring sneakers, clothes to run in and water bottle for Frisbee!
• Mon., 9/13: Permission Slips for field trip to Camp Hi-Rock due.
• Wed-Fri, Sep. 15-17: Prisms field trip to Camp Hi-Rock in Great Barrington, MA: Students should arrive at the school at normal drop-off time on Wed., 9/15 and will return by 3:00 PM on Fri., 9/17. See packet handed out Fri., 9/3 for additional details.

Math:

• 7th & 8th Grade:
  • Due Mon., 9/13: Write your personal, annual goals for learning this year.

Social Studies:

• No homework

Science:

• Due Fri., 9/10: Take online Multiple Intelligences survey (http://www.ldrc.ca/projects/projects.php?id=42) Make sure to write down your User ID number so you can get at your results again.

Language Arts:

• Due Fri., 9/10: Use the public speaking guidelines and prepare to present your "C" book and project. Have your "audience" record a strength and a suggestion.

Spanish:

• Grade 7
  • Due Mon., 9/13 : 1 "trabalengua"
• Grade 8
  • No hay tarea (No homework)

Music:

• Due Next Tues., 9/14: Online, research what the world's oldest instrument is.

Moment of Zen

Reimagining Disney Princesses as Superheroes

This late night brainchild of casual artist Melissa Erickson takes the almost ubiquitous images of the Disney "princesses" and reimagines them as superheroes instead. There's a lot of different ways you could see this, but in all of them, it's a pretty interesting idea. What do you think? (click the image above to see a more extensive lineup)

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

General Announcements:

• Tue., 9/7: Return signed green checklist.
• Mon., 9/13: Permission Slips for field trip to Camp Hi-Rock due.
• Wed-Fri, Sep. 15-17: Prisms field trip to Camp Hi-Rock in Great Barrington, MA: Students should arrive at the school at normal drop-off time on Wed., 9/15 and will return by 3:00 PM on Fri., 9/17. See packet handed out Fri., 9/3 for additional details.

Math:

• 7th & 8th Grade:
  • Due Thurs., 9/9: Redo Math League corrections on separate paper.
  • Due Thurs., 9/9: Complete the sheet handed out today by interviewing a parent about the ways they use make during the course of a week.

Social Studies:

• Due Thurs., 9/9: Add two more items to each column on the sheet beginning our examination of how human use of the Connecticut River has changed over the last 400 years.

Science:

• Due Fri., 9/10: Take online Multiple Intelligences survey (http://www.ldrc.ca/projects/projects.php?id=42) Make sure to write down your User ID number so you can get at your results again.

Language Arts:

• Due Thurs., 9/9: Return Community Compact, signed by you and a parent.

Spanish:

• Grade 7
  • Due Thurs., 9/9 : Los dibujos de los sonidos vocales ("Vowel sounds" drawings)
• Grade 8
  • No hay tarea (No homework)

Music:

• Due Next Tues., 9/14: Online, research what the world's oldest instrument is.

Moment of Zen

9/7/2010: UMass Amherst students make the world's longest sushi roll

420 feet of California Roll: 650 sheets of nori (seaweed), 200 pounds of sushi rice, 200 pounds of crab, 100 pounds of avocado, 100 pounds of cucumber, 2 pounds of sesame seeds, 5 gallons of soy sauce 6 pounds of wasabi Video of the sushi feat

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

General Announcements:

• Tue., 9/7: Return signed green checklist.
• Mon., 9/13: Permission Slips for field trip to Camp Hi-Rock due.
• Wed-Fri, Sep. 15-17: Prisms field trip to Camp Hi-Rock in Great Barrington, MA: Students should arrive at the school at normal drop-off time on Wed., 9/15 and will return by 3:00 PM on Fri., 9/17. See packet handed out Fri., 9/3 for additional details.

Math:

• 7th & 8th Grade:
  • Due Wed., 9/8: Work for another 20 min on Math League sheet begun in class on Friday. First, work through any corrections on the sheet returned to you, then go on. Make sure to show all work for both corrections and new work on a separate sheet of white paper. Use additional sheets, prepared the same way (folded into eighths) if necessary.

Social Studies:

• Due Wed., 9/8: Add two more items to each column on the sheet beginning our examination of how human use of the Connecticut River has changed over the last 400 years.

Science:

• Due Fri., 9/10: Take online Multiple Intelligences survey (http://www.ldrc.ca/projects/projects.php?id=42) Make sure to write down your User ID number so you can get at your results again.

Language Arts:

• Due Thurs., 9/9: Return Community Compact, signed by you and a parent.

Spanish:

• Grade 7
  • Due Thurs., 9/9 : Los dibujos de los sonidos vocales ("Vowel sounds" drawings)
• Grade 8
  • No hay tarea (No homework)

Music:

• Due Next Tues., 9/14: Online, research what the world's oldest instrument is.

Moment of Zen

How Long Is A Year?

About two meters, according to this conceptual timepiece designed by German-based Norwegian industrial designer Siren Elise Wilhelmsen. A round knitting machine, ticking off one stitch every half hour, one round per day, this uncanny timepiece produces a knitted tube about two meters (~6' 4") in the 365 days of a year.

Friday, September 3, 2010

General Announcements:

• Tue., 9/7: Return signed green checklist.
• Mon., 9/13: Permission Slips for field trip to Camp Hi-Rock due.
• Wed-Fri, Sep. 15-17: Prisms field trip to Camp Hi-Rock in Great Barrington, MA: Students should arrive at the school at normal drop-off time on Wed., 9/15 and will return by 3:00 PM on Fri., 9/17. See packet handed out Fri., 9/3 for additional details.

Math:

• 7th & 8th Grade:
  • Due Tue., 9/7: Work for another 20 min on Math League sheet begun in class today. Make sure to show all work on the separate sheet of white paper. Use additional sheets, prepared the same way (folded into eighths) if necessary.

Social Studies:

Science:

• Due Tue., 9/7: If not completed already, go over Multiple Intelligences sheet with a parent and have them sign it.

Language Arts:

• :

Moment of Zen

A Matter of Perspective...

What planet is this? Although seemingly something out of The Little Prince, the planet is actually Earth. More specifically, it is a small part of the Earth incorporated into a four image stereographic "Little Planet " projection. The central fisheye image points down, while the surrounding wide-angle images were taken at a 30 degree tilt and added digitally later. Earth-anchored items surrounding the image center include green grass, dark shadows, and trees near and far. At the image top ("noon" if the planet were a clock) is the well-lit Parkes Radio Telescope dish in New South Wales, Australia. The surrounding sky contains many jewels of the night including the Moon at 9 pm, the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy at 1:30 pm and 7 pm, and the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy at 5 pm. A full field interactive version of this scene can be found here. Photo and explanation lifted from NASA's Astronomy Photo of the Day archive, which features and explains an interesting image every day.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

General Announcements:

• Apologies for blog yesterday. It got drafted but never officially published.
• Important End of Year Dates:
  • Wed., 6/9: Half Day because of Staff Appreciation Luncheon. All students must be picked up at 12:30.
  • 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.

Science:

• Due Wed., 6/9: One ¶ summary of difficulties and successes in building your prototype.

Moment of Zen:

Climate Change is the New Relativity?

“This world is a strange madhouse. Currently, every coachman and every waiter is debating whether relativity theory is correct. Belief in this matter depends on political party affiliation.” This 1920 quote is from a letter from Albert Einstein to mathematician Marcel Grossman. British environmentalist Joss Garman has written an interesting opinion piece linking this public debate to the contemporary debate about climate change, focusing on the role of media, public opnion, and perceived public opinion. Click the picture to read Garman's piece.