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.

Thursday, May 27, 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 Fri., 5.28: Complete 3.2 & Follow-up (about the plan for the new dump) on p. 26.
• 8th Grade:
  • None assigned

Social Studies:

• None assigned

Science:

• Fri., 5/28: Test on plant studies/genetics. See gold review sheet handed out today for details about what material will be included.

Language Arts:

• Have an independent reading book with you—one you want to read.

Moment of Zen:

Swim Trunks?

The story of Rajan just gets more remarkable the farther you follow it. Rajan, a 60 year old elephant who lives with his slightly younger mahout (elephant driver), Nasru, on Havelock Island, just off the coast of India. Rajan and Nasru have become fixtures along the Havelock's beaches, going for their daily swims. Click the picture to see more pictures of Rajan and Nasru in the water and read more about their story. Both are remarkable, not just for Cesare Naldi's stunning, award-winning shots of them in and out of the water, but for how well they illustrate the intense bond that can be created between elephant and human.

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.

Monday, May 24, 2010

General Announcements:

• Tues., May 25: Bring acoustic guitars for music class.
• 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 Tues., 5/25:
    • Be ready for a brief quiz on Inv. 1 & 2
    • Complete Reflections for Inv. 2, p. 23.
• 8th Grade:
  • Due Tues., 5/25: Do #3 and #5 of 1.3 Follow-up and #1 on p. 12

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 Tues., 5/25: (8th Grade) Finish your illustrated version of Goethe's "Metamorphosis of Plants" (section we memorized).

Language Arts:

• Tues., May 25: Bring acoustic guitars for music class.
• Quiz, Tues., 5/25: Quiz on sentence structure. Review practice sentences from the last few days.

Moment of Zen:

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

With pollution in the Atlantic getting so much press these days, let's not forget the havoc we wreak in farther distant seas as well. What amounts to one of the world's largest landfills lives afloat the Pacific Ocean about a 1000 miles offshore from anywhere. About 10 million mi² composed of trash from at least three continents, approximately 80% of which washes out from land, the Garbage Patch is formed by a pattern of converging ocean currents called the North Pacific Gyre. The Garbage Patch, for all its concentration, presents a difficult cleanup. It does not cohere into an "island of trash" but instead floats lots of pieces of debris in close quarters, largely under the surface. Additionally, floating matter of this becomes an unhealthy habitat for a number of marine species, which further complicates cleanup. Click the picture above to read more from the National Science Foundation about the Garbage patch, or click here to read what Mother Nature News has to say. On a related note, here's an article from the UK's Guardian newspaper about efforts underway to have the term "ecocide"—referring to actions which lead to the large-scale destruction of an ecosystem—recognized and established as a crime (to be tried by the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands) on par with genocide. The Guardian also has a photojournal of its Top 10 ecocides.

Friday, May 21, 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:

Fri., 5/21: End of Year computation evaluation
• 7th Grade
  • None assigned
• 8th Grade:
  • None Assigned

Social Studies:

• Ongoing:
  • Continue working on newspaper assignments.

Science:

• None assigned

Language Arts:

• None assigned

Moment of Zen:

Happy Birthday, Pac Man!

Thirty years ago in Japan, Pac Man was born. At the time of its release, the maze-chase game was a novel idea. The most popular arcade games (the only way to play video games at the time) were simple space shooter games, notably Space Invaders. The equally iconic Ms. Pac-Man, just like yours truly, was released about a year later, sometime in 1981. The games have become some of the most recognizable iconography of the early 1980s and inspired all sorts of goofy things, including Urban Pacman, played with real people. To commemmorate Pac-Man's 30th birthday, Google has made its first interactive doodle, a fully playable mini Pac-Man maze around the letters in the search engine's name. Insert Coin now at Google.* *no coin actually required

Thursday, May 20, 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:

Fri., 5/21: End of Year computation evaluation
• 7th Grade
  • Due Fri., 5/21: Complete 2.2 and follow-up on p. 17-18 in Filling & Wrapping. Show all calculations. Remember the list of helpful strategies we made in class today.
• 8th Grade:
  • None Assigned

Social Studies:

• Due Fri., 5/21: 7th Grade: Final draft of political cartoons due.
• Ongoing:
  • Continue working on newspaper assignments.

Science:

• Due Fri., 5/21: 7th Grade: Complete Goethe poem with illustration.

Language Arts:

• Due Fri., 5/21: Complete character worksheet

Moment of Zen: