Week 25 was the first week of the third and final trimester of the 2015-2016 school year. Wow, time flies! This week, several teachers tried out new strategies to help students think deeper within their contents. In PLC’s, we went over explicit and implicit strategies for preparing students for high stakes assessments. In Robotics, we started our final preparations for our competition at the Alamo FRC Regional next week.
On Monday, students and teachers, Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Schimel, launched an Integrated Engineering/Physics project on ballistics devices. On this day, the student class officers did a really good job leading the class through a Read Aloud of the Design Brief and through a Knows and Need-to-Knows discussion.
On Tuesday, Mr. Foster immediately applied a strategy discussed in PLCs by adapting a graphic organizer that helped his students research the concepts of Momentum and Impulse. They did this the day before doing a lab on impulse and momentum that involved videotaping and analyzing videos of eggs hitting brick walls and bed sheets. As you can see below, the work that the students produced was not bad at all:
On Wednesday, students in Mr. Fishman’s Electronics class built circuits that responded to different inputs (light, pressure, etc.) to produce sound outputs. They documented their circuit designs, results, and possible applications in a a portfollio. Later, art students in Mrs. Garner’s class will study their portfolios in order to determine which students they want to collaborate with to create art pieces that involve integrated circuits.
On Thursday, students in Mr. Rodriguez’s Art I class started a 2-day task to design a simple car logo by using composites of basic shapes manipulated in Adobe Illustrator. On Friday, Mr. Rodriguez tried out of one of the many strategies we had brainstormed in his T-TESS pre-conference meeting in order to teach students how to think more creatively. He facilitated an Art Jam. He had students listen to music and then create a drawing inspired by the music for 2 min. Then he had them rotate to the right and draw for 2 min on another students’ canvas. They kept rotating until everyone had contributed to everyone’s canvas and they were able to return to their original drawing. Then he had them write a reflection on the images that appeared in the final collaborative piece of work. He said the students really enjoyed the exercise and asked if they could go it again some time.
On Thursday, I observed a student teacher Ms. Garcia teach a lesson on rhetorical devices. Her lesson tied to US History because the students were finding the rhetorical devices in a letter written by Martin Luther King Jr. and the students are currently studying the Civil Rights Movement. The discussion she facilitated was impressive because every single student in the class contributed a rhetorical device, a quote that went with the device, and an explanation for why the device was persuasive. On the following day, the students asked her to go over riddles with them at the end of their Creative Writing class. It’s cool that she managed to develop a bond with students in such a short time.
On Thursday, students in Mrs. Fain-Jackson’s and Mr. Chamber’s class worked pretty intently through a day of STAAR Boot Camp work. They were using rubrics to analyze their own and their peer’s short answers and compositions. They also analyzed what they got right and wrong on the Middle of the Year benchmark in English 2.
On Friday, students in Mr. Ray’s Science Research & Design class presented their research proposals and got Critical Friends feedback (written and verbal) from their peers and teacher. The students presented a variety of topics representing several different branches of science. It’s cool that Mr. Ray is allowing students to pursue their own interests in this research project.
On Friday, students in Ms. Thompson’s Creative Writing Class had a detailed discussion on the plot and interpretations of the graphic novel, The Arrival. The book explored the story of an immigrant and his family adjusting to their new country. I liked how the book had no words, but the mixture of fantasy and the familiarity in the book’s imagery still conveyed a lot of the character’s thoughts and emotions. Then the students started preparing game pieces for a cultural game they will play on Monday.
Friday afternoon, I participated in Critical Friends for the PBL training led by Mrs. Acevedo. I got to hear about projects in English, Physics, Biology. There were a lot of creative ideas. The Critical Friends feedback generated by the cohort was very specific and targeted towards improving students’ learning experiences.
On Saturday, seniors had a FAFSA Money Party and a Project Grad Car Wash. They did an excellent job on my car. Not only did they thoroughly clean the outside of my car, but they Windexed the outsides and insides of all my windows in order to remove my dog’s paw prints and snout marks.
On Saturday, I mentored the Robotics team while they finalized their preparations for the Alamo Regional (Mar 10-12). We had two alumni stop by and give us a hand. I managed to recruit an underclassman scout master who designed our scout sheet for this year. We also worked together to design the scout spreadsheet and set up the scout filing system. It’s a comfort to know that the scouting skills will be preserved for next year thanks to our new non-senior Scout Lead.
