Week 12 at Manor New Tech HS was the final exam week of our 1st Trimester.   During this week, students reviewed and took their final exams in each course.  Aside from reviewing, very few activities were assigned in each class to avoid exam conflicts.  Despite the school-wide testing atmosphere, awesome things continued to occur on our campus.  

On Monday, the seniors met during Advisory to gather items for their Senior Time Capsule and to take a class picture.  The Class President got everyone organized so that each student could have a chance to deposit her/her item(s) into the capsule.

 

On Tuesday, Mrs. Garner took an innovative approach to her Art final. She gave each student an individual prompt that featured specific topics and techniques taught in the first trimester.  When I observed the final, different students were employing different media, tools, and techniques in their pieces. Everyone in the class got the opportunity to create something unique for their final.

 

On Tuesday, Ms. Hart’s Environmental Systems students continued to gather the data series that they started last week.  Next week, they will analyze their data series to look for evidence of the nitrogen cycle occurring in their eco-columns.

 

In the Environmental Systems classroom, I noticed another interactive art installation from the Art class.  This one features the environment and our relationship to it.

 

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I facilitated PLC groups dedicated to building Positive Behavior Intervention Systems (PBIS).  We brainstormed school-wide behavior expectations.  We looked at the 4 phases of behavior intervention systems: Prevention, Interruption, Crisis Response and Reflection.  We brainstormed actions and responses for the first 2 phases that related to desired and undesired behaviors.  On Thursday, I compiled the results of all our brainstorming and was very impressed.  The staff came up with a very dense page of behavior expectations,  2 pages of Prevention strategies and another page of Interruption strategies.  

On Thursday, I caught Ms. Thompson, one of our awesome ELA teachers, in the act of prepping one of the 300 wing bulletin boards.  She and her co-teacher, Ms. Tillson have done a really nice job of displaying their content on their classroom and hallway bulletin boards.

 

To prep for the next trimester’s club/intervention sessions, teachers submitted proposals for new clubs.  A few of the popular clubs are returning: Game Makers, Film, and Color club.  There are a few new interesting clubs starting: the Tranquility Club, the Production Club, and the Car Club.  The Tranquility Club, sponsored by Mr. Ray, will help anxious students de-stress through meditation.  Mrs. Pedroza, sponsor of the Car Club, races cars with her husband as a hobby.  The Production Club, sponsored by Mr. Rodriguez, will empower students to produce works of art in any media.

 

I collaborated with Robotics mentors, Mr. Fishman and Mr. Garcia, to apply for a Manor Education Foundation grant to acquire the iRobot Warrior.  There is a slim chance we will win this grant.  I’ve grown so attached to the idea of the team reverse engineering this robot that I’ve also started brainstorming how to raise the funds from other sources in case we don’t win the grant.

 

I’ve been working with Ms. Davis and Ms. Schimel to help them prep for their new course that combines Physics and Engineering Design.  They are currently designing a project that will teach waves by having students build musical instruments.  I’m looking forward to watching how that project launches and evolves next week.  That should be pretty awesome.

On a less awesome note, Mr. Garcia and I started dieting to prep for the upcoming holiday season.  I’m on a slow carb diet (no white grains, no sugar, no fruits, no drinking calories).  Mr. Garcia is on an even stricter, Whole 30 diet (no grains, no dairy, no sugar, no beans).  Here’s Mr. Garcia “prepping” his salad so that it will fit within the Whole 30 parameters.  I’ve now added an extra layer of introspection and analysis whenever he or I make decisions.  Every time one of us makes a snap decision, I wonder if this is a rationale decision or an impulse decision borne of hunger.  

 

Ending on a really awesome note,  Mrs. Garner’s Art classes created science and mathematics trading cards as part of an open call for the Art Science Gallery.  Each card represents a different topic in science and mathematics.  The cards will be displayed and sold at the Art Science Gallery to raise money for the sciences and the arts.