Weekly Team Email - 1/27/17

Greetings Team Falcon Families:

Happy National Puzzle Day! We trust by now you’ve received your child’s progress reports for trimester two. If not, please be in touch with your child’s advisor. Here’s a look at your child’s experience last week on Team Falcon.

Humanities: We continued to examine and interpret several primary sources concerning the fate of slavery in the antebellum U.S. We spent a full class period unpacking Thomas Jefferson’s famous “Firebell in the Night” letter, regarding his feelings toward the Missouri Compromise and the fate of the Union. We paid particular attention to the skillful way he used metaphors to express himself. After a brief overview of the 5Ws of the Civil War (who, what, where, when, why), we backtracked and began the process of creating a timeline of some of the key events that happened on the road to the Civil War. The week culminated in a wonderful presentation Friday by noted Civil War historian, Howard Coffin, accompanied by Mr. Kaigle and Mr. Strong from the General Stannard House Committee, and Mr. Ballard from the Milton Historical Society. Team Falcon students were a warm audience for this lively presentation that helped bring the Civil War to life for us. We encourage you to ask your child about the key ideas that s/he took away from the presentation.

This coming week, we will continue looking at the Civil War in one part of humanities, while the other part will focus on the informational writing portion of the science fair. This is a great opportunity to show the cross-curricular connections of our material, and we look forward to supporting their work in this way!

Science: Last week students were working on representing data in tables and graphs so that they can analyze their data starting on Monday. Students reviewed an example graph and data analysis (due on Tuesday, 1/24), and completed a plan for their graph (Step 10). Next, students began using Google Sheets to build a data table that would graph the data like they planned. This was a Google Classroom assignment that was due on Friday, 1/27. Next week, students will write their data analysis and conclusions, and edit their other written pieces. This coming week is the last full week before the SEF. Once again, students are welcome to stay after on Wednesday and Thursday if they let me know ahead of time so I know they have arrangements to get home.

In other news, all of the remaining brook trout eggs have now hatched and are feeding off their yolk sacs and swimming around the bottom of the suspended basket. They are expected to begin feeding on solid food and swimming up in the water column after we return from winter break.

Grade 6

Math:. Students are continuing to work with percents. They practiced finding the whole number when given a percent of the number using tape diagrams, double number lines and equivalent ratios. Students solved problems like the following: Sally is buying an item on sale that is 25% off and she saved $15 what was the original cost?  Students also continued their practice of adding and subtracting mixed numbers.

Students will have a summative assessment on Thursday, February 2, that will focus on unit rates, ratios and percent of number. Students could practice these skills on Tenmarks or Khan Academy.

Grade 7

Math:  Students are continuing to work on the signed number unit.  Students have been practicing addition and subtraction of positive and negative numbers using horizontal and vertical number lines. We are also continuing to review fraction addition and subtraction with mixed numbers.

Please continue to encourage your child to practice their signed number and fraction addition and subtraction skills at home using Khan Academy or Tenmarks.  

Grade 8

Math: Students began the week learning about the Pythagorean Theorem.  They worked on applying the theorem to find missing side lengths of right triangles. Students also reviewed adding and subtracting mixed numbers.  We will continue the exploration of the Pythagorean Theorem in the coming weeks as well as begin an exploration on similarity.          

Students can continue to explore these topics on Khan Academy or Tenmarks.                          

Personalized Learning: Students took some time to research their topics of interest and began posing some possible inquiry questions based on those topics.

Vermonters and the Civil War

Today, we had a visit from Howard Coffin, a noted Civil War historian. He talked to us about Abraham Lincoln, Vermont's role in the Civil War, and General Stannard's house in Milton. It was an exciting presentation that had all 80+ of our students engaged and interested.

Here are some pictures:

Mr. Coffin and an Abraham Lincoln style top hat.

Mr. E, being one of our tallest Falcons, shows off his Lincoln style.

Mr. Coffin's passionate style kept our students quite entertained.

T2 Progress Reports

Good afternoon, Team Falcon Parents!

Today, in our final class of the day, progress reports were handed to your children to bring home. If you have any questions after reviewing these, please feel free to contact us.

Have a great day. 

​Team Falcon.

Weekly Team Email - 1/20/17

Greetings Team Falcon Families:

We are more than halfway through trimester two, if you can believe it. We will be handing your child his/her progress reports on Tuesday afternoon to bring home. Please let us know if they don’t make their way home with your child. Here’s a look at your child’s experience this past week on Team Falcon.

Humanities: Continuing our work from last week, students spent a significant amount of time pulling key details out of both primary and secondary sources to better understand antebellum United States. We paid particular attention to the multiple perspectives of the delegates during the Constitutional Convention as they debated the future of slavery in our country. Students also had an opportunity to examine the role of spirituals, songs, and hymns as a means of communication among enslaved people in the 1700s-1800s. From the language arts lens, we continued our work with using root words, prefixes, and suffixes to determine the meaning of new words. On Monday, we will spend some time discussing today’s peaceful transfer of power to President Trump, using excerpts of the inauguration footage to guide our discussion. The rest of the week will see us discussing the abolition movement and the proslavery response and getting us to the beginning of the Civil War.

Science: Students were busy this week with testing designs, conducting experiments, and helping each other. This was the last chance students will have to collect data in class. On a case by case basis some students will need to be collecting data next week and some students have already spoken with me about this. Students should come to class next week with their data collected in order to analyze it through graphing and a written analysis. Students were given a preview of this next step by looking at an example graph from a past SEF, identifying key evidence from it, and reading a data analysis of the graph. This assignment is due on Tuesday, 1/24. Students have also been keeping a close eye on the brook trout and noted that some have hatched, although this is on the very early side. Some students learned the tests for measuring water chemistry and have been recording this data.

Grade 6

Math: Students spent the week working on fraction addition and subtraction, as well as a learning how to change fractions to decimals and decimals to percents.  Students practiced using the traditional method of long division in order to do these conversions.  This coming week we will focus on finding percent of number.

You can encourage your child to practice the traditional method of long division at home by giving them a few problems like  834 3 =  ____.  They have learned the mnemonic device of Does () McDonald’s (x) Sell (-) Cheese (✔) Burgers (↓) to remember the steps for long division.  Your child should be able to explain this process.  We will spend much more time on this in the next unit.

Grade 7

Math:  Students are continuing to work on the integer unit.  Students are learning to subtract positive and negative numbers using a number line. They have discovered that subtracting a negative number is like adding the opposite. They are reading number sentences like this 8 - (-5)= as “positive eight add the opposite of a negative five equals thirteen”. We are also continuing to review fraction addition and subtraction with mixed numbers.

Please continue to encourage your child to practice their fractions skills at home using Khan Academy.  If they log into Khan Academy using their school gmail account (mymtsd-vt.org) they are already enrolled in my class.

Grade 8

Math:  Students spent the first part of the week reviewing congruence and what they  know about the measure of the sum of angles in straight lines/ straight angle (180°) and triangles to find missing angle measures. Students started their summative assessment on Wednesday and completed it on Thursday.  This coming week we will explore the Pythagorean Theorem and similarity.   

Personalized Learning: Students were introduced to their personal learning projects. After some guided brainstorming, most have zeroed in on a topic of interest and took stock of what they already know about that topic and what they’d like to learn. Next, we’ll help craft an inquiry question based on their topic and then begin to guide the research.

Bright ideas: Team Falcon uses the term “Whole Body Listening” to explicitly teach our students what listening looks and feels like.

Student Voices: "Peace"

Each week, students have an opportunity to free write: we provide a topic, and students have seven minutes to write continuously on that topic or one of their choosing. We'll occasionally post a student's writing to give you a feeling for the student voices on Team Falcon. 

"Peace"

The equality of our nation is still pressured, even many years after the great speech of dreams. Our nation has changed, but the dream is not fulfilled to its potential. There are still many years to come to heal the scars of the past, but our nation is still young. May we gain wisdom as we grow older. Hope to soon have a country truly filled with liberty and justice for all. Hope that we have peace in this world to exceed our boundaries to ensure the promise of safety among all races and places.

May we all have peace in this world.

-- Liz, Grade 7, 1/17/17

Weekly Team Email - 1/13/17

Greetings Team Falcon Families:

Here’s a look at your child’s experience this past week on Team Falcon.

Humanities: We launched our instruction around primary and secondary sources. Students had several opportunities to closely examine primary sources to better understand the topic/time period of focus. Students will now apply those skills to examining primary sources from the Civil War era. We also used some historic maps and some secondary sources to understand what life was like in the antebellum United States. Speaking of ante- bellum, students practiced identifying and using prefixes, suffixes, and root words to both construct new vocabulary and deconstruct unfamiliar words to make meaning. Additionally, students had the chance to engage with one another around their recent independent reads. Hopefully this has given your child a host of new book titles to explore. Thank you for continuing to support his/her nightly and weekly reading expectations.  

Science: Students have continued with their Science and Engineering Fair (SEF) projects this week with a goal of gathering all their data by next Friday, 1/20. On a case by case basis some students will need to be collecting data beyond that deadline and some students have already spoken with me about this. Students were given a preview of the next step of graphing and analyzing their data by looking at a graph, identifying key evidence from it, and reading a data analysis of the graph. Aside from the SEF, we are raising brook trout in the classroom from eggs to fry! Last week 100 eggs were delivered by Trout Unlimited and we are monitoring the water quality and egg development until we release them in mid-May. We will do some of this work in class and students can sign up to be in the Trout Club. Trout Club will meet some days after school to do additional testing and observations-- more information about Trout Club coming soon.

Grade 6

Math: Students are continuing their exploration of ratios.  Students have  been working on finding percent of a number; they have begun to explore problems like “20 % of 75 is what number?” This week students reviewed the process of  fraction addition and subtraction with mixed numbers. We will also be working on calculating discounts, sales prices and mark-ups.

You can encourage your child to use their ratio skills when shopping by asking them to calculate the unit rate if you are buying things in bulk and after next week you can also ask them to calculate discounts and sales cost.

Grade 7

Math:  Students have begun their unit on positive and negative numbers.  They are currently working on adding integers with like signs and unlike signs.  We are also reviewing fraction addition and subtraction with mixed numbers.

You can encourage your child to use these skills by engaging them in conversations around debt, profit, temperature, football, golf and anywhere else you might encounter positive and negative numbers.

Grade 8

Math:  Students have spent the week working on congruence and how you can use ideas of congruence to find missing angle measures when lines are parallel.  Students have also used what they  know about the measure of the sum of angles in straight lines/ straight angle

(180°) and triangles to find missing angle measures. We will soon begin to look at similarity and the Pythagorean Theorem.  Students will have a summative assessment on Wednesday.

Personalized Learning: We wrapped up our Transferable Skills presentations last Monday. Now that students have some introductory knowledge of the skills, we will launch our personalized learning projects.

Bright ideas:The visuals below are examples of how we are supporting students in regards to planning out their Science and Engineering Fair projects, along with everyday work in general.

Year in Rap(s)

I'm a couple of weeks behind, but before our December break, students were tasked with writing a rap that summarized the news events of the year. We had some great beats, impressive raps (even one that compared war damage to my receding hairline!), and many shouts out to Milton Middle School.

This picture summarizes the kind of joy we witnessed that day. Thanks to all of our rappers! And happy new year...