Back to Normal
This week was, for the most part, a "back to normal" week following last week (both at school and at home). I'm definitely not nearly as tired as I was this time last week! One thing I can say, though, is that the students seem to be VERY energized as a whole...I think they can smell Spring Break is approaching. But there's still so much to do!
The 7th graders have been focusing on natural selection, and I had a lot of fun with this week's activities! The first (main) activity that they did was to collect and analyze data on fish populations in order to create graphs of how the populations changed from one generation to the next. I borrowed this idea from my daughter's school. She had asked me a question about some homework, and I saw that they were working on some similar topics that we were. I noticed a little bit of the activity that she had done (just the data collection) and asked her to explain it to me. That was all I needed to put the rest together! I was really proud of the lesson as a whole, and the students were very engaged in the process! Then today the students worked on creating infographics of natural selection situations. We review the key points of natural selection, and then I gave them some sample situations. The students then needed to create the infographics to explain how different steps in the situations showed the key points of natural selection. There are some fantastic artists in my class, and I'm going to post a few of their infographics here when they are done!
The 8th graders have transitioned into the periodic table of elements, taking what they've been learning about the structure of atoms and applying it to the elements. They have been completing some menu challenges this week, in which they have a menu of projects they can create for varied point values. I think it is my 8th graders who are really showing the signs of wanting Spring Break to be here, as it was clear that a few of them were wondering what the least amount of "work" could be done on the projects to still achieve the points. The problem for them, however, is that the projects that don't require as much intensive work are also not worth as many points...sigh.
Mindfulness thought for the week: The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.
--Paulo Coelho (saw this quote posted in my Twitter feed and liked it!)
I think this thought is especially applicable to middle schoolers (even though they don't think it is)!
The 7th graders have been focusing on natural selection, and I had a lot of fun with this week's activities! The first (main) activity that they did was to collect and analyze data on fish populations in order to create graphs of how the populations changed from one generation to the next. I borrowed this idea from my daughter's school. She had asked me a question about some homework, and I saw that they were working on some similar topics that we were. I noticed a little bit of the activity that she had done (just the data collection) and asked her to explain it to me. That was all I needed to put the rest together! I was really proud of the lesson as a whole, and the students were very engaged in the process! Then today the students worked on creating infographics of natural selection situations. We review the key points of natural selection, and then I gave them some sample situations. The students then needed to create the infographics to explain how different steps in the situations showed the key points of natural selection. There are some fantastic artists in my class, and I'm going to post a few of their infographics here when they are done!
The 8th graders have transitioned into the periodic table of elements, taking what they've been learning about the structure of atoms and applying it to the elements. They have been completing some menu challenges this week, in which they have a menu of projects they can create for varied point values. I think it is my 8th graders who are really showing the signs of wanting Spring Break to be here, as it was clear that a few of them were wondering what the least amount of "work" could be done on the projects to still achieve the points. The problem for them, however, is that the projects that don't require as much intensive work are also not worth as many points...sigh.
Mindfulness thought for the week: The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.
--Paulo Coelho (saw this quote posted in my Twitter feed and liked it!)
I think this thought is especially applicable to middle schoolers (even though they don't think it is)!
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