CLC Middle School News
August 24, 2012
Back in Full Swing!
Thanks to all our families for your participation in Orientation Day. We took care of important business
that day (agreements, lockers, schedule questions, and start-up information), which allowed us to jump
right into substantive learning the first days of class. What a wonderful group of students we have in
middle school this year! Read on to find out about the concepts, skills, and forums that have brought each
classroom back in full swing this week.
Buggy Questions
with Karen Metcalf, [email protected]
It's so much fun to be back in the lab conducting experiments with our students. We've already made
some interesting discoveries this week about how termites behave and why baking soda helps make
good cookies. Both Life and Physical Science students have been getting their feet wet as we do the
normal introductions to the courses, the science lab, and expectations for the year. You probably already
know that science classes are using Edmodo this year as a communication tool. I wanted to share that
Edmodo is intended to be a safe place for this type of interaction. Students cannot send messages
directly to each other and their profiles can only be seen by members of their groups (the life science or
the physical science class). Now that most of them have signed up, I will send home parent codes. These
codes will allow parents to become lurkers on the site also, but not posters. Please feel free to contact
me at any time with questions or concerns you have as the year goes on. I'm looking forward to lots more
discoveries (for the students and myself included).
Culture: Here, There, and Everywhere
with Jessica Kimelman, [email protected]
Middle School Social Studies started off by brainstorming about CLC culture and how it's different from
other schools. We briefly considered how it fits into the larger American culture of our area (more of
that ahead). A number of definitions have fed our discussion about all the things that can be considered
culture. When we begin to move our focus to the various parts of the world, we'll have a basis for
comparison and a number of factors to look for. We're also beginning to watch a few episodes of the PBS
series, Africa, as a way to see our terms in another culture and to introduce the first area we'll study.
↬ Ask your student about his/her contribution to our CLC culture list.
Thinking Things Through Together
with Ai Ying Choong, [email protected]
Our Math students worked on understanding classroom policies and grading this week. We have also
learned our routine in class and the procedures involved. We tried taking attendance on the Smartboard
which was fun for the students. Communication via Edmodo is underway and most students have joined
my classes successfully. All the classes have had a great discussion on the Problem of the Week (POW)
as we learned to help each other think through the problem without sharing our answer(s). I look forward
to having a great year with all the students!
Nuevos principios...New Beginnings
with Amanda Nedelec, [email protected]
As we embark upon a new school year, middle school Spanish students have been dusting off the
cobwebs. In all three classes, we began with a basic Spanish conversation activity before going over
class policies and new class routines. There are a few new elements to our middle school Spanish
program that are worth explaining:
- After a brainstorm this summer during my time studying in Costa Rica, I decided that we needed to
create a word wall this year. I've hung large pieces of white paper on our walls and started us off with a
few common categories of conversation. The idea is for students to help me add new words to our wall as
they learn them independently; hopefully creating a custom dictionary-of-sorts by the end of the year.
- Seventh and eighth grade students will be in charge of classroom jobs on a weekly basis. Sixth
grade will pick them up in the following trimester. Jobs range from sharing the date in Spanish, asking
classmates to describe the weather, introducing a song and artist from the Spanish-speaking world, and
teaching classmates about famous Latinos. Students came home with a description of all jobs as well as
the accompanying schedule for the entire trimester. Jobs begin next week.
- The math/Spanish room (and hopefully other parts of our campus!) have been labeled in Spanish to
better facilitate meaningful vocabulary acquisition.
↬ Ask your sixth grader to tell you how to ask someone's name in Spanish as well as respond to that
question.
↬ Challenge your seventh or eighth grader to tell you what the following questions mean and how he or
she would respond to them: Quien eres? Que haces en la escuela, después de la escuela y durante los
fines de semana?
Human Ingenuity
with Laura Young, [email protected]
Students traveled through time in the Language Arts
Workshop this week to experience a range of writing
technologies, materials, and symbol systems. They
experimented with cuneiform (pressing language
symbols into soft clay), carving (ancient Chinese
characters), puzzling out hieroglyphics, and brushing
calligraphy onto cloth to say “Peace Be with You” in
Arabic script. They completed a writing survey using
various types of ink pens, tapped out a sentence on my
vintage Underwood typewriter, and imagined what
technology might come after word processing. We are
starting the year by pondering these questions: How
long have humans been writers, and why, and with
what tools? What is my place in the history of writing?
↬ Ask your student which writing experiment they found most interesting, most challenging, most
surprising.
Stay in Touch
Your entire teaching team is looking forward to working with the students this year and keeping in touch
with you about the learning that is happening. Please contact any of us, including Alison Jackson-Wood
([email protected]), the West House director, with your questions, concerns, ideas, and
wonderings. By the way, be sure to read the IB Blurb, by Dr. Alison, in this week’s schoolwide Friday
News. We’re off to a great start!
Cornerstone Learning Community engages each learner in a respectful, nurturing school that values
●
High Academic Expectations
●
Diversity
●
Social and Environmental Responsibility
●
Developmentally Appropriate Challenges
850-386-5550
www.cornerstonelc.com