Week Nine

It's hard to believe that we are 50 days into our school year. The students and I feel that the weeks are flying by. Of course, the kids think this is great. I, however, panic. I worry about how much more material we have to cover; how many more projects we should complete; how many more field trips need to be scheduled. My academic brain realizes that we're doing fine. My compulsion-riddled mind still worries...

This was our big review week at Pownal Independent. None of our students have had prior experience with mid-terms and finals. I used this week, the mid-semester point, to explain how those exams will be taken and what those exams will look like. It was my hope that this week of mid-semester review and note taking will help to provide the framework for economical study habits. I am hopeful.

Here's what we did:

• In Independent Math, in addition to our Life of Fred work, we drilled fractions, multi-digit multiplication, and long division for time. You might be thinking that students at this level shouldn't be needing the multiplication and division drills, however my real intention was, and continues to be, to un-learn the "lattice" methods [a.k.a Vedic] that they've practiced, and reteach using the "old school" method. Why, you might ask? While the Vedic method might help a student see what one is being asked to do when first learning multiplication, this "lattice" method is simply more time consuming and prone to errors.
• We continued drilling our symbolized logic. We have been analyzing "if, then" arguments, using the classic premise/premise/conclusion form.
• We reviewed all of our Latin vocabulary using a call-and-response method along with game playing.
• We examined how early civilized man moved from the Stone Age to the Chalcolithic (stone and copper) Age and eventually into the Bronze Age. We attempted to find the melting point of copper using blow tubes on hot coals. Though we didn't actually melt our copper, we did heat it to malleability. Each student was able to forge a blade, and we'll be attaching our blades to handles to produce tools and weapons. After hypothesizing how the copper and tin needed for bronze might have been accidentally combined so long ago, we tried really hard to recreate the experience. We learned that we need a better forge in order to make this happen successfully. Perhaps making a better forge is in our future...
• In Science, we are studying flowering plants and fruits. We dissected two different kinds of flowers: lilies and alstromeria. We identified the male reproductive organs: the stamen which is comprised of the anther and the filament. We also identified the female reproductive organs: the carpel which is comprised of the stigma, style, and ovary. We reviewed the steps from pollination to fruit and seed production, and we entered all of this information into our lab books. Apples and grapes were dissected to identify the aged sepals and anthers, and the ovary. We then used this information to help identify these same parts of the Dragonfruit. Lastly, we slit the anther to release young pollen to view under the microscope.
• New spelling words and a whole new batch of Latin derivatives were delivered for next week's quiz.
• We heavily reviewed our Grammar as we will be starting sentence diagramming next week. In order to begin the basics of diagramming, students need to be very comfortable identifying subjects, finite verbs, modal verbs, prepositions and phrases, predicate nouns and adjectives, direct objects, indirect objects, pure adjectives, and adverbs.
• In Reading Comp., we began our unit on Greek mythology, comparing Greek archetypes with those found in our Old Testament studies.
• In Writing, two of our students continue work on their novels, one of which is to be submitted to the National Young Writers Alliance in December. Our third student has begun a graphic novelette.
• Our second semester at the co-op began, and our students are taking courses in digital photography, Odyssey of the Mind, performance direction, 2-D art class, Lego Robotics, NXT, and Power of the Wind. We also have a student teaching her own Writer's Guild!

Lastly, as a follow-up to those of you who had expressed concern about our "abbreviated classroom hours", I did a little research as your questions piqued my curiosity. The standard unit used in most high schools, colleges, and universities is the Carnegie Credit (CC). CCs are rarely used at the middle school level, however, in a typical high school year, students are expected to complete 5 CCs per year for a total of 20 CCs to graduate. Normally, the Carnegie computation takes into account work done outside of class, too. That being said, I was curious how Pownal Independent would measure up IF it needed to report its CCs. I totaled our pure class time for an amount of 4.27 CCs per year. Any homework or research time is not calculated in that total. Neither have I calculated co-op nor internship time. So, by my estimation, we are well within the typical 5 CCs required of high school students. Just some info for those of you who asked...