Monday, October 31, 2016

October 28, 2016

In this post...

  • Pumpkins
  • Experience Days
  • Spring Break Trip to France & Italy
  • Spring Journeys
  • Things To Do in our Community

Pumpkins!

On Wednesday, Advisory groups tapped their imagination and skills for the annual Pumpkin Carving Contest! 
Awards will include a fan favorite, based on votes from the 5th Grade. 


Experience Days

Students participated in a range of activities during this year's Experience Days! This year, Experiences were designed around the arts - from studio arts and architecture to culinary and martial arts! 
Below are glimpses into some of the experiences from last week. enjoy!




  • Fashion Designing turns Trash into Fashion!

Spring Break Trip to France & Italy

Ms. Gettel is leading a Spring Break trip to France and Italy! The trip explores the role of patronage of the arts in the Renaissance and includes time in Paris, Nice, Florence, and Rome. If you missed the informational meeting this week and have any questions, please contact Ms. Gettel. 
To register for the trip, visit www.explorica.com/Gettel-4828. 
  • To qualify for payment in 3 installments, sign up by October 28. 
  • The final deadline for signup is November 5. Signing up after October 28 requires payment in 1 or 2 installments. 

Spring Journeys

If you haven't already, please register your student for the Spring Journeys via the links below by October 16, 2016. 

Things To Do in our Community...

  • This is the last weekend to experience Tacoma Arts Month. From visual art to literary events, film to theater, and everything in between, you are sure to find something to do.



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Friday, October 21, 2016

October 21, 2016

In this post...

  • MYP: Mission & Politics
  • Spring Break Trip to France & Italy!
  • Spring Journeys
  • What We Are Learning...highlights from Language & Literature and Science
  • Things To Do in our Community

MYP: Mission & Politics

The IB Mission Statement ends on a challenging note: "These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right." Commitment to the underlying assertion can also be found in the various attributes of the Learner Profile, especially Open-Minded, which we are exploring in All-Schools and Middle School Chapels this month. This is a difficult principle to put into practice, especially during an active political season. In the next two weeks, we will welcome two elected representatives - Bruce Dammeier (Republican, State Senator and candidate for Pierce County Executive) and Derek Kilmer (Democrat, Representative for Washington's 6th District in the US House) to share their experiences with and approach to public service. The Middle School Student Council will have time to meet with each of our guests as well. In addition to discussing leadership, my hope is that they will explore the challenges that come with representing diverse communities. We are honored to welcome these

Spring Break Trip!

Ms. Gettel is again taking Middle School Students to France and Italy during Spring Break! The "Abundance" Journey focuses on Patronage of the Arts, as studied in 7th Grade Music. The group will fly to Paris, travel by the fast train to Nice, and travel on to Monaco, Florence, Assisi, and Rome. We are again using Explorica, and students may easily register online. Click here for the itinerary. If your student is interested in participating in this trip, there will be an informational meeting for parents on Tuesday, October 25th at 5:00pm in the Library. Please contact Ms. Gettel for further details. 

Spring Journeys

If you haven't already, please register your student for the Spring Journeys via the links below by October 16, 2016. 

What we are learning...

This week, we highlight our Language Acquisition and Design programs!
Language & Literature
During the last Language and Literature update, Mr. Price shared highlights of Seventh Grade. Now it is time for Sixth and Eighth Grades!
In Sixth Grade, we are delving into Greek mythology and have been engaging in fantastic conversations about myth and its connection to culture. Soon, we’ll embark on the Hero’s Journey. With our writing, we are all about strong paragraphs - and students are seeing the power of revision to substantially improve their writing.  

In Eighth Grade, we have been reading Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, and though students have loved discussing the book, some of our richest conversations have come from discussing how their own identities have been shaped and molded. For example, we have been talking about catalyst moments - experiences that have had profound effects on their lives - and their ‘lifeboats’ - what they turn to when the world seems all out of whack because they know they will be comforted. We also tried to distill their personalities down into three adjectives each - which was sometimes a lot harder than they originally thought it would be. I consider it a privilege to get to know your kids through our discussions of literature and how it relates to their world.  

 Science
In Eighth Grade Science we’ve begun a unit on Genetics and Variation with the Statement of Inquiry: Understanding how change impacts form leads to innovation. Students enjoyed isolating their DNA from cheek cells and making DNA models from pipe cleaners and beads. We’ve touched on the process of protein synthesis to understand how DNA provides a blueprint for proteins. Next we’ll explore the many forms of variation in human traits and how we can predict the traits of offspring.



Seventh Grade Science has just wrapped up our Scientific Method unit by completing their first Design Lab of the year. This lab will serve as a baseline for the year as we look to make improvements in our ability to use the Scientific Method. We’re beginning our Cells and Microbiology unit and will soon be learning about the parts of a cells and doing a number of activities with microscopes over the next few weeks.

Sixth Grade Science is in the middle of our Earth Science unit. Students particularly enjoyed exploring the Earth’s interior through a series of stations in the lab that allowed them to look at, build and draw models of the layers of the Earth. This week we shift our focus to volcanoes and earthquakes!

Things To Do in our Community...

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Friday, October 14, 2016

October 14, 2016

In this post...

  • MYP: Intercultural Understanding
  • Spring Break Trip to France & Italy!
  • Spring Journeys
  • What We Are Learning...highlights from Language Acquisition and Design
  • Things To Do in our Community

MYP: Intercultural Understanding

The mission statement of the International Baccalaureate reflects attention not only to the development of a rigorous and comprehensive curriculum. It also points to the desired result of such a program: "active, compassionate and lifelong learners" who will "create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect." This is part of the IB's attention to students' (and our) global identity and the central role of intercultural education. Over the course of the school year, students are exposed to a variety of perspectives, voices, and ideas through curriculum, experiential learning, and co-curricular programming, and in Chapel we have paid particular attention to learning about various cultural experiences.This past week, we took time in Chapel to learn about Hispanic Heritage Month, which is runs from September 15-October 15 each year. We opened Chapel with a beautiful poem called "Face and Heart" by Mexican-American author Francisco X. Alarcón, and Advisory groups competed on a quiz about Hispanic Heritage in the US (and the 7th Grade Gettel Advisory won!). We concluded Chapel watching a fantastic video by Colombian music group Bomba Estereo that celebrates an individual's ability to be her- or his-self. In a recent interview, one of the members of Bomba Estereo described that the intention of the song and the video was to combat bullying. The result is a reminder that our goal of intercultural understanding and respect begins with recognizing and respecting each other for she or he is.

Spring Break Trip!

Ms. Gettel is again taking Middle School Students to France and Italy during Spring Break! The "Abundance" Journey focuses on Patronage of the Arts, as studied in 7th Grade Music. The group will fly to Paris, travel by the fast train to Nice, and travel on to Monaco, Florence, Assisi, and Rome. We are again using Explorica, and students may easily register online. Click here for the itinerary. If your student is interested in participating in this trip, there will be an informational meeting for parents on Tuesday, October 25th at 5:00pm in the Library. Please contact Ms. Gettel for further details. 

Spring Journeys

If you haven't already, please register your student for the Spring Journeys via the links below by October 16, 2016. 

What we are learning...

This week, we highlight our Language Acquisition and Design programs!

Spanish
¿Están listos para celebrar? Are you ready to celebrate? A major highlight in Spanish Language Acquisition this month is the upcoming celebration of Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. Day of the Dead occurs on November 1st and 2nd and is full of lively celebrations meant to honor our departed. The holiday provides a wonderful opportunity for our students to connect with Spanish speaking cultures outside of the classroom and there are a few celebratory events nearby in our community. This year I will be attending Día de Muertos- A Mexican Celebration to Celebrate our Departed at the Seattle Center. The event will run Oct.29th -30th, and I will be there for guidance Saturday, October 29th from 12-3:00pm. The festivities will be located in the Armory-Main Floor, and will include live performances, a viewing of spectacular community altars and cemetery, special hands-on activities, foods, face painting and exquisite rituals. Participants can create sugar skulls and paper skeletons, explore community altars and march in a musical procession to remember the dead. Admission is free. Come to explore, participate, and speak Spanish! Please contact me either by email (jessica_paco@aw.org) or text/call 541-968-8999 with questions and/or to sign up. Hope to see you there!

On a more academic note, students have been making progress and exploring various statements of inquiry (SOI). Sixth grade has focused on how Our word choice helps us to identify and describe what we see. Students have explored how word choice and identity go hand in hand to communicate who we are. Seventh grade has discussed how Verbal and nonverbal communication affect the way teams interact. We are applying this idea to sports and how a top player needs more than just physical talent, but an ability to communicate effectively. Eighth graders have explored how Purpose and structure can communicate philosophies and ways in communities. Within the realm of daily routines students have looked at various routines and norms around the world. We have engaged in discussions of preference, and how our daily norms communicate the values of our culture.

7th grade Spanish (Calcote/Kim): We are studying a unit on health and well-being. We are comparing important aspects of our everyday lives with those of Spanish speakers. We are learning to explain minor illnesses, talk about a visit to the doctor’s office, and learning to describe people’s personalities, conditions and emotions.
8th grade Spanish (Calcote/Kim): We finished up our unit on train travel where we learned to travel by train through Spain by creating a 7 day itinerary using the train system “Renfe” and traveling on the AVE (high speed train) to historic and popular Spanish cities. This week we began a new unit on “El Restaurante.” The students are looking at the cultural similarities and differences in restaurant experiences in the US and Spain & Latin America. Students will learn how to order and pay for a meal, identify typical hispanic and latino dishes, and incorporate more vocabulary on foods and utensils in order to use the language proficiently when dining in Spanish-speaking restaurants.  
Chinese
The sixth grade Chinese has finished the Pinyin system, Chinese calendar, and numbers 1-31. They are able to spell words using Pinyin and tell dates in Chinese. They also learned the rules of writing Chinese characters and are getting to the mastery through practice. They are in the middle of the learning Unit “My classmates and I” following the MYP principle. They will complete this unit by taking the summative assessment.
The seventh grade Chinese is on the unit “Chinese Calendar and Chinese Zodiac”. They learned how to read Chinese calendar. They are able to ask and answer questions about time.  They know the difference and similarity of calendar between the solar and lunar system. They are able to share information about calendar and their birthday. By the end of this month they will complete this unit by taking a summative assessment.
The eighth grade Chinese learned the unit “Shopping for Clothing”, which my “Read-on” program teammates and I completed during the summer in Boston focusing on Chinese character teaching and learning. I aim on training them to use online tools and the rules of Chinese character configuration to become a good Chinese readers and writers. Now we are on the unit “School Life” practicing some methods from that training. Even though we are only on this unit for two weeks the good result has showed. This unit covers the content from “Far East Chinese for Youth” level 1 and 2, which is intensive. At the end of this unit students will be able to communicate on school schedule and understand the statement of inquire of this unit, which is “Schools are very important connections with structures and should explore different points of view.”
They all celebrated one of the most important Chinese traditional holidays” Moon Festival” by watching videos, telling stories about it, and making “Moon Cakes”. They have learned by doing.
The 2016 Confucius Institute Day falls on Sunday, Oct 23, 2016 from 1:00-4:00 pm at Skyline High School Commons, Issaquah School District. The topic is “Travel around China in Half a Day”. It is FREE and opens to public. You are encouraged to attend.
Design
Sixth Grade Students continue to make progress on the fabulously designed folders they are creating for their clients. They have developed a number of interesting and creative adaptations for their folders, which has been fun to see, and, currently in the "creating a solution phase," they continue to work their way through the design cycle. If you have not already done so, please ask your student to share both the blueprints her/his client's folder as well as her/his Design blog. We will continue to use these blogs as a way to document the process of their projects but also as a way to show growth as we assess each individual's understanding of the Design cycle. Students only have one more day to build their newly revamped folders, and many are feeling the crunch of having to work under a deadline! They are off to a great start.

Things To Do in our Community...


  • Make a Difference Day is October 22! To find out about opportunities to volunteer in Tacoma or in any other region, visit http://www.makeadifferenceday.com/.
  • Looking for ways to explore Tacoma and Seattle? Stay up to date with the events calendar on The Tacoma Weekly and Visit Seattle.
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Friday, October 7, 2016

October 7, 2016

In this post...

  • MYP LP Atrributes: Open-Minded
  • Spring Journeys
  • What We Are Learning...highlights from Individuals & Societies and PHE.
  • Things To Do in our Community

MYP LP Attributes: Open Minded

A central feature of the IB is the Learner Profile, a series of 10 attributes that reflect the desired outcome of an IB education. "The aim of all IB programmes," the profile suggests, "is to develop internationally minded people who, recognizing their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful world." How to achieve this goal? Be an inquirer, be knowledgeable, be a thinker, be a communicator, be principled, be open-minded, be caring, be a risk-taker, be balanced, and be reflective. Over the course of this academic year, our All-Schools and Division Chapels will focus on one of these traits each month. During the month of September, we focused on what it means to be Caring, and in October, we turn our attention to being Open-Minded.

Our All Schools Chapel on Monday coincided with Rosh Hashanah, the start of the year on the Jewish calendar. This gave us a wonderful opportunity to learn a little bit about the holiday and about Judaism more generally. We heard a reading from the book of Genesis, an excerpt of the portion that is traditionally read in synagogues on Rosh Hashanah, that tells the story of the Akedah, the binding of Isaac. In this story, Abraham believes that he has been instructed by God to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice, but an Angel stops him. I offered a reflection during this Chapel, and I commented that scholars and theologians have explored this story and its meaning for centuries, with each generation of interpreters finding new layers of relevance. I drew on my own scholarship and experience teaching this text to students for many years. My students were frequently drawn to a peculiar grammatical anomaly in the text that could suggest that God didn't necessarily ask Abraham to sacrifice in son, but - importantly and dangerously - Abraham believed that God asked this of him.

We live in a religiously diverse society and culture. One scholar has suggested that today, the US is the most religiously diverse society in the history of the world. It's easy to rely on the things that each of us believes, but if, like Abraham, we rely only on the things that we believe, then we risk ignoring, excluding, or even harming others. We also risk limiting our own potential for growth. This is where the attribute Open Minded really resonates.
Open-Minded: We critically appreciate our own cultures and personal histories, as well as the values and traditions of others. We see and evaluate a range of points of view, and we are willing to grow from the experience. from the IB Learner Profile
It's not just about learning about the values and traditions of others. It's about applying a critical lens on our own cultures and histories; it's about actively seeking other points of view and about being open to transformation by them.

Spring Journeys

If you haven't already, please register your student for the Spring Journeys via the links below by October 16, 2016. 

What we are learning...

This week, we highlight our Individuals & Societies and PHE programs!

We're reciting the Declaration of Independence...

In Seventh Grade, students are working to memorize and then recite the most famous sentence from the Declaration of Independence. In addition to increasing their familiarity with this historic document, it’s also another opportunity to practice the public speaking skills we’re working on in Language & Literature. Here’s a fun recording of the sentence from a past Seventh Grade year.

 ...exploring the Seven Wonders...
In Sixth Grade Individuals & Society we took our first test last week on the readings, geography notes and finding absolute location. I continue to encourage all of them to review their notes periodically; this test was my first opportunity to see if they are hearing my mantra. We also started our first project that will align with our MYP inquiry statement, “Absolute and relative locations have consequences for human and economic development.” The students will have an opportunity to research their own 7 Wonders based on their passions. They will then create a Google Earth tour of those locations with pictures and paragraphs about the significance as it applies to them. We will be working on how to cite sources, developing research skills and paraphrasing their information. Mrs. Strate will be working with the kids on their paragraphs making sure they have topic sentence, clinchers and zero “no excuses” errors. We will be devoting a lot of class time to this project but some will also have to be done at home. The end product they create will be very informative and unique to them. Let me know if you have questions along the way.

 ...and pursuing Utopia...
In Eighth Grade I&S we started the year with the foundations and ideals that shaped the Founding Fathers’ vision for the United States, including readings from John Locke, Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The students also created their own Utopian Societies which focused on government formation, social dynamics, and conflict resolution.  The first major project will be assigned next week which will be a presentation and essay on a significant individual from the American Revolution.

We're learning the components of fitness...
PHE is off to a great start this year! The students have began to answer the question “What is Fitness?” They eagerly await the movement learning activity of the day, such as the 5 Components of Fitness scooter relay. The team atmosphere encouraged each student to do their best while using their combined knowledge to sort the definitions. This past two weeks PHE students have almost completed the first round of the FitnessGram assessment. The FitnessGram assessment is a comprehensive health-related and activity related assessment tool in which students complete a series of activities displaying their current level of physical fitness. Each student's individual information is used to set goals and write personal health and fitness plans. Our goal is to promote personal fitness and health and make students aware of the choices they make.

Things To Do in our Community...

Looking for ways to explore Tacoma and Seattle? Stay up to date with the events calendar on The Tacoma Weekly and Visit Seattle.

Celebrate Green Tacoma Day with Citizens for a Healthy Bay! Help with invasive species removal and trash pick-up on Saturday, October 8, 10:00am-1:30pm. Meet at Gog Le Hi Te Wetlands (1402 Lincoln Ave, Tacoma). Tools, gloves, food, and drink will be provided

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