Hello Readers,
It was wonderful to see so many families at the DGS Curriculum Fair this past Friday! For those families that could not make it, we certainly missed you.
In preparing for the curriculum fair, I asked students to brainstorm some of the things that they have done in the first few months of school. Below is our ridiculously long and crazy fun list - First day to January 5th.
Field Trips:
McDowell Nature Preserve
Rocky Creek Ranch
Grayson Highlands
Water Treatment Plant
Library Database Class Day
Goodwill
India’s play, ELF
8th Grade - World Affairs Luncheon w/ Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch
Readings:
A Long Walk to Water
Free Choice, climate fiction genre
Where the World Ends OR The Last Mapmaker OR Daughter of the Deep
Flint, Michigan NYT
New York School District NYT
Easter Island
Poetry
History and ELA Academics and Learning Activities:
Socratic Discussion
Reflection writings
Daily Grammar
Book Reports
Post It note galleries
Hexagonal thinking
Big History
Discussions and questions
BINGO
Columbian Exchange
NYT
Jenga
Hexagons and problems
UN SDGs!!
MORE Reflections….
All the Other Stuff from Mr. Ed and Miss Kim and 4 months at DGS
The First Day!
Christmas if Davidson volunteer projects
ELFT research
Voting and starting over
Honey fundraiser
Pizza fundraisers
Bake Sale!
More ELFT research
Cold mornings
Heat islands
City build
Bridge project
Cardboard. Everywhere.
NYT Spelling Bee
Binders
Chores
Cubbies
Laundry
Animals and the Wheel of Beasts
Leaf identification
Math homework
Car rides
Cell project
Kahoots
Derek without a beard??
Halloween parade
Science Fair testing
Incognito Amigo
Holiday cookies
Poor chickens:(
Capture the Flag
Soccer
Duo Lingo
Puzzles
Walking to the Green
Snowflakes
Beginning of year test (Mr. Ed)
Night hike
Smores on the mountain
Basketball
Hexagon wall
Pencils!
Virginia Creeper
Space Trees
Rubix cubes
DNA/ RNA
Karate class*
Can crusher lab
Tessellations
4 stones
Pop Tab Challenge
Lorax movie
Dodgeball got banned
Don’t Forget SPECIALS……
Nothing on the above list includes Cosmos, Philosophy, Spanish, or Drama. Those classes were full too! Can we say Day of the Dead, arguing with Mr. Matt, presentations, and The Lorax???
For the readers' reference, the following section includes information from all of us provided at the curriculum fair:
From PATRICIA -
In ELA and history, we use multiple sources for our curriculum. Since we do not use textbooks, we have an eclectic mix:
Novels, poetry, and short stories
Big History Project from Open Education Resource
New York Times
Daily Grammar
World’s Largest Lesson website
United Nations SDG website
What are your thoughts on homework? How are classes run? Why are we even here?
In middle school, students are continuing to gain independence and develop their sense of place. Of course our goal is for them to build friendships, interact with peers, and to learn healthy mindfulness techniques; we also guide them in exploring organizational systems that work for them. Not everyone is the same, but all of them need to be able to navigate a community setting while also handling multiple classes and assignments. We spend time on social/ emotional awareness and on organization. We revisit these skills regularly.
I try to start with an overarching topic and a big question when applicable. The point of our work is not so much about the content, but about the process and learning skills that will be applicable as they progress into high school.
Homework is to train students to keep track of something all the way home and all the way back again. That said, other than a continuing skills lesson, most of my homework is due days to a week out. It is usually something that requires thought, often writing, and I give time for them to finish. Many are able to take care of my assignments during their work cycles.
We have two types of classes - whole group and small group. Math is all individual or small group instruction. English and history is a combination, with the small group time primarily used to cover specific needs of either a subset of students or students of a particular grade. I tend to use whole group for history and small group for English, but this does vary.
What about the UN goals and Sustainability?
The first semester, Sustainability was taught separately from other middle school classes. We separately addressed the UN goals through two units - an introductory overview and a unit study of SDG #6. We began SDG #14 just as the intercession started. Starting this January, Miss Emily and I are teaming up to focus on the UN Sustainability Development Goals. We are excited to provide an interdisciplinary approach, combining literature, philosophy, history, and science to address the world’s most encompassing problems. We are more thoroughly addressing SDG #14 together in January before continuing our study of three more goals through this second semester. In just two weeks, it’s proving to be a far more engaging and intentional approach to the SDGs. Emily and I are looking forward to working together as well!!
From ED -
From KIM -