What's Happening at LTSA?

 I "locked" my 6th & 7th grade student up in the Biology Lab today. They had to work together as a team and apply all they've learned about cells to unlock the clues, find the keys, and escape the lab! 

I know, I know! Maybe it's a little too....meta. The 6th/7th grade students have been learning about different types of cells. We've discussed the differences between animal cells and plant cells. We compared bacteria cells to a virus, and debated whether or not we believed a virus should be classified as a living thing. Last week I digitized a shortened version of the classic Pandemic game so we could play together in class. The students are, understandably, a little jaded about anything named "Pandemic", so they were less than enthusiastic when we first started. By the end, though, they were able to draw some very important conclusions and parallels to our real life pandemic. If you've never played, Pandemic is a cooperative game - everyone works together to beat the game. Our class lost, but that made the reflections so much more powerful. Pandemic Reflections: Too much time treating disease in individual cities and not enough focus on finding a cure Needed ...

 This week, as part of our continued Growth Mindset learning, we read the book, "Your Fantastic Elastic Brain" by JoAnn Deak. Many thanks to Ms. Susan, our K/1st teacher, for arranging a very special visit today with the illustrator of the book, Mrs. Sarah Ponce. She shared with us many illustrations, and amazing murals she's done all over the world. She even led us in some directed drawings of some of her most beloved characters.