What's Happening at LTSA?

This week we took our science classroom outdoors as we conducted a leaf experiment to understand more about the structure and function of parts of the leaf. Specifically, in this experiment, we were trying to determine where on the leaf stomata could be found. Students also learned to use a new phone app, called Seek, to help them identify the plants they were studying. We finished collecting data today and we will analyze and report our results next week. 

In our Neuroscience class this month we've been exploring the anatomy of the brain, and students even had the opportunity to dissect a sheep brain to examine similarities and differences between sheep and human brains. 

Surviving and Thriving:  In Middle School and High School Humanities classes we have been covering the historic events of 9/11 as well as the current events of our military leaving Afghanistan (The longest war in U.S. History.)  Each class added their tickets to our collaborative board about "Things they know"  "Things they think they know" and "Things they want to know."  This brought up different discussions in each class.  Then, we went on to view survivor stories took effective notes and reflected on the stories. 

Pirate Day was a blast! We had an outdoor scavenger hunt, learned some fun pirate phrases, read How I Became a Pirate, and made our own pirate hats. Everyone loved dressing up and finding treasure.     

Middle and high school math classes are settling into some productive routines and progressing toward mastery of foundational concepts.  In addition to the topics typical of each course, we're working on showing steps, explaining reasoning, and mental math strategies in order to develop the conceptual understanding and numerical fluency necessary for pattern recognition and problem solving.  The examples above are taken from a lesson in the Algebra I class on exponentiation. The PE class has been working on overhand throws, catching and kicking in preparation for semi-weekly kickball games, backhand and forehand throws for short, casual rounds of disc golf, team building through "Name Tag", and gaining familiarity with the Responsibility Levels through prompted discussions.  As the weather has finally began to cool, we will begin our first formal activity unit, soccer, next week! Visit my teacher website for more information .

 In 2-5 HUB, we read the Magical Yet and discussed how we can use self-talk to have a positive outlook when we encounter something we cannot do YET. (This connects with our social skills lesson from last week which focused on using self-talk to stay focused when there are distractions around.) Students brainstormed a list of areas they want to grow in and then picked one item for that list to set as their goal. They are working to achieve their goals by December. We worked on writing goals that are challenging yet realistic, detailed & specific, and within our control. We also practiced giving peer feedback on each other's goals by giving a star (something that shines in the person's work) and a wish (something they could do to make it even better).

 Integrated Physics and Chemistry students were given a Mini Metric Olympic challenge on Thursday to work on making estimations of various metric measurements. 'Events' ranged from the cotton ball shot-put, left handed sponge squeeze, Bigfoot and the right handed eraser grab. Students competed individually and made an estimation for each event. Then the actual measurements was taken. Students calculated the difference between their estimations and the actual measurement.  It was a fun way to evaluate student understanding of the metric system.  Carrie was quite surprised by how close her estimation was to the actual measurement!!  Watch here  -->   Mini Metric Olympic Challenge                                                                             ...

 MS/HS HUB       Marshmallow Challenge Students in the Middle and High School HUB class were given the Marshmallow Challenge to end the first few weeks of Creating the Culture in our class. We've been focusing on critical thinking, communication skills, creativity, problem solving, perseverance and collaboration and will continue to reinforce these skills throughout the year.  The student teams did very well, although I will say that no one would have beat the parent team that won during Meet the Teacher Night! 

For the first two weeks of school returning students have spent time reviewing information learned in previous years of Spanish. New students have learned why Spanish is a useful language to learn. As the world’s second most spoken native language, with 21 countries calling it a national language or a predominant language, and with it’s similarities to English it a logical choice. Also with the possibility that as much as 30% of the US population will be Hispanic by the year 2050, it is a skill that could could become more important for job applicants in the future. Some of our middle school and high school students played Lotería which is the Spanish version of Bingo with numbers from 0-100,  while other students wrote short skits and acted out meeting people and introducing themselves in Spanish. Once students are issued school laptops, we will resume our leveled Spanish learning, and students can pick up where they left off last school year. 

  In our first two weeks of elementary math class (grades 2-5), we played several games of logic such as Qwirkle and Sudoku. These games allowed us to get to know each other while also setting the context for us to have some important class conversations. We discussed seeking challenges, having a growth mindset , and also agreed upon norms for how we will interact as a community of mathematicians throughout the school year.  We also began playing some games to promote greater math fact fluency and each student was interviewed 1-on-1 to establish a baseline level for their math fact fluency. As we work to develop our math fact fluency throughout the school year, we will focus first on understanding and flexible use of strategies. From there, automaticity will naturally follow, but students will never participate in timed exercises/tests. Evidence shows this causes anxiety and encourages students to revert away from developing strategies and instead to memorize without understan...

After a first week of team building and review activities, the middle- and high-school math classes are now working through new coursework.  Follow our progress here . The Physical Education class has begun the year with a focus on the motor skills involved in kickball and disc golf, along with team building activities such as Name Tag and outdoor scavenger hunts.  Each Tuesday, we complete a short activity toward developing personal and social responsibility.  As the weather cools down, we will transition to more intense activities such as soccer, ultimate, flag football and short, weekly jogs around the park.  Click here for more information .

 F1 in Schools students got a quick glimpse of what makes a car go! Students collaborated within their groups to design and build a car that would be powered by a balloon. In addition, students were to brand their car. Calculations of velocity at certain points along the track as well as displacement were made.

 IPC Science  The first two weeks have been busy in our Integrated Physics and Chemistry science class. We started out with a Build-a- Boat design challenge. Students collaborated with partners to design and build a boat with materials supplied in class, while also factoring in cost of said materials. The point of the boat was to hold the most pennies while costing the least amount to build. There was quite a bit of iteration to accomplish this task! Congratulations to Mickey and Milan who won the challenge!

  We had a great first week of school getting to know our friends, teachers, and playground.  This is going to be a fantastic year!!   We practiced using our scissors.   We formed letters with Play dough on our letter mats. What a great way to end the week!  Happy Birthday Betty!  Thank you for the cupcakes!

During Middle School and High School Humanities classes we discussed current and historical events.  Students were challenged to work in groups to reconstruct an essay that had been scrambled up!  This essay told them about an event that happened that day in History! They had to locate the introduction, body paragraphs and the conclusion based on a lot of different clues.  When reflecting on this challenge, they all agreed that the essay did not have a very strong conclusion and that it was in need of transitions for better fluency.  Next, they crafted graffiti boards of possible transitions that can be used when writing essays.  In the video below you can hear the communication and collaboration - very impressive!