Thirteenth Week of School

LTSA BLOG #13

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MS/HS Math and PE updates

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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 .
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MS/HS Humanities

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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! 
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The Great Debates!

The Middle School and High School Integrated ELA classes studied the Lincoln Douglas Debates and debate format.  Many of the students had to flip their arguments from what they really believed in - they learned that they need to understand both sides of the argument to truly be a good debater.  The value of learning debate is far reaching in that students learn to thoroughly research their topic, critically think and speak confidently and eloquently in public, analyze arguments and generally become a much better communicator.  The Resolves that were debated:  The Middle School Class Resolve: "Animals should be kept in Zoos" - Results - Tied debate.  Debate Video coming soon Tie Breaker Resolve: (Magical Heroes and Mythical Monsters) "Wizards should be treated equal regardless of parentage."    Results: Close debate!  Affirmative Team scored a bit higher in their contentions.  Great Job everyone - time to edit our video! Coming soon!  J...
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