Mathematics with Jenny Feaster
Students have prepared well for pretesting. The homework these past two weeks has been to practice basic math facts on websites such as aaamath.com, aaa.math.com, and coolmath.com. These are great resources that can be used continually throughout the school year. Please remember that your child should only work on math for about an hour at night; if it is taking longer, please just send in a note with your student in the morning, and he or she will be excused from a notice. However, please be sure that your student is concentrating on only math for that hour.
Mathematics with Dan Hill
I took a poll at the beginning of Module One and reviewed some topics that the students seemed to think needed to be reviewed. We then entered a state of Prolonged Pretesting Purgatory from which we have since emerged, caliper-scarred and ruler-bruised, evaluated, measured, placed, and ready to tackle the labor of the year.
English with Jill Sugg
All classes engaged in review and pre-testing, including various writing assignments based on summer reading. Advanced 8/9/10 saw the film of To Kill a Mockingbird and wrote a literary analysis essay on the novel. AP Language saw the film of The Hours and has been practicing multiple choice in preparation for May. English 7/8 saw the film of "A Raisin in the Sun" and wrote a five paragraph analysis. Everyone is off to a great start and it is nice to share ideas about the summer reading. So far so good!English and Social Studies with Matt Wilhelm
Along with pre-testing, students in American History, World History, Civics, and Current Events have discussed 9/11 and the controversy regarding the "Ground Zero mosque." These classes have also examined challenges associated with the war in Afghanistan, and discussed how these obstacles might be successfully addressed.
High School English: Students have completed pre-testing, discussed some of their reading from over the summer, and viewed the documentary OT: Our Town about a high school production of that play in Compton, California.Science with Lori Hilliard
Environmental Science: The school year has started with a bang in this class. After cleaning the cobwebs out of our summer brains, we all pretested successfully. The class is beginning their studies with work Biomes and Climatograms.
Human Biology: Review, Pretesting and microscopy have been the focus of this module for the Human Bio class. The students have been great laboratory practitioners and I am very excited about their futures as scientists this year.
Chemistry: Review and Pretesting was quickly mastered by this group of brainiacs. The study of atomic theory and electron configuration notation has normalized our speed of information uptake. I have enjoyed watching them get excited about learning something completely new and I love those light bulb moments that are happening.
Biology: Review, Pretesting and leaf collections has been the focus of this module for the Biology class. We have covered modern taxonomy and the 3 Domain Theory of classification along with collecting specimens around campus.
Spanish with Celia Battle
Spanish 1: Students have learned the names of countries and capitals in the Spanish-speaking world as well as articles, gender and plural of nouns, article/noun/adjective agreement, greetings and numbers 1-100. Pre-testing, Review and Post-Testing have been completed during this module.
Spanish 2: Students have reviewed vocabulary, grammar and verb tenses. Emphasis has been placed on increasing students' conversation in class. Pre-testing, Review and Post-Testing have been completed during this module.
Intermediate Spanish 1: Students have reviewed vocabulary, grammar and verb tenses as well as a variety of reading selections for comprehension and discussion. Pre-Testing, Review and Post-Testing have been completed during this module.
Intermediate Spanish 2: Students have reviewed vocabulary, grammar and verbs tenses as well as a variety of reading selections for comprehension and discussion. Writing samples have been used to demonstrate the correct use of grammatical structures and more complex verb tenses. Pre-Testing, Review and Post-Testing have been completed during this module.
Advanced Spanish: Students in the Advanced class have reviewed vocabulary, grammar and the use of complex verb tenses, both in discussions and in writing samples. Emphasis has been placed on conversations and discussions of topics of interest to the class as well as current events. Pre-Testing, Review and Post-Testing have been completed during this module.
Physical Education with Krista Moll
It's the beginning to what I presume will be a successful year in my physical education class! Each year I have been trying to take on a different approach to what engaging in physical activity is all about. My first year teaching here at Camelot Academy we did team and individual sports. Last year was a fitness based program. This year, I am excited to explore outdoor education. Considering my classes are almost always held outside, I feel this is a fantastic direction to go in! For the first two modules, the students will be learning about caving. Even though I only saw my Upper School classes two or three times this first module, we were able to discuss possible outdoor education units as well as learn some of the terminology and history of caving. Most lessons will be taught mixing up information, like what types of caves there are, while engaging in fitness exercises. At the end of the students second module, during conference week, they will have the opportunity to go to Bluff City, Tennessee and do some actual caving in Worley's Cave!
Music with Glenn Mehrbach
For the first music class, we talked a lot about music. I asked the students to tell me all the places they might hear music throughout their day, what purposes music might have in different situations, and about what turns a set of sounds in actual music. Then I explained about the six building blocks of music. I also played them some orchestral music, and asked them to point out the different instruments that they heard. There was a chart of musical instruments on the wall that helped students match the sounds they heard to the pictures of the instruments. Lastly, I gave them an assignment, which was to pick 3 of their favorite songs and tell me, in quantitative terms, why they liked them. I asked them to send me YouTube or other links for me to listen to the songs as well, and gave them my email address to send the results. Some of the students have still not completed the assignment.
In the second class we talked about the first building block of music: rhythm. I gave them each a percussion instrument, and we played various rhythms that I wrote on the board. We learned 4 different rhythms, and then played them all at the same time, with varying success. We learned about percussion notation, about how to describe volume and time changes, and the meaning of time signatures. After that we learned about "call and response," with the students improvising percussion patterns that the rest of the class was asked to imitate. In some of the classes we also sang a little.
In the third class I played one selection that I had chosen from each of the student's homework assignments. I asked the students to read what they had written, listened to the song, and then talked about it. I kept the conversation focused on musical terms: instrumentation, dynamics, structure, vocal quality, quality and variety of the melodic line. The students had very varied and interesting choices, and it was a learning experience for me as well.
I intend to continue this pattern throughout the semester, with one class being more theoretical, and the next experiential.
Art with Brittain Peck
As the school year begins, our art classes are focusing on observation. We have been discussing the traditions of observation in Western Art and challenging these notions by challenging ourselves to find alternate ways of seeing the world and making images which represent it. Our first lesson of the year challenged the students to observe the room in which we meet, the upstairs meeting room, in a manner other than within the traditional norms of perspective-based drawing. Examples of the students' approaches included architectural, texture rubbings, surrealistic, and compression of 3 dimensions into a flat 2 dimensional portrayal. Following our first lesson, we began a series of lessons and readings based upon the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. Based on the notion that the two hemispheres of our brain are each best equipped to handle different tasks based upon the nature of the cognitive processing associated with these tasks, the book addresses the specific correlation between right-brain processing and the acts of looking and drawing. After first discussing the differences associated with the two hemispheres of the brain, students have engaged with activities designed to help them better understand and experience the qualitative differences between Left and Right Brain processes. The activities have included a study of hand-writing and the expressive nature of hand-drawn lines, grid-based copying techniques to understand placement, proportion, and angles of lines, mirroring drawings of facial profiles to understand the difference between named objects and spatial relations, and upside-down drawings to break our recognition of objects and forms to allow ourselves to understand the complex nature of their construction rather than remaining fixed in the summarized, stereotyped understandings that we use to quickly and efficiently handle the multiple stimuli of an infinitely diverse environment. As we complete these exercises, students will be encouraged to apply their heightened observational and drawing skills to making their own observations and observational art based upon their own unique perspective of the world around them.
Dramatic Arts with Roni Peterson
In all of the classes a handout was given which contained materials that each student is responsible to bring to each Drama Class.
We spent some time during one class period going over a handout about "How to be a grown-up", which was about ways of taking responsibility for one's own actions. Since socialization and self-esteem are such an integral part of this class, I felt this information useful as reference material to be available to each of my students.
In all of the Dramatic Arts classes we started the semester with getting back into the practice of public speaking by sharing with the class some highlights of our summer.
The assignment for the end of the first module and for Module 2, is to use the "summer highlight" as a prompt for writing a short skit. Each student will act as the writer, director, and performer of their skit using other members of the class as actors. Each student must perform in his/her skit but not necessarily as themselves. I am excited to see what these talented students produce.
A handout was given to aid the students with their skit writing. It was emphasized that this be a "short" skit, performance time no more than a minute or two. Due to the size of the classes, students may be asked to perform in more than one skit, and I did not want them to have to learn too many lines which could overwhelm them. This exercise will be a starting point for more scriptwriting assignments and character studies that we will be doing during this semester.
Music Performance with Glenn Mehrbach
VOCAL ENSEMBLE CLUB
I've only had one chance to meet with the Vocal Performance Club, but it was a very productive session. We learned about what everyone expected from the class, talked about any songs or types of music they might be interested in performing, and I told them what I would like to explore for each of them in the coming year. Then I gave them some exercises to help find out everyone's vocal range. We ended the class by learning and practicing the harmonies to Bob Marley's "One Love." After a few tries they began to have a wonderful blend. We also sang a little bit of "Twist and Shout" which allowed each of them to show off the solo vocal skills. It is my hope for the class to explore both of these aspects of vocal performance, harmony group singing and solo stylistic singing, as well as learn how to add movement to our singing arrangements. I was impressed with the overall talent of the students, and am looking forward to the months ahead.
MUSIC PERFORMANCE CREDIT BAND
I've only had a chance to meet with the Music Performance Class twice, but we accomplished a lot in those two sessions. The first day was spent mostly plugging everything in and making sure it worked, talking to each student about their expectations for the class, finding out personal favorites in terms of songs and genres, and letting them know my expectations and hopes for the class. We ended up playing a little, but not too much. The second class we started to learn "Pinball Wizard," in a hybrid arrangement of the original by The Who and the version by Elton John. Since we have a very varied experience level in the group this year, with some students having years of experience both reading traditional sheet music and playing their instrument, and others having only read guitar tablature and having less playing time under their belts, it will take a few weeks to find a good way for everyone to work together. But from the way things went on Wednesday, I am very encouraged that this process will lead to terrific results. Each player has a unique and powerful voice, and I look forward to the challenge of finding a way for each of them to express that voice successfully, and also work in harmony to create wonderful music together.
