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Week of 9-15 through 9-18 
Another quick week!  First, I would like to thank our 7B parents who attended Back to School Night.  I am looking forward to a successful school year for my students, and your collaboration is always appreciated!  As we had the day off on Monday, Tuesday we kicked off our launch to Writer's Workshop.  We talked about how really great writers get ideas for their stories from their own lives.  We discussed how Steven King has lived in Maine his entire life and how he incorporates his knowledge of the state in most of the settings in his stories.  His knowledge of the state allows for his imagery to make the reader feel like they are in Maine when reading one of his stories.  We also talked about John Green, author of The Fault in our Stars and how he was inspired to write the story after a friend of his became terminally ill.  The students began to list out "small moment ideas," these focused in snapshots of certain times or events in their lives.  The following day, we began to write our true life, small moment stories.  In writing our stories, we came up with ideas for our future realistic fiction stories.  The students did a great job!  We ended the week with Reader's Workshop and 2 lessons in Character Study.  We talked about how EXPERT READERS select important details about their characters from the text; the details could be things the character did, said, or felt.  Then we take these details, make patterns, and draw inferences or theories about what type of person our character is or their background.  We will continue on with our character study in the coming week, as well.  Students and parents... please remember that next week is another 4 day week!  We will have off from school on Wednesday in observance of Yom Kippur.  Have a wonderful weekend and come back ready to work on Monday!
Posted by kmaher  On Sep 18, 2015 at 3:26 PM
  
First week of school! 9-2 through 9-4 
What a wonderful, whirlwind of a week it has been getting to know the one-of-a-kind students of Community Middle School. After meeting my students, I am so excited for the year that lies ahead and the unique energy and insight that will be shared in our room. We started this week getting to know one another, as our first day of school was a Team Day for Team 7B!  We watched a clip from "Remember the Titans," which reminded us to celebrate our diversity and differences.  Our differences sometimes make it difficult for us to work together; this year we will work toward the goal of celebrating our differences while learning to collaborate with one another.  We did different types of activities so the students of 7B would get to know each other.  At the end of the day, the students collaborated on a problem solving activity.  The students had to construct a rollercoaster out of limited materials including tubes, tape, and a cup and marble.  The goal was to land the marble in the cup after going through a loop and jumping through the air.  While it was not easy at first, our students persevered by working together.  It was a lot of fun! Thursday and Friday were days that I was able to get to know each of my students a little bit better.  Thursday, we discussed basic rules and my expectations briefly.  We also went over different units that we will be working on this year.  As a culminating activity, the students had to work together, collaboratively to build a single structure out of Legos without talking!  The students were laser focused and seemed to truly enjoy the activity. Their creations were each special and it was interesting to see how the students worked with one another silently. Today, Friday, the students and I discussed differences again-- how each of our backgrounds or SCHEMA are different from one another's.  We compared two different poets, Emily Dickinson and Shel Silverstein. Then, the students had the opportunity to select a poem they connected with and create an art piece that summed up their interpretation of the poem.  As time ran quickly today, the students will finish their pieces when they attend my FLEX period next week.  My hope is that each on of their pieces will decorate my wall so that the classroom reflects each of their individual talents. Remember, NO SCHOOL on Monday due to Labor Day!  We will begin working with our Summer Reading materials on Tuesday, so please bring in what your have.  Wishing you a relaxing, enjoyable weekend.                                                                                                                                                   Miss Maher
Posted by kmaher  On Sep 04, 2015 at 3:47 PM
  
The Foolish, Malicious War on Apostrophes 
The Foolish, Malicious War on Apostrophes  - an essay by John McWhorter in The New Republic
Posted by Guest  On Oct 05, 2013 at 5:50 PM
  
Article about homework in The Atlantic 
Posted by Guest  On Sep 28, 2013 at 10:47 AM
  
Hard Truths About Our Soft Bodies 
Posted below are articles and essays that I "collect" from around the web that are worth reading.

Hard Truths About our Soft Bodies
Posted by Guest  On Sep 18, 2013 at 12:17 PM
  
Bake Sale 
Each current Lego League member could bring in baked goods on a specific day to sell in order to raise money to register multiple teams for competition. Any other ideas?
Posted by weinmann  On Feb 10, 2012 at 2:57 PM 5 Comments
  
Fund Raising 
Posted by weinmann  On Feb 10, 2012 at 2:55 PM 2 Comments
  
Independent Reading Blog 
Team 6A Shares Ideas Explored in Books! Of course, you want to share your independent reading experience with your classmates and teacher, so here is your place to share your thoughts, ideas, reviews of the book, and comments about books and reading.  Using our literary elements vocabulary, let's communicate to one another what's special about the books we are reading.  Maybe it is the genre, the characters, the plot, the conflict, the setting, or the theme.  Maybe you just love the author's writing.  Or, perhaps the story has you thinking differently about a topic.  In what ways, does your independent reading impact you and the way you think about books?  Don't forget to provide the title and author of the book you are discussing.  
Posted by black  On Nov 06, 2011 at 7:52 PM
  
Graphing Calculators 
Hi 8th Grade A&E. Several of you have been asking about purchasing the TI Nspire over the TI 83/84 for this year's graphing calculator.  While my immediate response was 'no' due to the Nspire's greater capabilities, an interesting twist has come to my attention (thanks Sundar from period 3).  The TI Nnspire does offer a TI 83/84 touch pad that emulates the 83/84 models.  In light of this, I am okay if you buy the Nspire and use the 84 emulator for all class/homework activities and assessments.  You can read more about pros and cons at:  TI Nspire vs. TI 84 Please let me know if you have further questions.  Take care.    Mr. Frame
Posted by cframe  On Sep 13, 2010 at 3:58 PM
  
Welcome to 6S Social Studies! 
Welcome to the 6S Sluggers! Hi everyone! Thanks for participating in our class blog. Before we get started on added your comments, just a few quick rules: 1. NO DISSING. 2. Share your comments about the blog topic of the day or week, aka stick to the topic!. 3. NO DISSING. (See a theme here?) 4. Try to encourage other classmates to comment on blog and piggyback off their ideas. 5. Only use your first name as your username (that way I can see who's commenting and your last name will be kept private:) ). I'll post our first "official" topic next week so we have a few days to discuss something not related to Social Studies. How's middle school so far? What do you really like? What is the hardest thing for you to get used to? Lockers? Getting to class on time? Hwk? Please share your thoughts! I can't wait to get to know all of you and to start exploring SS this year :). ~Ms. R
Posted by kreynolds  On Aug 23, 2010 at 10:25 AM 2 Comments
  
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