Weekly Preview: 11/7-11/11, 2011

Here at FMS, we've all enjoyed a three-day weekend. I hope yours was as restful and rejuvenating as mine was! Here is what we will be doing this week in room 101:

Tuesday morning before school is the last time this year's Book Fair will be open. There are tons of great books this time... I know. I spent WAY too much money for my class library!

6th GOAL: This class is finishing up their conceptual models of the Humdinger. On Wednesday, they'll actually see inside the Humdinger, and they'll be able to compare their models to the real thing. From there, we'll move on to rubber band cars as the last activity in the models & design unit.

7th GOAL: On Monday, I'll be booktalking books for the upcoming literature circles around the theme of Culture Clash. Students will also be presenting their campaign posters from the Big Science activity that finished up last week. Literature circles will start on Wednesday, and this will be the only time during the year that students will have a daily assignment.

8th GOAL: Literature circles are continuing this week with books centered around the theme of the Holocaust. Remember, this is a daily assignment!

7th Language Arts: On Monday, students will work on Week 11 spelling. Pretest corrections and p. 70 (1-20) are due on Wednesday. For the remainder of the week, we'll be discussing the trait of word choice in writing. We'll have some in-class activities related to word choice. By the end of the week, we'll be discussing the trait of voice in writing, and that will lead to our upcoming RAFT writing assignment next week. Stay tuned for details.

Week 11 Spelling Words

wrestle

scenic

guarantee

descendant

knoll

align

spaghetti

herb

sought

honesty

schedule

thoroughly

gnarled

hustle

descend

scenery

exhibition

resign

gauge

jostle

Weekly Preview: 10/31-11/3, 2011

Welcome, November! It's going to be a crazy, short week here at FMS. Don't forget Parent/Teacher Conferences Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 4:00-7:30. If you want to see all the teachers at once in the Commons, come on Tuesday. If you'd like to go to each teacher's individual classroom, come on Thursday. And, don't forget, there's no school on Friday!

Here's the scoop for this week in room 101:

6th GOAL: We're looking at the contraption called the Humdinger. We're figuring out this black box and making our own physical models to recreate our own Humdingers.

7th GOAL: We're finishing up our Big Science activity by narrowing our class's choices (debating and arguing and coming up with a consensus is hard work!). Then, we'll be making campaign posters for our personal choice. Next week, we'll start literature circles.

8th GOAL: We're starting literature circles this week. Our theme is the Holocaust, and this is the only time in GOAL when we will have a daily assignment. Groups are decided based on book choices, and each group will decide how much they will read for the next day.

7th Language Arts: Final drafts of our Grown-Up Rules stories are due Friday. Some students will need to work outside of class to get this completed on time, whether it's at home, in study hall, or before/after school. With shortened periods this week, our typing time in the lab is limited. Spelling p. 63 is due on Wednesday along with pretest corrections. The posttest will be on Thursday this week due to no school on Friday.

Week 10 Spelling List

demonstration

concentrate

issuing

believable

excuse

communication

comparable

endure

appreciation

ignorance

concentrating

examination

likable

concentration

excusable

receiving

organization

endurance

celebration

achieving

Weekly Re/Preview: 10/17-10/28, 2011

I got out of the blogging routine last week when I was attending the Iowa Talented & Gifted Association's annual state conference in Des Moines on Monday and Tuesday, so I'll recap what happened in class last week AND preview what's to come in the week ahead. Hang on for the wild ride!

Remember that Wednesday is the last day of the quarter. My students need to have all work in by that day to be counted for this quarter's grades.

LAST WEEK'S REVIEW:

6th GOAL: The class continued its exploration with black boxes, conceptual models, and coming to consensus decisions.

7th GOAL: The classes looked into past government-funded science programs like NASA and the Manhattan Project.

8th GOAL: The classes continued reading the play of The Diary of Anne Frank as the introduction to their Holocaust literature circle unit. The entire 8th grade got the opportunity to go to the high school on Friday afternoon to see portions of the Fairfield High School Drama production of the same play. If anyone is interested in seeing the play in its entirety, they can see it on October 28, 29, 30, or November 8. It should be a great show.

Language Arts: Classes worked on finishing their pen pal letters and being introduced to the Ideas trait of writing. Week 8 spelling words included: encouragement, idleness, canoe, manage, forgiveness, acreage, outrageous, management, forgive, canoeing, inventiveness, encourage, acre, commencement, advantageous, commence, fierceness, amazement, awareness, and announcement.

THIS WEEK'S PREVIEW:

6th GOAL: Students are continuing with their Models & Designs unit. This week, they're designing conceptual models of their own black boxes in science. These are creative and entertaining to see! They'll be trying to figure out and recreate the Humdinger invention later in the week.

7th GOAL: Students are still working on their Minds-On Science: For the Sake of the Nation. This week, they'll be looking into biogenetics and its role in society.

8th GOAL: Students will be finishing up reading The Diary of Anne Frank, and then they'll start their literature circle unit on Holocaust books.

7th Language Arts: For the writing assignment to go along with the Ideas trait of writing, students heard the book The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups. They are now creating their own secret rule. Rough drafts are due Tuesday, teacher edit drafts are due Friday, and final drafts are due next Thursday, November 3. Week 9 spelling words center around the suffixes -tion and -ation. Pretest corrections and page 58 (1-20) are due on Wednesday.

Week 9 Spelling Words

recognize

recognition

decoration

decorate

combine

combination

determination

determine

graduation

graduate

hesitate

hesitation

education

educate

compete

competition

eliminate

elimination

admiration

admire

Weekly Preview: 10/10-10/14, 2011

Here is what's happening in room 101 this week:

6th GOAL: We'll be finishing up our comics unit on Monday with final sharing, and then after library day on Tuesday, we'll be starting our Models and Design unit. We use the Foss kit for Models & Designs, and it's always a great way for kids to get hands on experience with engineering skills. This week we'll be exploring the concept of a black box and how it relates to science.

7th GOAL: We'll be finishing up our comics unit on Monday with final sharing, and then after library day on Tuesday, we'll be starting our unit called Big Science: For the Sake of the Nation. This unit centers around government funded science projects. Students will use video and pamphlet information to debate what the next government funded big science project should be.

8th GOAL: We'll be finishing up our comics unit on Monday with final sharing, and then after library day on Tuesday, we'll be starting our Holocaust literature circle unit. We'll begin by reading the play The Diary of Anne Frank this week. Next week, we'll begin reading and discussing our literature circle books.

7th Language Arts: Pen pal letters are due Wednesday for teacher edit. 2 peer conferences are required before that point, and envelopes must be included. Final drafts are due by Monday at the latest. Spelling Week 7 pretest will be Monday. This week's lesson focuses in different affixes. Pretest corrections and book page 46 (1-20) are due Wednesday. Posttest will be Friday.

Week 7 Words

fearlessness

requirement

extremely

reconsider

thoughtfulness

inability

disappointment

unexpected

surname

alphabetical

reappearance

surprisingly

agreeable

regardless

unemotional

adventuresome

thoughtlessness

underestimate

improvement

emotional

Class Act Comics Conference

Wednesday, October 5, 2011, 25 FMS students in grades 6-8 had the opportunity to attend the Class Act Comics Conference at the University of Iowa. They met and heard from 3 published graphic novelists and comics and had a chance to see the University of Iowa Museum of Art's special exhibit called Graphic Language: The Art and Literature of Comics which will be open to the public until December 11. Click here for more information on the exhibit and accompanying activities.

Students were encouraged to draw throughout the day, and many received autographs from the authors and artists they met. It was a "once in a lifetime" experience!

James Sturm talks about his start in comics and his current work including The Golem's Mighty Swing and Market Day.

Students ready to hear from Jessica Abel

Jessica Abel, whose work incudes Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, talks about the process she goes through when creating a panel of a comic.

John Porcellino, creator of King Cat, talks about self-publishing and making comics out of everyday life events.

What a great group of kids! We enjoyed lunch at City Park in Iowa City before heading back to Fairfield

Weekly Preview: 10/3-10/7, 2011

Happy October! Here's the scoop on what's happening this week in room 101:

6th, 7th, 8th GOAL: We're finishing up our comics, cartoons, & graphic novels unit this week. Final drafts of comics are due Tuesday. On Wednesday, 25 students will be attending a comics conference in Iowa City, and we'll have our final sharing on Friday. On Wednesday and Thursday, students will be getting outside for some GPS activities since we'll have several gone. I want as many here as possible to see the finished comics on Friday.

7th Language Arts: This is a Maintenance Test week for spelling, so there will be no pretest this week. Friday's test will be over words from weeks 1-5 (see past weekly previews for the lists). Spelling pages 39 (1-20), 40 (1-20), and 41 (1-10) are due on Wednesday. On Tuesday, we'll begin our first pen pal letter. I believe this is the 39th year for the 7th grade pen pal program, and our community volunteers look forward to hearing from their pen pals. This activity teaches letter writing and communication for our students, and it gets the community involved in our school! Rough drafts of the letters will be due on Thursday, and we'll begin typing that day as well. Letters will be due next Tuesday for teacher edit, with final drafts due next Friday.

More of the Windstream Visit

Documentation of our exciting events of last week!

Fairfield Middle School receives $1000 award from Windstream! from SchoolsWIN on Vimeo.

Weekly Preview: 9/26-9/30, 2011

Happy Homecoming Week! Fairfield Middle School is getting into the spirit of the week with lots of different celebrations. Don't forget dress-up days: Cowboy/Camo Day (Monday), Clash Day (Tuesday), Retro Day (Wednesday), Hat Day (Thursday), and Orange/Black Day (Friday). We'll end the week with a big pep assembly to get pumped up for the high school football game that night. Go Trojans!

Aside from Homecoming activities, here's more of what will be going on in room 101 this week:

6th, 7th, & 8th grade GOAL: Monday, students will finish their jam comics and their panel lotteries. Tuesday is Library Day. From Wednesday through Friday, students will work with comic activities that tie with the book The Arrival by Shaun Tan, writing captions, showing passage of time in comics, and an activity called Sum of Its Parts.

7th Language Arts: Final drafts of "If I Were Mayor" essays are due Monday. We'll also take the pretest for spelling unit 4 on Monday. Pretest corrections and book p. 34 (1-20) are due Wednesday. For the rest of the week, we'll dive into the Ideas trait of writing which will culminate in a piece of writing that ties in with the book The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups. More details to come on that assignment.

Week 5 Spelling Words

challenge

embarrass

apparent

exaggerate

communicate

accompany

unnecessary

surrender

impression

allegiance

immense

accomplish

procession

interrupt

equipped

assess

warrant

possibility

alliance

professional

Another Picture of the Winning Moment!

Today we surprised @kinnick72's 9am language arts class ... on Twitpic

WOW! WHAT A DAY!

The following explains the fantastic events of today! More media footage to come in the next few days, but you'll get the idea here:

It's not every day a 7-foot dog with green spots is seen outside of a terrible nightmare, but Friday in Tena Nelson's classroom at Fairfield Middle School, a 7-foot dog with green spots named Click made some dreams come true.

After receiving an e-mail earlier in the year forwarded to her from Principal Laura Atwood, Tena entered her class in a contest sponsored by Windstream Communications. Windstream provides DSL internet, phone service, and digital television to its customers, and their contest, called Windstream Connects: SchoolsWIN, was created to give back to schools and communities across the nation.

Applicants were asked to join through Facebook and/or Twitter. They were asked what they would use $1000 for in their classrooms and what kind of challenge they would have for Click the Dog if their school was chosen. Miss Nelson wrote, "Budget cuts are killing our students' access to technology! I'd love to have 2 iPads to share to allow students to skype with authors, create online presentations, and to write their own blogs... and, that's just the beginning! I want to help create 21st century citizens, but I need the hardware to do it! Come to Fairfield Middle School in Fairfield, IA! My students have been debating issues in class this week... feel like getting into a heated debate about mandatory dress code, Click?"

Superintendent Art Sathoff and Principal Laura Atwood were notified on Thursday that Fairfield Middle School's entry to the contest had been chosen and that Tena Nelson's classroom would be receiving $1000. On Friday morning, the Windstream Classroom Caravan pulled up outside Fairfield Middle School, and Click the dog, Windstream's loyal mascot, jumped out to greet the practicing FMS Marching Band.

Click and the Windstream crew visited Miss Nelson's classroom and presented her with a check for $1000. Since Click neither speaks nor wears clothes over his fur, the debate about dress code was dropped and replaced with an impromptu dance celebration. Miss Nelson hopes to use the money to purchase as least one, hopefully two, iPads for classroom use on a variety of projects. Before leaving the building, the Windstream group met many students throughout FMS and informed them that they were now eligible for a 25,000 prize if they document a community service project and upload the video to their website. Footage of Friday's events can be seen soon on the Windstream website at www.schoolswin.windstream.com/caravan.