Happy Friday the 13th

I AM GRATEFUL FOR I.A. FAMILIES!
First of all, I want to thank parents for all of their support in the last couple of weeks. I got the chance to see many of you at the Student Led Conferences last week and our Family Night Exhibition last night. The students were so proud to display their hard work to their families and their peers.

New Stuff:
In order for the kids and me to be a little more organized we are using a weekly assignment tracker. Students turn in all assignments for the week on Fridays along with the assignment tracker. As well as a checklist of assignments, students assess themselves on whether they finished the assignment, if they used their time wisely, if they have questions, and how they rated their work as a whole.

Morning Meetings:
Our focus has been on gratitude this month. On Monday Nov. 2, the kids shared two things they are grateful for. On Nov. 3, they shared three gratitudes, etc. Today, Nov. 12, they each shared twelve gratitudes. It has been fun to listen to the many things they are grateful for. As the lists get longer, their gratitudes are becoming more creative.

Math Skills:
We have been working on positive and negative numbers and using them in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Today we saw how we use integers in real life by taking temperatures of hot, cold and icy water. Students created equations to show temperature changes. We looked at the difference between increases or decreases between two values.

Science:
7th graders are learning about cells. Last week we created Jello cells and small groups made posters to teach the class about the purpose of each cell part. Next week we will have a quiz on the cell parts and learn about cell division.

8th graders are learning about matter, density and pressure. We made non-Newtonian fluids… also known as oobleck. We learned about solids, liquids and gases and their physical and chemical properties. Next week will do a density experiment and look at Charles’ and Boyle’s Laws.


Final Words about the Legacy Destiny Project:

Although our scrapbooks only show the results of their career salary, house and car and personal budget, most students can say that a lot of behind the scenes work went into the final product.
I was impressed with how many things we did. Here is a run-down:

• First we chose a career and determined salaries using online searches. We learned about bell curves and quartiles and how not all people doing the same job make the same amount of money.
• We played the Roulette of Life to determine what percentile on the bell curve our salaries were, whether we were married, had children and spouses incomes.
• We calculated state, federal and Social Security taxes based on our gross income. We also determined taxable income, annual net income and monthly incomes.
• We calculated monthly budget percentages.
• We searched for houses and cars and used an online loan calculator to determine home loans and auto loans within our budget.
• Last but not least we tied it all together to create a monthly budget using an excel spreadsheet.
  I learned a couple of things myself about this project. Many kids chose high paying professions and had a lot of money to work with. Next time I present this project, in addition to their dream job, I will give the whole class a fixed income to calculate a budget that is more representative of the “average Joe” and our economy today.
  FYI: Scrapbooks will be coming home next week. We are creating a class rubric in order for the students to assess their work. They will make any last revisions before their final grade.

HELLO I.A. FAMILIES!

A Summary of The Past Couple of Weeks:
· We are pretty much finished with My Legacy, My Destiny Project. The scrapbooks are beautiful and we can’t wait to share them with you in November. Next week we will finish Resumes and work on Personal Budgets.

Ups and Downs Timeline: After finishing the first draft of the timelines, we focused on perfecting our work. Students went on a gallery walk and critiqued unnamed timelines, looking for things they liked and things that could be improved. I am using Ron Berger’s critique format for beautiful work. The three main focuses are that when critiquing work, you are 1) Kind, 2) Specific, and 3) Helpful. Their final drafts were amazing transformations from the originals.

Family Traits Tree: After learning about inherited traits, students compared traits with one another to create a graphical representation of traits versus students. Students also interviewed family members to find out what inherited traits they have in common and used that information to create a family trait tree.

Salaries and Taxes: Students started dreaming about twenty years from now about their ideal careers. Using www.salary.com we looked at salary ranges, bell curves that showed percentiles, job descriptions and education tracks for our careers. We played a game of chance to determine such things as whether they are married, have children and what percentile their salary falls in. Students used this information to calculate their federal, state and social security taxes. Not only did they sympathize with their parents for having to do taxes every year, they found out how much of that money gets taken away!

· Our morning meetings are getting so fun. The kids are really getting comfortable and seem to really enjoy each other’s company. I love listening to them. Our sharing and activities are the highlight of my day! I enjoy our class’ creativity. I learn so much from them.

· Our M.A.P.S. program has been a hit. Our class just finished Art with Tina and Fitness Conditioning with Kalif. They started Puppetry and Yoga this week and will continue with it for the next three weeks.

For Next Week:

Conferences will be held next Wednesday and Thursday after school. If you have not signed up with me, I will be contacting you to schedule a time. Please fill out and bring the Student Goals sheet to your appointment.

We will finish our personal budgets and resumes and put the finishing touches on our scrapbooks. They will be ready to exhibit for our Nov. 12 Family Night.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Week 2 in Review

Without sounding like a broken record, our second week of school was another great week. The kids are getting used to our schedule and I am getting to know them a bit better.

Last Week:

• We started getting serious with our integrated project - My Legacy, My Destiny. To get an overview click here http://sites.google.com/a/innovationsacademy.org/lisa-moncrief/projects . For one of the math components we started looking at career dreams and a quick look at salary ranges. We created a class bar graph of all of their careers and salaries. In Tony's humanities class, students worked on their "I Am" poems and started working on vignettes.
• We kicked off our first mini math project: Math board games. The 8th graders are creating games for 5th and 6th graders and the 7th graders are doing the same for the 3rd and 4th graders. We are hoping these games will help students at our school for many years to come. It is my goal that as they create their games, they will take the opportunity to review essential basic skills in order to be ready for the new skills they are going to learn this year.

For Week 3:

• During math we will continue with the Math Games mini project. We will also work on two components of My Legacy, My Destiny: 1) The Career WebQuest http://sites.google.com/a/innovationsacademy.org/lisa-moncrief/projects/my-legacy-my-destiny/career-webquest and 2) the Ups and Downs Timeline.
• Our Science class will take a look at genetic traits as we create Family Pedigree and Trait Trees for the Legacy Destiny project. We will also be learning about DNA on our fieldtrip on Thursday.

Upcoming Events:

• We are putting together a parent info night (or conference call?) to plan for an 8th grade trip to Williamsburg/Washington DC in the spring. You will be called or emailed with details this upcoming week.
• Tuesday Family Game Night 6:00 - 8:00
• Thursday Field Trip to Wild Animal Park. We leave at 8:30 am. Please do not be late.
• Oct 5-6 Picture Day
• Thursday Oct 15(?) 7th - 8th grade Field Trip to UCSD

Have an awesome week! Always feel free to contact me when the need arises.

Awesome First Week!

We had a great first week of school. I have a feeling we are going to have an awesome year together. Our class seems to enjoy one another and we have an amazing group of kids.

I will be blogging every Sunday evening before I go to bed. Each week I will try to include a synopsis of the past week and a quick outline of the week ahead, as well as upcoming events.
If you are having trouble looking at my website calendar, I am trying to figure it out. Hopefully I will have the kinks worked out quickly so you can access it.

Last week:

• We got to know each other as well as the seventh graders. We were introduced to Morning Circle, Class Council and Closing Circle. Tony and I worked together throughout the week with all of the seventh and eighth graders to establish expectations for our classrooms as well as taking a look at rights, responsibilities and privileges that we can all share. Since the students will be working in my class for Math and Science and Tony's class for Language Arts and Social Studies we found it more effective to be united in our expectations for our classrooms.
• We introduced our first big project, "My Legacy, My Destiny". We will be working on this for the next month and a half. More will be coming home about this project during this upcoming week.
• We started assessments for math, spelling and reading comprehension on Friday. We should be done by Tuesday. If you would like to be informed about these tests please contact me.
• A huge shout out to all parents who came to our first monthly parent meeting last Thursday night. It was a pleasure to get to know you better. I look forward to working with you this year. (There is still room to sign up to volunteer in our classroom or help out in other ways. I will be contacting those of you who signed up on Thursday to give you specifics as well as send out an email to all parents this week with a list of volunteer opportunities that are still available)

This upcoming week:

• We will continue to work on routines and start the My Legacy, My Destiny project.

Coming soon:

• I am in the process of working with Brooke Landau, a weathercaster from San Diego 6 news to come in next week to teach about the weather as well as broadcasting. Her information will help us in a math/science graphing project as well as help us learn some interviewing skills for our Legacy Destiny project.
• Thursday, September 24 - Field trip to the Beckman Center(a conservation education laboratory) at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Transportation, admission and lunch is free, thanks to special funding they secured just for charter schools! The field trip will last all day and we will be going with the 5th,6th, and 7th grades.

Class Website is up and running!

Our class website is ready for viewing! Some pages are still under construction as I am fine tuning my plans for this upcoming year! I will use it on a regular basis to post information about class assignments and projects. Use it as a resource to find out what we are up to! A class supply list is included on the home page. You can access it by clicking on the link on this page. Don't forget family orientation is Saturday August 29 from 10:00-12:00 in room 403.

Welcome Back

Hello IA Families!

Its the most wonderful time of the year!(written while singing and thinking of my favorite Staples commercial)

I had a great summer. Our family played hard! We spent a lot of time camping, beaching it and relaxing. I am almost ready for school to beginning....almost!

Spent last week in intensive training at High Tech High learning to be a better teacher. This week we started our IA professional development. I am almost done putting together a website for our class this year(Should be up and running tomorrow). It will include projects, class materials list, resources, calendar, photos, a blog link and more.

I look forward to seeing you during our family orientations. My goal is to meet with you all on Saturday Aug 29 from 10:00-12:00. If that time does not work for you please contact me.


See you all soon!

Happy New Year!

I did not start this year with any New Year's resolutions, but I think I am going to start one now. My resolution is to do my best at blogging every week! I have no excuses!

Upcoming events:

• Report Cards will be available for pick up by parents/guardians the week of February 2nd in our main office (with Donna, the new Administrative Coordinator). Those reports not picked up by the end of the week will be mailed home.
• Wednesday January 28 is Ice Skating. Don't forget warm clothes and socks.
• IA Phone Home - On Sundays between 6:30 and 7pm, Innovations Academy will be sending phone messages with any important information for the week.
• Friday Next Year Committee - On Fridays from 11:30am - 12:30pm IA staff meet to talk about ideas and plans for next year. All parents are invited to attend and we'd love to have your support. Some items that we are discussing right now are scheduling, facilities, school calendar, and Friday Partnerships. If you can't attend these meetings but would like to give input, please email!
• We would like to put together an eighth grade graduation planning committee. Please let me know if you are interested in helping.

This month has been a busy one for SoEmo time. The honeymoon period of our new school is over and most students are settling into their routines. Some students are still testing the waters. In my opinion, having lived through three of my own childrens' middle school years, 6th through 8th grade is a tough time. We have been talking alot about freedom and choice and the effects they have on us. We were lucky enough to watch the presidential inauguration last Tuesday morning. What a historical event.

My language arts class is so fun! We started the week comparing two inaugural poems. Elizabeth Alexander read her inaugural poem, "Praise Song For the Day" right after the president's inaugural speech. We compared and contrasted her poem with Maya Angelou's 1993 inaugural poem, "On the Pulse of the Morning." We spent the rest of the week preparing for our 3rd reading reflections due Friday Jan 30. This time around, students will do oral presentations to reflect upon their reading.

Algebra is quite the challenge lately! We made it through absolute value and inequalities and are now learning about linear equations and the slope intercept form. The kids learned about coordinates and slope on a giant graph that we formed on the floor. Students were assigned coordinates and had to move around the graph to figure out the slope of a line.

Our Scientist Wax Museum was a smashing success! The kids did a great job sharing their knowledge and dressing up for the rest of the school. It was really fun. For the next three weeks, I will have all of the 6th and 7th graders for science and Bill will be taking all of the 8th graders for history. After that we will switch and I will have the eighth graders for science while he takes the others. I am teaching a unit that focuses on the interdependence of all living organisms. We set up mini fish tank ecosystems last Thursday and encountered some problems when some of the fish died (yikes). This week we will investigate the possible causes that led to their demise. Although it didn't go exactly as planned we will get to use scientific inquiry to learn what it takes for an ecosystem to exist and take a look at how fragile our earth can be.

Monday mini projects begin this week. For the next seven weeks students will be with me for "Beach Bums" or Bill for "Music History and Appreciation." All students were given a choice as to which class they wanted to go to. "Beach Bums" will focus on San Diego's shoreline. We will look at tourism, commerce, scientific exploration, military, energy and more as we explore all the different uses of our beaches. Our culminating project will be a beach clean-up with Jeremy's class.

Please remind students that all unfinished work in any subject must be given to me by Friday in order to give an accurate assessment on their Report Cards.
Have a great week!