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!
