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.
