Class #35--10th Age Spanish

Monday, January 31, 2011, 1:45 P.M. 10th Age Spanish Class. Class #35 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” trek. Senora Duncan wastes no time in getting the girls started this afternoon. After exchanging greetings with Sra. Duncan, the girls review their homework with their table mates. Sra. quickly transitions into a flash card activity; she shows the class a card with a picture (restaurant, road, theater, hospital, etc.) on it, and then the class says the word in Spanish. Sra. Duncan ensures that the girls use the correct gender and pronunciation when identifying the word. The girls take turns reading “sentences” on the board that have been created from putting several flashcards together, e.g. picture of a boy…directional arrow…park becomes, “El va al parque.” After the first round, Sra. adds time of day (morning, afternoon, etc.) and calendar cards to increase the difficulty of the sentences. As quickly as class starts, it ends, with Sra. calling the students to line up by their birth month. I am impressed with the students’ knowledge, and their enthusiasm is infectious!

Class #34--8th Grade History

Monday, January 31, 2011, 10:00 A.M. 8th Grade History Class. Class #34 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. I have been looking forward to this class all weekend, as I knew that Mr. Shawen would begin the period with a discussion of the unfolding civil unrest in Egypt. In fact, that is just what happens, and I am learning a great deal as I type this blog post. The class discusses alliances, geography, peace treaties, and the intricacies and “stickiness” of the US position, i.e. how we are trying to balancing democracy and stability in the Middle East. Mr. Shawen expertly guides the students through the complexities of the issues; he is in his thirtieth year teaching at Calvert and is the only faculty member to have won both of our teaching honors: the Apgar Award and the Deborah Dorsey Albert Award. At approximately 10:15, the class transitions to a discussion of pre-World War I Europe. The students compare and contrast the political map of 1914 to the map of today. Mr. Shawen walks the class through the Franco-Russian alliance and the resulting German Schlieffen Plan, which aimed to conquer France in six weeks so that Germany could turn its full attention to Russia. The students also discuss warfare tactics and how guns evolved over the course of several wars over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The conversation is fast-paced and stimulating. I wish I could continue attending in subsequent days!

Middle School Fine Arts Night

On Thursday, January 20, we held our inaugural Middle School Fine Arts Night, under the direction of art teacher extraordinaire Larisa Kamp. It was a huge success! An enthusiastic audience of students, family members, friends, and faculty was treated to folktale readings, five songs from the 7th grade band, three scenes from the 7th grade play Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Cry Wolf, and a scene from the 5th grade play The Oddity. Enjoy some pictures below!

Class #33--10th Age Math

Monday, January 24, 2011, 11:35 A.M. 10th Age Math Class. Class #33 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” expedition. On a frigid day, I am here in a nice toasty Lower School classroom with Mrs. Holt, our Lower School math specialist, and her thirteen eager 10th Age students. After quick homework check, Mrs. Holt announces that it is time for a new activity. Mrs. Holt wants her students to think about math all the time, including when they are getting out supplies. “If your birthday is a prime number, come get a marker and a whiteboard,” she announces, followed by, “If your birthday is a composite number small than 20, come get your supplies,” and so on. The topic of the day is “Russian Peasant Multiplication.” Mrs. Holt shows a video which explains the method: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrUCL7tGKaI

Essentially, one factor is doubled while the other is doubled, “even” rows are crossed out, and then you are left with a “friendlier” addition problem. It is a very interesting method, indeed! The students use remaining class time in pairs to experiment with different combinations and to figure out why this method works mathematically. The students are simultaneously working on their computation while stretching their critical thinking skills! In the final two minutes of class, Mrs. Holt calls up groups of three students for a challenge question. She flips a card, which has a number of dots on it, and then she asks a question to each group of three. The student who first answers correctly wins the round. The questions are challenging--square this number and subtract 5, what is second multiple of this number, square this number and add 9, find two-thirds of this number and multiply by 11—and the students are fast! I am impressed by their speed AND accuracy.

Class #32--8th Grade English

Wednesday, January 19, 10:00 A.M. 8th Grade English Class. Class #32 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. I have a real treat today. I have the opportunity to observe 8th grade students giving oral proposals about their prospective Castalia Projects. The Castalia Project is our 8th grade “capstone project,” which, as Ms. Summers describes, is designed to allow 8th graders to use skills developed over the course of Middle School to research a topic of their choice. The project includes a formal five to seven page research paper as well as a Creative Final Product (CFP) that uses the research a student has done to build a creative interpretation of his or her topic. These may include, but are not limited to: visual art of any medium, primary source interviews, documentaries, design relevant to subject at hand, model or other 3-dimensional representations, or other digital representations or interpretations of topic At the end of the year, students will present their projects before the Calvert community. Two students, a boy and a girl, whose projects show particular distinction, will be selected to present their projects at Graduation in June. As the students take turns presenting this morning, classmates ask clarifying questions, and Ms. Summers helps the students start to narrow their proposed topics. For example, one student wants to research piracy, but after a rich discussion, he realizes that “piracy” is too big a topic to cover in depth in five to seven pages. However, he will be able to write thoroughly about pirate tactics or Somali piracy within the parameters of the project. Over the course of just one period this morning, I hear proposals about BMX bike racing, the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, Cleopatra, the Academy Awards, yoga, history of the Boy Scouts, history of piracy, Alzheimer’s, the Sundance Film Festival, magazine publishing, and piracy. I cannot wait to see how the projects turn out!

Extras? No, Our Curriculum

In schools, one often hears of the "extracurriculars," which implies that certain activities, such as drama and athletics, are added on to the curriculum and take on less importance than other strands of the program. Some schools use the phrase "co-curricular" as a descriptor, which I have never quite understood. Athletics and the arts are key components of the Calvert experience, and thus I hesitate to call them anything but "our curriculum." This subject is on my mind because of the very impressive displays of ability and teamwork on the basketball court I witnessed over the last two days from our girls' and boys' teams AND the same very impressive displays of ability and teamwork I saw in the 7th grade play, Don't Count Your Chickens Until They Cry Wolf, last weekend. The play was so funny that I literally cried with laughter! The facial expressions and animation of the actors was just priceless. I strongly encourage my readers to come see a winter athletic contest, our first-ever Middle School Fine Arts Night on January 20, and/or the 5th grade play on the evening of January 24. If you attend, remember that you are seeing "our curriculum," not "extras"!

Class #31--8th Grade Latin

Thursday, January 6, 1:00 P.M. 8th Grade Latin Class. Class #31 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” marathon. Dr. Pietropaoli, or “Dr. P” for short, starts class by reminding students to bring their (fully charged) laptops to class next week, as they will be needed throughout the week in Latin. Dr. P., who studied Latin in Rome, quickly turns to the word of the day, “conspicuous,” which he discusses with the class. The students learn that “conspicuous” comes from the Latin root “conspicio,” which means “to catch sight of.” The saying of the week is “Potest ex casa magnus vir exire,” from Seneca, translated as, “A great man can come out of a little hut.” As the students open their laptops, Dr. P. projects a chart of adjectives onto the board. The class reviews how gender and number affect the spelling of the adjective in question. “The adjective always refers back to the noun, which is already set. You have to make your adjective agree with the noun.” he explains. Dr. P. explains the intricacies of declensions while calling on a wide variety of students for answers. Next, the students leave their seats and make their way to one of the three white boards in the classroom. They write one of their homework answers on the board, and then Dr. P. enthusiastically reviews the responses with the whole class. Words and phrases I have not heard since I took Latin in 8th grade are flying around the classroom, such as “nominative” and “accusative plural.” I am very impressed at how much the students know after just four months of Latin. My rust is falling off, and I am starting to remember old Latin rules, when the bell rings to end class!

Class #30--6th Age Math

Wednesday, January 5, 10:10 A.M. 6th Age Math Class. Class #30 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” project. With today’s class, I have achieved 60% of my 50 classes goal, with still half of the school year remaining. I am confident I will complete—and hopefully exceed—my goal. Eleven chipper boys and girls sit down around two tables and eagerly look to Mrs. DeLorbe as class begins. A worksheet is projected onto the board, and the students have the same worksheet in front of them. The students are reinforcing subtraction skills by “crossing off” teapots and by learning how to move along a number line. Mrs. DeLorbe explains, “Put your pencil on the 6 teapot and then hop back 3 spaces and that is your answer. 6 minus 3 equals 3.” Students try some problems on their own and then come to the board to write and share their answers. Student helpers erase the board and collect the papers, and then the class moves on to the next activity—learning about the numbers 9 and 10. Through mathematical software that has been projected onto the board, the students count a variety of objects (that are in groups of 9 and 10), such as basketballs and birds sitting along a telephone wire. Mrs. DeLorbe reinforces the importance of counting in order, rather than jumping around. One of the directions in the lesson is to “circle” a group of 9 basketballs in a line, but a very perceptive student comments that it is not actually a circle she is supposed to draw but an oval! The students work individually in their workbooks as the period comes to a close, with Mrs. DeLorbe attentively works with anyone who needs assistance. The class earned a marble from Mrs. DeLorbe for their good behavior today!

Class #29--Pilot Class Reading

Tuesday, January 4, 8:45 A.M. Pilot Reading Class. Class #29 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” expedition. Happy New Year to my readers! I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season. We started up again here at Calvert on Monday, and we have an incredibly busy stretch coming up, including admissions events, dramatic productions, interscholastic games, and re-enrollment for the 2011-12 school year. I kicked off my 2011 class visits by spending a delightful 40 minutes in Pilot Class with Ms. Reinhardt’s enthusiastic reading class, comprised of six students. Ms. Reinhardt’s lesson was thoughtful and effective, as she incorporated listening, speaking, reading, coloring, and moving within the classroom. Class began with students sitting on individual squares on the rug. The students played a letter recognition game. Ms. Reinhardt showed a card with letter on it to two students, and then they competed to see who could say the letter correctly first. The students then learned about the letter of the week—U—including what it sounds like, how to write a lower case and upper case U, and short U vs. long U sounds. Ms. Reinhardt then led the class through a "U bucket" exercise: students listened to clues, found correct objects on a nearby table, determined whether it was short or long U word, and then placed the object (unicycle, umbrella, bug, duck, etc.) in the U bucket. After a read-aloud of a book about Umbrella Bird, the boys and girls moved to the table and colored objects on a piece of paper after listening to clues, such as “I am thinking of something warm in the sky.” The answer was sun, of course! In the final few minutes of class, the students picked out books, moved back to the rug, and read books individually. Congratulations to Mrs. Reinhardt and her class for getting so much done today!