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!

Class #28--6th Age Reading Class

Wednesday, December 15, 8:45 A.M. 6th Age Reading Class. Class #28 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. A group of 12 enthusiastic students bursts into Ms. Clark’s classroom on this chilly December morning. Ms. Clark knows this age group well and has activities planned that take advantage of the students’ natural energy and curiosity. For the next 45 minutes, her classroom will brim with vowel sounds, laughter, and learning! Ms. Clark takes her yardstick and points to specific letters on a large alphabet strip above the chalkboard. The students say the letters aloud, and then in the next round, say the sounds made by the letter. The class plays a game called “At the Table” to review vowel sounds. Ms. Clark says a sound, and the students have to act out the sound—after a “u” sound, the boys and girls sit under the table, while after a “o” sound, they (politely!) sit on the table. What fun! The students cut out consonant letters and then see how many “op” words they can make. The students choose letters to make different words, such as “chop,” “hop,” “cop,” “shop,” “stop,” and “flop.” While they are cutting, Ms. Clark reads “funny” sentences, and the class answers “yes” or “no” in unison. She asks, “Do your eyes chew? Can you save money? Does a tiger have stripes? Can a window stretch? Is a ribbon thirsty?” The students take a few minutes to read silently a small booklet called Mop. Ms. Clark reads it aloud, and then the class reads it aloud together in a choral fashion, followed by partner reading. Ms. Clark circulates to each pair of students to see if anyone needs assistance. She sits right on the floor with the children, and there is clearly a strong student-teacher rapport. The class ends with each pupil giving Ms. Clark a firm handshake (with good eye contact, of course!) and providing her an example of a “short o” word, such as “fox,” “mop,” “octopus,” “got”, “lop,” and “pop.” Again, the fundamentals were on full display today, in a very age-appropriate, interactive manner. Congratulations to Ms. Clark and her students for a great class!

An Amazing Decoration

I was walking down the hall today in the Lower School when I saw an amazing decoration hanging from the ceiling of Mrs. Delorbe's room. Mrs. Delorbe made two of these "snowflakes" herself. How did she do it? Please enjoy the picture below!

Class #27--8th Age Math Class

Wednesday, December 8, 12:50 P.M. 8th Age Math Class. Class #27 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” voyage. Fresh off reading 9th Age folders and a delicious lunch in our Lower School cafeteria of chicken pot pie and squash, I am in Mrs. Spadone’s math class. (Did you know Mrs. Spadone graduated from Calvert, in the Class of 1977?) Her eager pupils immediately begin exploring the number line and place value with a “count on” technique. They are mastering the “ones” and “tens” place and what happens to numbers when they are combined. For example, when 3 is added to 28, does the tens place change, the ones place change, or do both change? In this case, both places change and the sum is 31. Mrs. Spadone passes out a bowl of place value blocks to each student. The students place “tens” blocks and “ones” blocks onto a chart after listening to instructions, i.e. when Mrs. Spadone says that a great student received 26 stickers, the boys and girls place two tens rods and six ones blocks onto the correct sections of the paper. Next, Mrs. Spadone unrolls a large “10 x 10” hundreds chart with the numbers 1-100 each occupying an individual block. It serves as a very useful tool in seeing how numbers relate to each other. For example, the chart helps students literally see why and how 55 + 20 = 75. The students, in pairs, then play a game using a smaller, individual version of the hundreds chart. The boys and girls roll dice, and then move a small disk from number to number in accordance with the total shown on the pair of dice. Who will be the first to reach 99? It is interesting to see how some students move (or “count”) one block at a time while others understand how to advance ten spaces, for example, in one fell swoop. The students finish the period by working on a few workbook pages to reinforce the concepts covered in class. At Calvert, we pride ourselves on teaching the fundamentals of education, and today’s lesson was a clear example of the emphasis on two of the key building blocks of mathematics: place value and addition.

Class #26--5th Grade Science Class

Wednesday, December 8, 12:15 P.M. 5th Grade Science Class. Class #26 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” expedition. Room 217 in the Middle School is a whir of activity as the students come in from lunch recess and settle down in science class. Mrs. Merwin, who serves the Middle School so well as both counselor and science teacher, begins class by reminding the class what is needed for their preparation for exams, including the exam review sheet, past tests, and lesson summary sheets. The students work quietly for a few minutes labeling the parts of a cell. Can you name a few? For those rusty science students of yesteryear (myself included), I share the following: cytoplasm, chloroplast, mitochondria, and cell membrane, to name a few. Next, through a story about Dr. Martire’s broken laptop, the students review the scientific method, which incorporates the following steps: Problem, Observation, Hypothesis, Experiment, Conclusion, which creates the acronym POHEC. For the next activity, students are given slips of paper with characteristics or descriptors written on them, such as “harsh environments,” “amoeba,” and “found in pond water.” The young scientists then get out of their seats to put their slips under the correct “Kingdom” posted on the walls, e.g. Bacteria, Archaea, Protist, Virus, and Animal. For the final few minutes of class, Mrs. Merwin and her students review plant parts, types, and functions. I am very impressed with how much material has been covered in this one class. Mrs. Merwin knew just how fast to proceed, and the students eagerly and effectively responded to the design of the lesson. I am confident the students will do well on their upcoming science exam!

Class #25--8th Grade Science Class

Monday, December 6, 10:00 A.M., 8th Grade Science Class. Class #25 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. I have reached the halfway point of my 50 observations! It is really good to be back at Calvert and back in a classroom. Over the past week, my travels have taken me to New York City, San Diego, and San Francisco for a combination of Calvert alumni events and the National Association of Independent School (NAIS) People of Color Conference, at which I presented my dissertation findings. Although the trip was extremely worthwhile and productive, I am pleased to be back on campus. As today’s physical science class begins, Mr. Parker collects the lab assignments that are due and moves right into a discussion of mixtures and compounds. (Rust is literally falling out of my brain as the discussion revs up). Mr. Parker employs a “Brain Pop” video and quiz (which the class takes together orally) as an instructional aide. The biggest difference, the class discovers, is as follows: a mixture is created through a physical change, while a compound is created through a chemical change. Among many facts and nuances, the students learn how to discern between a heterogeneous mixture (cereal and milk, for example) and a homogeneous mixtures (salt water) and how to separate a mixture, including distillation and centrifuge. Mr. Parker’s visual aids are very helpful. After the Brain Pop quiz, Mr. Parker projects some fill-in-the blank slides on the screen, and the class works collaboratively to determine the correct answers and then uses the answers as the basis for their class notes. In small groups, the students work on a word scrabble handout in the final few minutes of class. Honestly, I learned a great deal in science class today, and I am confident the students did as well!