Architecture Presentation

B Day students are doing a year-long unit where they will design a new school.  They have already figured out their mission statements, debated school uniforms, and set their daily schedules.  Now they are ready to design the blueprint of their school.  To help them, Michelle Chavey from Hollis and Miller Architects presented.  She discussed what it takes to be an architect and the process they use to design schools.   She ended her presentation with pictures of unique schools from around the world to get the students' creative juices flowing.   After her presentation, the students worked with their partners to record any ideas they had gained from the presentation.  Over the next few weeks, the students will design their school floor plans while keeping the mission of their school in mind.

Creative Problem Solving: Build the Tallest Tower

Working with partners, A Day students used their creative thinking skills (fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration) to build the tallest tower.  They used a lot of flexible thinking as most of their first attempts were not successful.  I was proud of how they problem-solved and did not give up easily! 

Conflict Resolution Tower

To start off our affective unit on resolving conflict, we built a tower in groups of 3-4 students.  Then we talked about any conflicts that arose and how we handled them.  Some of our discussion questions:  What is the difference between conflict and a disagreement?  Is conflict inevitable?  Are all conflicts negative?

FBI/Engineering Presentation (E Day)

E Day students had a special speaker visit last week.  He spoke about his background and education in engineering, and his work with the FBI.   It was an excellent glimpse into both careers.  He even let the students try on his FBI vest.

A student looking at one of the speaker's inventions from when he was an engineer.  It is used as a type of radiator on satellites in space. 

FBI/Engineering Brown Bag Lunch

B Day students had a special speaker visit last week.  He spoke about his background and education in engineering, and his work with the FBI.   It was an excellent glimpse into both careers.  He even let the students try on his FBI vest.

Sinking of the Sultana Brown Bag Lunch

C Day students had a special speaker named Alicia Scott visit last week.  She spoke about the sinking of a steamship named the Sultana after the Civil War.  Our eyes were opened to a frequently forgotten part of U.S. history.  Did you know that more people died when the Sultana sank, than when the Titanic sank?!  Mrs. Scott brought a unique perspective to the event as her great grandfather was a Sultana survivor.

Here is a link to more information about the steamboat Sultana: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/05/0501_river5.html

Germany Brown Bag Lunch

A Day students had a special speaker named Toby visit yesterday.  He spoke about his native country of Germany.  Students learned about the geography, history and language. Dankeschön, Toby!