…with our new Mini-Brain, Anika!
With the end of Jayee and Yoshin’s term as Co-Brains, the floor was again opened to nominations, with students standing to give examples of their nominee’s leadership qualities.
And again, all nominees received a fair share of the votes, but having placed a heart-wrenching second place in the last two election cycles, Anika was rewarded for her persistent and inclusive attitude (and well-worded catchphrase) with a win!
See you in the future, MACC-sters! Meow!
… means that this won’t last long, but the NPR website tonight is striking in its inclusion of many articles about things we are exploring in class. Check it out: npr.org
MACC-sters, I write this as much to myself as to you, but I think the topic of sleep, and how it relates to our class, is worth discussing. You may have noticed a trend in our morning check-ins: I don’t think we need empirical data from a statistician to tell us that the dot plot around the word “tired” would be pretty crowded…
We only have just over four months left with each other, and in the name of having the best, most fun, most supportive, most focused, most learn-y four months possible, I want to set a challenge: how many days of each week can you arrive ready to learn? By this I mean organized, focused, and ready to go by the time the second bell rings and our morning drawing exercises begin.
In aid of this, sleep will be our most powerful tool. Remember, at your age, you need between nine and twelve hours of sleep a day (at my age, you can get by with a few, slow blinks…). Not only does this help you process what you have learned and experienced during the day (think amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex), but it also balances your mood and makes you less likely to be thrown by difficult social interactions. It helps you be in control of you. It has also been proven that in order to enter a full and deep sleep, you need to have separated yourself from any screened device at least half an hour before you get into bed. Easier said than done…
For the scientifically minded, here are a few articles:
“Sleep ‘resets’ brain connections crucial for memory and learning, study reveals”
“Helping our school-aged children sleep better”
“Electronics in the bedroom: why it’s necessary to turn off before you tuck in”
For the most romantically minded, groove on this (and think about how breathing, enunciation, and articulation, like we practiced with our speeches, is at play here) :
Now stop reading this and get some sleep!
but also:
1. Social Studies: this is where your focus should be for the rest of the term. The graphic organizer we started this week (four words to describe your person, etc.) is due Tuesday. If you lost it or forgot to bring it home, a copy can be found here: graphic organizer. Use this document to help guide your thinking about the work below.
Review the project outline for the African-American History Altered Book project: SOCIALS African American History project. Please note the changes we discussed in class: the required elements are now Cover, Timeline, Story, Poem, Bibliography; all other items are solely for extension.
Pay close attention to the final pages about Applied Design – this is where we are at now. In your comp books or in a stapled together prototype, draft out your altered book. Remember that each page of an altered book should be a finished piece of art. Think about words, objects, layering, balance, color, and mood. The juice is in the details. If you have neglected to research altered book techniques, hop to it!
Things to think carefully about and to do quick sketches of before your doing your drafts:
What form will your timeline take? Vertical on one page? Horizontal across a two-page spread? Spiral? Other? It’s your choice, just so long as you are meeting all of the criteria as described in the timeline section of the outline.
How will you tell your story? Essay? Storybook? Pop-up? Abstract collage? Other? Will you tell the whole story of your person’s life or go into depth about a particularly important moment? How can you capture the essence of your person and share the big ideas, important details, ethical issues, and how they broke the established rules governing society and/or their field of work?
Poem – will you do a blackout poem or cut and paste?
If you do not yet have a book to alter, I strongly suggest going to a used book store or checking out the sale shelves at your local library. Remember: hard cover, stitched binding, visible signatures, not too thin or small. I only have about a dozen books to give away; it is much better to have a book that you have personally chosen than to have to work with a book you that has been forced upon you by the Random Deck of Terror.
If you have a book, begin to look for the pages that you will use for your platforms. Look for interesting words or images that can help support your theme. Put a sticky note on the pages you think you’d like to use.
Remember: you have a responsibility to the person whom you have invested so much time in getting to know to tell their story with respect, care, thoughtfulness, and attention to detail.
2. Goals: you should have created a key/legend for the two tasks you are going to do daily and the one task you will do weekly in order to work toward your social-emotional goal. The legend goes into the empty boxes in the bottom right of the February calendar. Your job this weekend is to enter your code/abbreviation into each day of the remaining dates in February (starting Tuesday, February 14) and all of March. This is due Tuesday.
3. Math. Grade 7s, your assessment on Circles, Triangles, Parallelograms, and Circle Graphs is on Tuesday. Grade 6s: those of you who were working on the lesson about perimeter, that work is due Tuesday, too.
4. Lit Circles. Remember what we learned this week about the value of coming to your meeting armed with thought-provoking ideas and deep thinking, based on textual evidence, and the importance of building off others’ ideas in order to create a rich, flowing discussion. Remember, too, the revised schedule due to the short week:
– Wednesday: One Crazy Summer and Chains
– Thursday: March and To Kill a Mockingbird
5. Tell each member of your family something you like about them.
6. Tell yourself something that you like about yourself.
And finally, because no one demanded it:
…and we have a new Mini-Brain. Or two.
On the final day of Shawn and Amy’s term as Mini- and Nano-Brain, we held our first election since the inaugural Mini-Brain vote in December. Students stood to nominate peers whom they felt had actively demonstrated positive leadership qualities over the past several weeks. This process produced a slate of nine candidates.
The electors agonized over their choices, some spending upwards of two minutes in the voting booth, weighing up their options while imagining the future under a new leader.
Although all candidates received multiple votes, the final tally resulted in a three-way tie between Anika, Jayee, and Yoshin, forcing us into a run-off vote.
The race continued to be close, with only one vote separating candidates – so close, in fact, that even the run-off resulted in a tie.
Shawn has promised a peaceful transference of power and will meet with the new Mini-Brains on Monday to discuss policy and procedure and to hand over the reins.
In the meanwhile, welcome your new co-Mini-Brains. At the risk of sounding greedy, why have one when you can have two?
…your homework sheet is posted below!
HOMEWORK
1. Speeches – we will begin presenting our speeches on Tuesday. The more you practice, the more confident, relaxed, and successful you will be.
Remember the techniques we have explored in class; try at least three of them this weekend:
Underline words that help impart clarity.
Your aim is to be the best version of yourself when you deliver your speech. You should be relaxed, friendly, open, and vulnerable, not a robot or a speech-reader.
Use the writing checklist to do your final proofing of your text. You will handing in your final draft after you deliver your speech.
2. Socials. Ask yourself: do I have a deep and rich understanding of my research topic? If the answer is “no” or “not quite,” get back to work! Remember, you should also be researching altered book techniques.
If you have not yet been to a used book store, please try to do that this weekend. A personally chosen book is much better than one you are given from a random pile. Look for interesting images or words or themes that might match or compliment your research topic.
Your book needs to have a stitched binding with clearly visible signatures (groups of pages). It also needs to have a hard cover. Don’t go too small, unless you like to work in miniature.
3. Lit Circles: meetings begin next week. Use the project outline to make sure you are fulfilling your responsibilities. Use your sticky notes to help complete your web. You will hand in your web immediately after your meeting.