A Great Music Class

The boys were working on a difficult selection of notes, and their hard work paid off. Mrs. Elliott was very proud of their efforts as you will see at the end of the video.

Titanic Journals

In reading class, the boys and girls made an eight page journal from one sheet of paper. After making the journal they designed a title page and then dove into the writing. For this activity the students are pretending that they are passengers on the Titanic, and their journal will tell the tale of their fateful trip. The journals begin on April 9, 1912 which is the day before the Titanic left port. The journals will continue on to tell of the sinking, the lifeboats, and their thoughts as they look back on all that took place. This activity has started off very well and will be completed early next week. Some of the students in class wanted to know the steps to make a journal, so I shot a quick video that shows the steps. Here is a picture of the journals in progress followed by video

The Secret Life of Spiders

Each year I pick a topic of interest to me (and hopefully to the students) and engage in research that I share with the class. This inevitably leads to the class doing research to add to the discussion. I talk about it in the classroom in the odd spare minutes that happen. from time to time. This year, as the title of this post suggests, I will be looking at spiders. I chose this topic because I found myself photographing spiders and their webs lately, and a spider took up residence in a sheltered corner of the classroom (which a student discovered). I never know where the research and ensuing discussions will lead, but I am always fascinated by all that we learn along the way. It is also a great way to show the students that I am trying to be a life-long learner. Below is the picture of the spider from the classroom, along with a web from near Molly's Garden after some rain had passed through, and one from my backyard taken at in the early morning lit up by my headlights. (You can click on the pictures to make them larger)

History Test

The first history test has come and gone, and the boys did very well. I have given back the tests so you should be able to find them in their black folders. They were curious to see if you could get the extra credit question. The question is:

A man took an extremely old looking cave tool to an archeologist. It was made of stone and had strange figures carved on it. On the bottom it had a date of 5487 BC. How did the archeologist know if this was a priceless artifact or not?

A Titanic Website

In reading class we are concluding our study of the Titanic. There are some excellent websites out there that have lots of information. One of the best is Encyclopedia Titanica.

Billy's Family

One of the boys in 9-2 made a fantastic discovery this weekend....he found Billy's long-lost family!!!

Budding Musicians

I got the chance to make a video of the last few minutes of Mrs. Elliott's music class on Friday and the results are below. The quality is very good in spite of the fact that the boys are still learning the piece. Getting better in anything, whether it is writing, reading, math, or music takes hard work. I will make another video in a few weeks, so that you can see the progress that has been made. In the mean time....enjoy

Loving the Cloud

I do quite a bit with technology but am almost entirely self-taught (meaning I have not always had the best teacher). I am getting ready to attend a day-long PLP session tomorrow that will launch a year of growth and discovery in technology with some great co-workers and great teachers. I can't wait!!! Tomorrow's meeting requires a laptop, but when I fired mine up this morning it would not start. I got to the screen that says, "Please Wait" but then nothing more happened. It is twelve hours later, and I am still waiting. I have tried a few different things (reboot, take out the battery, start it in safe mode, throw it on the floor and stomp on it....just kidding) but it will not turn on. I immediately thought about tomorrow's conference and the impact it would have. I also thought about the other tasks that I had planned for today. I had not realized before today exactly how little I was dependent on having the computer I usually use. Fortunately we have multiple computers in my house, so for quite a bit of today and all of tomorrow I will be using my wife's laptop. I have been able to check my school email, retrieve pictures from my photo-sharing site, make a new video for the blog on Vimeo, post grades into my online gradebook for last week's spelling test and composition, access the history study guide to write the History test for Wednesday, and many other tasks. I never realized how many of my applications are web-based. When I started using computers, nearly every aspect of my experience was tied to my computer and the loss of it was devastating. Now I sit here happily typing away knowing that all of my most important data and functioning capabilities are stored happily in The Cloud. So what does any of this have to do with teaching and why would I want to put it on my class blog? The world is changing and we are changing with it. Are ours schools keeping pace with the change? Is Calvert? Am I? I think the PLP experience will have a lot to say about all of this. I'll let you know when I find out. 

The Upcoming History Test

On Wednesday the boys will have their first history test. It will cover Chapters 1-3, and we will do most of the studying in class. It would be good if your son could look over the study sheet for fifteen minutes or so on Tuesday night. The test will be comprised of true/false, matching, and fill in the blank questions (with the answers located in a word bank that is on the test). This is a "practice test" meaning that the grade will not count for students who do not do well. We spent a considerable amount of time going over test-taking strategies, and I think that this test is as much about how to prepare for a test as it is about the material covered. If your son has lost his study guide you can download one from the blog post below this one which also deals with the history test. Note that the boys came up with some great questions a few of which will appear on the test. They will be asked to answer these in a sentence or two. The questions are:

1. Why is iron better than stone?
2. How do we think that copper was discovered?
3. What advantages did cave people have over animals?
4. Why would cave people have wanted to live in caves?

We have already gone over these questions and will do so again on Tuesday in class.

Getting Ready for the First History Test

Next Wednesday (note that this is a recent change and is incorrect in the video below which states that the test is on Thursday....a day that we are off of school...my thanks go to Taylor for kindly pointing this out to me) the boys will have their first history test which will cover Chapters 1-3. All of the questions on the test will come from the study guide which we filled out in class today. The boys worked together to answer the questions with their history books in hand. I was very excited to see spirited conversations about the answers to some questions all done in a very respectful way. This is more of a practice test since it does not count toward the history grade unless the student does well.

Wisdom From Mary Poppins

In composition class, one of the most important skills I teach the boys is proofreading. I have a number of techniques that I use, but the most popular one is "The First Mistake Challenge." In this game a student brings me his composition that is fully written, proofread, and ready to be turned in. I start at the beginning and read it until I encounter the first error. I show the error to the student and allow him to fix it, but the game for him is over until the next composition. The goal of the game is to see how many lines of the composition it takes for me to find the first error. The ultimate goal for the boys is to see if they can have me read the whole composition and not find a single mistake. This has happened in the past few years when I have done this activity about a half dozen times, and when it does it is a cause for great celebration by the student (and the teacher as well). This game motivates the students far more effectively than I could by merely telling them to check over their work. When I suggest the game to a student who is about to turn in a composition, he will often take it back to his desk to check it over even more carefully. Today I was able to play the game with four or five students as they turned their work in. Some didn't make it to the second line while the farthest I got was to line ten. The students now have the challenge to beat their own best score. In the past I have seen consistent improvement in proofreading as the year goes on, and I am confident that the same will hold true this year. So, where does Mary Poppins fit into all of this....it comes from the beginning of the song, "A Spoonful of Sugar," which says


In ev'ry job that must be done,
There is an element of fun
You find the fun and snap!
The job's a game.

My Best Sentence

Today in composition class I had four boys come up and read what they had written so far in his new Cave Boy compo. I was so impressed with their efforts (which I unfortunately did not videotape) that I had each boy in class read the best sentence of his composition. 

Educational Math Websites

In math class we looked at three great websites. The first one deals with rounding. The second one was a number line so that visual learners can see how rounding works, and the third one (scroll down on the site to see the activity) was a game where I challenged the students to see how many they could get correct in one minute.

Cave Tools!!!

The boys had a great time making cave tools. I was very impressed with what a great job they did working together.

Four Kinds of Sentences

In grammar class, the boys learned about the four kinds of sentences: telling, command, questions, and exclamations. Then we did an activity in which each student wrote a sentence on a piece of paper and threw it into the middle of the room. Then the students then found any paper, opened it up, read it, walked to the appropriately marked corner, and read the sentence out loud. After reading their sentence the students threw it back into the center and started over.

Two Fun Math Websites

In math class we dealt with money today, and I found a great site that is very similar to the homework called Counting Money and another one called Piggy Bank that has a Tetris-like feel to it.

Billy's Latest Expedition

Titanic Videos From Reading Class

In reading class last week we made a KWL chart about the Titanic which can be seen here. Today we watched about twenty minutes of the first video below. There is a second video that is about twenty minutes long that completes the entire fifty minute movie which is posted below the first video. Tomorrow we will start our reading selection, and when it is finished we will look at some other enrichment materials. As a concluding activity we will finish our KWL chart and do a writing activity.

Untitled from billy williams on Vimeo.

Picture Day!!

 Below are some pictures I took of the boys at Picture Day. This is a great group of boys!!

Our First Full Composition

Yesterday the boys filled out their planners, and today they started writing their first "real" compositions of the year. Below you can see the boys hard at work, and also what the whiteboard looks like during the writing phase. There are lots of words the boys asked me how to spell, and since it is September I put a template of what their composition should look like on the board as well. After about ten minutes of work I had every boy who wanted to volunteer (which was about ten), come to the front and read what they had written so far. This serves as instant feedback for the ones who volunteer and also helps students who are not sure if they are on the right track. Having the boys come up also was a great way to show them that this year their compositions will have a lot of variety.

Billy's Latest Adventures

The song in the video, which was chosen by Billy's newest friend, is called "The Traveling Song," and it comes from the movie Madagascar 2.

A Fantastic Art History Class

The boys enjoyed their first art history class with Mrs. Mollett as they acted out some famous paintings. Sadly I was called away during the class, so I did not get to see (or photograph) all of the boys, but I did see these two groups acting out some famous paintings. The paintings they were portraying are below their poses. (The boys with their hands raised in the second student photo are volunteering to guess the painting. They are not part of the group acting out the scene.)

Math and Reading Groups!!!

We started our math and reading groups today to the delight of the students and teachers alike. A few pictures of my groups are below. I will be using this blog for my homeroom as well as for math and reading when I have things to post. I tried to have separate blogs for each last year, but it proved a bit cumbersome and difficult to do all three well. Here are two pictures of each group (math first followed by reading) in some serious and not-so serious poses....

Optional Math Puzzles

The boys have asked me to post a number of math puzzles like the ones we have done in class. There is also a great website that has a similar activity. The first three problems below are straight forward (but the latter two are challenging), but the next three require thinking outside of the box (the students will not know #5...only parents will have a chance) There will be hints for the last three in the comment section so only look there after you need a hint. The last one contains all of the elements in the set. Your job is to figure out why they are in this order and where the number "8" would go if it were added.

1.        2, 12, ____, 32
2.        7, 14, ____, 34, 47, 62.
3.        2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 14, 22, ____, ____.

***4.***        2, 4, 3, 6, 0, ____, 4
***5.***         4, 8, 15, 16, ____, ____
***6.***         5, 4, 1, 7, 6, 3, 2

An Extremely Old Plant

The plant in the video below has been around in various forms for more than 290 million years and goes by a number of names including the dinosaur plant. It can be found today in New Mexico and Texas rolling around the prairie looking for water. When it finds a puddle it opens it leaves and drinks some in. It can survive for fifty years without water but it prefers to have it a few times a year. I added some water at 8:00 this morning and set up a camera to record the changes that took place in the first two hours. I then sped the movie up 256 times, and the results are below.

The Dinosaur Plant from Skip Howe on Vimeo.

Flubber

One of the boys brought in some Flubber that he made over the weekend. The recipe for Flubber is not too complex, but there may be an item or two not already in your cupboard.

Our First Guest Blogger

Each week one of the boys has the job of writing a post for the blog on something of interest to him or something going on at school. This week's blogger can be seen in the picture below the Ravens photo holding two meteorites. He wanted to write about Ravens Day and the meteorites we have been studying in class. He writes:

Today everyone is wearing Ravens clothes.

 

 Today we wrote about meteorites and we got the meteorite that we wrote about.  The meteorite is called NWA 869.

A Speedy Recess

Today we had another rainy day recess. Since I figured there would be some building going on, I set up my Flip video recorder without the boys knowing about it and started recording. Recess went for a few extra minutes since the boys were doing such a good job of sharing and working together. At the end I had a 26 minute video that I sped up to sixteen times its normal speed using Windows Movie Maker and then added some fun music. The tall tower can be seen being constructed in the background if you look closely. Enjoy!!

25 minutes of Recess in 100 Seconds!! from Skip Howe on Vimeo.

Hello Mr. Porter

Mr. Porter joined the Calvert faculty this year as the new Lower School boys' PE teacher. I have been very impressed with his interactions with the students, and I am so happy he is at Calvert. He just launched a new PE blog that can be seen here. (For future reference it is also on the faculty blog list)

Compassion!!!

What do you think of when you hear the word "compassion?" Compassion is one our four main tenets of the year, and we will be talking about it quite a lot (along with Calvert's other themes which are respect, honor, and responsibility) To kick off our discussion in class tomorrow, we are going to watch the video below which shows an amazing act of compassion.

True Compassion from Skip Howe on Vimeo.

Art History Class

I got the rare chance to teach art history class today. It is usually taught by Mrs. Mollett, and she does a wonderful job, but she was unable to be there today. In class we looked at a website that has an in-depth presentation about cave art in the Caves of Lascaux in France. We also looked at a webpage that has a really interesting depiction of cave drawings, the meaning of which are unknown. Yesterday we read the first chapter in the history book that talks about cave people so this lesson was the perfect follow up. Next week we will be writing about the life of a cave boy which is always a popular composition. In geography we will look at areas where cave people left traces of their lives. We also have a fun project coming up, but that is top secret for a day or two longer.

Rainy Day Recess

Rainy day recesses can be the most amazing part of the day, and that was exactly the case today. The boys were set loose with creative options including building towers, playing games like chess, Spot It, Gobble It, Set, or Brain Warp and the positive interaction and enjoyment was amazing. Here are two videos taken from our morning recess today which give a glimpse of the activities. It looks like more rain tomorrow. I wonder what tomorrow's recess will bring?

Rainy Day Recess in Progress from Skip Howe on Vimeo.

Rainy Day Recess from Skip Howe on Vimeo.

Billy Makes a Friend

Billy Makes a Friend from Skip Howe on Vimeo.

Our First History Lesson

The boys are in Spanish class as I type this, having just completed our first history class. During the class period  we spent the first part looking at a "staircase of time" at the beginning of our text that encapsulates the last 8,000 years and the various "ages" that we have passed through. The ages listed are the Stone Age followed by the Bronze Age which was followed by the Iron Age which began close to 1000 BC. There are no other ages listed, so we discussed if we were still in the Iron Age or if a new age had started yet. After pointing out that the Stone Age did not end because they ran out of stones, the boys realized that the Iron Age might not be the best descriptor of our current times. I asked the boys to answer the question, "What age are we in now?" I received the following responses...Electric, Wooden, All, Smart, Wool, Golden, Steel, Diamond, and my personal favorite....Ninth. This is why I love teaching. I could have listed a hundred answers and never seen the one right under my nose.

A Great Place to Teach

Teachers spend a large amount of time getting ready for the school year. Late August and early September tend to be the focal point when summer ruminations crystallize, and thoughts turn into actions. The world is changing at an increasingly fast pace and the world of education is changing with it. As we put our plans into action should we change with the times or stay the same? I feel very fortunate to be at Calvert, a school whose administration and faculty understand that change is taking place and are working to embrace it and make the most of it while at the end of the day ensuring strong academic fundamentals. Throughout its history, Calvert has commonly been referred to as a "traditional" school that maintained a time-tested approach to education and teaching. Looking back to my time as a a student and talking with other alumni who currently teach at Calvert, I am struck by how much evolution of thought Calvert has undergone, not just in the past few years, but from the time when my mother went to Calvert in the 1950's. Calvert has been a dynamic institution that has maintained its greatness not by bottling a perfect vintage of education and pouring out the same libation each September to a new crop of students, but by looking afresh at the education world and moving thoughtfully on the path that seemed most wise. Calvert has kept the best practices that were in place when I was a student but has adopted fantastic new ideas that bolster the goals that we have set out to achieve. As the world continues to evolve at break-neck speed I am confident that the administration and faculty at Calvert will continue to make wise decisions on how to proceed. This year, one of those decisions is to allow some teachers to engage in a wonderful learning opportunity facilitated by the PLP Network. I was looking over the blog run by one of the founders of the PLP Network and was struck by this post. It lines up very well on many points with what I am trying to do in my classroom.

Some Fun for Your Long Weekend

In class today we took a break form our work for about ten minutes and tried to find ten things wrong with this sheet. The boys loved the activity, and I told them that when they went to P.E. I would try to think up a similar activity in our classroom. Instead of finding things that are wrong, the boys (along with any parents or siblings who would also like to try) have the challenge to see if they can find ten things that are different between the two pictures above. Minor differences at the edge of the picture caused by the fact that I did not use a tripod may not be counted as any of the things that are different. The changes are all identifiable additions and subtractions from one picture to the next. This activity is completely optional and is only intended to sharpen powers of observation in a fun way. Enjoy!!! Students may bring in a list of what they noticed if they would like, and we will go over all ten on Tuesday. (This activity may be easier by clicking on the images to enlarge them and then using two computers that are side by side, or loading both images on one computer and toggling between them. Printing them out is of course another option.)

Learning What it Means to be a Ninth Age Student

Today the boys learned a number of skills that will be used throughout the year. They learned where the name, date, and title go on a Calvert folder paper. They learned to skip a line between answers, and most importantly they began to learn how to borrow words from a question to answer in a complete sentence. This is a vitally important skill that will be used in nearly every subject this year. The questions (which let me know even more about the boys) can be seen here, and two of the papers turned in can be seen here and here. These papers are representative of the outstanding work turned in by all of the boys. The papers turned out so well that they will be our first folder papers of the year. (Please note that I have posted the papers in the form in which they were turned in, so there are a few small items that will be corrected next week.)

Celebrating Our Day of All Days

Today is the best day of the year because it is the day that was named in honor of the bright lads in 9-2. Just before the boys went of to their first science class of the year, we had chocolate covered donuts with sprinkles. The donuts were loved by one and all.

A Great Way to Start the Day

This class has some fantastic chess players and some champion word searchers. In the morning from 8:00 - 8:25 the boys have a number of options once they have gotten their desks straight, their pencils sharp, and are ready for the first class at 8:30. Here are a few pictures from a few minutes ago.

A Revealing Test

I told the boys that they would know they were in the right room today if the red fish I gave them moved when they put it in their hand. After watching them sit motionless for a few minutes on their desk as I handed them all out, there were shouts of glee when they instantly started moving when placed in their hands. I discussed in kid-friendly terms the explanation that can be seen here. The boys loved the experiment which they may have shown you earlier tonight. Many boys brought the fish home in their black folders.

Magic Fish from Skip Howe on Vimeo.

A Great First Day

We had a fantastic start to the school year!!! All 18 students were bright-eyed and eager to start Ninth Age. We went over a lot of procedures today, but had fun as well. The boys had their usual two recesses along with PE which we have four days a week to get out and run around. The boys had a great library class with our new (to the Lower School) librarian, Ms. Stone. In the afternoon, before Spanish class we got a chance to make some aliens to decorate our door. Our lonely alien has lots of company with more to come.

Billy!!!

The class has a pet that travels home on Thursday and back on Tuesday on a rotating basis. He took his first trip home with the boy pictured below. I hope Billy and his buddy have a great long weekend together. Check back for some pictures of Billy's activities next week after Tuesday.

A Great Opening Assembly!!

Today we had a wonderful opening assembly that the entire school attended. I believe this is the only time that the whole school gathers in one place. It was a beautiful day and a great way to start the year.