This week in Humanities: April 30th - May 4th

     I am so proud of my students this week!  They've been working so hard on their Superheros Project as we have come to the final week of the project.  You can see the pride and ownership they have of their superhero's story and comic strips.  Their comic strips are due today.  Lisa and I decided instead of having the kids produce an entire comic book, they will produce 5 comic pages instead that represent parts of their short story.  The final pieces of the project are preparing for Exhibition, a student project reflection and partner evaluation.  


     We are all excited for you to visit the classroom and meet their superheroes!  A few of the superheroes you'll meet are:  EnerJoe, Matter Man, Static Man, and Mr. Chintastic!  School wide student led conferences are being held May 9th - May 11th.  We'll be holding our Superhero In The Making Exhibition on May 10th and May 11th.  This will be your opportunity to see the process of this project and learn about our students' superheroes.  We will send an email shortly with specific times of the Exhibition.


     In other news, Innovations Academy will be participating in the 13th Annual SRCA COMMUNITY FAIR and ARTS & CRAFTS FESTIVAL!  It will be held this Sunday, May 6, 2012, from 12:00-5:30p.m. at the Scripps Ranch Community Park on 11454 Blue Cypress Drive. We will have a booth set up where various activities will be available for friends and families to enjoy!  Our theme is RE-USEABLE ART:  making art out of PAPER you might normally throw away! 

This week in Humanities . . .

April 23 - April 27

Upcoming Dates:

Monday - 4th draft/Final Draft of Short Story due in class.

• Make all corrections teacher commented on.
• Proofread (spelling, grammar, punctuation, & capitalization)
• Include all Elements of Fiction (Expostion, Rising Conflict, Climax, Falling Conflict, Resolution, & Theme)
• Cover Page - title of story, authors, school name, teachers' names, and date
• Turn in copies of completed peer edits.

Tuesday - Star Test - Language Arts Part I

Wednesday - Continue working Superheroes Comicbook / Civl War & Reconstruction

Thursday - Star Test - Language Arts Part II / Civil War & Reconstruction

This week at a glance - We getting closer to the end of the Superhero Project. The final draft of their creation short story was due before lunch today. The checklist of what needs to be done before being complete is listed above. The creative and exciting part gets to come into full swing this week and students begin working on their actual comic book. We are using www.comiclife.com to create the book and are very excited to see the finish products.

The kids are also learning about the Civil War this week, which many are really interested in. The best part is that they'll get to watch a Civil War reenactment during their 8th grade trip in a few weeks.

They will also be doing two days of Star testing, so please make sure they get a good night's rest and arrive on time to school this week.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns.

Thanks,

Jennie

This Week in Humanities 3/26-3/30

Upcoming Events:

Monday, 3/26 - Superhero Short Story Draft 1 due by 9PM. emailed or shared to Jennie

Tuesday, 3/27 - Science Benchmark #3 due in class. emailed or shared to Lisa

Thursday, 3/29 - Superhero Short Story Draft 2 due by 9PM. emailed or shared to Jennie & Amendment Test Retake

4/2 - 4/6 - Spring Break

Amendments Test - Kids took their Amendments test 2 weeks ago. Anyone that earned below a 70% has to retake the test this Thursday and anyone who wants a better grade can retake it too.

We are continuing to work on the Superheroes Project. They started their 1st draft of the short story last week in class and it's due this evening. We'll be doing a peer critique and the draft and will then make some revisions to complete a second draft. It's really exciting to see how the kids are so into their superheroes and have a sense of ownership over their characters. As of now 3 benchmarks have been due in Humanities: the story pitches & superhero sketch, the character profile of the main superhero, and the short story outline. Please check in with your child to see if he/she is on track with the short story 1st draft due tonight.

On another note, a big thank you to those that attended the Family Night last week, their will be 1-2 more this semester. We'll also hold an Exhibition for our current project sometime in April.

Tuesday, February 28th

This Week:

The kids have started presenting their Amendments to the class the past two days. They had a choice of how they wanted to present their amendment to the class, some choose a comic strip, poster, skit or a slideshow. The presentations have been going well so far, they've led to some really great conversations that deal with controversial topics. One of the things I love about this class, is how comfortable they all feel to talk about difficult and challenging topics. I'll be uploading some video of the presentations this week and also display some of the bio poems that the kids have been working on the past few weeks.

We'll continue and finish the presentations on Thursday.

Upcoming dates:

3/5 Monday - Kids need to bring their independent reading book to class.

3/7 Wednesday - Launching The Superhero Project with Lisa and Jennie & Amendments Test

Important Reminder - Any work that isn't finished in class, must be done on the student's own time (after school, at home for homework, etc.) This was agreement that our kids made at the beginning of the school year and it seems like some may have forgotten about it :)

Feb. 6 - 10 This Week In Humanities . . .

Weekly Newsletter
Dear Families,
Our 8th graders have been kicking off their last semster of middle school amazingly!
The kids started getting some background knowledge on the US government and the 3 branches of power to prepare for their Amendments Project that is coming up. They all had a chance to come up with a bill that they'd like to see as a law in CA and will present their bill
to their fellow Congress members. Some of the bills include: free healthcare, banning cigarettes completely, and lowering the working age.
We also set some time aside Monday morning to read for 20 minutes. The kids have all chosen their own books to read for the next few Mondays. After reading, they complete a reading response in order to work on their writing skills and critical thinking. I included a list of the books our class is reading, so you're aware. There will be a final component once they've completed the book that I will share with you as the date gets closer. Also, 3 day students are expected to spend 20 minutes outside of class to read, complete the reading responses, and turn them in on Wednesday.

Karlee - Arabians & Other Horses
Nathan - Big Nate On a Roll
Duncan - First Things First
Breanna - Matilda
Anthony - Charlie Bone & The Castle of Mirrors
Madison - The Beasties
Isabel - Heart to Heart with Mallory
Micah - Coraline
Soatikee - Holes, Murder and Other Acts of Literature
Chase - Treasure Island
Elisa - The Tale of Despereaux
Enoch - The People of Sparks
Alec - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime
Erik - Greetings From Afghanistan Send More Ammo

Finally, the students have started writing a bio poem about themselves. We did a round of peer critique on their first drafts and so far their poems look great. It's wonderful to see what thoughtful, honest poets we have in class. They are so knowledgeable of what's happening in the world, have true fears of war and the environment, but find true happiness and love with their families and friends. I'll be displaying their final bio poems in class at the end of the month.

Upcoming Dates:
Wednesday - Continue Bill Presentations
Thursday - Test - 3 Branches of Government
Mondays - Bring book from home to read for the next few weeks.

Welcome!!!

Welcome to our Humanities Blog! My name is Jennie and I'm the new 8th grade Humanities Teacher here at Innovations. I've been working here for about a month getting to know our class and loving every minute with my dynamic class! I work a part time schedule, I'm here:
Mondays - 9:30 - 1:00
Wednesdays - 9:30 - 12:30
Thursdays - 9:30 -12:30
Feel free to email me with any questions @ jennie@innovationsacademy.org