Drawing the Skeletal System

Over the last week or so, we have begun our unit on the human body. We have completed an overview of the organ systems in a human body, and are now going into more depth with each system. We began with the skeletal system and are about to move on to the muscular system. As a wrap up activity on the skeletal system, my students laid on a large piece of paper on the floor and traced their bodies. Then, they drew the major bones of our bodies and labeled the 21 that they will be tested on.

The students had a really good time with this assignment and many of them actually turned out really good. Here are just a few pictures from our exciting day!

Book Review #1 The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer

So, I realize that this is technically more than one book review, but I have recently finished the first 3 Twilight books and am currently reading Breaking Dawn. I have to admit that I was more than skeptical when I heard about these books. I had never heard of such an absurd idea for a story. A girl that is struggling between her love for a vampire and her love for her best friend, a werewolf. First off, I'm not too big on reading about love stories. Most are poorly written and come off as pathetic rather than romantic. All the angst and pining usually gives me heartburn. I must say that if these books were just a love story, I don't think that I could handle them. However, there is so much insight into human nature and so much other story line that it makes the (moderately excessive) ookey stuff bearable. I must also admit that these books have gotten better as they have gone along and that they are easily the most addictive and hardest to put down books that I have read since the Harry Potter series. I am glad that I took the time and went against my better judgement to read this "sappy love story."

Springdale Sonics!!!

This year I have been blessed to have the opportunity to coach a 7th grade basketball team from our school. This is not a "school team" and is not affiliated with the AAA, but it has been a great experience thus far. It is my desire to one day coach at the junior high and high school levels and this has given me some great experience to draw from.

Our team is part of the Springale Sonics program, which is designed both to provide a program for these students to be involved in and to give our middle school basketball players an opportunity to develop their skills in preparation for playing basketball in junior high.

My team is amazing! We are 0-2 so far, but we are constantly improving. More importantly, they are a group of guys that have a lot of fun playing basketball and really enjoy each other. I have 11 players on my team. This includes 8 Marshallese students, 1 Asian, 1 Hispanic, and 1 Caucasian. This has led to some minor communication issues at time, but has also been extremely educational and exciting for me. Here is a picture of our team from before our last game:
Here is a more accurate picture:

Who couldn't love these guys!!!

THANKSGIVING BREAK!!!!

So... I hate to be negative, because I love my job and would not trade my students for anything. But, I am soooo excited for the 5 straight days I am about to get with NO 7th grade interaction. Don't get me wrong, they are truly wonderful. But, they are also very draining. Every day, regardless of how I feel or what I am thinking about outside of school, I have 115 12-and-13-year-olds who are expecting me to be focused completely on them. It will be nice to simply have some time off!

Also, I wanted to make sure, in case anyone actually is reading my blog, that I take a moment to say "Thank You" for everything that I am thankful for. I am truly blessed. I have an impact on a large number of kids every single day and that is an amazing blessing. Even more wonderful is the impact that they have on me. I am thankful to God, through whom all of my blessings come. I am thankful to my family for helping me get to this point in my life. I am thankful for our country, for our schools, and for our future.

Having said all that, enjoy your holiday, be thankful for all that we are blessed with, and be sure to watch some football. Let's all go ingest some tryptophan!!!

Diversity!!

Diversity is something we pride ourselves in at J. O. Kelly Middle School. Here is a typical sampling of my students.

As you can see, we are a diverse group even to the outsider. Our school is approximately 60% minority students (which I guess makes them the majority) We have a very large number of Hispanic students, and we have a sizable number of students from the Marshall Islands. We also have a small number of African American and Asian students. Oh yeah... and we have quite a few Caucasian kids as well. I love the different racial and ethnic backgrounds because of how much experience we have to draw from in each and every class.

However, there is much more diversity in my classes than just skin color or family background. We have several students with IEP's, and we have several students who are in GT. We have several students who love soccer, others who prefer basketball or football or band. We have one child who is in a wheelchair due to a traumatic brain injury. In both of the groups below there is (intentionally) at least one student who seriously struggles in school, one who is a very strong leader, and at least one who is a strong student. Knowing the differences in my students has led to much more effective and productive group activities.

Each kid in my class is a completely unique individual. Trying to list all the ways in which they are diverse is like chasing after the wind. I have, however, found that they are all similar in some major ways. They all want to succeed. They all want you to love them (though not all of them want you to know they want that). They all can surprise you at any given moment with what they might say or do and they all change substantially from day to day!

Mixtures

On Friday, October 3rd, our class did some explorations in the lab regarding mixtures. We had been studying the differences between heterogeneous and homogeneous mixtures and the different techniques used to separate them!

We made some pretty neat mixtures, like salt water, Kool-aid, and oil and water. Then, we learned why you should not just randomly try to mix things together by mixing baking soda, vinegar, and food coloring!

After making some mixtures, we demonstrated some of the different ways in which mixtures can be separated. We used filter paper and evaporation, but the students' favorite was easily separation by magnetism! Everyone wanted to touch the iron that we extracted from some "crime scene dirt".

My classroom!

Here are some pics I finally got around to taking of my classroom. It is not as well equipped as I might have dreamed, but it has certainly come to feel like home over the last 2 months.

And here is my "famous" Words to Know board. My students write vocabulary words on it and we then write an easy-to-understand definition together. Then, they use a graphic organizer called a KIM sheet to assign meaning, a picture, and a sentence to the word.