Today we continued our project of "how the body breaks down". We are going to give a brief video blog of what we plan to accomplish with our project and why the topic is important to us. We are also considering community partners that we can contact to help with this project and continuing to find out if there is a real need in the community.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
When the Body Breaks Down
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
The teachers are helping us by giving workshops. One of the science workshops was a lesson on digestion. We watched a video that gave us information that we needed to complete a study guide. Later, we took a short quiz in class after the teacher reviewed what we needed to know. Understanding the Digestive System is important, even for the students whose projects do not involve this system.
Another workshop that was held involved English. Mr. Weber talked with one group about how fictional stories can allow the reader to see life from different perspectives. He gave us a short story that talked about a small family that was tragically affected by a deadly sickness. The story had us see the perspective of the father. The father was told he would die shortly, and since the mother was already dead, the father was forced to find a new family for his daughter to be adopted into. It was very moving and well written.
History was incorporated into this unit as well. We were taught about pandemics, such as the Bubonic Plague, and their effect on society. For instance, when the Bubonic Plague occurred in Europe during the Medieval Ages, food became much more expensive due to the fact that many of the workers died.
Be sure to check out the Communities website as well as our Facebook Wall!
Today, in Communities, we are continuing our unit "When the Body Breaks Down." This unit has us learn about how the human body responds when it fails. For example, some of us are researching diseases, cancer, obesity, and even psychological issues.
The teachers are helping us by giving workshops. One of the science workshops was a lesson on digestion. We watched a video that gave us information that we needed to complete a study guide. Later, we took a short quiz in class after the teacher reviewed what we needed to know. Understanding the Digestive System is important, even for the students whose projects do not involve this system.
Another workshop that was held involved English. Mr. Weber talked with one group about how fictional stories can allow the reader to see life from different perspectives. He gave us a short story that talked about a small family that was tragically affected by a deadly sickness. The story had us see the perspective of the father. The father was told he would die shortly, and since the mother was already dead, the father was forced to find a new family for his daughter to be adopted into. It was very moving and well written.
History was incorporated into this unit as well. We were taught about pandemics, such as the Bubonic Plague, and their effect on society. For instance, when the Bubonic Plague occurred in Europe during the Medieval Ages, food became much more expensive due to the fact that many of the workers died.
Be sure to check out the Communities website as well as our Facebook Wall!
Bria Lattery (a Communities student)
Monday, November 26, 2012
The Start of a New Unit
Monday, November 26th 2012
School this week for students at Communities will be quite different compared to previous weeks. Instead of being free to research and investigate, with minimal guidance from teachers, students will see the more traditional learning approach. Benchmarks will be taught, instead of researched. Today students were introduced to a new schedule. This schedule is part of the investigation and plan/prepare stage of their new unit, which focuses on how the body breaks down. Compared to last unit, students have much more freedom when choosing their topic. However, this freedom will be much more structured, and it is this new schedule that will give the unit its structure. The new schedule breaks the three hours into two advisories and two blocks. During the blocks, students are grouped by their current science level. The different groups are put with individual teachers to learn in depth benchmarks, that will help guide them through their unit. The blocks are very similar to a the previous method of teaching benchmarks, however they are all within the investigation and plan/prepare stage of the unit in hopes that students will be able to connect this information to their project topic before any real action takes place. In other words, this is to make sure the students don't get to far into their projects, before making sure the projects are doable. This is one of the many ways communities is continually improving, helping communities students learn the same things as other students, just in a different way.
School this week for students at Communities will be quite different compared to previous weeks. Instead of being free to research and investigate, with minimal guidance from teachers, students will see the more traditional learning approach. Benchmarks will be taught, instead of researched. Today students were introduced to a new schedule. This schedule is part of the investigation and plan/prepare stage of their new unit, which focuses on how the body breaks down. Compared to last unit, students have much more freedom when choosing their topic. However, this freedom will be much more structured, and it is this new schedule that will give the unit its structure. The new schedule breaks the three hours into two advisories and two blocks. During the blocks, students are grouped by their current science level. The different groups are put with individual teachers to learn in depth benchmarks, that will help guide them through their unit. The blocks are very similar to a the previous method of teaching benchmarks, however they are all within the investigation and plan/prepare stage of the unit in hopes that students will be able to connect this information to their project topic before any real action takes place. In other words, this is to make sure the students don't get to far into their projects, before making sure the projects are doable. This is one of the many ways communities is continually improving, helping communities students learn the same things as other students, just in a different way.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Blog for November 19th
Monday 11/19
The , the students in Communities at oshkosh north are currently wrapping up their energy unit. Monday they had some time to put the finishing touches to their flipped classrooms. The flipped classrooms are presentations done at the end of a unit, that explain what they have learned. After a little time for some last minute finalizations, the students ate popcorn while watching each others presentations. The students also had the privilege of listening to guest speaker Ashley Shipman, from UW Madison. She works in admissions, and lead the students on to a informative talk, that just included many tips, and valuable information about getting into college. This was a very valuable presentation to the students. Many students, due to the presentation, now understand how important the work ethic and performance that occurs in the early years of high school are. It was a day mainly for listening and learning.
The , the students in Communities at oshkosh north are currently wrapping up their energy unit. Monday they had some time to put the finishing touches to their flipped classrooms. The flipped classrooms are presentations done at the end of a unit, that explain what they have learned. After a little time for some last minute finalizations, the students ate popcorn while watching each others presentations. The students also had the privilege of listening to guest speaker Ashley Shipman, from UW Madison. She works in admissions, and lead the students on to a informative talk, that just included many tips, and valuable information about getting into college. This was a very valuable presentation to the students. Many students, due to the presentation, now understand how important the work ethic and performance that occurs in the early years of high school are. It was a day mainly for listening and learning.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Wrapping up the Election Unit
Hello Everyone! The communities new website participationnation.info now has the communities students summaries added. Their summaries will give everyone a non partisan view about some of the conflicts in the up coming election. On Monday and Tuesday of next week some of the communities students will be holding signs at street corners encouraging people to vote in the up coming election. Also the communities students have been on various radio stations and even on television telling the world what communities is about. You can go to participationnation.info to hear the communities students radio broadcasts. Check it out!
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