The Week in Review

Last week was another great week at the Red Lion Area Junior High School!  As always, I try to spend time visiting classrooms--here are some highlights of what I saw:

Math Classes-

Many students were practicing how to graph!  Students in Mr. Conover's math class were given a list of points that they had to place on a graph.

In order to help students learn where the different quadrants are on a graph, Ms. Lee's math class played a game by divided the classroom into four quadrants!  Students had the opportunity to go to any quadrant they wanted and then one student who kept his head down would call out a quadrant name--unfortunately, all students who were in that quadrant were out of the game.  The game continued until only 1 student was left.  Here is a video of part of the game...

Health Class

Students in Ms. Couch's health class saw first hand how communication can have a negative or positive impact on completing a task.  Ms. Couch selected a brave student who later found out that it was his job to instruct the rest of the class what they should draw.  The only problem was the volunteer was the only one who could actually see the drawing that the rest of the class had to duplicate and the volunteer could not repeat his directions!

Here is a copy of the picture the volunteer saw:

Here are some sample drawings based on the instructions of the volunteer:

Science Class

When I walked into Mr. Bellenbaum's class, I thought I walked onto the set of CSI.  The budding scientists in class were trying to determine if the size of the spatter of blood on paper would change depending on the height from which the blood was dripping.

Social Studies

I walked in to Ms. Heishman's class at the end of the period.  Students were finishing up filling out a 3-2-1 Exit Slip.

An "Exit Slip" is a great way for students to summarize their learning and for teachers to assess whether or not the students have learned the key points in the lesson.  Ms. Heishman had her students get into groups and share the "Question I still have" so other students had an opportunity to clarify what was taught in class.

Language Arts Class

How could you demonstrate to your teacher that you have a strong understanding of the parts of speech?  Students in Ms. Maxwell's class shared their knowledge by playing Madlibs at the end of class.

Academic Literacy

How would you feel if students were required to carry a school ID that had a built in tracking device so school officials would know where you were at all times during the school day?  Students in Ms. Mahan's Academic Literacy class read an article about a school district that used tracking devices in their student ID's.  After reading the article, Ms. Mahan's students had to circulate throughout the room and find out what their classmates thought of the article.

National Custodial Worker's Day

Wednesday was National Custodial Worker's Day! 

It is no easy task to keep a building with over 1000 people who walk in and out of the doors everyday clean, but our custodians do a great job!  They work tirelessly to provide our students, staff and visitors with a clean building both on the inside and the outside. 



Once again, we closed our week with "High Five Friday" and some music and even some dancing.  The second shift definitely had the most spirit and dancers--let's see what happens this Friday!