Sunday, May 3, 2015

Semester 2 Week 14 update

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Homework Review – complete before semester 2 week 15 class
Algebra 2
Review. Lessons 112-115.
Latin
Review.
History/Music:
Essay
Review. Bring History Timeline and Notebooks with remaining essays.
Testimony - (Are fiction books a credible authority?) or WRITE your own Screwtape Letter.
Music Lecture
Bring your three music genre examples and your speech.
Music Lecture Presentation (a five minute talk with short sample music clips).
*Critically analyze 3 music styles in terms of their cultural context).
*How do the three styles add or subtract to culture?
*Should this music be passed on to friends, parents, pastors or grandchildren?
*How do the three styles stimulate the emotions or imagination?
*Define genres by instrumentation, composers, history and rhythm.
*Define the styles by their contribution to culture and their impact.
*Persuade others that music matters to God, culture and people.
British Lit.
WAS
Review. Screwtape Letters
Words Aptly Spoken pgs. 145-155 (Seth and David are picking week 14 questions)
Biology:
Review. Bring Lab Books

Bring Lab Books, final Notebooks/Timelines, Screwtape Essays, and Music Presentations. Your book bag should be pretty light this week.

We will do Music Lecture Presentations and Jeopardy quizzing in the morning. Any final Math, British Literature and Drama will be completed shortly after lunch. Feel free to bring snacks and a game to celebrate the year’s end. I’ll try to remember Ice Cream if the students want to bring toppings.

Instead of Blue Book Essays for finals this semester, we plan on holding a Challenge II Jeopardy for review. We had eight main subjects to learn and integrate this year (Algebra II, Latin II, Logic, History of Music and Art, Debate, Drama, British Literature, and Biology). If I had kept my wits about me, I’d have selected to let the each student compose a 40 question test to show me their idea of what would be important to remember (instead of just completing a general review of homework in preparation for Challenge II Jeopardy). As it is, my questions generally touch on each subject and frequently have 2-part answers (for example: I might present the fact that we studied multiple eras throughout the year and ask for the students to name two). A quick glance through textbooks for review might help, but the student’s own recall will likely benefit them fine.  As we mark through timelines and essays and quizzes this final week, I’ll re-scan the student assignment sheet and e-mail them to parents. After May 17th, I should be free to answer additional questions that come up about the school year assignments (for the next few days I’ll be busy proctoring Stanford Tests and helping complete a few preparations for a local Ballet Performance on May 16th).

Algebra II – It’s one thing to add numbers of items and still another to add values of items. Some items are really sets of amounts (like money – you can add the individual number of coins or value amounts). Solving for unknowns may require using substitution. We opened seminar by adding amounts and values. We closed by doing a few variety exercises that integrated logic, math and a few fictitious composers. This was problem solving at its best!

 

Latin II – Lesson 29 introduced the Vocative Case (involving direct address and interjections) and we finished the final translation section of Invasion of Britain (with John’s rendition of Interpretive Dance to aid comprehension).


 


 

 


 


History/Music – We took a look at Timelines and Notebooks and talked about the music lecture. Students can still bring in completed work this week if they did not have notebooks ready Week 14.

British Literature – Some students did not have the opportunity to complete reading Screwtape this week so we only covered book and device overviews. We also discussed the essay assignment about whether a fiction book can be a reliable authority. We talked about using discernment when books are written that teach a message or seem prophetic.

Biology – The final section of the final chapter – Mammals! We covered the reliable traits and their uses as well as group divisions under the mammal classification.

 


For our Biology viewing pleasure, John introduced us to a scientist reciting the longest English word (no, it’s not supercalifragilisticexpialidocious). It is a chemical name for the largest known protein, Titan. Since it takes over two hours to say the word, we opted to fast forward through 1 hour and 55 minutes of mumbling.
















Final Free Time with friends, games, sodas and shoe size wars:


 

 


 

We ended the day with a Challenge Challenge (Challenge 1 & 3 against Challenge 2 in Volleyball).

 

 

Have a good week.

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Semester 2 Week 13 update

May 1 & 2 Music Recognition quiz
Western Cultural History Timeline Notebook with Art/Music Folders, Biology Lab Journal
(Lab Journal can be brought week 14 or week 15 for review)

May 7 & 8 Music Lecture Presentations
Challenge II Jeopardy


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Homework Review – complete before semester 2 week 14 class
Algebra 2
Lessons 108-111. Bring one math question from your own math book to put on the board.
Latin
Ch. 29, Translate last section of Invasion of Britain
History/Music:
Class. Music
Essay
Timelines
We will continue to add composers to our Timeline.
CMD – Finish Book (Part V).
Show how both Composers (Debussy/Stravinsky) were revolutionary by their circumstances.
Bring assembled timelines and notebooks.
Music Lecture
Gather your three music genre examples and write your speech.
British Lit.
WAS
Essay
Screwtape Letters
Words Aptly Spoken pgs. 145-155 (Seth and David are picking week 14 questions)
Using “Hero” definition, examine characters from Hobbit and Out of the Silent Planet.
Biology:
Finish Chapter 16 (mammals)
Prep. Lab Books
Drama
Arsenic & Old Lace - Bring your book to class.

Algebra II – We revisited factoring and covered additional ways to factor when variables have coefficients (aside from completing the square and using quadratic equations). We also played a whiteboard version of Muggins/Knockout to reinforce quick math skills.


 

Latin II – Lesson 28 and the middle translation of Invasion of Britain.


















History/Music – Finished Debussy and Stravinsky review and read essays. We also practiced music recognition by evaluating every composer and piece presented this spring. 


 


 


Music Lecture Presentation (a five minute talk with short sample music clips).

*Critically analyze 3 music styles in terms of their cultural context).
*How do the three styles add or subtract to culture?
*Should this music be passed on to friends, parents, pastors or grandchildren?
*How do the three styles stimulate the emotions or imagination?
*Define genres by instrumentation, composers, history and rhythm.
*Define the styles by their contribution to culture and their impact.
*Persuade others that music matters to God, culture and people.

British Literature – Hobbit discussion questions. We discussed differences between the movie and the book. We identified hero features in Hobbit and Silent Planet.


 

Biology – Chapter 16 covers reptiles, birds and mammals. This week we reviewed birds (Class “Aves”). Aside from classification and order features, we discovered the engineering difficulties in mastering flight (light-weight material, flexible but sturdy structure and flaps for turbulence.


 

Downtime at the end of class:


 


 


 

 



Sunday, April 19, 2015

Semester 2 Week 12 update

Three weeks left!
This week we have a regular class.
The first week of May we bring in Notebooks and final Essays and we hold a Music Quiz.
The second week of May we present our Music Lectures and hold a Challenge II Jeopardy.

 
Those that wish to sign up for Stanford testing with CC in May must do so by this week (contact Mrs. Knighting).
For our last class day in May, we should plan on sharing snacks for a party.



Debussy - www.prezi.com 
Stravinsky - www.cballet.org
Homework Review – complete before semester 2 week 13 class
Algebra 2
Lessons 104-107. Bring one math question from your own math book to put on the board.
Latin
Ch. 28, Translate lines 118-209 Invasion of Britain (5 lines per student)
History/Music:
Gift of Music
Class. Music
We will continue to add composers to our Timeline.
GOM - Ch. 26 + 38 (Debussy + Stravinsky)
CMD – Finish Chapters 11+12
Music Lecture
Gather your three music genre examples and start writing your speech outline.
British Lit.
WAS
Essay
Finish Hobbit
Words Aptly Spoken pgs. 141-146 (Bethany & Wayne are picking week 13 questions)
Using “Hero” definition, examine characters from Hobbit and Out of the Silent Planet.
Biology:
Read Chapter 16 (Read up to 520, work on Bird Identification Exp. 16.2)
Remember: Type ANY 4 dissection experiments for your formal reports.
Drama
Arsenic & Old Lace - Bring your book to class.

Remaining Assignments for Challenge II:
Algebra – 12 lessons
Latin – 2 lessons and “Invasion of Britain” translation
Music History – 1 week GOM & CMD readings
Essays – 1 Music History & 2 British Literature
British Literature – The Hobbit, & Screwtape Letters
Biology – Ch. 16 (experiments: bird identification)
Drama – Arsenic & Old Lace
Music Lecture Presentations – May 7 or 8
Western Cultural History Notebook with Art/Music Folders, Lab Journal

Algebra II – A few small samples of graphing parabolas, working long division with variables, and revisiting working with percentages (selling price = dealer’s purchase price + mark-up). We also spent a portion of the class working two very cool mastermind problems that involved using and manipulating math symbols (+- x ÷! and √) to problem solve.

 

 


 Latin II – Last week we studied gerunds (verbal nouns) and this week we finished with gerundives (passive verbal adjectives). A word that is normally a verb can be used as a description – especially in purpose clauses.


 

History/Music – We studied music theory and music analysis. Our Composers this week were Mahler, Ravel and Prokofiev. They wrote music at the end of the Romantic Era as it merged into the Modern Era.


 

Music Lecture Presentation (a five minute talk with short sample music clips).

*Critically analyze 3 music styles in terms of their cultural context).
*How do the three styles add or subtract to culture?
*Should this music be passed on to friends, parents, pastors or grandchildren?
*How do the three styles stimulate the emotions or imagination?
*Define genres by instrumentation, composers, history and rhythm.
*Define the styles by their contribution to culture and their impact.
*Persuade others that music matters to God, culture and people.







Matthew volunteered to play Debussy’s Syrinx for us – amazing job!


British Literature – We read Hobbit prelude information about the devices and conventions used in Science Fiction and in Fantasy stories. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien challenged each other to write a science fiction book and a time travel book. The students found it interesting this week to find out that J.R.R. Tolkien was a Philologist (a linguistics professor that studies historical languages) and that C.S. Lewis made the hero of his own book a philologist that gets kidnapped and sent to Malacandra (Mars).

Biology – This week we covered Class “Reptilia” (reptiles like: turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodiles, and alligators). We discussed reptile similarities (endothermic, scales, lungs, 3-chambered heart and amniotic eggs with leather shell) and a few differences (hearing, limbs, scales, eyelids, venom types). We also started discussion about Class “Aves” by reviewing chicken egg development. We passed out handouts that covered the developing chick at 24 hours (notochord – spine and neural fold – brain), 48 hours (digestive parts, heart, brain divisions, arteries, eyes and ears) 72hours (kidneys, lungs, wing buds and leg buds), and 96 hours (starts maturing as the main organs have all formed). We’ll study more about birds next week and our final week we will finish with mammals.

Before we get to debate photos - here are few downtime photos (and, yes, they did descend from the tree as we found a much better recess alternative – thanks, Pastor Dan!)
 

 


 


 

 

 

 


Debate – the long-awaited date arrived! The students did a great job. They came prepared and rallied to fill in for missing teammates. The final decision came down to a mere 2 points between the campuses. The proposal “Rescuing great cultural or artistic achievement from theft or destruction is worth risking one’s life” was definitely thought-provoking and challenging for the students. Debates that focus on values tend to be subjective and take some skill to be able to persuade others. So many hard-core values (sanctity of life, quality of life, individual freedoms, preserving cultural or national art, saving civilizations) still need an ultimate authority declaring any of these valuable. Arguing that life or art is valuable is difficult unless you can also prove it (as a side note, Scripture is not used in Lincoln-Douglas debates unless the proposal specifically includes Christianity). Here are your future lawyers: