Happy Thanksgiving

I wish you all a joyous Thanksgiving. May your long weekend be filled with family, those you've chosen or those you were born with, laughter, and fun. 

In order to help facilitate this, there is minimal homework this weekend. Students were assigned math and memorizing their lines for 12th Night. Keep up the great work and I'll see you on Monday. 

November Happenings

It's been a busy few weeks and the fun never ends! 

History: 

We have concluded our unit on Government. Our next unit is on the decline of European Colonialism. We will be talking about India and Ghandi's role in ending colonialism there. 

Science: 

We are still working on physics. This week's lab (#10 of the year) will be on density and buoyancy. We will also be writing our hypothesis, materials, and methods for their science fair projects. Everyone should have summarized their 6 - 8 research sources on their science fair topic. 

Riggs: 

Students have learned over 200 words now. Vocab tests continue every Monday with games like Pictionary happening in class to help reinforce understanding. 

Writing: 

Last week we worked on writing a succinct paragraph that conveyed everything we needed to share. These were returned today with feedback. If students scored below a 2, they must edit and resubmit. The biggest errors I'm seeing at this point are failure to follow directions. Many students are not using a proper heading, double spacing, giving their work a title, etc. If your student asks you to edit for them, please look for these things! This week we will be writing our first character analysis. Students will be comparing and contrasting Olivia and Viola from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. 

Literature: 

We have completed our first reading of Twelfth Night! We are now working on memorizing our parts and staging it. If you have any free minutes during the day, we could use lots of parents to run lines with students. We'll take help anytime! Students with larger parts 100+ lines, should have a minimum of 50 lines memorized by now. I'm going very easy on homework so that students have plenty of time to work on their parts!

Important Dates:

Monday, November 18th - Board Meeting

Tuesday, November 19th - Language Usage MAP test for 8th grade

Wednesday, November 20th - Math MAP test for Course 3 and Advanced Math

Thursday, November 21st - All School Assembly 8:00 AM

Friday, November 22nd - Field Trip to CMC

Saturday, November 23rd - FACTS Class 8:00 - 4:00

Monday, November 25th - Science MAP test for 8th Grade

Tuesday, November 26th - Last day of school for Thanksgiving

Christmas Tree Fundraiser

Thank you to everyone who has contacted me already about signing up for the fundraiser. Here is the Sign Up Genius link to claim your spot!

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0D4FA5AF23A20-8thgrade

Community Lecture - Millionaire and the Mummies

Here's another community lecture that you may find interesting! 

The Millionaire and the Mummies: Theodore Davis’s Gilded Age in the Valley of the Kings

By John M Adams, Author  

Director Emeritus, Orange Co. CA Public Library                                                                            

Egypt, The Valley of the Kings, 1905:  An American robber baron peers through the hole he has cut in an ancient tomb wall and discovers the richest trove of golden treasure yet seen in Egypt.  At the start of the 20^th century, Theodore Davis was the most famous name in archaeology in the world; his career turned tomb-robbing and treasure-hunting into a science.

Author John Adams chronicles the rags-to-riches tale of a poor country preacher’s son who, through corruption and fraud, amassed tremendous wealth in Gilded-Age New York and then atoned for his ruthless career by inventing new standards for systematic excavation.  Davis found a record eighteen tombs in the Valley of the Kings and, breaking with custom, gave all the spoils to museums. 

A confederate of Boss Tweed, friend of Teddy Roosevelt and rival of JP Morgan, the “American Lord Carnarvon” shared his Newport mansion with his Rembrandts, his wife and his mistress! 

Adams focuses on six of Davis’ most important discoveries, including the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut’s sarcophagus and the exquisite shawbti statuettes looted from the Egyptian Museum in 2011.

Drawing on rare and unpublished archival material, the first biography of Davis ever written rehabilitates a tarnished image through a thrilling tale of crime, adventure, and history.    

         Wednesday November 13, 2013 at 7:30 pm     

        Room 294

        Smith Memorial Student Union                 

          Portland State University

          Free admission and open to the public. 

          Park Free in PSU parking structures after 7:00 pm  

John Adams has served on the Board and Executive Committee of the American Research Center in Egypt and was both a founder and president of the Southern California Chapter of ARCE. He is a regular contributor to KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt.  He also edited the Egyptological newsletter Sedjem for five years. His book, The Millionaire and the Mummies: Theodore Davis’s Gilded Age in the Valley of the Kings was published in 2013.

Science Fair So Far...

Our science fair projects are moving along at a slow but steady pace. At this point students should have completed the following steps: 

1. Purchased a journal strictly for science fair use. This needs to be a stand alone notebook. A composition journal or a 100 page spiral notebook are optimal. 

2. Created a title page for their notebook. The title page includes the title of the their project (added after selection), the researcher's name, the month and year, and the school. 

3. Created a table of contents page for their notebook. This will be added to as they add information. For now it should have "Table of Contents" across the top. 

4. Created the selection process page. We covered this in class on Thursday. It is a list of ideas they considered for their project and why each one was accepted or rejected. 

5. Listed the initial resources they searched for. This is the assignment that was due last week. They can print it out and glue it in or they can hand write it, but it should be in their journal. 

This weekend and all of next week, they will be completing step 6, which is to summarize 6 - 8 of the most useful resources from their list of 25 possibilities. Each resource should get its own page. The page will include the name of the resource, author, publisher, and copyright date. For a website they will need the title, author, URL, and date accessed. After reading the resource, they will be write a one paragraph summary in their science journal. If the student finds quotes they think they would like to use, they should also note the page number in their journal. 

Next week we will be writing the hypothesis, materials, and methods. 

Twelfth Night Cast

Curious about the cast list for our 12th Night Production? Here it is!

Character                    Matinee Performance                Evening Performance          Video

Orsino                           Colleen                                         Shak

Sebastian                       Avery                                           Kash

Antonio                         Isaiah                                            Scott

Captain                         Kipp                                             Kipp

Valentine                       Kevin                                            Brandon

Curio                             Evan                                             Isaiah

Sir Toby Belch              Savannah                                      Dimitri

Sir Andrew Aguecheek  Cassian                                        Jessica

Malvolio                        John                                              Jackson

Fabian                           Nadia                                            Tianna

Feste                             Olivia                                            Kasha

Olivia                            Megan                                           Megan

Viola                             Sierra                                            Sierra

Maria                            Gretel                                           Gretel                                   Kayla

Priest                            Alan                                              Alan

First Officer                  Kevin                                            Kevin

Second Officer             Evan                                              Evan

Servant                         Nadia                                            Nadia

Narrators:                   Nadia                                            Nadia

                                   Avery                                           Avery

                                   Kevin                                           Kevin

                                   Alan                                             Alan

                                   Kipp                                            Kipp

Milwaukie Academy of the Arts Open House

Milwaukie Academy of the Arts is a public charter school that provides college preparation for students who think like artists. It is located in Milwaukie, Oregon and was founded in 2005. We are pleased to be offering two upcoming Open House events for families who would like to know more about us. If you know of a student who is interested in the arts and project based learning please let their family know about these events:

Thursday, November 14, 2013  4:00pm to 7:00pm Open House followed by the opening night of our musical (with MHS) of Thoroughly Modern Mille at 7:00pm. The open house is held in the Fine Arts Auditorium at 11300 SE 23^rd Ave, Milwaukie OR 97222.

Easiest entrance is off of Lake Road onto Willard street and then the parking lot next to the Auditorium

Thursday, December 12, 4:00pm to 7:00pm Open House followed by the Winter Choir Concert at 7:00pm

Students, staff, board members, and parents will be available to discuss MAA’s unique approach to learning and tours of our facility will be given.

Twelfth Night

I'm sure you've heard, we have begun our Shakespeare unit! Yesterday we handed out roles and talked about drama in Shakespeare's times.

The class is very excited to put on this production and the energy level in the room is contagious. The next six weeks will be full of joy, laughter, and tears. We will be studying not only this particular story, but the craft of play writing, blocking, set design, costuming, and elocution. You can expect a lighter homework load so that students can focus on mastering their parts and their science fair projects!

FACTS Class

On November 23rd we will be holding our annual FACTS class for middle school families. FACTS was written in conjunction with Northwest Family Services in 1989. It is a program that focuses on opening communication between parents and students in dealing with topics pertinent to their age. These topics include but are not limited to dating, refusal skills, peer pressure, high risk behaviors, etc. 

In order to allow parents and students to attend together, we hold this essential class on a Saturday, beginning at 9:00 a.m. and finishing no later than 4:00 p.m. Lunch and snacks will be provided. We strongly encourage both parents to attend with their child but we understand if only one person can be there. In the event that neither parent can attend, another adult that is important in their life is welcome, and in the worse case scenario, we'd rather have the child with no adult than not at all. 

Parents are more than welcome to come in and preview the material and everyone will be provided with take home materials as well. 

If you have any questions, Mrs. Denman or I am happy to answer them. We look forward to seeing you there. 

Please RSVP so we can order the correct amount of food.