Week 14
“Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.”
W15 Festivities
Challenge A has elected to have their own Cookie Exchange. Please bring 1 dozen treats to share on Monday (or more, in increments of 6).
We will be taking a class "flannel" picture on Monday!
Final week before the Blue Book and break! Woot woot! I hope you enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families, being together and present with your people.
A big break is on the way, so encourage your students to focus on the key items for W15 - their LTW paper, Latin review, Cartography. With the shorter week of Thanksgiving, we discussed making the most of tomorrow’s school day, enjoying family time for the week, and deciding when they want to review.
We also observed the opportunity that we have to know our strengths and weaknesses per our color, especially for the greens in class that will struggle with procrastination facing a “looming” Blue Book and paper. We are not surprised that we will not naturally want to jump into that paper, or review the declensions, or tackle the Western Hemisphere. Let’s consider how we can make this work peaceful and satisfying - light a candle, listen to cheerful music, pour hot chocolate, and get down to it! “Your future self will thank you!” was our mantra! Be kind to that future self that is depending on today’s good choices! : )
Thoughts on Blue Book:
It cannot be crammed! Peacefully review what you know (and do not try to stuff new things into your brain by force!).
Week 15 will be a celebration of what they have to share from their semester! There will be much to celebrate!
Blue Book cannot be failed! They can share their thoughts with you on how it went, and if it did not meet their expectations, they can partner with you to talk about what went well and what they wished were better. You know your student best. Just taking a Blue Book is a learning experience in itself!
I am SO proud of this wonderful class for their year so far, and what can’t be reflected in a Blue Book is the spirit of friendship and and support that they have contributed to creating each week. It has accumulated into a great place to be. We are very tremendously blessed!
Banned Words
Meanwhile - Challenge A is a a huge leap in personal ownership and maturity! Today we had an opportunity to consider our responsibility for our work and words, and make a course correction around the issue of preparation - if they do not come to seminar day prepared for their strands (on any given week, including this Monday for Blue Book), I asked that they please not share it with the rest of the class.
I am referring to comments made by all of the students regularly over the course of the semester that sound like, ““Ugh, I didn’t do any maps this week!” (Anxiously and loudly in front of a blank page assessment for Cartography), or “I just didn’t get to vocab. I had so much going on.” “I don’t have an ANI chart. I hardly did any school work this week.” “I didn’t finish the book. I ran out of time.” We talked about how this sends a message to their fellow students who want to come for a feast, not a fast food snack!
These are likely mostly exaggerations, (I’m sure they are doing school work , or have other family obligations, and intentionally scaled work!) or perhaps they do need to consider their time management - a huge learning curve in Challenge A - however, I hear these refrains weekly - and they do not reflect ownership or bringing our best to seminar. It was time to discuss these types of comments directly and ask that they refrain from them (similar to the “banned words” we learned from in IEW). Hearing these comments throughout the day does not encourage their fellow students, build up or take responsibility.
Instead, graciously contribute to the best of your ability during that strand, and otherwise not mention that you are unprepared.
*Please Note: You can see that this is not the same thing as scaling your student’s work for the week to adjust for other obligations, or for the strand in general as you see fit. I fully support parent scaling to your student and family needs!
**If you have any questions, thoughts or want to discuss the above with me directly, please do!
There is MUCH to commend in our classroom, but there is also wisdom in the necessary attendance to care in our work and words. We had that opportunity today! I reminded them that they are doing very “hard things”, they are unique among their peers in the world for the choices that your families are making, for the friendships that are dear here and their ability to love each other well. Let’s inspire each other with our contributions and encourage excellence in class.
No play list! Happy Thanksgiving!
Character Journal - Honor/Peacemaking
Romans 12:18 says “If at all possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”
Naturally, this applies most at home in this season of all of our lives! We discussed what this looks like with our families and friends, especially noting how intentional peacemaking is in the scripture - it requires “making every effort”, “planning what is good” and “pursuing peace”, like something we are actively striving toward.
I pray for the opportunities that God will afford them to make good on their thoughtful consideration toward their siblings today - they had some great ideas on how to create peace with their youngers!
Blue Book: It was suggested (by students!) that we include our Character Journal topics in the Blue Book, and we agreed that they will choose a trait from a list we have studied so far, summarize it and add their thoughts using the 5 Common Topics and their Bible.
Additionally, they will have the opportunity to reflect in their Blue Book on truth, beauty and goodness that we have encountered in class (such as the Proverbs and parables, goodness in the lives of literary characters and the beauty of creation in natural science. They will also share personal assessment of what they see going well for themselves and what they aim to improve in the second semester!
No Math presentations for W15 during Blue Book. Upcoming:
W16 Elizabeth
W17 Jedidiah
Blue Book will include a math problem for them to observe and apply the 5 Common Topics to, as we have done in class. (Answer to the problem not required, only demonstration that they 5CT were somehow considered in their observation of the problem)
Today we practiced our noun declensions and played “Last Roman Standing” to review vocab.
No exercises this week, no new material.
Review by copying the declension chart we received in class, and Lesson 1-9 Vocab mastery.
Blue Book will include:
Listing the 5 Noun Declensions (see chart from class), and decline a noun in each declension.
Decline Adjectives of the first, second and third declension and
Translate vocab from Lessons 1-9.
*No assessment of verbs.
We had a blank page assessment of Europe today! Well done!
This week, practice maps for your Draw the Western Hemisphere in the Blue Book!
Blue Book - Draw and Label the Western Hemisphere with everything that you can remember. (*Unless an alternative has been selected by the parent.)
SUGGESTION: This week - I recommend creating a complete drawing of the Western Hemisphere, labeled, colored/decorated, etc. as an attachment to your Blue Book. Bring it in to share and include in your Blue Book folder. This will support your efforts in review, as well as create something beautiful that reflects your work! You can then come to class ready to do your best from memory.
We reviewed each student’s project status and Materials in class, and shared ideas for how to make their Materials List very specific.
Assignment for W15 (or Christmas Break, depending priorities for your week!): Risk and Safety, Data Analysis Method, and Bibliography for their Research Plan and Lab Journal.
Blue Book: . Choose a natural science topic that you studied this year - summarize it and include sketches and examples that enhance your summary. How has our scientific study taught you about the complexity, order or beauty of God’s creation?
We started Chapter 14 (final chapter of Analogies! Woot woot!) on proverbs. We also reviewed our terms and annotation tools.
Review Proverbs 25 for recitation next week (treats!)
Blue Book will include annotation of Proverbs 25 with a partner. I encouraged them to read it through a few times this week to see if they could mentally note them!
[They would also be free to print off Proverbs 25 and take a pre-Blue Book crack at this if they would feel better with a practice run.]
LTW: Arrangement AND Elocution
We will be reading their Amos Fortune papers for their Blue Book! This means we are combining Arrangement + Elocution into a single week. I encouraged them to do as much of this on Tuesday as possible!
Examples of Antithesis (and search for more on your own!)
Practice your presentation - make this an excellent presentation and bring your best for your Blue Book stage!
Use the checklist for your paper found in the appendix - tabbed today! This will help ensure that all of the tools we have learned are included in your paper. See the pink tab sample papers for additional reference.
Blue Book: In addition to papers, I will ask them to choose a character from the books we have read to explain how they demonstrated ownership of their actions or decisions. We used Amos Fortune as an example of how his decision to hold his head high and conduct himself with dignity changed the course of his life! Amazingly, we have the same choice! (Wow, we have read SUCH GOOD BOOKS! I love Challenge A literature!)