Dynamic Dialogue 2/27/15

Happy Friday, Dynamic Team!

Upcoming Events:  Mar. 6^th – 12^th – Scholastic Book Fair

                      Mar. 11^th – 12^th – Student Led Conferences, 

                      4 – 8 p.m.

Important Information:   

SLU Adventures In Medicine & Science Pig Heart Dissection Lab Field Trip forms are coming home today! The field trip is Tuesday, 24 March 2015 and the cost is $10.00. The permission forms need to be returned by Friday, 6 March!

English –

The week began with a wonderful story-- "A Mason-Dixon Memory"-- about standing up for what you believe and for each other. Following the story, students practiced reading critically for information by answering questions about the story. Who would have thought that answering questions could demand so much sophisticated writing, but it does! Throughout the week, students have been drafting and revising their question responses per ongoing feedback to make sure that:

• answers are accurate
• an explanation is provided
• evidence from the text is provided
• pronouns avoided in the answer
• signal phrases used, i.e.  First detail is, Second detail is
• ideas are expressed clearly and succintly

Some students are working to create an acronym for these criteria so that they can use the acronym in other classes or testing situations to remind them of these criteria for success.

We will wrap up the week by returning to our work on the "Breaking Barriers" essay.

FYI: 

• all English assignments/announcements are posted in Google Classroom. All English resources are available on a student's Google Drive and often linked to Google Classroom.
• Many students would benefit from time at home to work on their writing assignments (essays, paragraphs, question responses, etc.)

Susan Artkras – artkras.susan@wgmail.org

Math- 

Wilma Slaughter – slaughter.wilma@wgmail.org

Science –

SLU Adventures In Medicine & Science Pig Heart Dissection Lab Field Trip forms are coming home today! The field trip is Tuesday, 24 March 2015 . The permission forms need to be returned by Friday, 6 March!

In Dynamic Science this week the students continued to develop the concepts to be able to draw conclusions from cause and effect relationships concerning: parent traits and probability of offspring traits, and interactions between plants and animals and the probability of successful reproduction!  Ask your students about some of the factors which determine flower reproduction or predator/prey relationships.

The Dynamic field trip to the Practical Anatomy and Surgical Education Lab at St. Louis University the students participate in the ADVENTURES IN MEDICINE and SCIENCE (AIMS) program to do a pig heart dissection. This is a top notch, state of the art dissection lab! The students will also see a comparison of a healthy human heart compared to a diseased human heart. There are 3 paper permission slips required for this field trip; one for Webster Groves School District and two for St. Louis University Practical Anatomy Lab which was sent home today! Below are the links to those permission slips.

Webster Groves permission form:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1glugk8vfekutTPXNLw7uRay356_uzI0eZF_YJeWsyaw/edit?usp=sharing

SLU permission forms:

https://docs.google.com/a/wgcloud.org/file/d/0B7lOsIXyNVFsTEpxbDBjaVpIN0k/edit

If you have any questions or comments please let me know.

Dynamic Systems Science – Coach Daniels - daniels.mark@wgmail.org

314-918-4603

Social Studies –

Students have been working on a variety of activities for The Roman Republic. They completed a vocabulary activity, and examined the positive and negative effects of Roman expansion.  There will be a very short vocab quiz next Thursday.  Students should study using the corrected vocabulary activity.

Next week, we will look at the move from Republic to Empire.  I will be asking students to examine the question “Why would the citizens of a republic give up their rights to become an empire?”

The notes for the unit are available on my website.  I have been urging students to copy two slides every night into their social studies notebooks.  This will keep the task from becoming overwhelming as the quiz nears.

After school help is available in my room every Thursday until 4:00 

Dynamic Social Studies Course Website:

www.hixson.webster.k12.mo.us/pages/Hixson/Classes/pettid

Lisa Pettid – pettid.lisa@wgmail.org

314-918-4602

Please visit the following links for more information: Hixson home page -http://hixson.webster.k12.mo.us/pages/Hixson Dr. Smith's blog - http://hixsonprincipal.wordpress.com/

Dynamic Dialogue 2/20/15

Good afternoon, Dynamic Team!

Upcoming Events:  Feb. 24^th – Incoming 7^th Grade Parent Orientation

Student-Lead conferences are March 11th and 12th 4-8 PM.

Important Information:   

Dynamic will be having “Student-Lead Conferences” this spring! 

Your student will have a portfolio of their work to present to their parents/guardians and must be present at the conference. The students will have a working agenda to guide them. They will be sharing the skills they have been developing and their goals as they move forward.  The Dynamic Faculty will be nearby to help the students or answer questions that may come up. The link to sign-up is below.

www.ptcfast.com/schools/Hixson_Middle_School_1

English –

This week began with a visit to our library. Next, we began a new reading/writing unit—  “Do the Right Thing.” The unit began with a reading of “After Twenty Years,” an O. Henry short story. During this unit, students will be working more with test-like reading comprehension questions to prepare them for future standardized tests. I will also continue emphasizing high quality written responses. As always, students are encouraged to work on their writing assignments at home. Students may also submit revisions for regrading. All English assignments and updates are available on Google Classroom  https://classroom.google.com/

Susan Artkras – artkras.susan@wgmail.org

Math- 

Wilma Slaughter – slaughter.wilma@wgmail.org

Science –

This week in Dynamic Science students have been working on genetics. I enjoy teaching this unit so much because the students are full of questions!

Goal 1:  Student describes factors that impact reproduction.

4	Student demonstrates innovation, in depth inference(s), or advanced application(s) with the learning goal. In addition to level 3 the student will be able to: prove possible genetic outcomes.
3	Student will be able to draw conclusions from cause and effect relationships concerning: parent traits and probability of offspring traits, interaction between plants and animals and the probability of successful reproduction, and humans altering genetic outcomes.
2	Student describes cause and effect of an event for: parents traits and probability of offspring traits, interactions between plants and animals and the probability of successful reproduction, and humans altering genetic outcomes.

The vocabulary words for this unit are

Allele

Asexual reproduction

Chromosomes/Genes/DNA

Dominant

Genotype

Heredity

Heterozygous

Homozygous

Phenotype

Recessive

and Sexual reproduction.

They are working with Punnett squares to be able to describe the probability of offspring. Students were surprised to learn trees, flowers, grass, strawberries, corn, etc. reproduce sexually. Please ask your child about what they have been learning about genetics. J

If you have any questions or comments please let me know.

Dynamic Systems Science – Coach Daniels

daniels.mark@wgmail.org

314-918-4603

Social Studies –

This week we began our look at Ancient Rome.  Students began by exploring the geography of the region using both regular and Google map activities.  They also took a short video tour of the ancient city with CGI reconstructions.  Next week, we will begin looking at the government in Rome, focusing on the Roman Republic.  There will be a vocabulary activity next week that you may see coming home.

The notes for the unit are available on my website.  I have been urging students to copy two slides every night into their social studies notebooks.  This will keep the task from becoming overwhelming as the quiz nears.

After school help is available in my room every Thursday until 4:00 

Dynamic Social Studies Course Website:

www.hixson.webster.k12.mo.us/pages/Hixson/Classes/pettid

Lisa Pettid – pettid.lisa@wgmail.org

314-918-4602

Please visit the following links for more information: Hixson home page -http://hixson.webster.k12.mo.us/pages/Hixson Dr. Smith's blog - http://hixsonprincipal.wordpress.com/

Dynamic Dialogue 2/13/15

Happy Weekend, Dynamic Team!

Upcoming Events:    Feb. 16 - Presidents Day, No School

                        Feb. 17 - Term 5 begins

                        Feb. 20 - Report cards mailed home.

Important Information:   Thanks to all of the parents who donated for Hixson's Trivia Night.  It was much appreciated.

English –

Susan Artkras – artkras.susan@wgmail.org

Math- 

Wilma Slaughter – slaughter.wilma@wgmail.org

Science –

Dynamic Science Course Website

http://hixson.webster.k12.mo.us/pages/Hixson/Classes/daniels

Dynamic Systems Science – Coach Daniels - daniels.mark@wgmail.org

314-918-4603

Social Studies –

Students finalized their tour of Greece this week.  The open note quiz was on Thursday and grades are posted on the gradebook.  On Tuesday, we will begin looking at Rome.  The notes for Rome are already available on my website, and I have advised students to begin writing them in their notebooks.  

After school help is available in my room every Thursday until 4:00 

Dynamic Social Studies Course Website:

www.hixson.webster.k12.mo.us/pages/Hixson/Classes/pettid

Lisa Pettid – pettid.lisa@wgmail.org

314-918-4602

Please visit the following links for more information: Hixson home page -http://hixson.webster.k12.mo.us/pages/Hixson Dr. Smith's blog - http://hixsonprincipal.wordpress.com/

Dynamic Dialogue 2/6/15

Good afternoon, Dynamic Team!

Upcoming Events:   Feb. 7^th – Adult Trivia Night (see below)

                                   Feb. 11^th – Hixson Night at Jets Pizza

                                   Feb. 13^th – PD Day, No Student Attendance

                                   Feb. 13^th – End of Term 4

Important Information:   A special thank you to everybody who sent in items for our auction basket.  Every little bit helps!

English –

Students visited the library this week to take care of their library responsibilities, browse the collection and Destiny Quest, and spend time reading.

Also this week, students read and discussed a popular O'Henry short story, "After Twenty Years."

Students are also continuing their work on their Breaking Barriers essay as well as a few other writing assignment.

Susan Artkras – artkras.susan@wgmail.org

Math-
This week students finished the (Percent) unit.  In this unit, they learned how to solve the 3 types of percent problems, simple interest (loans & savings), gratuity, discount, sales tax, and how to compute monthly car payments. Students will take the assessments on the unit next week.

Wilma Slaughter – slaughter.wilma@wgmail.org

Science –

The Summative Assessment Cell Project is DUE WEDNESDAY, 11 FEBRUARY!

This week in Dynamic Science students finished working with microscopes and began their Summative Assessment Project on the 2 Cell Learning Goals. The highlight for many students was seeing moving micro-organisms from the Hixson pond water! They also viewed 9 different human tissue slides at x40, x100, & x400 magnification.

On Monday the students re-took the formative assessment on the cell unit on www.quia.com. The students may take the quiz as many times as the like to use it as a learning experience!

The Summative Project details are below. Your student has access to the resources on Google Classroom. I suggest the students go to the public library this weekend and receive help from the staff at the reference desk!  

The learning goals, targets, and vocabulary are listed below.

Goal 1:    Student will understand that living organisms are systems of interacting subsystems composed, on the most basic level, of cells.

4	I demonstrate innovation, in depth inference(s), or advanced application(s) with the learning goal. In addition to level 3 the student will be able to: predict the effect(s) on an organism if a specific subsystem or cell does not function properly or does not exist.
3	I will use both cell theory and levels of organization to show that an organism is living.

Goal 2:  Student will develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.

4	I demonstrate innovation, in depth inference(s), or advanced application(s) with the learning goal. In addition to level 3 the student will be able to: create an analogy between cell and non-cell.
3	I will develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole. describe the function that each organelle contributes in the cell.  (cell wall, nucleus, chloroplast, mitochondria, cell membrane).

Scoring Rubrics

Goal 1: I will understand that living organisms are systems of interacting subsystems composed, on the most basic level, of cells.

3.5	3.0	2.0
- Visual clearly represents         organism and 5 levels within	- Visual cleary represents     organism and less than 5 levels   within; - Visual represents organism and 5   levels within, but not clearly	- Visual does not represent    organism and levels within
- Project clearly shows 3    components of cell theory as    evidence of life	- Project clearly shows less than 3   components of cell theory; - Project shows 3 components of  cell theory, but not clearly	- Project does not show     components of cell theory
- Project shows clear evidence    of 5 levels of organization	- Project shows clear evidence of   less than 5 levels; - Project shows 5 levels of   organization, but not clearly	- Project does not show evidence   of  levels of organization
- Bibliography includes at least 2    reputable sources cited    through Easybib	- Bibliography includes less than   2 reputable sources cited through   Easybib; - Bibliography includes sources    that are not reputable; - Sources are not cited through    Easybib	- Bibliography does not include    reputable sources cited    through Easybib
- Project complete and turned in    on due date - Wednesday, 2/11	- Project is completed late - Project is turned in on due date,   but is not complete	- Project is not complete and not   turned in on due date
4.0	++	+
- Project clearly shows effect on    organism when a subsystem or    cell of the organism does not    function correctly	- Project shows not show   effect on organism; - Effect is not shown clearly	- Project does not show effect on   organism

Goal 2: I will develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.

3.5	3.0	2.0
- Visual clearly represents         cell and at least 5 cell    organelles	- Visual clearly represents     cell and less than 5 cell   organelles; - Visual represents cell and at least   5 cell organelles, but not clearly	- Visual does not represent    cell and cell organelles
- Project clearly explains the   function of the cell in the   organism	- Project clearly explains a type of   cell or incorrect function; - Project explains the function of  the cell, but not clearly	- Project does not explain the   function of the cell in the   organism
- Project clearly describes the   functions of at least 5 cell   organelles	- Project clearly describes the   functions of less than 5 cell   organelles; - Project describes the functions   of at least 5 organelles, but not   clearly	- Project does not describe the   functions of cell organelles
- Bibliography includes at least 2    reputable sources cited    through Easybib	- Bibliography includes less than     2 reputable sources cited through   Easybib; - Bibliography includes sources    that are not reputable; - Sources are not cited through    Easybib	- Bibliography does not include     reputable sources cited   through Easybib
- Project complete and turned in     on due date - 2/11	- Project is completed late - Project is turned in on due date,   but is not complete	- Project is not complete and not   turned in on due date
4.0	++	+
- Analogy is made that clearly   shows related functions for at   least 5 cell organelles	- Analogy is made that clearly   shows related functions for less   than 5 cell organelles; - Analogy is not shown clearly	- Analogy is not successfully made

If you have any questions or comments please let me know.

Dynamic Systems Science – Coach Daniels

daniels.mark@wgmail.org

314-918-4603

Social Studies –

Students have been wrapping up our look at ancient Greece.  This week they participated in group discussions about Alexander the Great, took and defended their positions on questions regarding his strategies.  We will conclude our look at ancient Greece with a look at their contributions to the world.  The open note quiz will be on February 12^th.  Students will be allowed to use any notes they have taken for this quiz.  Copies of the notes are available on my website.

After school help is available in my room every Thursday until 4:00 

Dynamic Social Studies Course Website:

www.hixson.webster.k12.mo.us/pages/Hixson/Classes/pettid

Lisa Pettid – pettid.lisa@wgmail.org

314-918-4602

Please visit the following links for more information: Hixson home page -http://hixson.webster.k12.mo.us/pages/Hixson Dr. Smith's blog - http://hixsonprincipal.wordpress.com/