Advisory gingerbread houses

Today is the last day to enter your gingerbread house in the first annual gingerbread contest in York Middle School, sponsored by the library staff.  Your entry had to reflect the homes of literary greats.  Therefore, we had people building the cornucopia from the hunger games, there was the grinch who stole Christmas, there was the Wizard of Oz with the rainbow and the yellow brick road, there was Rapunzel's castle, and my wonderful, thoughtful advisory did the three little pigs and the big bad wolf that would blow all the houses down.  They built the hay house out of saltines and covered them with raw spaghetti, they built the stick house out of graham crackers and pretzels, and then they built the brick house out of graham crackers and twizzlers.  There were also many small marshmallows that we put on the ground for the snow, and marshmallows around the edges of the houses to show some snow around all of them.  They also built a beautiful garden patch with skittles, and made the pigs and the wolf out of large and small marshmallows, held together by raw spaghetti pieces as well.  In the end, it was impressive!

The most impressive part of all of it, was how well they worked together.  They thought of the ideas themselves, and we voted on the gingerbread house theme so it was using the democratic process.  The students in my advisory wrote lists of what people needed to bring to work on this project during advisory times.  They doled out the work, so that everyone who wanted to played an important part.  They never shamed or made people feel guilty if they didn't want to participate, and because of it, eventually, everyone did at least one small job.  We had a little workshop going next to my desk for weeks, and I was relieved and thrilled when it was all completed and I was able to bring it up to the library for the display!  How wonderful!  

It showed me that these children are very good at conceiving of a project, problem solving, and working together to complete something that means something to them.  There is a prize of a cocoa party in the library, but for me, the prize was everyone working together, happily boys and girls gluing marshmallows down, and twizzlers on graham crackers and patiently waiting for things to dry so they could continue the process.  Congratulations to my advisory and thank you to the library staff for giving us a fabulous project to work on during the holiday season!! 

Gingerbread house video from the library! ENJOY!!

Jaguar Team Questions about "Farewell to Tarwathie"

I  noticed this week that when the Jaguar team answered questions that they had prepared for the class, they always refer back to the text, or the lyrics to the song.  When I visited the Harkness table a few weeks ago, I noticed that this was one of the expectations each day.  They are all expected to back up their answers with ideas from the text, the story, the inferences in the text.  They always share their answers with quotations from the book.  This is impressive, and it is now showing up in music class when we have these discussions.  We may not have the big table, and I don't have someone charting the course of the discussion and making sure that everyone is sharing ideas, at least a few times every session, but the rest of the method has become almost ingrained in the students' thinking and this is very exciting. You can tell that the conversation is much more animated, and the students are more and more involved and in charge of their own learning. Here are a few questions from this team that we entertained yesterday in our class discussions:

Who hunts beautiful, gentle creatures?
Were they hunting the whale for money or for food?
Are they scared or frightened?
Is their spot for hunting a whale a good spot or not?
Are they frightened or excited?
Did the crew like telling the people about their adventures?
Is this a different time signature?
Who sings the song?
What is the perspective of the song?
What is the song about?
Is the song happy or sad or both and why?
What are the instruments that are played in this song?
What did they use the whale for?
How old is the song?
When the writer was writing this song what was he thinking about?
Is his wife the whale?

I want to publicly thank my colleague Mr. Beaumier for introducing our school to this thinking and discussion process, and I look forward to having more interesting discussions beginning with questions generated from the class.  More soon!

Questions about Tarwathie from another class..

I really appreciated some of these questions so I wanted to post them on this blog to share..I hope you enjoy them-

Is the song in the only one perspective throughout?
What does the song mean when it says, "But there's no bird in Greenland to sing to the whale."?

What does the singer mean when he says, "The longer the absence the more loving she'll feel?"

The singer mentions many unpleasant things about Greenland, why do they still choose to go there?
Is the singer afraid for his life?
What emotions are present in the song?
Why is the voyage to Greenland so dangerous?
How does the music and instruments in this song affect the feel of it?
Does this song take place before it was illegal to hunt whales? Are they hunting illegally?
What will the men use the whale for once they catch it?
Based on the lyrics, how long will the person be gone?
Who is the singer's lass? How is she feeling when the singer leaves? Is she afraid for his life?
Will they go back to their homeland?
Why is it 3/4 time?

I love that question, Why is it 3/4 time, because there is a real reason for this.  It is the feel of the boat as they are singing, which causes it to be in 3/4 time! Hope you enjoy these questions, they made for a very rich and developed discussion that afternoon.  Very exciting, and less about me, more about them, always what I want to feel. Making progress, one day at a time.  Thank you for listening.

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Farewell to Tarwathie

Judy Collins

Farewell to Tarwathie
Adieu Mormond Hill
And the dear land of Crimmond
I bid you farewell
I'm bound off for Greenland
And ready to sail
In hopes to find riches
In hunting the whale

Farewell to my comrades
For a while we must part
And likewise the dear lass
Who first won my heart
The cold coast of Greenland
My love will not chill
And the longer my absence
More loving she'll feel

Our ship is well rigged
And she's ready to sail
The crew they are anxious
To follow the whale
Where the icebergs do float
And the stormy winds blow
Where the land and the ocean
Is covered with snow

The cold coast of Greenland
Is barren and bare
No see time nor harvest
Is ever known there
And the birds here sing sweetly
In mountain and dale
But there's no bird in Greenland
To sing to the whale

Quest for Questions

Today we discussed a song from Scotland called "Farewell to Tarwathie."  This is a song about the whaling industry from the nineteenth century.  Last year I wrote a blog about my discussion with the class about the difference between the original version of the song and the version recorded by Judy Collins in the 1970's.  Today I would simply like to post some of their questions that they thought of when I played the song for them.  We discussed many of these questions as well, and I was not always the one answering the questions that they asked.  It is the beginning of student centered learning while creating a safe place for questions to be asked by all members of the class.

What is the meaning of the song?
Where or what is Crimond, Mormond Hill, or Tarwathie?
Why does the singer keep mentioning the whale?
Is this song meant to be happy or sad?
What does "Signs of Time" mean?
Is this a pirate song?
Is it about love?
Is it about whales?
Are they going to Greenland?
What does Adieu mean?
Why do they want to hunt the whales?
Where was this song written?
What is the time period this song is from?
Where was this song written?
Why are they saying "Farewell to Tarwathie?
How old are they?
Do they have families?
Do they all die in the end?
Do they plan to fight each other?
Is Tarwathie a real place?
What is a comrade?
What is mountain and vale?
What is seedling?
What is whale hunting?
How old is this song?
How long of a sail will it be?
When is this in time?
Is the crew all men?
Are they Dads and Moms?

What I notice is that these are still all factual questions with one correct answer, or maybe two.  But the questions did generate some real discussion, where we talked about whaling and it was directed about their knowledge and adding to their knowledge instead of lecturing.  I have never been one to lecture anyway, but I have spent a lot of time manipulating the discussion to go the way I want it to go, so I am going to continue to experiment with this technique and see if it doesn't continue to generate more student centered discussions rather than teacher directed discussions.  I will be back with more soon.
Corries Farewell to Tarwathie

El Condor Pasa

Today I worked on teaching students how to ask more thoughtful, probing questions to help discussions be more educational and inspiring.  My learning targets were "I can discuss and sing a song from the Andes Mountains" and "I can talk about how questions can be useful or probing or thoughtful or instead, factual."  I chose to work with a song called "El Condor Pasa" because there are a few different interpretations of this song, and it also has many questions embedded in the song itself.  It is a song about love, and it is compared to a condor flying through the air, and how it comes and goes.

I had the students listen to the song and study the lyrics while they listened.  What is the meaning of the song?  That was the "Do Now" .  Then I talked to them about the learning targets, and reminded them of the questions we asked ourselves and answered for "The Magic Flute".  The students remembered that well, and they talked about the questions they had asked.  I got them to understand that most of these questions were "factual" questions with only ONE answer to them. Who is Pamina for example, or what happens to the queen at the end of the opera?  Do we have another type of question we can ask?   How about a question with more than one answer to it?  We had a few questions that were more factual questions about the song, like where did it come from, and why was it in Spanish, and what were the instruments that were played in it.  The tables turned when a student asked, "What inspired the composer to write the song?"  We kept on with this idea, and it is more of a process than I ever imagined.  There is a lot of Metacognition that is required for this exercise, yet if they begin to understand it better, then I will teach less, and they will learn more.

We sang the song after this, and we discussed the differences between sections A and sections B.  These were interesting questions, because there was room for interpretation, and some opposite ideas.  Some students thought the first section was happier, but some thought the second section was happier.  If you are to look at this song from a completely musical perspective, the second section is in major and higher on the staff, so it sounds happier.  Also, it is questionable as to whether the first section is happier or sadder..the story is about nostalgia, where we feel happy about the past but we also feel sad that we have lost the love we had.  The second section is both happy and sad, because the question is: Will love come again? We don't know.  Just holding opposite ideas in one's head at the same time is a complicated, and perhaps too sophisticated idea for this age group, but if I don't ask for it, I cannot expect to ever find it from these students?



My realization is that the idea of generating questions from students is a metacognitive experience.  It is not something that can be mastered or even attempted in one lesson, and it is something that I am even more intrigued by as I continue this quest for teaching and learning, thinking and singing, reading and dancing, all in one class experience.
El Condor Pasa the ultimate version

I am poems, quarter two!!

I am poem

I am 11 years old

I am a basketball player

I am a student

I am a cat lover

I am a brother

I am a democrat

I am a percussionist

I am a baseball player

I am a Celtics fan

I am a Red Sox fan

I am a son

I am a kid

I am a gamer

I am love sports

I am a guinea pig lover

I am a Trump hater

I am a Hillary supporter

I am poem

I am athletic and intelligent
I wonder what the world will be like in one million years

I hear the leaves rustle

I see the river flow by as I watch the leaves fall

I want a clean world for all the animals

I am athletic and intelligent

I pretend to find life on Mars

I feel powerful and strong

I touch the fallen leaves blanketing the ground

I worry about what our new president will do

I cry when death approaches

I am athletic and intelligent

I understand the new president but do not support him

I say save the animals

I dream to one day have a family of my own

I try to make the world a better place

I hope to live to 100

I am athletic and intelligent

And in case you needed the Exemplar..by ME

I Am

I am a grandmother

I am a mother

I am a runner

I am a knitter

I am a classical singer

I am a piano player

I am a teacher

I am a sensitive person

I am thoughtful, wise, kind

I am a fiancee

I am a daughter

I am a sister

I am a mother-in-law

I am a motherless woman

I am a stylish dresser

I am a lover of bright colors

I am bilingual

I am a hard worker

I am a thinker

I am a believer

I am a facilitator of music

I am helpless sometimes to change the world.

I am someone you can count on

I am flexible

I am a graduate of Smith College

I am a graduate of Northwestern University

I am a passionate reader

I am a choral singer

I am a soloist

I am an opera lover

I am a moviegoer

I am an aunt

I am a cousin

I am someone who does at least one thing

I am fair

I am an art appreciator

I am lover of naps

I am a pop music lover

I am a concert-goer

I am a friend

I am a confidante

I am a listener

I am a walker

I am a laugher

a giggler

I am a giver of light

I am a perfectionist, a risk taker, a leader

I am an ocean lover, an island lover, a dog lover.

I am lover of the songs of birds

I am a sunrise and sunset worshipper

I am a list maker

I am well-educated, an intellectual, a lifelong learner

I am sensitive to the moods and emotions of others

I am a dancer

I am a food lover

I am a baker

I am critical of mistakes of my own and others

I am compassionate

I am a composer of songs

I am a writer of poetry

Short Blog on what is going on lately..

I have not written in a while because I have had to handle some situations which have made it impossible to keep up with everything here.  I am back and strong, however, and will be finding some wonderful topics to discuss very soon.  This past week was the first week of putting out grades on our new Powerteacher program.  It was complicated, because we are trying to tailor it to our needs, to our use of proficiency based learning, and grading, and it was not originally built for this purpose.  I believe it has potential, and I appreciate being able to write comments on every project or habit of work and learning that my students are working on, but I am also wishing that it would show what it is we are trying to show, and it would calculate only what we need to have it calculate.  Let us hope that quarter two is better for this and that we are in good shape to work with students on making their standards work for them and for us in Quarter 2!! Have a great day!

More Monologues

Monologue Statement:

It’s Good To Practice

If you never practiced. You wouldn’t get all the things you want. If you didn’t practice, and another person did, they might get better things, and might do better. For example, if you had a math assessment, and you never did your homework, and someone else did extra homework and was ahead of the class, they would probably get all the answers right. If you played an instrument in band, such as trumpet, and you never practiced, you would probably be making a lot of mistakes. If you were riding a bike for the first time, you would need a lot of practice riding it. Practicing will usually  help you understand things and learn better. If you practice, it will help you. So everyone should practice the things you like to do, plant to do, and want to do.

I disagree with the statement: I prefer Winter over Summer. I think Summer is better because during winter when I have to play football it gets cold and the ball is hard to throw. Also the weather deflates the footballs. You see this is why summer is the better choice. When it’s warmer and, ok there’s bugs but really who scared of a caterpillar, Sure Winter can be great with skiing and stuff. But come on, make the obvious choice SUMMER. You could chose Winter but what happens when you open your door and 5ft of snow falls on you. 3 hours later someone finds you passed out covered in 20 pounds of snow. Or you might be taking a nice walk. When someone throws a snowball at you and knocks you out. Then you wake up in the hospital. With the guy who threw the snowball at you sitting there. Those are some reasons why I think Summer is better than Winter. But if you still like winter I hope you also like getting white washed.

Monologue: What do I Stand For: I prefer Fall Over Summer

I prefer Fall over Summer

I prefer fall over summer because, during fall you start drinking pumpkin spice lattes and wear over sized sweatshirts. During summer you have to always have the air conditioner on and get millions of bug bites. During the fall you can watch binge watch 5 seasons of a show on netflix. You can't do that in the summer. You can wear uggs and make leaf piles. During the summer if you try to do something you always are late to sport practices. During fall harvest cup starts, you pretty much play soccer until you die. During the summer you can swim in oceans and go to lakes but even though it's summer the water still manages to be cold. Fall has perfect weather because you can go outside and not freeze to death. During the summer you get so hot you want to jump into a bowl of ice. Fall is fun because there are a lot of events that happen. Apple picking, cider donut eating, having intense netflix sessions. In summer you sometimes run out of ideas of what to do. In fall you don't.  Say you go bridge jumping and accidently slap you arms on the water do a painful belly flop off of 103 because you feel daring that day. I prefer fall over summer because you don't have to belly flop off of 103!  

More Monologues: Being yourself is better than fitting in with the crowd. ...

I agree with the statement, being yourself is better than fitting in with the crowd. That’s because you don’t want to laugh and cry in the same way everyone else does, when you can have an original laugh like this… or a cry like this… Why not? Join the club and be unique, with me. Being yourself helps you to develop self confidence because you have to be brave enough to do what you think is right, rather than just going along with what the crowd thinks.

Plus, it's easier and better to just be yourself, than to let others tell you what to do and what to be. People who don’t just go along with crowd, are more likely to believe in themselves. Also, not being in the crowd, you are more likely to be an upstander and not a bystander to bullying.That’s because if you feel like you have to be like everyone else, then you probably won’t get help or be help to people who are getting bullied because you either think the bullies will just start bullying you too or you think that everyone will be like that kid is weird because he is standing up for different kids. So, following the crowd is not always the right thing to do because say everyone jumped off a cliff. Would you? In addition, if everyone and everything was the same, than if someone said guess my favorite number. They would say 4 because everyone is the same so, everyone’s favorite number would be 4. Or, Heah guess what I have for lunch! What. A sandwich! Oh, yeah, Bill, Tom and I had that too, and so did everyone else in the world. But, if everyone is different… Dude, guess my favorite color! What. Green. Nice bro, mines Turquoise. Radicle. That’s why I think being yourself is better than fitting in with the crowd.

Monologues on What do I stand For?

I agree with the statement, being yourself is better than fitting in with the crowd. That’s because you don’t want to laugh and cry in the same way everyone else does, when you can have an original laugh like this… or a cry like this… Why not? Join the club and be unique, with me. Being yourself helps you to develop self confidence because you have to be brave enough to do what you think is right, rather than just going along with what the crowd thinks. Plus, it easier and better to just be yourself, than to let others tell you what to do and what to be. People who don’t just go along with crowd, are more likely to believe in themselves. Also, not being in the crowd, you are more likely to be an upstander and not a bystander to bullying.That’s because if you feel like you have to be like everyone else, then you probably won’t get help or be help to people who are getting bullied because you either think the bullies will just start bullying you too or you think that everyone will be like that kid is weird because he is standing up for different kids. So, following the crowd is not always the right thing to do because say everyone jumped off a cliff. Would you? In addition, if everyone and everything was the same, than if someone said guess my favorite number. They would say 4 because everyone is the same so, everyone’s favorite number would be 4. Or, Heah guess what I have for lunch! What. A sandwich! Oh, yeah, Bill, Tom and I had that too, and so did everyone else in the world. But, if everyone is different… Dude, guess my favorite color! What. Green. Nice bro, mines Turquoise. Radicle. That’s why I think being yourself is better than fitting in with the crowd.

Monologue

By Sabrina Wiseman

Which is easier to take care of? Hamsters or cats

Most people would think hamsters are easier

But I think cats are. Here's why.

With hamsters you have to clean their cage once every two weeks. And you take everything apart and wash the whole cage including the tunnels, replacing the bedding, and cleaning the food dish! But with cats all you have to do is scoop their poop out of a box, feed them a can of food everyday, and replace the water. And what fun is it to watch a hamster run around in a loop all day? Instead you could be playing with your cat, who is so cute when he chases those feather toys. Have you changed your mind yet?

Hamsters are so hard to hug because they're so small, but cats are just the right size to be hugged, especially a big fluffy cat. If you let a hamster roam around the house like a cat does, he would chew on everything and be very easy to step on.

So, if you want to do a lot of work but get no furry hugs in return, then get a hamster. But I prefer a cat!

The First Opera Story of the 2016-2017 School Year, by a 6th grader at YMS

An Unexpected Kind of Luck

An Opera by Lucy Kocev

Setting: Lily’s apartment in San Francisco, California. Modern time.

Characters: Lily, (10 year old girl) Skye, (Lily’s 8 year old sister) Max, (Animal King) Philip, (Lily’s partner), The dumpster animals (give Lily the news she is magical), business man (a man who is walking to work.)

Exposition: Lily lives in California, where she thinks nothing interesting happens. She stares out the same window all the time and nothing happens. (Lily sings “Nothing good happens here!) One day, a drop of rain splatters on the window. The raindrop turns into a downpour.

Inciting Incident: After the rainstorm, Lily heads outside and she finds a crystal the rain formed. When she holds it, her hand glows. She asks a businessman if he likes her crystal. (Businessman sings: “I cannot see the crystal, what are you talking about!”) She brings the crystal to the safety of her house, but Skye gets in the way. Lily knows the crystal is not safe at her house, so she brings it with her as she takes a walk around the city. Later, she steps on a mirror in the road and breaks it and sees a black cat on the sidewalk and gets good luck. Then, she finds a four-leaf clover at the park and gets bad luck. Her life is mixed up.

Rising action: Lily is walking in the rain with the crystal in her pocket. She hears faint voices, but the wet sidewalks are empty. As she walks towards an alleyway, the voices grow louder. Lily realizes some animals on the dumpster are talking. She can hear them! They tell Lily she is magical, she can summon rain and talk to animals. The critters on the dumpster told her this. They said they always knew Lily was magical, but never told her. She realizes her magical powers can help her get out of this confusion. The animals tell her that Max, the animal king can help her.

Climax: The animal king is the black cat she saw on the road. His name is Max. Max tells Lily that she can use her magic powers to get out of this mess. (solo: black cat: Find a partner to help you!) Lily leaves and tests her animal talking powers on a lonely squirrel and asks him if he would like to be her partner. The squirrel has looks of suspicion, but nods his head. Lily assures the squirrel that she can understand him. The squirrel jumps on her shoulder and stands proudly.

Falling Action: Lily and the squirrel (now named Phillip) are puzzled. Philip sings, “Maybe you can use your powers to fix this mess!” Lily thinks and remembers she can summon rain, so she makes a thunderstorm occur right before her eyes. A raindrop falls on the tip of her nose and a burst of light comes into Lily and Philip’s view. Her pocket bursts open, and the crystal flies away into the sky. Lily feels a mix of many feelings and she is blinded by the light that has filled the sky. Time stops and starts a moment later. Lily does not know what has happened, but she knows her luck is changed by instinct. She can feel herself piece back together Chorus sings “It’s a miracle”

Resolution: Lily still wants to keep Philip. Philip is Lily’s companion, and she can’t leave him. Philip agrees that he has to stay and they both live at Lily’s apartment. It will stay that way forever and ever. Lily realizes then she was being superstitious and that the crystal mixed up her life. Now that it is gone, her life isn’t a jumble. Lily now knows that she not only changed because the crystal is gone, but because her life isn’t boring anymore. She has a squirrel to look after, and maybe the rest of the world too...

 

  

Music:

It’s a miracle (Chorus)

Nothing good happens here! (Lily)

Phillip’s Solo

Businessman’s solo

Max’s solo