My reading class is currently reading about Holes and learned a few weeks ago while reading that one of the characters in the book, Zero, was homeless before he came to Camp Green Lake. As a class, we discuss what it meant to be "homeless" and how different types of people can become homeless. We also discussed ways that we could help our community and contribute to helping the homeless, including providing for the "Souper Bowl" effort that Hannah More School put together to provide soup to the poor. Students took what they learned and their ideas to create letters address to various important figures including President Obama and Govenor Martin O'Malley. Also, as a conclusion, I had a guest speaker from our staff at HMS talk to the students about her family member's personal experience with being homeless.

As we've begun learning about the Revolutionary War, it was important that students learn about the important contributions of others not mentioned as much such as women, Native Americans, and African Americans during that time. Students learned about the important roles these people took during the Revolutionary War and created children's story books to display the information they learned. Students were VERY creative in completing this assignment, and we are all very pleased with the results! The students clearly learned and lot and and created a valuable tool to demonstrate their learning!

We have finally reached the last section of the Holes book and have a lot in store as we find out if Stanley and Zero find the buried treasure! We will be analyzing different types of conflicts, making spiced peaches ("Sploosh"), creating desert craft critters, and creating a commercial!

For the past 5 weeks, all of my science students have been actively participating in preparing for the STEM Fair. Students have explored each part of the Scientific Method through an example class project, and they are currently all working on their individual projects. Students have selected a range of projects from determining if there is a preference for video games based on gender to building volcanoes and rockets to making a marble "loop the loop" like a roller coaster.

Students are currently working on their research papers and can not wait to get started on their experiments! Their experiments should be started within the next week or two and completed before spring break.

For the past 5 weeks, all of my science students have been actively participating in preparing for the STEM Fair. Students have explored each part of the Scientific Method through an example class project, and they are currently all working on their individual projects. Students have selected a range of projects from determining if there is a preference for video games based on gender to building volcanoes and rockets to making a marble "loop the loop" like a roller coaster.

Students are currently working on their research papers and can not wait to get started on their experiments! Their experiments should be started within the next week or two and completed before spring break.

Students in my science classes have been learning about the steps of the scientific method in order to prepare for creating their own STEM Fair projects. I introduced the students to the Scientific Method of Madness rap song and challenged students to rap the song, or recreate it, and perform it to the class for extra credit. I had amazing results and many students were excited to demonstrate their musical abilities in science class! Some students had rap battles, others sang the rap, and some even completely remixed the song and played it for the class! I was very excited to see the outcome of this challenge! I had posted a link to the song below. :)

Last year was HMS's first Science Fair. This year HMS will be having a STEM Fair (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Fair). All of my science classes will be required to work in groups in class and submit a project for the STEM Fair. Students will be required to gather information throughout the week to work in class on projects towards the end of each week.

As of now, my science classes are learning about the steps of completing a STEM Fair project by me guiding them through an example project. Once students have learned about the necessary steps, I will begin to give students due dates for gathering information to work in class on their STEM Fair projects.

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].

Example STEM Fair Board

Students will participate in an example STEM Fair project and create example mini boards before beginning their own STEM Fair projects.

Now that the third quarter has started, the Skills for Success classes have switched groups. If students were in Social Skills for the first 2 quarters, they are now in Study Skills for the last 2 quarters, and vice versa.

Along with the class switches, Skills for Success now ends at 2:45, which is when Study Hall/Homework Time begins. Students now are given time for the last 20 minutes of class to work on any homework they may have for the night. This is in attempts to help students with homework completion, and to ensure that students can ask any homework questions they may have while they are still at school. I am very excited to say I have see good