Week 9

 Weekly Greetings!

Last week started off with a visit from Sargent Bitz, from the Alaska State Troopers in Tok. The class has been working on a paper in writing about what career they might want to have in the future. Some of the students were interested in some line of law enforcement, or the military. I thought it would be nice for Sargent Bitz to share about why he went into the troopers, and what it really takes to be in law enforcement.  He did a great job, and the students had a lot of good questions.
A couple of days later on Wednesday, the class participated in an instant challenge activity through AK Teach. The instant challenge was designed to practice the Engineer’s Design Cycle with a partner. After a short introduction, each group used the understanding of the center of gravity to construct a cantilever. The students worked in pairs to use only the materials provided to construct a cantilever. They were given 10 pieces of paper, 2 feet of masking tape, a glue stick, and some paper clips to create the longest cantilever that could balance and extend off their desk their desk. The cantilever could not be attached to the desk. Two groups were able to build a cantilever that was 21 inches long. The class listened while other groups in Kodiak shared about what worked or did not work in their designs, and then some of our students shared what worked for them.
Then on Friday, we had a visit from Tim Lorenzinzi of the Tetlin Refuge to share with the class about trapping in Alaska. He discussed different fur-bearers found in the state, and had a variety of tanned hides to distribute for the class to look at and touch.
 In addition, he had a wolf skull and a few difference types of traps to explain how to catch the animals. Once again the students had a lot of good questions.
We are almost to the end of the first quarter, and over the next week and a half there will not be any spelling for homework. Instead, there will be a grammar sheet attached to the math facts nightly. Furthermore, the school has a number of programs that have been purchased for students to practice  concepts taught in the class. If your child has access to a computer at home, and you would like the information to log on so your child can do more practice, please contact me for the websites and passwords. One really good program that the students can practice math facts, strengthen math concepts, or work on reading skills is mobymax. All the students know how to log onto mobymax and you can access it at: mobymax.com/signin 

Have a great week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

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