Grade 8 activity stream

mgelbart commented 10 months ago

Hello! Below you will find updates from VISST teachers regarding Grade 8 courses.

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mgelbart commented 10 months ago

Welcome to Math 8!

As the Math 8 teacher at VISST this year, I would like to start by briefly describing my philosophy of math education. As you may have discussed with Shaun when you toured the school, one of the values of VISST is to be progressive yet rigorous at the same time. In my experience, one often finds one or the other of these traits, but more rarely both.

How will VISST math be progressive? In some ways, VISST math will be very progressive. I like talking about our feelings towards math. Is it fun? Boring? Does it make you anxious? During the first few weeks it's important to me to establish psychological safety in the math classroom. I want every VISST student to feel safe being vulnerable in math class, because learning requires making mistakes! If a student feels that they might be embarrassed or shamed when they struggle, their learning efforts will be curtailed. While this is true for all subjects, I feel this is especially important in math as math anxiety is common among students (and, in fact, many math teachers as well). I aim to uphold strong behavioural norms of students supporting their fellow students.

Once a safe environment is established, we can learn math much more effectively than via "anxious math". Students in my class will often find themselves working on boards, answering questions, sharing ideas. When students see each other's work, they will spot mistakes, suggest improvements, and discuss alternative solutions. Throughout this process, students will build justified self-confidence (one of my favourite phrases, as you may know) in their mathematical skills. One day, students will leave the nest and may find themselves doing technical work in a variety of environments, including less supportive ones. My goal is to get them ready through justified self-confidence.

How will VISST math be rigorous? As you may know, the standards in math have been declining over the years. Just grab a few BC math textbooks from different decades and you'll see the trend. Or, ask any old-timer faculty member at UBC how the preparation of incoming first-years has changed over time. In my case, "grabbing an old textbook" is more than just a thought experiment -- much of my Math 8 curriculum is based on out-of-print Singaporean math textbooks from the 1990s. I have mapped the various chapters to the topics in the BC curriculum, and also add in my own flair, including "math appreciation". My math class is challenging, but doable. And most importantly, it tries to guide students away from the notion of math as just memorizing formulas and procedures.

For more about my approach to math, check out my blog posts part one and part two from the VISST blog, which describe how math is connected to the real world, as well as our "math appreciation" program.

Let the math begin!

mgelbart commented 9 months ago

This week we completed our unit on fractions. Here is an example of the type of worksheets the students encounter in class.

Next week we're on to decimals. We are starting from the beginning but moving quickly. For students who are already familiar with the content, I try to supply advanced content or have them work on past math contest papers, which are good preparation.

Yesterday we had our first math appreciation class. The format here is exploratory and much less prescribed than a regular class. Yesterday's topic was about patterns, specifically the number of enclosed regions formed when a circle is divided like so:

As the number of points grows to 5, a clear pattern emerges, but then is unexpectedly overturned with the addition of the 6th point. I always enjoy defying the students' expectations. It's a good reminder for them to stay curious and always keep questioning.

Lots of interesting discussions emerged. Attila discovered that the locations of the points on the circle may affect the number of regions, under certain circumstances. Marcus really got into drawing the patterns. Many students learned that being messy isn't just an aesthetic issue, but actually can cause real problems with the mathematical process!

It's interesting to see the students' reactions to this type of class. I'm happy when they complain that "this isn't math!" It takes some adjusting to the notion that math is not just a tool but also an art.

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yhuangteacher commented 9 months ago

你好 (nǐhǎo / hello)! Here is the first post for Mandarin 8. This course is an introductory course for students with no or little Chinese language background. Students will learn basic Mandarin communication skills using simplified Chinese characters and the pinyin phonetic spelling system. By the end of the course, students are expected to recognize at least 200 Chinese words, do a short self-introduction (both orally and in written form), and conduct basic conversations in Mandarin. Through activities such as field trips, guest lectures, and research projects, students will also gain exposure to different aspects of Chinese culture and how they connect to our local community.

During the first few classes, students learned about the Chinese language system, pinyin, basic Chinese character strokes, and simple phrases such as hello (nǐhǎo) and goodbye (zàijiàn). Students also voted on topics they are most interested in learning in Mandarin. The top choice was food! So far, we've learned how to say some of students' favourite food items, such as pizza, sushi, curry, cookie, burger, and chicken. Topics of students' interests will be incorporated throughout the course.

Last week we did a 15-min walk around the school to find Chinese characters. Below please see a few of the photos students took:

Attila: Attila_1 Attila_2

Beyza: Beyza_1 Beyza_2

Kiera: Kiera_1 Kiera_2

Michelle: Michelle_1 Michelle_2

Rina: Rina_1 Rina_2

I look forward to an exciting year of Mandarin learning with the students!

-Erica

mgelbart commented 9 months ago

We have completed our unit on decimals in Math 8. Tomorrow (Sep 26) we will have our first test, on fractions & decimals. In class last week we discussed different perceptions and reactions regarding math tests. The students shared their negative associations with math tests, sometimes inducing physical symptoms of stress. I noticed this reaction in students who have at times struggled in math but also in students who have typically excelled at math. I try not to inflict unpleasant experiences on students without justification, so we discussed the reasons why tests are worth having. The students focussed on tests as a tool for me to assess them. I shared with the students that the test results are useful information for me, but they do not impact how I view or value each of them as a person. This is a very important point to me, as sometimes our sense of self worth can be affected by exam scores, and I want to avoid this at VISST. I also shared the many other benefits of tests beyond assessment, such as the information students gain about their own understanding, the learning experience of the test, and the motivation it provides.

Part of the stress from timed exams comes from the time pressure aspect. In Grade 8 I try to let students take as much time as they need. If they would like to arrive at school before 10am to start early and have more time, that is fine with me as well. At this point, measuring their speed is not important to me. In general, speed is not important to me; however, speed is very important in university exams, so our students will need to be trained eventually. But I think this can wait until later in high school. I will ease them into time pressure.

Finally, the structure of my math tests is 3 parts: review, new content, and optional/extending. The purpose of including review questions on every test is that tests communicate to students what we as teachers value. I want to avoid "cramming" where students learn for the test but then do not retain that knowledge/understanding. By having concepts reappear on tests repeatedly over time, I signal to students that I value retention, and hopefully that they should value it too. The second part is the regular test content. The final part is optional and signals the higher level of work I expect for students "Extending" in the subject.

ledworthy commented 9 months ago

Students in English 8 are sharing first drafts on an I am From poem with each other.

ledworthy commented 9 months ago

Art Program: Anya Chibis is the artist who works with grades 8 and 9 students in our Art program this year. She brings great talent and experience in many areas of art including her work as a documentary filmmaker. Currently we are working composition and applying new skills to a number of iterations of a collage.

PalomaCor commented 8 months ago

The students have been seeing the scientific process in action and have been busy developing and conducting simple experiments. Through this, they have been practicing how to ideate (question and hypothesize), create (experimental procedure), and ‘solve’ (results and conclusion) scientific questions. We have also been practicing graphing, as this is an important skill to be able to visualize and interpret data.

Through repeated trials, the students tested their ideas on why coca-cola sprays out of a bottle when mentos is added. What I enjoyed most was seeing how sure they were about their ideas at first and then seeing their confusion when their tests didn’t show what they expected. The students also practiced developing their own procedures by figuring out how to answer the question: “Which bubble solution makes the biggest bubbles?”. We got a little messy in the process, but it was great to see their excitement once they figured out a method that allowed them to successfully blow large bubbles. They worked on a full lab report for the whirly bird lab, learning about the need for repeated samples to reduce the variation in the data. These experiments are fairly simple, but I find that the richness of the experience comes from the creative and critical thinking required, as the students have to develop their own experiments rather than following a set of pre-made instructions (they will have lots of opportunities to follow instructions in later chemistry labs!).

The students have been printing their posters highlighting scientists from different fields:

The students are starting the Earth Science unit now, learning about plate tectonics. We will be visiting the Pacific Earth Museum on Monday and hopefully participating in a volcanology workshop at SFU once they reopen.

ledworthy commented 8 months ago

Reading books of their choice in a Humanities class is new to many of our students. However students tend to read more and to develop into critical readers as they learn to look for books and authors they enjoy. They also become critical readers through book talks and workshops on what makes different genres of writing effective. In class they have time to read and talk about their books with partners or groups. These talks are often filled with strong opinions and laughter .

mgelbart commented 8 months ago

The Grade 8s continue to be an enthusiastic group! I am really enjoying teaching them math. Today a few students will take their first math contest in school, the Caribou Contest. The contests are optional and not part of the Math 8 course. Tomorrow students will have their second math test of the year, on negative numbers, squares & cubes, square roots & cube roots, and the order of operations. For those working on the Extending-level content, the topic of square roots gave us a nice opportunity to think about imaginary and complex numbers, i.e. what happens with $\sqrt{-1}$.

Next week we will start algebra, one of the most important topics in the course and also something that can be challenging for students. A big goal for me is to have students complete the course with a strong grasp of algebra and proportional reasoning. We will be working hard on these topics during the coming months!

PalomaCor commented 8 months ago

The students visited the Pacific Museum of Earth at UBC, learning about minerals, fossils, and earthly movements. They completed the PME’s scavenger hunt with some of the students getting pretty competitive to try to find all the answers during our short visit. I found it interesting to learn that despite knowing its harmful health effects, Canada continued exporting asbestos until 2018. The students really enjoyed the augmented reality sandbox that projects colours from blue to red depending on the height of the sand mound that the students created.

The students also contributed to VISST’s grade 10 class by answering a survey about their experience at the PME. The grade 10s are working on a project to improve the user-experience of the Omniglobe at the museum and are using some of the feedback from the grade 8s to guide their work.

Thank you to our two parent volunteers for supporting this trip!

yhuangteacher commented 8 months ago

你好 (nǐhǎo / hello)! Today, the Mandarin 8 students did their poster presentation on a local shop where they can use Mandarin. The places students chose include a Chinese restaurant, a noodle house, a hot pot restaurant, and a Chinese supermarket. Students shared what they learned about the place they researched and presented Mandarin words they thought would be useful.

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We have now officially wrapped up the first unit of Mandarin 8. So far, students have learned the full pinyin (Chinese phonetic spelling) system, basic greetings, name introduction, and how to count from 1 to 99 in Mandarin. Continuing on the theme of food, students also learned how to say, “I like to eat + [food item].” so that they can apply what they learned from the poster project today!