Day 5 of Quarantine. First week in the books. 

No one ever plans for these types of things to happen, however,I can assure you that the University of Hawaii and all the 5th and 6th graders were ready and prepared for this! This week, our first week of remote learning, our Scholars showed up everyday in our Google Hangouts, on their Google Classrooms and finished their work like MVPs! When they needed help they phoned a teacher, attended a virtual class or even had one-on-one Google Hangout sessions during open teacher Office Hours. Not even a Pandemic can keep these high achievers from wanting to be their personal best. Warriors, Eagles and Bruins, I am so proud of you for your commitment and adaptability during this time. Let's keep up the amazing work!

Last week we finished up our Geometry Unit, which is the last Unit of 6th Grade Math! We have officially covered all new 6th grade material and are ready for review and test prep! CAASPP here we come!

Last week we finished up our Geometry Unit, which is the last Unit of 6th Grade Math! We have officially covered all new 6th grade material and are ready for review and test prep! CAASPP here we come!

In our classroom we use a personalized learning approach that tailors instruction, expression of learning and assessment to each student’s unique needs and preferences.We use blended instruction to combine face-to-face teaching, technology-assisted instruction and student-to-student collaboration to leverage each student’s interests for deeper learning.

Students want their education to adapt to fit their needs and interests, rather than trying to fit into a one-size-fits-all mold. Personalized learning meets each student at their individual level of knowledge and learning style, boosting engagement, motivation and, ultimately, success.

We use tech tools like Deck.Toys, Hyperdocs (playlists) and google forms. These classroom structures and practices meet scholars where they are and intentionally move them forward by offering choices, building confidence, and providing customized learning opportunities.

Check out our self-paced, competency-based learning in action!

Sometimes the best lessons are the ones you don’t plan for! This lesson was supposed to be a Volume task cards assignment but thanks to rainy day schedule it ended up morphing into a ‘grab a box and a yard stick’ kind of assignment. Students loved walking around the room measuring the dimensions of boxes and finding the volume. 

At the end of the lesson I picked 5 students randomly  and told them they get to build a castle out of the boxes while the rest of the class found the total volume of the Castle. It was a great ending to a lesson!

Chocolate chip cookies aren't just a favorite after-school snack. They're also a rich source of statistical data! Today we kicked off our Statistics Unit with some Chips Ahoy! Each student crumbled a cookie and counted the number of chips. We collected the data from our classmates and found the Range, Mean, Median and Mode. 

The number of chips matched what we expected statistically, but not what we know intuitively.The students did not expect individual cookies to be that different, but they are! This example shows that variability is all around us, even in something like mass-produced cookies. 

Congratulations to our October Pyramid of Success Winners Giselle Pacheco and Alyssa Lopez. Keep up the great work!