Today is the last day of school, and I would like to applaud our scholars and families for making it through distance learning so gracefully! In these uncertain and unprecedented times, we have joined as a community to ensure the success of our scholars, and I could not be more grateful to our families and scholars' effort and dedication to their education. Here are a couple of pictures from a virtual class session for our 7th graders on their History DBQ Unit: Should we celebrate the voyages of Zheng He?

Although we did not get to share our culminating display for our Project Based Learning unit in the way we had originally envisioned due to COVID-19 this year, we would still like to showcase our effort! This year, middle school's focus was guided by the question: How can we inform our community of free available resources?

Below are pictures of some groups working together on their research. A list of the community organizations we selected as part of our project are also included. 

- Police Athletic League: Offers assistance with homework  
- Blessings in a Backpack: Provides students with nutritious food for the weekend 
- Rounders MMA & Boxing: Teaches the martial arts 
- Juvenile Justice Education Together (JJET): Informs students about how the law and how the court system operate 
- Midnight Mission Shelter: Offers a safe place as well as resources for those seeking shelter and other necessities 
- Women, Infant, & Children (WIC): Provides nutritious food and vitamins 
- Hop Skip Drive: Offers transportation to students 
- Orange County SPCA Kindness Kids: Teaches how to act safely and responsibly around dogs. Also, offers pet therapy services 
- Parent Education Classes: Teaches parents how to support their children in various situations 
- You Matter Too: Provides mental health care to parents with children ages 0 to 11 
- Women & Youth Supporting Each Other (WYSE): Empowers young women as they make important life decisions 
- New Song: Provides a safe place for families who live in crowded and risky areas 
- Project Foster: Supports foster families as they navigate traumatic events 
- Second Harvest Food Bank: Provides meals to those in need 

This week, we celebrated Holi, an ancient Indian festival of colors that marks the beginning of Spring. The holiday also encourages people to reflect on their year and erase any negativity that they may find. On Tuesday, the day of Holi, I shared the history of the festival as well as what it looks like in present-day India. We then did an activity with colors where scholars used straws to blow paint to make abstract art on cards. Inside the cards, they wrote either a letter for themselves or to someone else about having a new beginning, forgiving/forgetting, or mending a broken relationship. Students put their hearts into the activity, and I loved watching them connect with their work in such a meaningful way. 

This week, scholars wrote their final essay for their DBQ unit on TheAztecs: Should Historians Emphasize Agriculture or Human Sacrifice? The last step of the process is to read a peer's essay and provide him/her with detailed feedback using the given rubric. I was very pleased to observe students taking their time to thoroughly review their peers' essays and give one another meaningful feedback to help their classmates produce the best work that they could. It gives me great pride to see the hard work they are putting into their learning and education! I look forward to reading their final essays after they use their peer's feedback to edit and submit their writing. 

Duke is extremely proud of Gabriel S. for receiving the Wooden award for Skill this month! Gabriel works very hard to make sure that he understands the academic content taught in class and produces high quality work to represent his best efforts. He is a true scholar and we hope that he can lead by example. 


 

On Tuesday, some of our 7th and 8th grade scholars (and their families!) volunteered their time at the Second Harvest Food Bank. Here, we had the opportunity to sort and pack food for those who don't know where their next meal is coming from. After the event, we were told that in just one hour we had packed enough fruit for 1,792 families! We had a great time taking part in this event and hope we have the opportunity to go back and serve our community again. Special shoutout to our Duke scholars, Lester G. and Valeria V. for joining! 

Congratulations to Luis T. and Giselle F. for earning the Fitness and Action Wooden Awards for the month of January! Every week, Luis pushes himself mentally and physically in all sports and strives to do better than the week before. Giselle is always prepared and ready to learn and deliver in all her classes. We are so proud of their accomplishments - keep up the good work! 

Today, Emily L. and Gabriel S. were asked to lead a lesson on how to write a body paragraph in an informative essay using their paragraphs as an exemplar in their respective groups. These students demonstrated leadership by taking ownership of the assignment and, most importantly, supported their peers with their writing. Scholars were engaged and took notes on writing tips that Emily and Gabriel shared with them throughout the lesson.