The Home Stretch

 

Wow- this has gone really fast and kinda slow at the same time. To paraphrase a friend of mine, "Time is sorta sticky this year!"

For a very un-normal year, we've done a lot of great normal school stuff. In math we've covered most of the big units and are now playing pedagogicl LEGO: Why just do integers and fractions, when you can groove on negative fractions? Why just do handshake problems (irony accepted) when you can look at tournament brackets and game theory?

In our writing we've worked on fluency and creativity, but now we're concentrating on clarity. How to write in ways that one's audience really groks our ideas?

Science and design have collided in our Rocket project. We're taking over the airspace above SIMS (yes, Nav Canada knows about this) and are learning about fuels, aerodynamic, ballistics, and when to duck*.

Over all, this time is about becoming ready for next year's challenges. Grade 7s will be off to the new junior programme at GISS. 6s are going to have their very own school for a year (and the SIMS teachers for next year are already plotting crazy, amazing, and wonderful things). Both groups are going to fantastic places!

Housekeeping items:

1. Phones. Kids need to ask before pulling them out. Starting tomorrow, if I see one unexpectedly it will be going to the office. You can imagine why this crack-down is happening... the class is tired of me ranting about distracted-learning. 

2. Masks are becoming an all-the-time-indoors thing. I've reminded kids about masks about 1000 times so far, and I just received a new batch of 1000 free reminders from Dr. Henry. When they're gone, I don't know what I'm going to do.

3. As a natural response to all these rules, a few kids have adopted the philosophy of "What can I get away with?" instead of "What should I be doing?". This makes it.... boring. 

Time spent policing behavior is time NOT spent being creative and having fun learning.

If you read all the way to here, you deserve that little thing you reward yourself with. I had been using sour gummy bears, but it reached Trainspotting levels of disfunction. Had to switch to tea.

Thanks, folks. You all send really nice humans to SIMS, and it makes everything worth it.

*Be calm, be kind, stay low.