This week, I’ve been reflecting on the power of teamwork. As the students prepare for the Halloween Carnival next week and continue working on projects, I remain impressed. Cooper School students can artfully navigate the tricky situations that naturally arise when collaborating with others. Passionate opinions and strong emotions can sometimes make teamwork challenging, but I’ve seen our students draw on what they’ve learned from middle school meetings, SEL lessons, and experiences with previous teachers to problem-solve and find solutions together.
In my short time at The Cooper School, it’s clear that this ability to work collaboratively is truly at the heart of our school’s ethos. Teamwork isn’t an afterthought or a bonus; it’s an intentional decision, modeled by teachers and staff and explicitly taught to students. It not only helps us achieve common goals but also encourages us to look beyond ourselves to notice, celebrate, and support others.
There’s something truly beautiful about seeing our middle schoolers come together, celebrate one another’s successes, and work toward shared goals as a team. Watching them collaborate these past few weeks has truly been a gift to my soul, and a wonderful reminder of the strength and spirit of our community.
-AB
ELA- 8th graders continued to learn principles of photography this week, namely framing, foreground, midground, background, and how to add tension to photos. These same concepts were applied to bursts of creative writing. Photographers played with the schools new mirrorless cameras, taking some of their first photos with these lessons in mind. Our unit will end with a student exhibition of photos and writing on 11/7 at 8:30 am in the library. Go ahead and mark your calendars! 8th grade had a vocabulary test on Friday and can expect to get grades back next Wednesday.
Next week, students will learn the rules behind lighting and mood in both their photos and writing, while also culling images and writing pieces for the exhibit. We will also begin our 3rd grammar unit.
Science- This week in science, our 8th graders kicked off their exciting Rube Goldberg machine project! Together, they decided to collaborate on building one large, class-wide machine. Students worked as a team to design detailed plans, create materials lists, and identify all the forces and simple machines that will bring their invention to life.
Next week, the real fun begins as students start constructing their Rube Goldberg machine and putting their creative ideas into motion!
Social Studies- The eighth graders will continue to learn about the Latin American revolutions that were inspired by the American revolution. These revolutions came thanks to us and completely reshaped South America and many of the countries around the Caribbean islands. Next week they will choose one of these countries and research them similarly to what they did with the ideas of the revolution project. We are also getting ready to mail our letters to our local senator to try and change the statues inside the Capital building.
Math- This week in math, 8th graders continued to use their knowledge of transformations to prove/evaluate the similarity or congruence between two figures. We spent some time with transformations to help us formulate some conditions for triangle similarity.
Next week, we’ll begin applying the Pythagorean Theorem, a skill we mastered last year, to help us prove right triangle similarity and congruence.
Important Dates:
- October 31 – Halloween Carnival (½ Day)
- November 3 – Teacher Work Day (No Students)
- November 6 – 7th Grade History in Proportion Presentation (2:00pm)
- November 10-11 – Parent Teacher Conferences (½ Days)
- November 21 – Harvest Feast (½ Day)
