Fearless!
It’s no secret how much TCS loves Halloween. Our students have been prepping and planning with the utmost zeal for the middle school-led Halloween Carnival. I’m a self-proclaimed Halloween fanatic myself – I live for all the spooky stories, movies, and aisles in Target. It got me thinking about why we get so much joy from the creepy festivities and this largely fear-based holiday. For me, I think it’s an obsession with facing fears. As someone with her fair share of anxieties, it’s not just entertaining to engage with the darker side of things, it’s invigorating. To slow down and peer into the darkness is to take a minute to understand the ‘other,’ to interrogate why we’re scared, to solve long standing mysteries, to shine a light on what was previously hurtful.
Forgive me for lingering on the spooky, but I promise this connects to middle school! Middle school can classically be the time when anxiety rears its ugly head or the scary coming of age moments hit, but I have to brag on the fearlessness of our students. Our kids tackle intimidating, advanced academic concepts with thoughtful questions and a growth mindset. They approach scary conversations about peer conflict with grace and compassion. Daily responsibilities that other kids consider ‘painful’ are met with cheerfulness. We have our moments where the ‘jump scares’ of life might get the best of us (who doesn’t?), but I can’t help but notice an impressive pattern of bravery in our kids. May we take some inspiration from them this Spooky Season!
MK
What’s happening in Social Studies?
Eighth graders dove deeper into their Industrial Revolution unit this week. Students looked into the origins and the scale of the Industrial Revolution through multiple media sources. Students then took on the Gap Minder Tool website to compare some lesser developed countries with the United States and UK. Students ended the week by discussing the Global Transformation of the Industrial Revolution and comparing two different countries, Japan and Egypt.
Next week, the students will be working through the deindustrialization of India and how India and Great Britain impacted each other through this process. Students will then be asked to focus on that topic as they progress into their first DBQ project.
What’s happening in ELA?
This week in 8th grade, argumentative writers further specified their arguments by choosing a sub-topic within the world of tech and video game issues. We engaged again with the typical research process while also adjusting our tone, strengthening conclusions, and paying close attention to proper formatting. In grammar, we examined imperative sentences and adverbs.
Next week, 8th graders will finish their subtopic arguments and prepare to present them as engaging speeches to their classmates. They will also study linking/action verbs and direct objects in grammar.
What’s happening in Science?
Eighth graders are finishing up their Rube Goldberg machines. One group has accomplished their task, which happens to be pushing down a button that says, “That was easy.” Ironically, they made a very challenging thing look easy by being the first group to finish. They also contemplated the purpose of daylight savings time and whether we keep it due to the “Hamster Wheel Hypothesis.” Do we keep it just because we always do it?
Next week, the eighth graders will fine tune their machines and make a presentation that explains the physics behind the chain reactions.
What’s happening in Math?
This week, 8th graders wrapped up Unit 2 with a test on Wednesday before diving into their next unit with categorical data and relative frequency tables. Next week, they will explore the relationships between both numerical and categorical data before creating linear models to represent a set of data.
Important Dates:
October 31 – Halloween Carnival (½ Day)
November 1 – Teacher Work Day (No School)
November 9- 2pm Rube Goldberg Presentation
