Creation vs Evolution
In the Month of March the 9th grade Bible class began a deeper study into how God created the world. It was an interesting discussion on the differences between evolution and creation. The students were able to look at both perspectives and as a result the students were presented with creation by God.
Mr. Racoma
Celebrate
After all the hard work the students did learning their dances, we decided to celebrate and have a party!
Mrs. Rosario
Soccer
The students have been learning how to play soccer. They have been doing drills in how to guide the ball with only their feet. They also had drills on how to kick the ball and be goalies. After all our practice, we made teams and had fun playing games.
Mrs. Rosario
Christmas Program
Besides doing the basic warm ups and stretching, the students also did pushups and sit ups to be ready for certain dance moves. They also learned to do cartwheels, the splits, and handstands. They worked in small groups and as a large group to learn various dance routines. For the Christmas program the song they danced to was Incredible. Other groups also danced to Joyful, Joyful, and Holy Visitation. They used both the big and little flags in their performances. It was powerful.
Mrs. Rosario
Volleyball
Students learned how to bump, set and serve in volleyball. We ran drills until everyone knew how to bump the volleyball and also how to serve the ball and get it over the net. Then we had fun playing a volleyball game against each other.
Mrs. Rosario
Powerpoint Presentations
10th grade prepared for the Regents by refreshing their memory on everything from the Neolithic Revolution to the Cold War. Students made Powerpoint presentations on the various themes of history such as nationalism and imperialism, golden ages and revolutions. By teaching each other, students learned their own topic more thoroughly while other students benefitted from their knowledge.
Miss Schutz
Ethnic Conflicts
9th grade ended the year discussing ethnic conflicts of the 20th century. Students made a current events journal to become aware of what is happening in the world today. We also discussed the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Iranian Revolution, and how third-world countries try to grow and develop. With a foundation in why different groups clash, students are able to analyze the current conflicts with an understanding eye.
Miss Schutz
Diversity
One of the most fun (and challenging) parts of teaching is the interaction with so many different personalities every day. What I noticed at the end of my journey with the tenth graders this year was the clear collective homeroom personalities that arose. It was cool to see groups of students go from kind of knowing each other at the beginning of the year, to being a unit at the end. One student said she was happy that her friends were in different homerooms because it gave her a chance to connect with new friends. Why is this important for English class? Because of the diversity of opinion, background, and interest, I noticed a wonderful variety between the classroom discussions of the same novels and newspaper articles. 10R usually bent towards political discussion; 10W would often become a spiritual discussion; and 10S focused more on personal experience in relation to the novel. As the year progressed, students took more initiative in the group conversations. I had one student who would come in with a current event in mind, eager to talk about it and hear other students’ opinions. It was neat to help the students find what they are interested in and help them express their thoughts, in verbal and written words, with more clarity and confidence. As their teacher I am excited to see the tenth grade move up in the high school ranks, and will be interested to hear about their growth next year–in new groups, with new novels, building upon their hard work from this year.
Miss Miller
Learning from the past
Many people wonder about the importance of reading. Some may ask, why should I read books by dead guys who lived over a hundred years ago? They can’t possibly know anything about my situation. The question can be met with the Biblical truth: there is nothing new under the sun. This is one of the most important lessons ninth grade students learned in English class this year. Good and evil existed thousands of years ago just as it does today. So did love, joy, peace, war, loyalty, etc.–the human experience didn’t start when this generation was born. One novel that the students read was Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. Students had to respond to the following quote, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless. They were challenged to see the influence of important novels, like A Christmas Carol, or Romeo and Juliet, and see how these novels were meant to entertain and engage; change laws and change hearts. It was exciting to watch the light bulbs flick on during class discussion as the students made connections between the different novels and stories we read during the year. Students will move on to tenth grade with a broader appreciation of literature, and hopefully a new perspective on the ability for people today to learn from the past.
Miss Miller
3D shapes!
This month we built building and used dimensions to calculate area, volume and surface area of common solids. Beginning with cubes and pyramids we started laying a foundation for cylinders, cones, spheres and more. Learning by discovery helped us to simplify long equations and many formulas became similar ones.
Miss Stahler