Number 22

Old military housing Angel Is.

View of the City from the top of Angel Is.
pictures courtesy R. Emerson

Bumpy road at Langley Middle. Still sorting out the workable and the not so much. Computing remains choppy particularly in regard to the online yearbook site where we are supposed to build the book; connection is slow and unpredictable. The theme of the book is as yet unestablished and in fact there are no real ideas although we have taken a couple of runs at brainstorming one up.

5 new computers have arrived for library and general use. We really need 10 times that number of new student workstations but all indications are that we are not going to be getting much until after the first of the year.

On the bright side new textbooks for English/Language Arts are here or almost here and they will provide some shiny new opportunities for reading and writing instruction once all hands figure out how to integrate them with existing resources and teaching styles.

My English 8, sometimes known as Humanities 8, students and I are finding our way into the American colonial era with the novel Johnny Tremain. We will be sharing personal Life Graphs this week in preparation for creating same for the main character in that story. We will also be selecting a non-fiction book this week to get another point of view on that time period. And we will be adding another post to the student blog either as a free write activity or a response to the reading, or maybe if we can find the time, both.

Speaking of blogs, the Publication class work group that is responsible for The LMS Weekly blog site may go live by Friday with their first edition. I will post the web address when the creators let me.

The other Publications groups, Video Yearbook and Video Productions, aka That LMS Friday Show are still struggling to find their footing and dealing with time and technology issues but the first Friday Show will happen this week one way or the other. Video Yearbook is of course a long term project with no product until May, hopefully they can finish before that and go on to something else by early next year. Publications really needs to be a two hour class and I am going to propose to the members that they need to put in some time outside of class, before school, at lunch or after school, if they want to produce quality work. Also as they learn the ropes of digital production they will get more efficient and faster.

Ramona, my daughter, who recently moved to San Francisco, did a little documentary project on Angel Island in SF Bay which is the destination for the LMS Adventure Education classes' Spring trip. We have pictures of the ferry from downtown out to the island and shots of the campgrounds, views of the city, old military installations (think Fort Casey with more sun) to get the kids excited about the prospect. Next she will try to figure out a public transport method of getting to the Point Reyes National Seashore from our basecamp on Angel Island. Or she will get a job and we will have to figure it out for ourselves.

Until next time...