Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Airplanes - a 5th grade science lesson in building experiments

The fifth graders in Pam Brierre's science class started the year practicing their experiment and data collection skills. They built paper airplanes and then created measurable experiments to test their questions and hypotheses.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Creative Collaboration!

Ms. Quinet's and Ms. King's humanities seniors delved into Gunter Grass's "Tin Drum."  After reading and discussing the novel, groups worked together to research various German artists of the WWII and post-WWII era.  
The students were then able to use Prezi, a user-friendly, on-line collaborative tool.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Digital Photography and Cottage collaborate

AP art student Antoine B. collaborated with Mrs. Nan Hyatt and Mrs. Allison Fresneda to create a set of class portraits.


Sunday, August 25, 2013

Latin & Instagram

Middle School Latin students have been using Instagram to capture "real world" examples of Latin in an effort to show how this ancient language and its legacy are all around us. Feel free to follow their discoveries:  #stmlatin2018 and #stmlatin2019.





Saturday, August 24, 2013

"Flipped" Classroom Lessons

Pronouns (6th Grade English)



Nominative Case (7th Grade Latin)
 


Substantive Adjectives (8th Grade Latin)

Middle School Latin - Merging an Ancient Language with Modern Technology

The original version of the St. Martin's 7th grade Latin blog (from 2005) was not much more sophisticated than a Roman wax tablet. 

See for yourself: The old version

The present-day version of the blog, however, is bursting with information and resources designed to provide an exciting, twenty-first century approach to the traditional study of an ancient language:

St. Martin's 7th Grade Latin Blog

Here, students can find course documents, homework assignments, reminders, review games, supplemental materials, music, trivia, polls, and much more. This year, Middle School Latin is also experimenting with a "flipped classroom" approach. Homework consists of watching lessons recorded by the teacher and posted to the blog, while class time is dedicated to reinforcement and collaborative practice. In addition, students use Padlet (www.padlet.com) to share etymological discoveries, mnemonic devices for learning vocabulary, and links to other apps/resources that may benefit their classmates. We have only begun to scratch the surface!

Friday, August 23, 2013

Active AIM Language Learning in the Middle School

If you visit a Middle School French or Spanish class this year, you will experience an exciting research-based language program in action.  The AIM Language Learning Program is always in action and so are the students! The AIM Language Learning Program guides students through the process of using French or Spanish in class and encourages no English in the classroom.  The vocabulary has been carefully selected as essential for students during the initial stages of language learning.  Another component of the program is the Gesture Approach, a technique that uses hand signs to help students learn and remember important vocabulary. Teachers gesture every word and grammatical concept for the students to "see" and learn.  This approach engages the students and helps keep them active in the class.  This year is sure to be a wonderful one for French and Spanish students.



If you would like to learn more about AIM Language Learning, please visit http://www.youtube.com/user/aimlanguagechannel or http://aimlanguagelearning.com/