The Fighting Flower

LaserTag

2009-12-19T18:21:00.000-08:00

What an amazing day we had going to laser tag. It was truly a gift to share such an enjoyable experience with the students the day before break. The white elephant exchange was also a blast. We had a lot of fun this last week.

We also did quite a bit of math and many of the students didn't finish their "Laser Tag Survey Questions" which was mostly about how to calculate percents. It wasn't my intent for this to be homework but some of the students did take it home to finish it.

I hope you and your families have a wonderful holiday season.

Sincerely, Nina

Spelling Words

2009-12-07T09:29:00.001-08:00

1. Antidisestablishmentarianism
2. Winter Solstice
3. Hanakkuh
4. Kwanzaa
5. Yule
6. Yule
7. Holidays
8. Christmas
9. Mistletoe
10. elf
11. Winter wonderland

Invasive Plants

2009-12-06T21:29:00.001-08:00

We're working on learning invasive plants. Here is a great video

The first few invasive species we'll learn about is English Ivy, Tree of Heaven, Himalayan blackberry, and Morning Glory.

Below: Tree of Heaven

English Ivy

Poison Oak (not invasive but darn good to know)
http://caopenspace.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/poisonoak.JPG

A video on invasive species brought by boat: http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg/segments/view/1648

NINJA DAY WAS AWESOME!!!

2009-12-04T12:57:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

If students were here they learned to make sushi, make shuriken out of paper, watched ninja movies, learn to roll like a ninja, meditate, or worked on their "Be the change" project. Thanks to a parent volunteer some students went to the library in hope of finding a book source for their "Be The Change" project.

It was a good day thanks for all the volunteers that helped.

There is some concern that Monday might be icy or snowy. As a reminder we follow PPS guidelines.

Nina

Text of the email I sent advising families:

2009-11-20T20:04:00.000-08:00

Dear Advising Families:

Wrapping up conferences. I've only had to reschedule two conferences and I have met with 15 families! If I have not met with you I we can meet after break. Reoccuring topics seem to be what classes to sign up for next semester, how to support students in the rest of their year, and what a great school this is! I'm looking forward to meeting with the rest of you after break. If I haven't met your student please schedule a conference with me soon.

What follows is a list of things going on in advising and around the school. I enjoy working with each one of your students and look forward to hearing about their holiday vacation.
I hope it is a wonderful break for all of you.
Sincerely, Nina

Service Project Friday:
I apologize for the extra laundry our field trip might have induced. We had a trip out to Oaks Bottom our service project site. Every third Friday of the month the middle school (and some of the high school) conduct community service projects. Our site is native plant restoration (Ivy removal) and eventually native species monitoring.

Stella, Ali and Andy did a great job of pulling invasive english ivy despite the cold. Sam and Clay deserve an honorable mention. Especially as Sam was wounded in action. All the students removed ivy and protected the native plants, good work!

Be The Change Project:
Students have chosen a be the change project for the semester. This project is a person, thing, or something that represents our “Be the change” theme. So far we have students researching several different civil rights activists, the Berlin Wall, documents that lead our country, and even movements such as the movements to start skate parks. Students will be asked to write a paper documenting the 5 W's (Who, What, When, Where, Why) as well as how this person (or thing) changed the world. For 6th graders the length is expected to be 5 paragraphs, for 8th graders it is expected to be three pages. Seventh graders are asked to come somewhere in the middle of that. They will be encouraged to challenge themselves to try to get to 3 page if appropriate for their skill level.

The week we get back, on December 1st I'll ask students to present their 5 W's to me. Many students have work files I printed off for them to be working on over the break. If they travel or are busy it is very possible that they do the work in class when they get back. It would be nice if they had it done though.

Bulb Sale:
One of the garden program fundraisers, the bulb sale, is happening right now. I'll be forwarding you an email about that soon. There are fliers about that at the school.

Intensives:
The week before Christmas break we have intensives, please contact me if you are available to volunteer to teach and lead a class or to even help out in the mornings. They are typically from 9am – 12:00 am.

Descriptions of what is an intensive:
Intensives are morning classes of a variety of topics. It is a week long (usually Monday through Thursday) class of a fun topic like pottery, painting, jewelry making, taxidermy, skateboarding, RPGs, board games, PE, and many other topics. Last year one of our advising parents led an intensive that produced a “Tree of Life” that now hangs in the hallway. During that week your students will go to advising for a short period of time, go to their intensive, and then go back to advising. I hope some of you will be involved. Many thanks again to Dana and Julie for helping with last years project.

Boxing Gym This Friday, Next Friday Service Learning

2009-11-13T20:34:00.000-08:00

Friday, November 13th we took a field trip to the Retallack School of Arms. It was a great trip and no one got hurt!!!! Trent offered a Trillium student discount for any student who joins the gym.

Next Friday we are headed to our service learning trip at Oaks Bottom to pull Ivy.

Harvard Prof. Explains Zombie Brain

2009-10-31T17:53:00.001-07:00

Harvard prof explains Zombie Brain

Spelling List/ Movie Picks

2009-10-26T08:21:00.000-07:00

Scary Movie List:
(These are all supposedly rated PG 13 or G, any rated R will be taken off list)
Also spelling words for quizzes. Please study and be ready for a quiz on any 10.

Scary Movie 3 – ____________________________________________________

Blades of Glory - ____________________________________________________

Invader Zim - _______________________________________________________

Pulse - ____________________________________________________________

Arachnophobia - ____________________________________________________

Drag Me To Hell – ___________________________________________________

Serenity - ___________________________________________________

Stand By Me (Old R, Nina will preview) ________________________________________

Karate Kid ___________________________________________________

Kung Foo Panda ___________________________________________________

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ___________________________________________________

Pokeman ___________________________________________________

F**K ___________________________________________________

Herbie Fully Loaded ___________________________________________________

New York Minute ___________________________________________________

Zathura ___________________________________________________

Jumondi ___________________________________________________

Titanic ___________________________________________________

Bambi 1 ___________________________________________________

Men in Black ___________________________________________________

Vacancy _________________________________________________________

Mural from our service day

2009-10-23T19:50:00.000-07:00

From the depths of Oaks Bottom we couldn't quite see the mural on Portland Memorial Mausoleum, here it is:

IVY PULL SERVICE DAY

2009-10-23T19:40:00.000-07:00

Thank you to the parent volunteers who helped us get to the training and then to the Friday volunteer work Ivy Pull. Thank you Dana, Michael, Shelley, Julie, and most of all Polly who coordinated the whole thing.

Portland Parks usually doesn't allow middle schoolers to adopt areas but they've allowed us to adopt parts of Oaks Bottom. The first priority is to keep Ivy and non-native blackberry away from the trunks of trees and then to work on the Ivy in the other areas. We pulled A LOT of English Ivy!!! We also visited the "pond" part and the mortuary.

Hilarious Wanda Sykes Youtube

2009-10-03T18:42:00.000-07:00

I know I always saying "that's so gay is bad" but this lady says it so much better than I do.

Nina's and Polly's Buddy Day

2009-09-26T22:06:00.000-07:00

Wow how these weeks have swept by!

Friday we took a trip with our kindergarten buddies. It was an amazing field trip with a science experiment at the park. Polly said she really enjoyed our group and was glad to have us. I was thankful that all the middle schoolers stayed with their buddies and had a good time. I really was amazed at how patient the middle schoolers were with their kindergarten buddies.

Throughout the year we'll take buddy trips to the library, to the park, do crafts, and other fun things.

Home Study Assignment

2009-08-23T18:47:00.000-07:00

Where did the summer go?

Well I hope you had fun.

If you haven't heard from me and we haven't had a home visit yet please contact me ASAP. (503) 807-7179.

Meanwhile, your home study project is below. Please read a prepare accordingly.
p.s. Don't work too hard, no need for a 20 page paper. Ten pages will be just fine : )
Nina

YEA!!!!! Your First Project for next school year!

You will need to present to your Advisory how you spent your summer. This presentation can be about any one part of your summer or encapsulate the entire thing. You get to choose what you present and how you present it, but present you will. Your presentation should not exceed 5 minutes. You will also need to be prepared to answer questions and comments from your Advisory.

There are many, many possibilities. Here a few examples for you to consider:

• demonstrate or teach a skill or game you learned
• write an essay that sums up your whole summer or a just few special moments
• make and show a scrapbook
• design a website or power point presentation
• present writings from a summer journal
• show a video of edited highlights
• write and recite a poem about your summer
• show-n-tell with souvenirs you’ve gathered
• any combination of the above or something you think of on your own!

Here’s a quick example of the sort of thing you might do: Let’s say that over the summer you trained your dog (or cat!) to do a new trick. You could present a video that showed your pet doing tricks it already knows as well as the new trick you taught. Then you could explain to the Advisory what other things you are planning to train your pet to do and why working with your pet this way is so rewarding for you.

Please keep in mind that this is a required assignment that should be a complete, finished work that reflects your best effort (best effort = neat, organized, proper spelling, etc). Not only will you be using your presentation to introduce or re-introduce yourself to your Advisory but it will be assessed as a part of your Advisory evaluation. If you have any questions please email or call your Advisor.

This assignment is due on the first day of school, Monday, Sept. 14th.

HAVE FUN!

Your Middle School Advising Team,

Amy, Kirk, Kurt, and Nina

Getting ready for camping trip

2009-08-06T11:11:00.001-07:00

I found a great video on howcast.com on how to cook for a campout. Great ideas.

How To Cook Seven Simple Recipes Over a Campfire on Howcast

Monster Year Book Page

2009-05-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

So we have thought about our yearbook "background" and thought monsters would be fun... well... lets see how far we get

SUGAR

2009-05-04T00:22:00.000-07:00

We recently found there to be 78 grams of sugar in one Arizona tea can.. the cans have become commonplace at our school.. and have been overindulged by some. In the below link you can learn more about all that:

PROJECT FAIR WAS GREAT

2009-05-04T00:02:00.000-07:00

Thank you to those of you who attended project fair. It was great to see you sharing your projects in Amy's room so we could see and read projects from other classes as well.

I enjoyed visiting with your parents and look forward to talking to you all more about your projects and how the process could be improved for next time. It was my first project fair so I am curious how you think it could be improved.

Thanks
Nina

Perch!

2009-05-03T23:45:00.001-07:00

Study these diagrams:
El Fin: just what are all those fins?

You can find more about our upcoming dissection here:
at teacher tube (like youtube but a little geekier

and the likely lab sheet we will use. Or this.

Project Fair

2009-04-29T04:14:00.000-07:00

The Project Fair is on Thursday night. From 6:30 until 8. We have performances of Africa drummers, musicianship, and more. Individual student projects will be on display in the advising room. In the case of computer demonstrations they will occur in the computer lab or on one of the computers in our advising room. I look forward to seeing you all there.

Worm Bin

2009-04-16T22:32:00.001-07:00

Collecting Data from our Worm Bin:

Service Day

2009-04-16T22:30:00.001-07:00

Photos of our students reading to our K12 buddy (younger) students:

Campout, MS Wiki

2009-03-30T07:01:00.000-07:00

Campout and middle school wiki:
Campout will be 41 miles Eagle Creek Overlook Campground on I-84. See the wiki for more information. http://trillium678.wikispaces.com/

Irwin's Passing

2009-03-30T05:23:00.000-07:00

Poor Irwin has passed. Above is a picture of our cat "admiring" the beautiful Hog Nose Snake. Unfortunately Irwin has passed. He was found dead in his cage. Hopefully he passed peacefully.

March Service Day

2009-03-21T17:43:00.000-07:00

Some of us volunteered on Friday. Some of us stayed at school to catch up on sleep, work on Personla Learning Project (Finally some computer lab time!!!)

Those of us who went to volunteer went to Oregon Food Bank or Friends of Trees. Thanks to Samantha for the doughnuts and volunteering her time!

Jackie and Hazel enjoy a moment of levity before getting to work.

From Left, Kyle, Zaine and Edan "suit up" at the Oregon Food Bank to pack food for distribution.

Community Service Day

2009-02-20T19:20:00.000-08:00

We started our day with helping our buddies (the students in Billy's K12 class) write words to go with their comic strips. Zoe is in the first picture and did an AMAZING job of getting two hyper girls to get their comics done. What is neat to see is our middle school students teach the younger students how to spell or write a word. They are gentle, patient, and guiding.

We then went on a beach clean up. We learned about marine debris then went down to Swan Island's McCarthur Park. We collected 62 pounds of marine trash and a tire that was 45 pounds today!!!

We then went on a beach clean up. We learned about marine debris then went down to Swan Island's McCarthur Park. We collected 62 pounds of marine trash and a tire that was 45 pounds today!!!

Thanks so much to Polly for arranging our transportation.

We will likely need help transporting students for our next trips. She plans to help us arrange these trips on the third Friday of the month. (March 20, April 17th).

Our tentative campout in the Salem area is May 13, 14, and 15th. If we have enough parent volunteers I was thinking of renting some kayaks or canoes. Please let me know if you have any interest in joining us and helping with that aspect. We're thinking of Champoeg state park.