Month: March 2019

Monday 3/18/2019:

On Monday in Mr. Greenberg’s Quest class, we had our final Socratic Seminar about the topic we chose the week prior. Each section had its own question ranging from serious topics to not so serious topics. My section’s question was: How has the US approached international issues with violence? Specifically, in Vietnam. Section X’s question was: What impacts do wealth and technology have on modern warfare and the people involved? In Mr. Gornto’s Humanities class we were given time to write our essays based on our lit group’s book. In Science, we finished a worksheet where we had to spell words using abbreviations for elements on the periodic table. We also had to figure out where elements are found in the earth and what they can be used in. Monday was a busy day in Quest.

By: James

Proofread By: Haila, Dinah

Tuesday 3/19/2019:

In Quest Science, we watched a video of a really energetic woman talking about where elements can be found, and what makes up an element. In Mr. Gornto’s Humanities class, we were given more time to work on our essay. However, in Mr. Greenberg’s Humanities class, we reflected on all of our previous Socratic Seminars. The night before we were tasked with completing the log: Reflect on your experiences over the past several weeks learning about and engaging in Socratic Seminars. How do you think this experience has strengthened you as a learner and your class as a learning community? Describe what left the most lasting impact on you (new skills, challenges, articles read, and/or questions). My section decided that Seminar helps with public speaking because you have to present your ideas in front of a group; using evidence from the text, and preparing for essays. I think all in all people enjoyed seminar more than a regular class which made this unit fun.

By: James

Proofread by: Dinah, Haila

Wednesday 3/20/19:

Today in Quest: Humanities, both Greenberg and Gornto, we worked on our book group essays. The goal of this project is to write an essay to answer a question your group agreed on. The question must be tied to character, theme, or another main idea. Today, some people finished their essays and were having other people proofread them. Other students were still finishing up their drafts and reading them over themselves. Some groups’ questions are: How have Xian Li-Lin and her father, Xian Zhengying, changed over the course of the book? (Makayla B., Isabella B., Katherine, and Maggie); How does friendship affect survival in The Passage? (Noah and Bella D.); and How does Memory find out the truth of her parents’ murder? And how does the absence of the killer affect the book? (Haila, Moses, Marina, and Nick S.). Although everyone did their own essay, there was a lot of proofreading and combined work in groups, and some between groups. In Quest: Science we had a study hall, which gave us even more time to work on our essays. Overall, today we worked hard on our essays in all three Quest periods.

By: Maggie

Proofread by: Haila

Thursday 3/21/19:

In Mr. Gornto’s Quest Humanities today, everybody was hastily working to finish the literary groups essay that was due at the end of the day. We had to write in the third person and in the present tense. The essay was on the reading groups that we had been working with for the past two weeks. Others who had finished their essay were helping peer edit other students work. If students had done their essay and did not peer edit they would use that time to do work in a grammar book. These pages were not due immediately, but we will come back to them after spring break.

In Mr. Greenberg’s Quest Humanities, we had the time to finish the grammar work that we still had to do. We had a conjoined class with Mr. Gornto during this period. People working on their essays would go to Mr. Gornto’s room, and if you had finished that you would go to Mr. Greenberg’s classroom. If you had finished both the essay and the grammar, Mr. Greenberg would give you an article to read. It was an update on Climate Change. If you read the blog quite often you will know that we had a six week unit where we learned about Climate Change and its effects.

In Mrs. Bruvik’s Quest Science, we played periodic table bingo. Section Y missed Quest science for Meeting for Worship. We have been working on the periodic table for two to three weeks. We have been learning the uses of these elements and their names for the past several weeks. If a student won in bingo, they would receive candy if they wanted.

By: Nick Mandrackie

Proofread by: Haila

Monday 3/11-

       Today, we did many things in both Quest Humanities and Science. In Science, we studied the periodic table and the Hindenburg, an airship in the 1930’s that exploded in Lakehurst, New Jersey. We watched live videos of the explosion and explored how and why the ship blew up. It was because they manufacturers of the ship used hydrogen, a highly flammable gas, it caused the explosion because of a reaction to oxygen. We also learned about the periodic table, we explored the different groups in the table such as metals,non metals, alkaloids, alkaline earth metals, transition metals, and more. In Humanities, we had a Socratic Seminar about a question our entire class agreed on. Our question was: “How is race portrayed in film and how does it affect society?” Before, we analyzed several sources that helped us find evidence to support our claims to answer the question. Our classmates proposed questions and supported their opinions with evidence from the text. Overall, today was a very eventful Quest day.

-Alicia

Proofread by Tori

Tuesday, 3/12- In both Quest Humanities and Science, we did engaging activities that allowed us to reinforce knowledge on what we were learning about. In Greenberg Humanities, we conducted a Socratic Seminar debrief in which we discussed topics such as how well we reached our class goal and how well we stayed true to our norms. Each student responded to these questions in their notebooks and then had the chance to share their thoughts through way of seminar. This was an effective activity because it allowed us to analyze what we are already doing well, while also thinking about what we can do better for future seminars. After our debrief, we then held a mini seminar allowing us to further respond to our question: How can music affect your views of different races and ethnicities? Can music portray cultures in a negative way? Even though many of us did not speak and there were not as many ideas to be shared, this was still helpful because we were able to dive deeper into our topic. In Gornto Humanities, we continued work in our literature circles. During this period, we were able to finish any reading, write and respond to discussion questions, come up with log entries, and get anything done we felt we needed to accomplish in our reading journals. Some of us were even beginning to brainstorm possible essay questions. In Quest Science, we continued our work on the Hindenburg and the Periodic Table. We watched videos on the Hindenburg exploding and talked about why it happened and how people learned from the disaster. Then we watched a video that briefly summarized who first came up with the Periodic Table. We learned that Russian Scientist Dmitri Mendeleev developed the first Periodic Table of Elements, though our version today differs from his original. We also saw how Daniel Radcliffe can rap all the elements, which was pretty interesting to see. At the end of the science period, we started an activity that involved coloring the Periodic Table to distinguish between the different types of elements. However, we were not able to finish the activity. Every Quest class we had today allowed us to learn more and go deeper into topics to strengthen our understanding.

By: Katie

Proofread by: Haila

Wednesday, 3/13-During Quest Science we continued studying and learning about the periodic table in a fun and creative way.  We filled out the table and colored it in according to its groups. We would divide the groups by types of metals, nobel glasses, and other groups.  When color these tables I think it is a good and fun way to study it instead of staring at a paper with all information. The colors will also help us remember the groups and elements. In Quest Humanities Gornto we added to our reading journal continued reading and analyzing our books.  Our books and the leading is project is a good experience because we get to take leadership. I feel it is good that we are in charge of our learning and we make our questions and logs. We learn how to manage ourselves and finish our work. This week we were working towards finishing our book and discussing the books for our reading journals.  In Quest with Greenberg all sections were picking topics for Socratic seminar based on the classes interests. Our questions were based on us so it was easier to be more engaged and have opinions. Our first topic was technology and how it affects. The next one was how technology changed warfare. Socratic seminar really helped us learn and grow with using evidence.

By: Asha

Proofread by: Ava

Thursday, 3/14- During both periods of Quest Humanities today, we were able to continue working on assignments due in the future while also preparing for Socratic Seminars coming up. In Greenberg Humanities, we received our articles that we will be reading to prepare for our seminar on Monday. The question we will be answering is “Why has the U.S. approached international issues with violence? (Vietnam War).” The articles we are reading will help us better understand what started the Vietnam War and how we could have approached the situation in a less violent way. We look forward to the seminar on Monday when we can share our thoughts and opinions on the topic. In Gornto Humanities, we have been working on the same material we have been formulating for the past two weeks or so. Every literature group has been working on their individual reading journals (due on the 18th) and some groups are beginning to think about writing their essays. There are many components that go into a strong reading journal, so it is important that we utilize those Quest periods well so we have no trouble with writing our essays and completing our journals thoroughly. During science, we finished coloring our periodic tables. Each color  represented something different in the table. For example, if we shaded in many boxes with a green marker, that green area could be labeled as non metals, metalloids, and metals. -Katie

Friday 3/15/19:

On Friday, in Quest Science, we finished coloring our periodic tables. Afterwards, we did a worksheet that help us figure out how to address elements on the periodic table by their atomic weight, their symbol,and atomic number. Meanwhile, in Quest Humanities, we continued work on our reading groups, finishing our reading journals to eventually write an essay based on theme, conflict, character, and other topics. We also prepared for our second Socratic Seminar by annotating and writing margin notes in articles that were used to prepare for our Seminar topic. -Alicia

Monday– No school (teachers in-service)

3/5/19 Tuesday– In Quest Science, we had time to finish our graphs. The graphs are about PCB Levels in whales. After we finished the graphs, we worked on a crossword puzzle about the periodic table. In Quest Humanities with Mr. Greenberg, we received our Europe maps. We must color them in, label them, and label the oceans and seas. This assignment is due this Friday. We also each made a log question for the class. We must answer one of them as homework. In Quest Humanities with Mr. Gornto, we have a book project as a group. We each take turns making discussion questions and a log question every 80 pages of the book. The book my group is reading is Divergent. We answered our discussion questions and answered the log question.

–Matthew

3/6/19 Wednesday– In Quest humanities with Mr. Gornto we still continued to keep reading our books until the strict deadline which is on the 15th of March. The book our group is reading is No Hero. We also have more grammar work to do for the night what we are learning in grammar right now are participles. We each write our log questions and discussion questions to help us prepare for a major upcoming project about the

book we are reading in class. In Quest humanities with Mr. Greenberg, we did another seminar with the whole class. We first reviewed our logs and sharing what we wrote down about why the question that we chose was very deep and thorough. For the seminar, we discussed which questions the class chose most and made more questions for the questions.

For quest science with Mrs. Bruvik, we started to begin learning about the periodic table of elements. We watched and learned about a catchy song about the elements then we did a fun activity which was trying to spell out as many words as we could with the element symbols.-Jonathan

3/7/19 Thursday

Today in quest science we did a word search to find as many elements from the periodic table of elements. The person who found the most words on the word search was Alicia Leung in section Y. (picture below)

In Quest humanities with Mr. Greenberg, we were annotating articles about how racism has been shown in movies and how have things changed. We had to annotate 3 articles to get enough information for our Socratic seminar. For Quest humanities with Mr.Gornto, we read our books and also reviewed our discussion questions and looked over our logs. We also went over our grammar books.

-Jonathan

3/8/19 Friday

      Today in Quest humanities with Mr.Gornto we are still our books in our literature groups and this is great to see what others think about your book. With our groups, we are all figuring out ways to best understand the book. Eventually, we will have an essay to show we understand the book. Today in Mr.Greenberg’s room we are continuing to read and annotate our articles given to us on Thursday. We are still using one of the four-note taking styles. We are to finish annotating the article by Monday so we can have our Socratic Seminar. Today my section in Quest Science we had to read and use one of the four note-taking styles learned in Mr.Greenberg’s room weeks prior. We are to take notes on the four different pages in our Science textbook for the open note Quiz on Monday. In Conclusion, we had a very eventful day in Quest.  -JJ

Proofreaders: Ryan, Nick

Today in Quest Science, 7x did a soluble experiment. The experiment was quite simple. Groups of two or three would simply draw a dot with a certain color on it and put the piece of paper on top of a pencil above a glass of water. We let the paper soak for about 5 minutes until we saw the color start to stretch out on the paper. The end result was seeing all the colors that made up that one color. For example, if you were to do blue in this experiment you would see different shades of green and yellow. 7x had a lot of fun doing this experiment and we hope to do more things like this in Quest Science again soon. We also worked in our book circle. In every class there is a new leader who gives us questions and leads the discussion for that class period. Students are able to spend time discussing as well as asking questions about the book during that time. After that, they move on to reading their self-assigned pages.

-Nicholas

Section Xs lab on chromatography

7x also got in their literature groups this week in quest humanities. We were assembled into small groups and each group will read a book of their choice. Then 7x will come up with a topic for an essay that they will write once the book is completed. The literature groups  will then make a whole presentation on the book as well after the essay is completed.

-Nicholas

On Thursday, February 28th, we missed Mr. Greenberg’s class because we had Meeting for Worship. In Mr. Gornto’s class, we worked with our book group to go over questions that we had regarding the books we are working on. We also were able to discuss the log book prompts or just start reading the next assigned pages. In each literature group there are 3-4 people. Our peers liked that we got to choose what book they got to read with their group. I personally love reading and it was great having the choice of which book I was going to read for the next two weeks. In science, we started doing a lab, where we were supposed to help solve crimes by using a technique called chromatography to find out what kind of ink was used in a crime.

On Friday, the 29th, in Mr. Gornto’s class, we worked on our book again. Mr. Gornto was there to assist everyone as needed and checked in with each group to see how they were doing. In Mr. Greenberg’s class, we did a Socratic Seminar, based on an article about if college athletes should be paid. A Socratic Seminar allows each person to speak up and voice their opinions while providing evidence to support their idea. The teacher does not get involved in the discussion, it is led by the students and they are able to build off each other’s ideas and ask questions. We were able to get feedback from our peers on how we did during the Seminar in order to improve for the next time. We also had a logbook to follow-up on the Socratic Seminar to put our thoughts down. In science, we were given an article on on Wednesday about killer whales and how they maybe going extinct because of pcb levels. We had to make a graph about it and answer questions. Since we were not able to finish everything on Wednesday, we were given time on Friday to complete the work. We were also told that we are going to start the new unit on the periodic table and were given word searches on elements.  

-Skyla

Section Ys book selection                  

Monday was a very packed day in Quest Humanities. In room 204 we were introduced to our two new topics for the first formal socratic seminar.  A socratic seminar is when the students have a lengthy, well prepared discussion on a topic that is well researched. The teacher may not get involved in this conversation, as it helps us a s students with independence. The two topics we had to choose from was the conflict in Venezuela and paying college athletes. From there we had to read the articles, annotate, take notes for the real discussion the next day. In room 215 we were introduced to our new literature circle groups, and chose what book we would read for the long project coming up. A literature circle is a our class divided into small groups. Our groups are based on genre, and our whole class filled out a sheet to pick what they wanted genre to read. In the groups we start with planning our schedule of how we will approach the next few  weeks. Everyone in the group that you are assigned to read the same book. Throughout the class we discussed on what book we would be reading and came to conclusions to be ready to start planning and putting it in action on Tuesday.

-Moses

On  Tuesday, we began our  student led socratic seminars. In my class the college sports article is what was discussed. As it was half and half, on who chose which article.  During the socratic seminar there is an outer and inner circle. In the inner circle, the students are talking about their topic. On the outer circle the students are observing, listening, and filling out rubrics on a student on the inner circle. The discussion is generally 20 minutes, and after its over, the outer circle talks with the inner circle on how they did. They are usually  assessed on how they get involved, if they use conflicting systems when they speak, body language, etc. In room 215 we started planning when our group discussions will occur, what the reading deadlines are, and who will lead the daily discussions. This helps us stay on top of eachother, and make sure work gets done. This helps us with accountability moving forward in our academic careers.

-Moses

Proofread by Maansi and Bella