Category Archives: Weekly updates 8th

Weekly updates

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If you are interested in being updated weekly as to what is happening in our classroom, please click the link below to take you to all the weekly updates written thus far.

Weekly updates link.

Additionally, on a weekly basis, groups of students will be taking notes during class concerning what we cover and discuss.  This ongoing note taking process is just that; an ongoing learning experience for all students.  If you want to follow along with our progress, please head to this link to find out more.

 

Week of 10/16 update:

Shalom,

 

Hello eighth grade families!  I hope you and your family enjoyed the last of the short weeks for some time!  We are now in the thick of it; approximately five full-time weeks until Thanksgiving Break.

 

The last few week’s activities were full of exciting academic opportunity.  We spent a fair bit of time covering the Bill of Rights and what each amendment means.  Additionally, we focused a great deal on application (after all, knowing what the Fifth Amendment is but not how it can be used is not very helpful).  We surveyed numerous examples, mostly from real-life situations.  Additionally, students began playing a game (it is an educational game, although it is fairly entertaining), called Do I Have a Right – Bill of Rights Edition (https://www.icivics.org/games/bill-of-rights).  This game comes from an educational company called I-Civics.  The beauty of this game is it provides students with upwards of 60 real-life scenarios related to the application of each of the first ten amendments.  Students have to put their knowledge into application.  After students complete the game, a detailed report is available (to which they need to send to me), showing which amendments they struggle/succeed at.  I then take that information and modify any assignment/assessment based on their needs (for example, if someone struggled mightily with the 4th amendment, on their next assessment/assignment, I will favor the 4th amendment and pepper them with questions).  Feel free to challenge your child to this game and see who knows the Constitution better.

 

As for our plans this week, they are fairly simple.  We will continue to address and focus on The Constitution; focusing now on the amendments not located in the Bill of Rights (meaning 11-27).  Students will continue to practice throughout the week identifying which amendment is being used and how to apply each amendment.  On Friday, we will have another quiz related to the amendments.  Next week is going to bring us into unchartered territory in that we are going to be working on a project.  In collaboration with approximately 20 other schools in the Milwaukee area, we are going to partake in a “personal journey” documentation process.  Each student will be creating birdhouses (does not need to be functional), which represent one’s journey.  This birdhouse will incorporate facets of each child’s immigration journey (as they continue to explore in Jewish Studies), their Jewish journey (as they continue to explore in T’fila), and their American journey (as they continue to explore in Social Studies).  This project will be ready for display in the art gallery (housed at Bruce Guadalupe) by Thanksgiving break and should be an amazing opportunity for our students.

 

Please be mindful of these upcoming events.  On October 18, students will be serving breakfast at The Gathering.  The individuals that usually attend breakfast are homeless and it is our opportunity to help those in need within our community.  On October 23, the 7th and 8th grade classes will be involved in an event with Milwaukee College Prep and Bruce Guadalupe at MJDS.  The program is put on by an organization called Serve2Unite; which brings people of different cultures/races/religions and teaches them how to better work together and bridge the cultural gaps.  The students are very excited about this!  Additionally our next St. Ben’s trip is on Monday, October 30.  Also, starting next week, each student (in groups) will be responsible for taking notes in class.  These notes will be taken each day and will focus on numerous aspects of class.  Selfishly this helps keep informed those that miss class, but it targets a skill many students struggle with (note taking).  Eventually the notes will be made public on my blog so stay posted for that.

 

If there are any questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know and I will be happy to address those issues with you.  At any point you do not understand what or why we are doing something, I will happily have that conversation with you.  We all want what is best for your child and together, we can make that happen.

 

Thank you,

 

Noah Kaufman