I find myself in an abandoned ship once again due to extremely cold temperatures. A perfect time for a long blog post.
The past few weeks have been wonderful at Lake Harriet Upper. On Saturday, January 11, there was an exciting robotics tournament held here. I was amazed at the number of teams we have and the quality of their work. For those of you who haven't seen it, students work in teams to research a topic and devise a solution that would help (this year it was natural disasters). They also have to program lego robots to complete tasks on a large table. While doing all of this they have to live up to the core values of the tournament and learn to work successfully as a team. It is quite a challenge. All of the teams I saw had done excellent work, and throughout the day I noticed that students were supportive of one another.
The following week, our top teams moved on to the MInneapolis tournament. After competing in five categories, four teams from Lake Harriet are headed to the State Competition on February 8th at Washington Technology Magnet School in St Paul – The Rubies, Live Breathe Robots, Jenius Joules and Fuego My Eggo. Congratulations to all of our fine teams.
On January 16 we had our first middle school dance. It was put together with the help of many students and Gregg Townsend, a parent volunteer DJ. It seemed to me that everyone had a wonderful time. I was very happy with the amount of dancing that the students did. Sometimes in middle school dances students stand around on the side, but at our dance the students were actively participating. At one point we did the Cupid Shuffle and the Cha-Cha-Slide and had over 200 students involved. It was fantastic. For students who find these events to be too loud we had the media center open for reading or playing board games, and the lunch room was used for snacks. I was very happy with the way it turned out and I look forward to our next dance on May 9. That one will be held after school so we will be looking for parent volunteers. More information to follow.
Finally, Lake Harriet Upper is once again going to send a group of students to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, April 10 - 14. This is a partnership activity with students from Olson Middle School. Fourteen of our eighth grade students and two chaperones will be driving in a coach bus to Alabama with stops along the way at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and the Field museum in Chicago on the way back. New this year, our students will have an opportunity to visit Olson Middle School and Olson's students will visit us before the trip. It should be a great opportunity to learn about science, visit two major Midwestern attractions and learn more about our own city at the same time. The entire trip (with the exception of some food costs) is paid for by a grant from the Office of Equity and Diversity. Thanks to Robert Rand, a district office area learning center coordinator, for making this happen.
Well, I have just been informed that there will be no school on Tuesday, January 28, either. So stay warm. I look forward to seeing everyone back here on Wednesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment