Conferences: Thank you for making time in your schedule for Parent, Student, Teacher Conferences. We felt that we had productive conversations and outlined progress and goals for the remainder of the school year. If there are any questions that have arisen regarding the conference, please give us a call or email us. Thanks!

Civics:

We have had a busy and interesting week!

On Monday, we traveled to Port Orchard where we sat in appellate court and observed the proceedings under that watchful eye of Judge Bono. We were witness to several cases that dealt with harassement. One interesting case had to do with two teens who had taken restraining orders on each other where allegations of those orders had been violated. Students got a chance to “see” how a courtroom works and to understand the complexities the cases we heard.

Tuesday saw us traveling to the Lakewood City Hall to meet with one of the city prosecutors – Mike McKenzie. A good portion of our time there was spent discussing the role of city government and how the City Hall functions. Mike talked about the work that he does as a prosecutor and the variety of tasks a associated with that job. We also got a chance to sit in on the proceedings of the Lakewood Municipal Court.

Yesterday, Renee Maher, executive director of COMPASS and a representative of the Seattle Police Guild, came to school to talk with the students about the process of how an idea becomes a bill which may become a law. She created a great simulation for the students to participate in that illustrated the complexities of that process. The simulation gave students an idea of how compromise, mutual support, and the importance of relationship development play in the political process.

Next week, we will be visiting with the Mayor of Tacoma – Marilyn Strickland and observing a City Council Meeting. Several representatives will be visiting with students as well.

TUESDAY 3/23 we have an expectation of students attending a 5:00 City Council Meeting. Students will have the option of staying at school after the 3:15 p.m. dismissal and going to an early dinner with Toby.

All students will need to be back at the Middle School by 4:40 p.m. to attend the 5 p.m. City Council meeting. You may retrieve your students from the Middle School at 6:15 p.m. Thank you!

Destination Imagination: You may have heard that one of our Middle School D.I. teams is headed to East Wenatchee for the State D.I. competition March 27! Congratulations to Team Vampire Flying Tortoises, as well as Team Duct Tape who took second place at the regional competition March 6!

St. Patrick’s Day: We celebrated with zany green outfits and a breakfast-for-lunch of green eggs and ham! The consensus was that they were simultaneously disgusting and delicious.

Science Fair: Thank you to everyone who came out to see the science fair yesterday and/or last night! We had a pretty fantastic turnout, and it was great to see you all there supporting the kids.

The projects our students are doing have been steadily improving every year, and I heard from so many people last night how impressive and ambitious the projects are getting. I think our students did a great job, too, from the design of the projects, to the research and research papers, to executing and presenting their experiments. I’m really proud of them, and a huge thank you to YOU for supporting the kids as they worked their way through this project.

Math: The students have been working hard on some really complicated subjects this week and doing a great job. A lot of the students are working on different methods of solving proportions, but one large group has started a very cool unit on geometry, including all kinds of angles— alternate interior, corresponding.. remember those? fun— transversals, and finding the interior angles of regular and irregular polygons. Ever wonder what the measurement of an interior angle of a 20-gon is? I can’t count the number of times I have. Ask your son or daughter! (Offer only applies to students working out of the green Course 3 book.

Social Studies: Now that the play has concluded and Science Fair is behind us, we are getting back on track with the writing of our Tacoma history research papers. We will review these works in progress at the conferences.

Civics: Students have learned a lot about our system of government and how it works. On Monday, we head to Olympia to see the legislature in action as they conclude their session.

A HUGE thank you to Brenda Bono who has contributed so much to this unit – from initial research, to teaching the students, to making arrangements to have students witness their government in action, to providing a perspective that is rarely provided to students. When you next see Brenda, please thank her for all that she is contributing!!!