Welcome
Hello and welcome! I was excited to start the first week of middle school here at ASA, and want to thank each of you and your students for being here! I'm so excited for our class and our year, and I hope you all are too. I'd like to give you a quick summary of some things we did this week, to keep you informed about what your student is doing in class.
Faith and Literature
In faith and literature this week, we started getting familiar with how to have discussions about complex topics. We brought up theosis, asceticism, and canons, and what each of these can show us about what our goals should be at school and in life. Of course, these are enormous topics, so they'll come up again! However, I wanted to start the year by reminding students that there is a real purpose behind the rules, requirements, and struggle of a school year. Learning is a process of growth, and we want that growth to be oriented toward God through good habits of mind and character that allow us to know and love the good, true, and beautiful.
Composition
We started our composition period with a few writing challenges and a mini grammar assessment, before diving into an analysis of one of Aesop's fables. Fables are great tools for working with character, descriptive language, and themes in writing. We'll continue next week by having students try their hand at writing a modified fable using Aesop as a guide!
History
We started our discussion of history this week by thinking about the importance of stories, and what makes something history. We began an exercise in telling personal history through a mini-autobiography that will continue next week, and is meant to illustrate the importance of stories in shaping experience and understanding, as well as what to do with multiple perspectives and accounts of an event. We will continue next week with some overarching skills in history (like understanding how to deal with times, dates, and cultures), and then begin discussing a bit of prehistory before we get to ancient Sumer.
Logic
We opened our consideration of logic this week by introducing what logic is, and what we mean by philosophy more broadly. The law of non-contradiction came up, so we also discussed the implications of that for human thought and the structure of the world.
Latin
We spent our Latin period this week reviewing some material on masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns, singular and plural, and adjective agreement. We also reviewed the numbers, and some Latin prayers. Moving forward, we'll begin some more formal Latin material, striving for a balance between grammar instruction and speaking/reading fluency.
Science
We kicked off our science by considering the role of wonder and questioning in scientific endeavors, and then cultivated a bit of wonder by exploring a virtual night sky. Moving forward, we'll be discussing stars and constellations, as well as some of the stories behind them.
Mathematics
Students began with a pre-test in math, to help me see where they are and what they already know. I was very proud of them--it wasn't a short test, but they were very diligent! I had mercy on them and didn't require the whole thing in one day, so we'll finish that up next week. My goal is to give the students the personalized attention they need to grow from where they each are. After the test, we played a fun and strategic math game (Corners), which proved quite popular.
Specials
Our specials classes haven't officially started yet, but since I was the Greek teacher last year, we were able to do a bit of review of the Greek alphabet. Students also had the opportunity for some artistic expression through illustrating their own class binder covers. Next week, Mrs. Northend will start our Music and PE!
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