Mr. Mills Blog

First, I wanted to send my appreciation out to all of the teachers, parents, and students who made it to school this past Tuesday and Wednesday. While I feel the conditions could have been treacherous for many, I was happy to see that students still came. That says a lot about how important learning is in our world. When bus service was canceled on Wednesday, I asked one girl who I knew took the bus how she got to school. She said, “My dad drove me. He said, ‘My daughter is going to get her education.’” Of course, I’m paraphrasing, but it wasn’t that far off.

Also, I’m looking forward to the African American History Fair tonight. I missed last year because I was out of town, so I’m looking forward to the festivities tonight. This weekend, I should have pictures up on the Murray site here.

Finally, before I talk about this week in fine arts, I wanted to mention a cool online game I was introduced to this week. The Blueprint Game is pretty simple to learn but maddening to master. Plus, in this day and age when kids want to play games, I think it is fun and, dare I say, educational. Basically, you have to move the ramps, blocks, and other items around to make the bowling ball hit the target. Try it out!

Okay, let’s talk fine arts. The 3rd graders began working on Windows Paint this week. Personally, I like to experiment with a program when it is new to me, so I let the students try some of the tools on the Windows Paint program this week. I was impressed by their attention and interest in this basic program. I’m looking forward to working with them on it more in the coming weeks. Mr. Brookins class will work with Windows Paint next week. They have missed a couple class periods because of a field trip and the visit from the student teachers last week. We will back on track after next week.

The 4th graders are still in the middle of their CAPE project. We intended on the students going outside to take pictures this week, but we decided against because all of their pictures would be white, so we adjusted. Instead, we gave them a bunch of strange objects on their table to they could arrange a still-life and take a picture of it. The students were disappointed we did not go outside, but I think they will be pleased with the results of their still-life pictures. They had very creative ideas! We also had a choice for their second picture. It could either be in their classroom or the old computer lab. Next week, we will definitely be going outside to take pictures. Cross your fingers…

The 5th graders began painting their grid this week. We talked about value and gray scale which is not an easy concept to grasp. Each student was given a small sheet of paper with a grid similar to their grid, but it was already filled in with different grays on them. Each gray corresponded to a certain percentage of black. They needed to match the grays to the correct percentage and then write it on their grid. Those percentages corresponded to a certain percentage of purple paint. They needed to go around the room and paint the correct percentage of purple in each square. Why are we doing this? Each of these grids is a piece of a puzzle. If it is done correctly, we will be able to piece this puzzle together to reveal a face. The kids are curious…which is good. I’m looking forward to the results.

The 6th graders are chugging along with their world language math games. I’ve been impressed with their involvement and self-sufficiency with this project. They finished up their rough drafts this week, and now, they are moving on to the final. The final goal is that these games can be used with other classes, so they have to make sure it works correctly and the rules make sense.

Hope to see you tonight and once again, enjoy the long weekend!