Team Job Groups

On Thursday, our newly formed Team Job groups presented themselves to the Learning Community.  The purpose of the groups is to help our learning community run safely & efficiently, to help everyone achieve, and for everyone to feel included and cared about.  Each group had to write their Mission Statement and create a list of their Responsibilities.  The groups are:  Clean Team, Snack Team, Compost Team, Bulletin Board Team, Tech Team, Garden Team, Energy Team, Celebration Team, Wellness Team, Team-Building Team, Supply Team, and Team Council.

Click here to see pictures of the Teams!

Chefs-in-Training

A few of our students have recently been assigned a job to be in charge of our team's fresh fruit and vegetable snack and composting.  Then, they got a special opportunity to work with our principal, Ms. Cavallo, and our Farm-to-School Coordinator, Mrs. Smith, to prepare, from scratch, a fresh lemon-blueberry salad dressing for the Open House meal.  This group had a lot of fun and were so proud to show off their finished product - the Dynamic Design teachers even got a special preview tasting!

News from Language Arts

In Language Arts, students are presenting their first major book project, a "Book Trailer" about their independent summer reading book.

Created by Nick

Week 4 Stuff

Last week, our students were introduced to the United States Constitution.  Beginning with the Preamble, they broke it down into parts, translated it for understanding, and then drafted their own lines with similar themes to serve as the Dynamic Design Constitution.  From small groups with many ideas, they all came together to choose the best lines to write one DD Constitution.

Parent/Student Contact Information Sheet

Please take a moment to fill out this brief information sheet regarding your child
Parent/Student Contact Information Sheet

Student Voice & Choice in 21st Century Thematic Learning

Dynamic Design uses a Student-Led process for 21st Century Thematic Unit Planning.  This allows students to have voice and choice in their learning, as well as getting them more involved and invested to take ownership of their learning.  The outcome of this process is a thematic unit plan for each of our three major trimester units in science and social studies.  This week, students developed Essential Questions for deeper understanding and complex thinking and design the culminating events for each theme.  This year's three themes are:

Out of this World (Earth, Space, Technology, and Engineering)

What's the Matter? (Physical Science)

We The People (Government, Citizenship & Economics)

WIN Time

WIN time in September is being used for NECAP preparation.  Here, a group of 8th graders work on Data, Statistics, and Probability with Mr. Laroche.

Energy!

Today was all about energy!  The day featured some cool moments of cool energy!

As part of our 21st Century Thematic Unit Planning, Designers got a preview of solar-powered circuits in action.  We are quickly learning that Mr. Citro is full of energy, and brings some awesome science ideas and demonstrations to life.

Mr. Citro and the students observe two different solar-powered circuits in action.
The fans really turned in the sun, but stopped turning as soon as shade covered the panels!

Our whole community was also full of energy this afternoon, so we played a fun outdoor game - Ball Bobble - to continue building community and getting comfortable with each other.  There was lots of laughter to end our week!

The girls' group playing Ball Bobble (without talking!).

Have a Great Weekend, Designers!  See you Monday to begin Week 3!

Parent Information Night - Tuesday 9/17/2013 at 5:30pm

September 5, 2013

Dear Dynamic Design Parents & Guardians,

We are holding an important informational night for parents on Tuesday, September 17th, 2013 at 5:30 pm in the Dynamic Design classrooms.

In addition to meeting the new Dynamic Design teachers, this information night will cover Dynamic Design procedures and expectations, including behavior expectations, classwork/homework/assessments, communication between home and school, accessing the Dynamic Design website and other school resources, and so forth.

It will be helpful for your son or daughter to attend with you, if possible.  We look forward to meeting you, and we hope this night will set our Dynamic Design students on the path for a successful year.

Please call us at school, 527-0565 (x2011 or x2013) with any questions.

Regards,

The Dynamic Design Team

Nick Citro - 21st Century

Claire Draper - Language Arts

Luke Laroche - Mathematics

Briana Maguire - Special Education

Writing in Dynamic Design

As an introduction to the elements of fictional text, groups of students tried to write the "longest" story on a scroll of paper.  After sharing their stories, students talked about what was necessary for good story-telling such as an introduction "hook", characterization, rising and falling action, conflict, and more.

Raeanna and Skye present their loooooong story!

RACE, NECAP & STEM, Oh My!

Week 2 is under way!  

On Tuesday, students presented their "All About Me" projects, then wrote a constructed response reflection on the prompt, "How does getting to know each other build community and a sense of belonging (use examples from our first days together in your response)?"  This was a nice way to transition into NECAP prep with constructed response writing and the RACE model!

On Wednesday, we began our Student-Directed 21st Century Thematic Unit Planning by brainstorming questions about our first big theme, Government, Citizenship & Economics.  In the afternoon, students were introduced to the idea of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Learning by tackling a design challenge.