Photo Reflection on the 2016-2017 School Year

This school year has gone by fast. I feel like it was only yesterday that I wrote a post about starting my 9th year teaching. Another set of students has come and gone, and I am left with some really great memories.

Here are some of them:

On the first day of school, we had a visit from Superintendant Michelle King.

Photo by Maya Sugarman, KPCC

She was very nice to the students, and I think it set a certain tone for the class: that we are a school to watch, and when we do great things, people notice.

There were lots of fun math lessons thanks to the awesome College Preparatory Mathematics Curriculum (CPM).

Students creating a dataset by examine the concept of tunnel vision.

Graphing inequalities using stickers

Students examine geometric sequences by using bouncy-balls

Students creating posters for sequences

Students measuring the height of the flagpole using tangent ratio.

Students creating a line, using their bodies as coordinates

We had great success in my MESA elective. First place in Prosthetic Arm, Egg Drop and Balsawood Glider in the Cal State LA regionals.

Testing bridge load by pouring water into a bucket

Learning to code arudino push buttons

First prototype of prosthetic arm

Drilling a mousetrap onto a Rube Goldberg launcher

One of the three prosthetic arms my students produced

The Prosthetic Arm Competition – 1st Place Winner

Launching Gliders

And of course, lots of other fun stuff:

Field trip to USC, shot with a 360 camera

Science Bowl Competition at Cal State LA

Students decided to name our two 3D printers Gryffindor and Slytherin

Student artwork portraying yours truly.

A lot of these memories are really only possible thanks to a lot of my readers. This year, you all helped me raise over $2,500 for my students on Donors Choose. This bought two 3D printers, 20 arduino kits, hardware for our maker space, and many math supplies. You made these memories happen. Thanks to your generous donations, my students were able to learn by doing.

And that is why I’ll end this post with a request: We are trying to raise just $123 more to fund our next project and we need your help.

We are fundraising for an adjustable-height presentation table. This will help students present in front of the class, no matter their height. As an 8th grade teacher, my students range in height from 4.5 to 6 feet tall. But when they come up to the front of the classroom to present their work on the overhead, they all have to use the same height table.

My students proposed that we fundraise for a table that will go up and down, allowing them to comfortably present their work to the class. The table we are asking for can easily crank up or down so any student can use it.

If you can donate any amount – $5, $10, $20 or more – we would greatly appreciate your support in making our classroom an inclusive environment for all presenters. Please follow this link to donate. Thanks!

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