My City School - Blog

Wonderful Winter Learning

11/15/2021

The weather is turning colder, but that doesn't mean our learning has to freeze! We've been doing some great hands-on work in Science to help stretch our brains, and truly start to understand the world around us.

Recently, we took an amazing trip to the Academy of Sciences to study genealogy and beneficial traits. Students got to interact with exhibits showcasing different changes in geological makeup, and watch how beneficial mutations stay with certain species throughout their evolution. It's such a great opportunity to see this stuff in person and interact with it, and really helps to connect the dots from scientific concepts to real life! Hurray for Experiential Learning!

We have also been working on prepping for the great San Francisco Science Fair, which all students will be participating in this winter. After discussing how to create scientific claims and questions, students will chose a topic relevant to them and begin their research. This prep work is invaluable for high school, and requires students to exercise team work, critical thinking, scientific language and process, executive functioning, and statistics in order to properly test their hypothesis. There are so many curious and creative minds in our class - we can't wait to see what they chose to study!

Our Month So Far

10/19/2021

Our first month of class is complete! Students have been working so hard completing their projects, and we are so excited about all the progress everyone has made!

In Literature and Language Arts, students have been learning about poetry, the mechanics of what makes pieces flow poetically, and how to use figurative language for self expression. Using our writing process, students have completed both Odes to items/activities they love, and individualized Identity poems that expresses who they feel they are inside. They presented their pieces to the class, and showed some truly amazing writing skills - Way to Go!

Social Studies just wrapped up our Colonial unit with group presentations on the early settlements. Students read an article about their settlement, pulled out key information, and presented this information to the class. Soon, we'll start our American Revolution unit, which will culminate in a debate between British and colonial perspective. We can't wait to see what the students come up with to defend in their debate!

In Math, we have been focusing on visual-spacial awareness, and how we view the world in three dimensions. Students built shapes in 3D, exercising their executive functioning skills as well as visualization, and translated this to the page to solve for area and perimeter on complex shapes. Tying these real world pieces to traditional math engages students and brings the math world to life!

This year has been so great so far, and we are so excited to see what the rest of our learning will uncover. Here's to more projects, and a Happy Fall for everyone! Happy Halloween!

Welcome Back, 2022!

8/26/2021

We're back, folks! As the new school year begins, we are so completely excited to be back in person to learn together in our classroom once more! Our MCS team and community is working extra hard to keep everyone engaged and safe, and we're looking forward to creating new and interesting ways of learning in our new environment.

This first week, students focused on their learning needs, and explored what aspects of a learning environment help them to best engage with learning. They worked together to create a list of Community Values, which help us all (students and teachers) cultivate a learning environment where everyone feels supported. Students also did a deep dive into their feelings in Wellness to explore how they feel about learning both at school and at home, and to see what drives them. We even got to make a huge list of things that we love to do that make us feel happy and inspired! These lists are great to reference later in the year as well, when students need reminders of things that help them stay motivated and tools that allow them to thrive.

In Language Arts, students worked on their descriptive writing skills by describing a mystery object using descriptive language. Using a structure word chart, students had to describe their mystery object to the class. The class had to guess what the object was based purely on the words alone! Working on these skills early in the year helps to create a platform for students to work from when they begin writing, and to note what type of language they usually gravitate towards first. This helps teachers develop a writing system for them throughout the year, and highlight any strengths that may appear with their descriptive language.

We can't wait to see what this school year has in store for our learning, and hope that everyone both inside and outside our community stays safe this school year. We're all in this together - Let's support each other and keep learning alive!

Graduation 2021 is here!

6/11/2021

It's finally here - Graduation 2021. This year has been trying for many of us; Together we've faced huge obstacles, had our spirits challenged and pushed, and above all, struggled to keep education moving and our minds learning through a very difficult time. Students and teachers had to adjust to our changing world in the blink of an eye, crafting new lessons and re-learning how to learn and interact with in our new environment with each passing day. This year was so hard for all of us. But ultimately, we did it. And we are SO proud of all of our students for sticking through it all. Learning is hard enough without a global pandemic, and you not only got through this year, but ended it with smiles on. We could not have finished this year without your perseverance and positivity, your receptiveness to learning, or your desire to make the world a better place. Thank you, to both students and teachers, for everything you've done. Together, we can move mountains :)

Congratulations, class of 2021. YOU DID IT!

Safely Learning - Outdoors!

4/27/2021

We're back! This week, MCS is happy to be able to come back together (distanced and safely) to learn in person with our wonderful students and staff. We are so thankful to have so many families and teachers who are able to adjust to our ever-changing world and continue the learning process with us.

Recently, we've been working on our Midsummer Night's Dream unit, studying story structure in Literature. By creating their own comic books of the story, students practice Brainstorming, Outlining, Composition, and Sequencing - all with a visual art form component. It's a great way to showcase all our students' amazing strengths AND study Shakespeare all at once; we're so proud of them!

We also revisited our values as a class, and created a list for our ideal learning environment. It's great to hear students' voices, and give them space to help shape the world in which they learn!

As we prep for the end of the year, students continue preparing their SPARK projects, practicing for their performance of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream for our graduation, AND writing learning reflections for each one of their classes. They are practicing hard, and very excited to share all of their incredible work with their peers and families!

A Midsummer Night's Story Mountain

3/9/2021

It's Spring, which means it's a perfect time for Shakespeare! Each year, we chose a different Shakespearian play to study in depth, and perform in our Theater Class at our year end graduation. This year, we're studying A Midsummer Night's Dream, discussing Story Structure and plot devices in Literature, Character Traits in LA, and behavior, movement, and motive in Theater. At home, the students worked on creating their own Story Mountain by inserting the plot points at their appropriate place on the story arch. This exercise helps focus not only on story structure, but sequencing and working memory as well. Students also practiced their Shakespeare through pre-learning by practicing a dinner scene with their families that introduced Elizabethan vocabulary. Learning about Shakespeare is so much fun, and it gives us such a wonderful opportunity to integrate our curriculums. We're can't wait to take the stage!

Silver Linings in Remote Teaching

1/26/2021

By Learning Specialist, Beth Powell

During the summer of 2020, My City School considered how to leverage technology without losing the benefits of hands-on and highly interactive instruction. When sheltering in place first began, our emergency response was to send manipulatives home and teach live via Zoom. This approach worked really well in the short term. We were able to recreate our four pillars of instruction and transformative learning continued. But when the reality sunk in that we would not be returning to in-person instruction in the Fall, the MCS team researched the best technology practices, collaborated with each other to create a consistent experience regardless of if we would be in remote or in person learning, and considered the impact of using technology with our students.

One of the exciting aspects of integrating technology into our school is that there are so many tools, apps, and programs to choose from. At first, we were entranced and looking at every option. Then we took a step back and thought about which programs would empower our students, both in a time of immediate need, and into high school and college. This helped us to sort quickly through our options. We knew our students and teachers needed a clear and straightforward organizational system built in to the program. Because we were already using Google Classroom, it was natural to continue, so we took a deeper look at how to use it more effectively during remote instruction. We were already using ReadWorks and Newsela, which allows us to differentiate reading levels while providing the same content in various topics, and added in EPIC! as another tool to provide cross-curricular reading.

In order to gain a better understanding of how to best use technology, one of our learning specialists began the International Standards for Technology in Education (ISTE) certification process. As part of her coursework, she learned about the SAMR (substitute, augment, modify, reimagine) instructional model which helped to further frame conversations about how to best use technology at MCS.

SUBSTITUTE

As a learning community committed to transforming education, we knew we didn’t want to forgo what we had learned about hands on learning. We are comfortable using Zoom as a substitute for a live classroom and breakout rooms for small group conversations. We knew we wanted our students to continue to build with physical objects, write and draw on paper, and talk about their thinking. What we discovered is that we could still do all of those activities and provide digital platforms that made it easier to facilitate conversations in the moment.

AUGMENT

We learned to modify instruction to improve conversations between students using google slides, jamboard, and quizzes. Now, instead of showing a piece of paper, students are able to put their drawings, pictures, ideas into a slide or a jamboard and then compare their thinking and understanding with other students. It also allows teachers to provide individualized feedback easily while student are working.
This was imperative in math because so much of our learning comes from student drawings and discussions, which is then followed up by independent work. While showing white boards on screen was effective in a pinch, having online explanations that students could easily flip through increased attention and deepened discussions as a result. During independent time, students work on paper but check their answers in google quizzes to ensure prompt feedback.

MODIFY

Our students had used Desmos in previous years to support understanding of the Cartesian plane, but we were thrilled to discover the classroom activities which cover more content. The activities are designed in an interactive, self-paced style that matches what our students are used to. These activities ask questions like “What do you notice? What do you wonder?” and allow students to create their own questions or puzzles that classmates can solve. Desmos is a tool that we know our students will continue to benefit from for years to come. We have been able to go deeper with content as a result of this tool, and learning how to use the tool is a natural experience, embedded within the coursework. As a result, our students feel comfortable tinkering with the program and get to teach the class and the teachers new tricks!
Using technology in Social Studies helped us to continue to play games as a way to learn about history. Google Slides allowed us to play even more complex games that helped put historical knowledge into action. Some were in a “Choose Your Own Adventure” form where you decided what role you would play in Medieval Societies and then learn of your fate.

REDEFINE

During the winter months, our students usually complete a project for the San Francisco Science Fair, but due to covid restrictions, we knew this event would not be taking place. At MCS we place a high value on community events that allow our students to interact with their peers and adults. Luckily, we found a wonderful project hosted by NASA that allowed us to continue our tradition of integrating writing, math, and science into one project. We watched videos and explored the moon’s landing sites. Students then broke into separate research teams, created a summary slide, and reported back to the class what they had learned. They practiced executive functioning skills, including making checklists for the contest rules, expectations, and deadlines. They worked on space-themed math and completed a short, creative writing piece explaining a new invention they created to help with the mission. The essay was submitted to NASA for the contest which will allow them to join a live presentation with an astronaut. This is a great example of how we were able to maintain our standards of integrated projects, while creating an entirely new experience thanks to technology.

We are looking forward to returning to in-person education. Teaching remotely brought many challenges, which teachers across the world rose to meet. But with that challenge came many gifts. We have a better understanding of how to make sure our students have basic technology skills, like uploading a picture into google slides and using email. Our students have a new understanding of privacy on the internet and how they may be giving their data away. And, most importantly, we have expanded our commitment to multisensory learning through the use of hands-on materials, drawing and writing, and technology.

Teaching Math - Remotely!

12/15/2020

Like other educational facilities, MCS made a hard turn this year from teaching in person to teaching online. This was a big challenge for all subjects, but Math was particularly challenging, considering our usual hands on approach. However, we quickly found that though switching to a virtual world created some initial challenges in math class, it actually had a lot of potential to make our class even stronger with their math skills!

When we approached remote learning for Math, we knew immediately that we wanted our students to still have a hands-on approach if at all possible. We sent manipulatives home for each student so they could have their own set to work with at home. We also used some online virtual manipulatives to create a more interactive experience between teachers and students. Over the summer, we discovered a treasure trove of activities on Desmos and Geogebra that closely align with our philosophy of inquiry and exploration. In addition, we have been able to create physical packets of work that our students can work directly on, so that they are not losing ground on content, but they are also pushing their technology skills forward and have grown so much.

Rather than flipping back and forth between the physical and virtual worlds, we have created a truly blended model that leverages the best of both worlds and ensures that our students are learning deeply and making connections between the physical, visual, and mathematical worlds.

The History of Zen

12/8/2020

This Time, it's History! We've been working on our Medieval Japan unit in Social Studies, and have been zoning in on the practice of Zen. Here, we have looked at the geography of Japan and the indigenous religion of Shintoism, and how that influenced Zen Buddhism. The students will be constructing their own personal Zen Gardens made out of popsicle sticks and sand. We are excited to see these finished projects, and get a chance to get our hands a little dirty! We're also playing a quick-paced game during class that involves reading, recall, and attention to learn content for this unit. Being able to build at home really helps make this learning come to life!

Making Molecules at Home!

10/6/2020

What makes Science even better? Making it edible! This week, our students learned the intricacies of molecules digging in hands-on, and building their own molecules out of gumdrops and toothpicks. Using an explicit labeling system, we color-coded our candy to match different elements, and took those elements to the next phase to create our molecules. Students even used a variety of toothpicks to represent stronger bonds between elements! Try using edible elements with your child at home to remember chemistry - it's a treat!