March Madness

Are you ready for March Madness? Special thanks to Dylan, JP, Janson, Shariq and Spencer for posting the tournament bracket. Everyone has different predictions for who will win. The person who gets furthest in the bracket will get a free lunch from Joe's Pizza.

• Jackson--University of Texas
• Evan--University of Kansas
• Janson--Ohio State University
• Garren--University of Louisville
• Doug--University of Memphis
• Austin--Duke University
• JP--University of North Carolina
• Shariq--University of Oregon
• Spencer--Boston College
• Dan--University of Texas
• Dylan--University of Kansas
• Mr. Ellis--University of Florida
• Mike Kinney--Georgtown University?????

Julianna Kathleen is Here!!!

Yesterday, my daughter was born at 1:31 A.M. Everything is going very well for her and my wife. My other to kids, Jaime and Jack, were so excited to see her. At least they were for the first 15 minutes.

The PSSA's are Here!!!!

Well, the PSSA's are finally here. All of our students are ready for the tests, and I know that they 're going to do a great job. During class today, I noticed that the anxiety level really varied among the students. Some student were not worried at all, while others said that they probably wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. And, others felt like they were ready to take them right then and there!!!

What to Do to Be Ready:
We spent most of day to day talking about what we needed to do to be ready to do the best jobe we could on the tests. We came up with two different lists: 1) what to do before the test 2) what to bring with you to the test.

Here is what you need to do before the test:

• Get a good night sleep. Remember what I told you about how my kids get when they don't get enough sleep. We don't want that to happen to you.
• Eat a good breakfast. Nobody wants to hear their stomach growling during the middle of the test.
• For breakfast, don't focus on high sugar cereals. I can't believe I'm saying this but don't just eat a bowl of Lucky Charms. Make sure to eat some fruit or toast.
• Make sure to get a drink and us the bathroom BEFORE the test begins.

Here is what to bring with you to the test:

• Bring a #2 pencil. Remember all of the mechanical pencils are #2. Make sure to bring extra lead.
• Bring an extra eraser. I know that you all know where to get extra eraser caps. The big cube erasers will work well.

Good luck tomorrow. I know that you will all do very well!!!

Ready, Aim, Fire Your Marshmallows!!

The day has arrived to launch the Popsicle catapults. We had launches of all different kinds. Some went backwards, some went straight up in the air, and some went a pretty good distance forward. The kids realized after their first launch that the ones with the lowest arc went the farthest. They quickly tried to make adjustments. Here are some pictures of the catapult launches.

Here are the winners from today's catapult contest. The overall winners were JP, Dylan and Doug. They launched their marshmallow over 37 feet. Here are the winners for each class.

Pretty Hectic Week

Hope everyone is ready for a pretty hectic week. We have a number of things coming up that we want to be prepared for. Let's go over them:

1. Open Book/Note Quiz on Wednesday--make sure to read over the material before Wednesday.
2. Feudal Society Test on Friday--we will get a study guide and have a review on Thursday. You have just about everything you need to start studying. Start reviewing now!!!!
3. Catapult Launch is on Friday--we will do this after the test.

Good luck with all of your studies.

Get Ready to Launch...Test Runs

Many of the students finished up their catapults today. After finishing they were able to give some test runs. I could only think of one thing. It's probably good that we were not Medieval engineers. I don't think many people would have trembled at our marshmallow catapults. Check out some of the pictures from today.

Building a Catapult

We've been discussing castle life the past couple of days. One of the ways to attack a castle was by trying to knock a castle wall down using a catapult or a trebuchet. Trebuchets were very powerful and were used quite effectively until the use of canon. Once built, the trebuchet would do it's job.

Here is a link to the PBS Nova website that goes along with the video "Medieval Siege" we watched. The video shows two trebuchets being built, today, with the purpose of knocking down a stone wall. The website is very interactive and shows different methods for attacking a castle.

Student Catapults:

After discussing the video, students are now going to make their own catapults out of Popsicle sticks and tape. We're going to see who can launch an M&M the farthest. Here are some pics. of students beginning the construction.