Teachers Team Up for Collaborative Planning

These are a few of the many different topics that were explored: Mr. Buck's Sixth Grade history class and Sra. Menefee's Fifth Grade Spanish class learned about the roots and traditions of bullfighting and its connections with ancient rituals dating as far back as 2000 BCE in Crete and Rome. Students used a jigsaw activity to teach each other about the three distinct stages of a traditional Spanish bullfight and later shared their opinions on the ethics of bullfighting with both classes through a shared Google Drive folder. Mr. Mulloy’s Sixth Grade history and Mrs. Merwin’s Fifth Grade science class built an arch after learning about Roman arches and cement making.

 

Mr. Cowell’s Fifth Grade science and Ms. Kinney’s Sixth Grade math classes learned about the mathematics behind circuits. Our scientists looked at the characteristics of electricity and the properties of a circuit before building virtual circuits on a computer simulator. Basic algebraic equations were then used to determine the different properties of a circuit (voltage, amperage, and resistance). With only two of the three properties known, students built circuits and used the equations to determine the third one. Mr. Mascuch’s Fifth Grade math teamed with Mrs. Lear’s Sixth Grade physical education to enhance their understanding of graphing, data collection, and probability principles. Fifth Graders watched the PE class, who had reviewed the rules and played a game of whiffle ball. The mathematicians kept stats of each batter in order to calculate their batting averages. This data helped the PE class measure their performance, and they discussed whether that should be reflected in their grade.

 

Ms. Dallam's Sixth Grade English and Mrs. Whitman's Fifth Grade Geography classes used a treasure hunt on the Middle School campus to dive into the five themes of geography and reading comprehension. This gave students a better idea of who used the land on which the campus sits. Inspired by the book A Street Through Time ​by Anne Millard, the teachers wrote clues which covered the past 12,000 years of human use of the campus. Students were required to use various resources, literary terms, critical thinking skills, and knowledge of the campus to solve the riddles. Seventh Graders in Mr. Babcock’s music and Ms. Sloane’s Life Science classes researched the characteristics of the six kingdoms of life: Bacteria, Archea, Protists, Fungi, Plants, and Animals. The students investigated how the organisms moved, ate or produced food, and the habitats in which they lived.  Each music class then used one of the four Eukaryotic Kingdoms as their inspiration to write and perform songs. Watch 7-3’s and 7-4’s performances.

 

Mr. Ewen’s Eighth Grade Physics students and Mr. Rossi’s Seventh Grade Algebra I students studied horizontal and vertical motion by measuring the time and distance of various objects dropped from heights, baseballs launched from a pitching machine, and races between Calvert’s security golf cart and maintenance gator. The students collaborated to record video of these events and use the data collected to gain an understanding of quadratic equations.

 

Sra. Sachar noted that “cross-curricular teaching benefits teachers and students alike. It provides teachers with a venue where they can collaboratively create and implement engaging and more authentic lessons that will increase motivation, engagement, and learning in students. In contrast to learning skills in isolation, through participating in cross curricular learning, students more readily see the value of what they are learning, become more actively engaged, take ownership of their learning, and become more adept at applying learning to new situations.” Teachers and students alike enjoyed pairing with their colleagues and schoolmates for these collaborative lessons.