What Makes a Classic?

This quarter, students in Writ Lit I are investigating what makes a classic. Is it timelessness? Influence? Universal appeal? We spent the month of February studying Sophocles' Ancient Greek tragedy Antigone, puzzling about why this 2,500 year old play still resonates with audiences today. As part of their study, students learned and wrote about classic archetypes and had some fun trying to figure out which archetypes best describe them and which archetypes best describe their LC 9A teachers; we'll let you imagine what they thought!

This week, students began exploring a classic of their own choosing. By the end of March, each student will defend (in letter form) why their classic merits acceptance into the BHHS Museum of Classics (completely fictional, by the way). Students will have to determine the criteria for what makes a classic as well as why their classic fits the bill. Students began their exploration in the BHHS Media Center, where Mrs. Bevier had pulled dozens of books about a wide variety of classics--poems, cars, desserts, songs, mythology, photographs, musicals, architecture, cartoons, and more.


Now, students have selected their "classics," and, as usual, I am SO IMPRESSED by their creativity and individuality. Here are a few examples to showcase the students' thinking:

• Jade is interested in the bell-bottom jean as a classic shift in fashion.
• Nick P thinks the BMW e46 m3 should qualify as a classic car. 
• Annaliese is investigating DC Comics as a classic comic book creator.
• Seth wants to prove that "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" by James Brown is a classic song.
• Tia is looking into Starbucks as a classic coffee shop chain.
• Abby S is defending a specific classic heart surgery technique.

I can't wait to see what they discover! In the meantime, we'll be digging into two of Shakespeare's classic texts next: Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. 

What will the students think--should they be considered classics or not? Is the impact of Shakespearean language still felt today? Check out one hip hop artist who says yes!

Photosynthesis and Respiration

This semester biology students started with a challenging unit on cellular energy. Photosynthesis and respiration were the main topics of this unit. For several class periods, students learned about the detailed process of how solar energy can be converted into chemical energy stored in glucose. Students then designed their own experiment to test how a particular factor would affect the rate of photosynthesis.


The most common factors chosen by students included intensity of light, amount of carbon dioxide present, temperature of water and the color of the light.  Each lab group decided how they would collect data, planned out their procedure, wrote a hypothesis, and began conducting their tests.  Just this week, students turned in a formal lab report that included an analysis of errors in their data, a conclusion explaining the scientific reasoning behind their results and improvements for next time.

Now we are finishing up the unit by asking the question, "How does the food we eat supply us with energy?"  The respiration process is a lengthy explanation to answer the question, but the students are doing a great job using abstract thinking, finding patterns, and making analogies to learn about how our cells transform energy.

Taking a Virtual Tour of the Palace of Versailles

The LC9A World History classes had the opportunity to take a self-guided virtual tour of the Palace of Versailles last week!  The class has been studying the Age of Absolutism and has used King Louis XIV's reign in France as our example to be explored in depth.  We looked at the process of expanding royal power, along with effects of this increased power on the various classes of people found in France at the time.  The Palace of Versailles stands as perhaps the most concrete manifestation of the overwhelming power that most European monarchs exerted during this time period.

While on the tour, students were expected to visit four or five of the more famous rooms including the Hall of Mirrors, Hercules Room, and War Room.  Additionally, they were required to virtually take a walk through the gardens surrounding the palace. While touring the rooms and gardens, they were given the task of looking for evidence that would support the following argument:

How does the Palace of Versailles reflect the absolute power that Louis XIV held in France?

In the pieces of writing that the students created to argue the above assertion they pointed out a wide array of items that they saw including the expansiveness of the gardens, the prevalence of battle scenes in the paintings, and the many examples of Roman gods found throughout the palace.  This activity was one of many that World History students have / will participate in this year that are designed to get them accustomed to using evidence to back up arguments.

This is a perfect example of an activity that was made possible by the new technology and learning spaces found in our new high school.  Taking advantage of our ability to hand out Chromebooks to those students without their own device, every student was able to take the tour themselves while still in the classroom and adjoining commons area. A few groups of students were able to plug into the large monitors throughout the learning community to get a better look at some of the items they discovered while on their tour.

If you would like to take a look at the websites used for our virtual tour, just follow the links below.

Palace of Versailles: Virtual Tour Interiors

Palace of Versailles: Virtual Tour: Exterior

BHHS Team 9A Off to a great start in semester 2!!

After completing an accomplished first semester, the Algebra and Geometry classes on Team 9A are rolling in semester 2.

Algebra wound up linear equations with the end of course exam in the last week of January and started working with exponents in the first week of February.  Students have been investigating all different mathematical ways of working with exponents.  There has been class discussion, partner work, making their own quiz, and a socrative quiz on line!!  Next we will be seeing how exponential graphs and models exist in the world around us and throughout history!

Geometry finished proving many concepts in their end of course exam in the last week of January too, and begin semester 2 with a unit on similarity!

Students are finding much algebra in this unit including quadratic functions.  We began with solving proportions, and are now setting up our own proportions in many different situations where figures are similar.  This includes all lengths in figures, including perimeter, sides, altitudes, etc., as well as area and volume.

We are all looking forward to mastery understanding of all the exciting mathematical concepts this semester!