LG Expeditionary Thursday

In 6th grade math, students build their numerical fluency by making connections between fractions, decimals, and percents. To kick off the Mosaic Walk, students watched a PBS documentary titled Treasures of New York: Art Underground that explores the last 25 years of the MTA’s Arts for Transit program. The film highlights some of the most eye-catching mosaics underground, the artists who created them, and the process of making their way from concepts to installations.

Next, students went on a Mosaic Walk through the East Village, tracing the steps of the Mosaic Man’s art on buildings and lamp posts along St. Mark’s Place. They captured images of the mosaic art they saw, read historical commentaries on the mosaics, recorded student perspectives on the art, and considered the historical importance of public art. We even ran into Jim Power himself!

Back at school, students started planning out their own mosaics. They designed a 100 unit grid mosaic square using 4 - 6 different color sticker ‘tiles’ and identified how many tiles they will use for each color. In the coming days, they will complete a conversion sheet showing the fraction, percentage and decimal for each color in relation to the entire mosaic square (comparing the portion to the whole).

In 7th grade social studies, students are using primary and secondary sources to analyze different historical perspectives. In this fieldwork, they looked specifically at the effects of the conquest of Mexico on Mesoamerican culture.

As a kickoff, students traveled to two locations to view artifacts that delve deeply into the culture and history of Mesoamerica. Before the trip, they read and watched sources explaining Mesoamerican culture before the conquest. Half the class traveled to the Met, and the other half to the American Museum of Natural History. Upon returning to school, they explored the drastic changes that happened after the fall of Tenochtitlan. This information will help them to analyze the profound impact the conquest had on the world, and to decide whether La Malinche’s actions in aiding the Spanish should make her a hero, traitor, or victim.

In 8th grade social studies, students are working to understand what role slavery had in New York City before and during the Civil War. Last Thursday, they visited the New York Historical Society to experience hands-on activities with primary sources and artifacts curated by NYHS education professionals. By using the history of New York and slavery to better understand the climate of the country leading up to the Civil War, they are better able to write their first major paper.

The topic: Was Lincoln a Hero or Villain?

We are 6th grade social studies teachers at Brooklyn Collaborative, a public 6-12 school. Our students are studying human rights and we are currently looking for fieldwork experiences for them. Fieldwork (as opposed to a field trip) offers our students an opportunity to learn directly from experts and bring back information to apply to our unit.

On November 15, we are looking to bring groups of our students out to various organizations to learn about how these organizations are working to fight for human rights. Prior to that day, students will be learning about the Declaration of Human Rights, which will lead to students breaking up into different groups focusing on different articles of the declaration. We have 4 groups with approximately 30 students and 2-3 adults. We are looking for different organizations to host 1 group or more if possible.

If a visit to your organization is not possible, we are also open to having someone come to our school to speak to our students.

During our visit we are looking to get:

• an overview of what your organization does
  
• details about a current topic you are focusing on and why it is important
  
• time for questions from students

Students will take the information that they learn from you, return to school, and present to the rest of their classmates.

This meeting would be approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour, ideally between 10:30-2:00.

Thank you for considering our visit. If you are unable to host us, please feel free to forward this email to anyone you think might be interested and able to host us or come speak at our school!

All responses should be directed to candice@bcs448.org