January 11, 2010 Bulletin

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically... Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education."

~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Message from Principal Kim

We had a great first week to kick off 2010!

We are excited about taking the DC BAS this week. We have been working hard, and this interim test will let us know how we have been doing - what areas we have learned well and what areas still need work. Please do your best!

Our last Open House of this season went incredibly well! We hosted more than 150 people who were interested in learning about our school. This would not have been possible without the support of so many people. The PTA Open House team has this down pretty much to a science; our student tour-guides (Daniel Katz, Ryan Katz, Leslie Villea, Jasmine Amores, Richard Randolph, Sam Meroney, Camryn McCarthy, Charlie Feller, and Joey Keegan) were fantastic; and parents were able to talk with 40 Deal teachers & staff (Mr. Roose, Ms. Mills, Ms. Kouri, Mr. Frye, Ms. Wang, Mr. Gueltig, Ms. Mazzone, Ms. Wisniewski, Mr. Kirschenbaum, Ms. Wylegala, Ms. Hernandez, Ms. McFarland, Mr. Downing, Mr. Jenkins, Ms. Spann, Mr. Gibson, Ms. Hampton, Ms. Lerum, Ms. Bordogna, Ms. Mostoller, Ms. Simpson-Wayne, Ms. Kinzer, Ms. Wadsworth, Ms. Cadavid, Ms. Meng, Mr. Mbayu, Mr. Hughes, Ms. Szilagyi, Mr. Assael, Ms. Miliken, Ms. Philip, Mr. Reich, Ms. Allen, Ms. Isaacson, Mr. Sheldon, Ms. Brooks, Ms. Neal, Mr. Humes, & Mr. Dacoba). I don't know of many other teachers who work so hard and then come in again on a Saturday to support school programs! This Open House was the perfect example of how team work between parents, students, and staff is truly what makes us such a fantastic school. Thank you everyone!

Principal Kim

This Week at Deal...

DC-BAS

All Deal students will take the DC-BAS on Tuesday (Reading) and Wednesday (Math) this week. Students must bring two #2 pencils and a calculator (7th and 8th grade only).

Helpful Hints

Answer every question. If you are not sure of an answer, use the process of elimination to make an educated guess.
Get plenty of rest and eat a good breakfast.
Come to school on time and prepared to do your best.

8:40		Warning Bell
8:45	8:55	Students report to Homeroom-students must leave all items (except #2 pencils and calculator) in their lockers
8:55	9:00	Students report to alternative testing sites
9:05	10:20	Testing
10:20	10:42	Return testing material Students who need extended time escorted to cafeteria
10:46	11:21	7^th Period
11:25	12:00	3^rd Period
12:04	12:39	4^th Period
12:43	1:18	5^th Period
1:22	1:57	6^th Period
2:01	2:36	1^st Period
2:40	3:15	2^nd period

Deal Mural Meeting

Interested in creating murals for Deal? There will be an informational meeting for all 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade students today with Ms. Kouri in room C205 at 3:30 pm. No previous artistic experience necessary. Come be a part of Deal history!

Music Rehearsals Begin This Week

Please be aware that all regular ensemble rehearsals for all performing groups in the Music Department will return to their regular schedule starting today.

Afternoon Studio Club

The Afternoon Studio Club will meet on Tuesday in room C224.

The International Cooking Club
Group B will meet on Wednesday. We will be making Chinese bok choy stir-fry.

Team Beijing Welcomes the Embassy of China!

On Wednesday, Ms. Lui Cuihang from the Chinese Embassy will be at Deal giving the sixth graders in team Beijing a brief introduction to China. This is part of the Embassy Adoption program in which all sixth grade teams are participating. Team Beijing looks forward to learning more about China!

Photography Club
This is a reminder that we will meet this Thursday after school. Please make sure you bring any progress you've made towards your photography exhibits--this means printed photographs, ideas on how you will display your exhibit, and any questions you have. See you then!

Students participating in the MLK Assembly
There will be a dress rehearsal for the MLK Assembly on Thursday during 7th period. A list of students will be placed in your mailbox.

Student and Parent information...

Team San Francisco Hosts the Embassy of Indonesia

As part of DCPS's Embassy Adoption Program, Team San Francisco will be partnered with the Embassy of Indonesia this year. On Wednesday, January 20th, the Indonesian delegation will give a presentation to all 100 San Francisco students in the cafeteria from 9:00-10:30 am. The presentation will introduce the students to Indonesian culture and history.

Leave a Legacy: Recycle Books

Do you have a copy of a required book that you read this year or last and would like to be remembered at Deal for years to come? Just write a dedication to your English teacher and sign your name inside on the title page. Then just drop it off at that teacher's classroom. Your donation will be appreciated by the teacher and by the Deal students who follow in your footsteps.

Mark Your Calendar for the Alice Deal Mural Project!

After school on the following dates:

6th grade:  Monday, Jan. 25 & Friday, Jan. 29

7th grade:  Monday, Feb. 1 & Friday, Feb. 5

8th grade: Monday, Feb. 8 & Friday, Feb. 19

Students from each grade will have the opportunity to produce two 4' x 6' canvas murals which will adorn the halls on each floor of our beautiful new building. Under the direction of Regina Holliday, muralist and art instructor, and the Alice Deal art teachers, students will create images on rice paper, compose and decoupage them to canvases they have painted. No previous experience or artistic ability is required.    A few parent volunteers are still needed. Please contact Nancy McCarren at mccarren@verizon.net if you are interested in volunteering.

Deal Ski Trip
Deal's ski trip will take place on February 11. All students are encouraged to sign up regardless of skiing experience or ability. The cost of the trip is $70 and includes transportation to Ski Liberty, equipment rental, lunch, and a lift ticket. Any questions should be directed to Mr. Koplowitz in room C104.

Interested Choir and Band Students

Want to join the 6^th Grade Chorus, Concert Choir, Show Choir, Jazz/Concert Band, Beginning Band, Drumline, or Jazz Combo? Great! We are accepting new students in all performing groups for the rest of the year. Please listen to the announcements and check the activities page of the bulletin for more information. If you have any questions, please see Mr. Frye or Mr. Jackson this week.

Joe Corbi's is Here!!

The Department of Music will be selling Joe Corbi's from January 19 through February 4, 2010. Help us fundraise for our spring trip to Hershey Park by purchasing something from a department member. The date of delivery is Friday, February 18. All orders must be picked up on the 18^th by 3:30 pm. Please make arrangements, because there is no place to store food items over the weekend.

We Need Your Used Tennis Shoes and Soccer Cleats

As part of our community and global outreach, we are collecting used tennis shoes and cleats to help eradicate poverty and support rainforest preservation. In conjunction with the Perpetual Prosperity Pumps Foundation (www.pppafrica.org), our students will be collecting used (not abused) shoes for this worthy cause. Please place shoe donations in the collection bins located in front of the welcome center and by the gymnasium. We look forward to your donations. If you have questions please contact the Physical Education Department at alicedeal.pe@gmail.com or Coach Downing at coachdowning@yahoo.com.

Department of Music Listserv
The Music Department uses a listserv in order to communicate information to its students and parents. All students involved with the Department of Music should sign up to be a member of this listserv. To become a member send an email mail to roger.jackson@dc.gov.

Staff information. . .
Smart Board Training
There will be a Smart Board training by Connecting Point on January 22, from 1:00 - 3:30 pm. The training will cover installing software and updates and the many uses of the interactive board. This training is optional.

Teacher Recommendations for High School

Teachers who are writing recommendation letters for Banneker or Wilson, should give them to Mr. Santiago.

Grade-level Department Chairpersons Meeting

All grade-level department chairpersons will meet on Wednesday at 3:30 in the conference room.

Virtual Book Fair
Teachers, the virtual book fair is up and running. Please post your wish list on the Bookworm Central Site as soon possible.

Notes for Student Absences
Teachers this is just a reminder that all notes for student absences and early dismissals should be brought to the main office. Students cannot be excused for tardies or absences without a note. If you have any notes from students from earlier in the year, please bring them to Ms. Mills in the Welcome Center.

High Frequency Standards Interdisciplinary Lesson Plans

Teachers, please invite your grade-level administrator to your classes when you are teaching your team's high frequency standards interdisciplinary lessons this month.

High School Updates .....

Benjamin Banneker High School Applications
Students applying to Banneker H.S. need to see Mr. Santiago to make sure that he has all the required documents. Please meet with him in his office.
The deadline for Banneker H.S. is January 29. Mr. Santiago must have all the documents by January 28.

Wilson High School Applications
All of Alice Deal 8th grade students are able to attend Wilson High School next year. ONLY students who are applying to an academy need to complete an application. Applications are available in the counseling suite. The deadline for Wilson H.S. is January 27. Mr. Santiago must have all the documents by January 26.

Students Applying to Private Schools
Please remember to give your teacher recommendation requests with ample time, as well as your transcript requests to Mr. Santiago. You must include a stamped envelope with the address of the school.

Before & after school activities this week...

Monday AM
Spanish tutoring, 8:10 am - RM C310
Concert Choir, 7:45 am
Beginning Band, 7:45 am

Monday PM
Scrabble Club 3:30 - 4:30 pm, cafeteria
Team Addis Ababa Study Hall, 3:30 - 4:30 pm, C104
GeoPlunge, 3:25 - 4:30 pm - cafeteria
Debate Team, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - RM E304
Run for Fun Club, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - RM W101
National History Day Help, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - RM C308
Team Nairobi Tutoring, 3:30 - 4:30 pm, RM E207
Ms. Hampton's Science Help, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - W301
Cafe con Leche Club, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - RM CG06
Tutoring with Ms. Popadich, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - RM E105
Cheerleading practice
After School tutoring with Ms. Brown & Ms. Bruce, 3:30 to 4:30 pm
Deal Dance Team, 3:30 - 4:30 pm, Gallery
Indoor Track practice, 3:30 - 5 pm - Gym
Mathcounts, 3:30 - 4:40 pm - RM E103

Girls' Basketball practice 3:30 - 5:00 pm -gym

Tuesday AM
6th Grade Chorus, 7:45 am
Jazz/Concert Band, 7:45 am

Tuesday PM
Science Tutoring, 3:20-4:15 pm - RM C315
Rugby, 3:30-5 pm - RM C104
Team Nairobi Tutoring, 3:30 - 4:30 - RM E201
Team Athens Tutoring/Homework Help, 3:30-4:30 pm - Team Athens Hallway
Gardening, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - RM C309
Video-Audio Visual Club, 3:30 pm - gallery
The Ultimate Frisbee Club, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - RM C205
Tutoring with Ms. Popadich, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - RM E105
Math tutoring with Ms. Hutter, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - RM E307
After School tutoring with Ms. Brown & Ms. Bruce, 3:30 to 4:30 pm
Future Educator's Club, 3:30 - 4:30 pm, RM W304
Knitting Club, 3:30-4:30 pm, RM E306
Team Rome Tutoring/Homework Help, 3:30 - 4:30 pm E204
Indoor Track Practice, 3:30-5 pm - gym
Team Singapore and La Paz Science Fair Workshop, 3:30 - 4:30 pm, E301
Organization Help, 3:30 - 4:30 pm, RM W106
Meditation Club, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - C206
Boys' Basketball practice 3:30 - 5:00 pm - gym
Drumline, 3:30 - 4:30 pm

Wednesday AM
Spanish tutoring, 8:10 am - RM C310
Concert Choir, 7:45 am
Jazz Combo, 7:45 am

Wednesday PM
Group B of the International Cooking club, 3:30 - 4:30 pm, faculty lounge
Deal Dance Team, 3:30 - 4: 30 pm
Student Council, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - RM E205
Ms. Washington's Homework Help, 3:30 - 4:30 pm RM C212
Team San Francisco After-School Academic Assistance, 3:30 - 4:30 pm-RM W101
Team Beijing Tutoring, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - RM E105
Science Tutoring, 3:30 - 5 pm - RM E307
Improv Club, 3:30 - 5 pm - RM E307
Alice Deal Science Olympiad Team, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - RM E101
Golf Club, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - RM W304
Girls' Basketball practice, 3:30 - 4:45 pm
Robotics Club, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - RM E301
Boys' Basketball practice, 3:30 - 5:00 pm - gym
Indoor Track practice, 3:30-5 pm - gym
Show Choir, 3:30 - 4:30 pm

Thursday AM
6th Grade Chorus, 7:45 am
Jazz/Concert Band, 7:45 am

Thursday PM
Girls Basketball game vs Francis @ Deal, 3:30 pm
Boys' Basketball game vs Francis @ Deal, 4:45 pm

Cheerleading practice, 3:30 - 5 pm, cafeteria
Team Beijing Tutoring, 3:30 - 4:30 pm - RM E103
Rugby, 3:30 - 5 pm - RM C104
Deal Dispatch, 3:30 - 4:30 - cafeteria
Team Beijing Tutoring, 3:30 - 4:30 pm, RM E103

Team Rome Tutoring/Homework Help, 3:30 - 4:30 pm E206

Photography Club, 3:30 - 4:30 pm, RM W204

Girl Power, 3:30 - 4:30 pm, Cafe

Friday - No School for Students
As always, students should have parent permission to stay after school for any activity!

Food for thought...

Ideas, Evidence, and Argumentation in Science Classes

In this Kappan article, Stanford professor Jonathan Francis Osborne says that students' interest in science is being killed by classes and tests that require them to memorize long lists of disconnected facts. He believes that the science curriculum is determined too much by scientists trying to produce a new generation of scientists, and that there isn't enough of the kind of overarching narrative and argumentative back-and-forth that might capture the interest of other students. "Rarely are students able to explore how we know what we know," he says, "how such knowledge came to be, and why it matters."
The irony, Osborne continues, is that of all disciplines, science prides itself on escaping the shackles of conventional wisdom - "yet it is taught in a manner that is the antithesis of the spirit of open inquiry and invention that it has fostered." In addition, few science classrooms are teaching the kind of knowledge synthesis and analytical thinking that students need to enhance America's international competitiveness.
            What is to be done? Osborne cites research on the merits of getting students to construct arguments and counter-arguments and consider several possible outcomes as a way of developing reasoning ability and conceptual understanding. "An important finding in this research," he says, "is that students who have been able to explore why the wrong idea is wrong have a more secure and deeper understanding of why the right idea is right." For example, to help students understand what makes day and night, the teacher might invite them to refute these ideas: that the earth is the center of the universe; that if you jump up you will not come down in the same spot because of the earth's rotation; and that a person standing on the equator, traveling at over 1,000 miles per hour, would be flung into space.
            The argument-centered approach seems illogical to many science teachers, who see their job as persuading students of the validity of scientific explanations. But many students aren't engaged by the conventional approach, says Osborne. We need to shift the emphasis to explanatory theories, "the creative ideas that scientists have dreamt up, for example, that all stable matter consists of only 92 atoms or that the universe started with a big bang. Judging which theory is best, assessing the significance of experimental evidence, or simply determining which data and how much to collect are critically dependent on argument."
            Osborne created the following 7th-grade activity with a colleague. Students are presented with two alternative graphs showing how the temperature rises as ice is heated, turning first into water and then into steam. One graph shows a steady linear increase, the second shows plateaus at the transition points from ice to water and water to steam. Students are also given basic information about matter and particles and asked to debate which graph is accurate, making arguments and counter-arguments. "Embedded in such an activity," says Osborne, "is an opportunity to show students that ambiguity is a normal rather than an exceptional feature of science."
            Osborne cautions that argument-oriented science activities must be well-structured, with clearly defined goals and outcomes. Teachers need to provide genuine support for independent thinking and allow students to explore concepts in depth. Teachers also need to understand that the skills of reasoning and argumentation are domain-specific - that is, students who have learned to argue successfully in science classes don't carry that skill over to history and literature classes.
Osborne and his colleagues have worked on DVD-based materials to support science teachers in making the transition to teaching about ideas, evidence, and arguments (the IDEAS pack, Osborne, Erduran, and Simon, 2004). Their materials provide these key elements:
-   Why argumentation matters in science;
-   How to structure small-group discussion so it is productive;
-   Instructional strategies to teach argumentation;
-   Resources for teachers;
-   How to distinguish strong from weak arguments;
-   Ways to model arguments for students.

"An Argument for Arguments in Science Classes" by Jonathan Francis Osborne in Phi Delta Kappan, December 2009/January 2010 (Vol. 91, #4, p. 62-65),
http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/index.htm
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