Black Death and the Bill of Rights

Today was a good learning day.

The 7th graders learned about the Dark Ages and the Black Death, always an enthralling topic.  And the 5th and 6th graders started learning about the Bill of Rights.  I made a chart for them to take notes on and we listened to the Bill of Rights rap on Youtube.  That song was a hit! They wanted to listen to it again, but we didn't have time.  But we only made it through Amendment 5, so we'll spend another day on the topic.

I had a meeting with a parent after school today about her son's midterm grades.  That part went okay.  Then she pulled out the science fair project written report her son had done... she wanted to know why he got a red instead of a blue.  I don't know! I didn't judge them!  She went on and on about how much work went into it and how extreme the expectations are for the project, at least for the 5th grade level and that maybe it should be a project for 7th and 8th graders only or maybe the 5th and 6th graders should only do the board and have it be turned in just at school and not take it to Fine Arts... the funny thing is, she's one of the people a few years ago who thought it would be a great idea to have the 5th and 6th graders do science fair projects.  And then she was saying it was a lot of work to have them do at home and maybe more could be done at school.  Ugh. I can't win.

Having harsh judges is something that typically comes up about the science fair at Fine Arts.  A high school principal and high school science teacher both do the judging, so I have a feeling their expectations are high.  I suppose all I can do is bring it up to Mr. E and see what he thinks about all of it...