The Barracudas are learning lots of new moves from Giselle, the Artist in Residence. See their new dances at the Music Program!
Barracudas
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Take it Apart!
How many parts are there in a cell phone?
There's the motor on a hand mixer.
After studying how electricity works the Barracudas have been dismantling electronics to figure out where the wires go, what the motor looks like, what kind of switches it has and also looking at circuit board components. A great lesson in how things work!
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Romero Britto
Everyone remembers George, the Barracudas auction project. The design work for George was based on a very famoous contemporary Pop artist that we had studied, Romero Britto. We told Mr. Britto about George and he was so happy that he had inspired us that he sent each student a signed card and the school an autographed book about his work. Pretty cool, huh?
Friday, May 4, 2012
Linoleum Printing
The Barracudas got to do an art project that takes a lot of patience, skill, and safety--linoleum printing. First they made a design (keeping mind to reverse the image) then using very sharp linoleum cutters carefully cut out the design. Then they printed using brayers and ink. So far so good, no cuts and some really nice images!
Monday, April 23, 2012
Making a Better Light Bulb
The Barracudas have been doing lots of experiments with electricity, the most recent was making a light bulb with batteries, wire, alligator clips and pencil lead for a filament. It was very challenging but awesome when it worked.
Friday, April 20, 2012
The Wave
The Barracudas read The Wave, the story of a high school teacher who attempted to teach his students how Hitler took over Germany through a simulation that gets out of hand. They then wrote essays about what they had learned about leadership, power, and "strength through discipline".
By: A.A.
By: A.A.
Discipline can be a good thing but it depends on where
people are willing to go with it. People can get brain washed and just follow a
leader without thinking for themselves. The only reason that people would
follow a leader is because they believe that they are doing the right thing for
their parents, country, even the world.
The positive side of discipline is used most in sports and
in some schools. As an example of sports Tae Kwon Do uses discipline to help
students and adults become stronger in a mental and physical ways and to be
better people. In Tae Kwon Do there is a student creed and the people who train
there use discipline to follow the student creed. Student Creed; To build true confidence through knowledge
in the mind honesty in the heart strength in the body. To keep friendship with
one another and to build a strong community. Never fight to achieve selfish end
but to develop might for right! In schools you are expected to turn in your
homework in on time, study for tests, and not pick on those who are different
from everyone else. We can’t always control how we feel about those who are
different, by having discipline all people are equals.
The down side of discipline is when people abuse their power
over other people. It is easy for teachers to use their influence over students
to control them and use them for the teachers good. Teachers can put images in
kid’s minds like all elephants are evil or that beef comes from cows that are
fed rotten tomatoes. Kids that are being controlled by older people tend to think
that they are better and superior to the kids who think for themselves. In the end of The Wave Ben Ross said to all
of the room. “You thought you were so special!” Ross told them. “Better than
everyone outside this room. You traded your freedom for what you said was
equality. But you turned your equality into superiority over non-Wave members.
You accepted the group’s will over your own convictions, no matter who you had
to hurt to do it.”
A leader has big response ability because if they want to
use their influence over people for good it is easy to use that same power over
people for bad things. Discipline is
something that we need without discipline the world could end up in anarchy. Leaders
must let the people who are following them also make their own decisions.
By: C.J.
People as individuals and teams need discipline to
be successful, but when you have a power hungry leader teaching the discipline
it can go wrong. Kids are the easiest to influence from discipline, but so are
people that don’t have that good of a life. They will always listen to what an
adult or leader says because they see them as their superior.
Team
sports are a good example of where discipline is needed. In baseball if
everybody’s playing in the dirt and picking daisies out of the grass, you know
that that their coach doesn’t really stress discipline. But if everybody’s
butt’s are down and mitts are inches above the ground ready to go down if the
ball comes to them, you know that the coach of that team stresses discipline.
Teaching
is another example of where discipline is needed. One of the responsibilities
of the teacher is to teach students discipline. The teacher needs to make sure
that the students turn their work in on time, and if they don’t they have to be
disciplined in order to learn to use their time wisely.
Napoleon
Bonaparte is a good example of abusing power. His original mission was to free
France from the Monarchy, but he eventually wanted to take over the world. He
told his troops it was “for the good of France.” The troops thought it was for
the good of France because Napoleon had them brainwashed.
Adolf Hitler abused his power completely. He
had kids going to Nazi Youth camps and indoctrinating them with Nazi ways. He
had the kids going home and recruiting more kids for the Nazi camps. He had the
kids report if they heard any talk against him or the Nazi’s all just because
they trusted him and his believes.
Most
of the abusing of power and discipline goes against kids because they are easy
to indoctrinate with bad things. But also good habits are enforced on kids like
table manners and how to behave in public. People as individuals and teams need
discipline to be successful, but when you have a leader who abuses their power
teaching it can go wrong.
By: C.H.
Working together in a group is an important skill. It
teaches cooperation and discipline. In every group there are those that are
“better” than others, whether intelligence in the classroom or skills on a
sports team. But there is thin line between being better at something and being
superior to others. Some people say power is corrupt, but there are two sides to
every story.
As people have learned over time, influence
changes people, the power to control others lifestyle can turn the strongest
leader into a corrupt madman. Take Adolf Hitler for example; he used his
influence over The Nazis and took over most of Europe and Africa. Another
example is Napoleon Bonaparte who used his massive influence over France to take
over a huge part of the world. Influence is a great responsibility, it gives leaders
the power to make a crazy chaotic room into a room were you could hear a pin
drop. Too much power can be a bad thing
and if no one stops them early on then their momentum may make them
unstoppable.
Of course,
power doesn’t always corrupt a man; take Martin Luther King Jr. for example. He
had influence over people all over the world, and never used his power to harm
others while bringing freedom to blacks all over the world. Another example is
Gandhi, he freed the Indians from the British without armed combat. As you can
see power is not always corrupt.
There
is a very thin line between a superior and a leader. The line is so thin
sometimes it is hard to tell which side someone is on. Sometimes it is tempting
to join a group with power, but if you stick to your own convictions and
beliefs and don’t follow a leader that will lead you down the wrong path then
you’ll be successful in life. As you can see there are two paths to go down,
which path will you go down? The choice is yours.
By: A.S.
Discipline is important but it should
be controlled. Discipline can get out of hand very easily; following a leader
can be good but not if it means not thinking for yourself and not thinking about
what you are doing.
Team sports are an example of when
discipline is important. If all the players on the team didn’t listen to the
coach or do what he says they wouldn’t be a team because when there is a game
no one would be playing as a team they’d just be doing their own thing. School
is another example, teachers give students homework and they expect you to have
it in by the due date. With no discipline school would be chaos and sports
teams would never win.
In every part of life there are leaders
and followers. Parents lead children, coaches lead players, teachers lead
students and presidents lead countries. But if the leaders go too far with
their power then it can get abusive. For example soccer coaches could teach
illegal moves to get their team to win. Or they could teach the team to slide
tackle from the back since people get hurt from it and it is illegal to do. The
coach could tell them to shove and hurt the other team just to make it so that
they could win. This is an example of
abusing power.
There is a very thin line between a
good leader and a bad leader. But if the followers stick to their own beliefs
then they wouldn’t be following a bad leader. If people really like their
leader they might follow him yet not always agree with him.
Discipline
is important but it needs to be controlled, if there was no discipline there
would be anarchy. Discipline can get out
of hand very easily; following a leader can be good but not if it means not
thinking for yourself and not thinking of what you are doing.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Washington DC Trip
Here's just a few pictures of our fabulous trip to Gettysburg, Washington, Williamsburg, and Jamestown. Great memories!
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