How would you like to "earn" while you "learn?"
Andrew really enjoys his paid position at Teal's Grocery. It has been an opportunity to earn a wage while learning a job. He's an important part of the staff there, along with several other Tiospa Zina Tribal School students.
He receives his paycheck every two weeks through a program called "Project Skills." This project provides funds so that students can "earn and learn" in real jobs for real money.
Andrew is really good at "facing shelves" (putting items in the correct places, lining them up carefully) and rotating stock (so that newer products go behind older ones on the shelves). He is very careful to check product codes to make sure the right product is being placed in the correct location.
Sale days are extra busy, since products move quickly and shelves need continual attention. Wednesdays are also very busy, because it is "Senior Day" and elders get special discounts.
Andrew also provides customers with "carry out" service. Teal's likes its customers to have help when they have to carry their groceries out to their vehicle. So, when he hears "Andrew- Register 1," he knows he needs to hustle over there and help pack bags and bring them out to the customer's car.
Although it's not required, sometimes customers even offer a tip!
This program is for high school students with high potential who are ready to prepare for life after high school. It requires a teacher recommendation. Learning 4Life Success is all about getting ready for adult life. Build skills using direct instruction, hands-on learning, technology, and more. Earn your English and Math credits while engaged in challenging learning that prepares you for work, college, or the military.
4/6/17
Help for Your Amygdala ....
Swirl!! |
Swirl!
We made some wonderful tools for mindfulness.
Mindfulness is when you put your thinking in the present. Not in the past. Not in the future. Just now.
Heather Robbins came to our class as a guest speaker. She talked about stress and anger and how they make the amygdala get excited. That is the little part of your brain that does "fight, flight, freeze." It cannot think. It just reacts. And then, tons of cortisol and other "stress chemicals" race around your entire body.
ARGH!!
That is where mindfulness helps.
Heather said that if you can calm down your amygdala, then the parts of your brain for thinking and deciding can start to work. Also, you feel better when you are not so upset!
We could add a selection of colored glitter. |
We made jars with water and glitter in them. We put in a lot of glitter in different colors. Then she glued on the lid with Crazy Glue.
To use this tool, you swirl it and the glitter moves around. Then you just watch it as it slows down and settles down.
A simple, powerful tool for mindfulness. |
When you focus on that, your brain starts to get calmer. You stop feeling upset at the past. You stop feeling anxious about the future. The stress chemicals stop going to your body. You can think better and make decisions.
We tried it and it really does work!
Heather Robbins, Guest Speaker |
We really enjoyed making these jars and learning from Heather.
We are grateful she came. We decided to also live our value of wausida (kindness in Dakota) so we made one for our classmates who were absent. We gave one to Jen, too.
4/5/17
Mastery is the Goal
Jaden working at the board. |
Sister Patrice is big on "understand what is really happening" and "then learn the algorithm." (The algorithm (al-gore-rhythm) means what you write down to figure things out.)
The pink arrow shows our "Fraction of the Day" display |
- Fractions from arrays and fractional parts
- Fractions on number lines
- Comparing fractions
- Proper fractions
- Improper fractions
- Mixed numbers (making and unmaking them)
- Reducing fractions to lowest terms
- Adding and subtracting fractions with like and unlike denominators
- Multiplying fractions times a whole number, times another fraction
- Finding a fractional part of a number (What is 1/3 of 30?)
- Going from a fraction to a decimal to a percent, and back
- Story problems (featuring us) that use fractions to solve
Hoksina figuring out decimals and percents from a fraction. |
Sometimes she says "Stop." So then we have to learn something else before we get to it. Like with division of fractions. We waited on dividing fractions because we had to take a detour to review division. Some of us never got division before. But, 1/4 of us already have mastery of division. 1/4 is 25% of us, by the way!
But tomorrow we will learn "reciprocals" and then we will learn how to divide fractions, too.
Here is one of the story problems we had to solve with fractions. Do you know how to get the answer? Or is his horse going to starve?
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