Sutherland Blog

A special guest came to Mr. Coleman's eighth grade room today to speak about his job  as a supervisor of Albemarle County. Mr. Ken Boyd talked with the students about what he does as the supervisor. The students asked questions about his opinion on new roads, money issues, ecological problems and other topics that they were learning about in class. It was a great experience for all the students to find out what he thought about the laws they were curious about. Thank you Mr.Boyd and all of our other speakers for coming in and sharing with us.

Ms.Bergin's 3rd block Civics class was read their rights today.... well more of informed of their rights. Sgt. Wilkins from the Albemarle police department visited their class today to discuss the 4th amendment and juvenile rights. He enthusiastically explained his job and how it relates to the 4th Amendment. The students went from yawns to laughs. Sgt. Wilkins taught the students much while making sure they enjoyed it. He was very charismatic when he told stories that happened to him and hypothetical instances. The students stayed on the edge of their seats while listening to him speak. He told a very suspenseful story of about when he was facing a life or death situation. The students loved the thought of the thrill of being so close to death and yet being so powerful. Let's see how many of those students turn out to be cops! But first they will have to listen to Ms. Bergin and study the 2nd Amendment.

7th and 8th grade students from Mrs.Evans, Mr.Schwalm, and Mr. Fox's  science classes had the pleasure of listening to Mike Bruscia, the director of The Green Adventure Program (  http://greenadventureproject.com/Green-Adventure-Project/Home.aspx ) talk about adaptations of artic animals. Mike's previous job for twelve years was leading artic wildlife tours for different groups with the primary focus on polar bears.  He spoke to the group about different environmental factors such as snow, cold, ice covered water, radiation which force organisms to adapt in order to survive. The students enjoyed hearing many of Mike's interesting stories which ranged from crynologists studying the adaptations of artic frogs to caribou losing a pint of blood a day to mosquitos. Here is a little clip from his presentation.       

The cove is a special area for displaying student work that acts as a gallery for Sutherland. Ms. Schneider has chosen work that best expressed the lesson requirements for the project her class was working on. Every month or so the work changes. The idea originally came from Ms. Saxon. It is a well lighted area on the cafeteria wall so all the students can see it.

The new ETC. magazine was released! It featured articles that focus on the holidays. So grab a magazine to curl up in front of the fire with, this holiday season!

Ms. Bergin's social studies classes spent time over the past week researching and forming opinions as to whether or not the United States should have dropped the atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II.  They used primary source documents such as memos and letters to the president and the Potsdam Declaration itself.  They also read and took notes from articles that historians have written on the subject. On Friday President Truman himself came to hear the speeches that the students had prepared.....listen in on the speeches here!  

Today in Mr. Schwalm's Science class students dissected owl pellets as part of their evolution unit. They were looking at the hunting adaptations that owls have. They found mole, shrew, bird and rodent bones. Each studnet got a pellet and a pair of tweezers. They dug through fine hairs to find a variety of different bones, the favorite being a skull. It was a great experience for the students and they had a lot of fun with it.             

An interview of Ashley about the black light dance by Jefferson, the fish. YouTube Video - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad