A Story is a Great Way to Engage Students. This story is an old one that was handed down through many generations, told usually while sitting on a front or back porch. The goal for this lesson is to allow students to discover the role language, math, history, science, and art have in storytelling and to get them to create their own stories using skills they learn in the classroom.

Students in eighth year are facing the end of middle or junior high school and in the not-so-distant future the start of high school. between then and now they have a great deal of academics to learn, tests to pass, and the pressures of being adolescents. So why not start the year celebrating their final year in middle or junior high school in classic Hollywood fashion? This first week of 8th year English-Language Arts unit does just that! Show your students just how special they are whilst assessing basic language and writing skills. Roll out the red carpet, notify the paparazzi, and let your students have a great time watching film trailers, writing reviews, looking back at summer, and getting the star treatment; whilst introducing collaborative learning and project-based activities. Start the school year with high expectations and watch your students soar.

Goal To improve school and classroom climate by taking proactive measures regarding bullying behavior and victimization of those who are different Objectives 1. Students will participate in activities and discussion regarding their feelings about those different from them which may or may not been exacerbated by recent political rhetoric. 2. Students will be able to feel safe in a non-threatening environment that will protect them from threatening behavior and speech. 3. Students will express their thoughts voluntarily without ridicule, using words and graphics. 4. Students will listen to each other and summarize what they heard a peer say before sharing their thoughts/feelings. 5. Students will make an empathic statement regarding any feelings he/she has in common with another student or students. 6. Students will work with an "empathy partner" or partners to create a graphic that expresses their feelings, including their empathy with each other's feelings. 7. Parents of students exhibiting violent speech and/or behavior will be contacted and apprised of the incident and suggest professional help for her/him.

STEAMLASS/Super Moon Study The study of this year's second and third super moons can start 11/16 or later and end 12/14. In it students will learn about the closest super moon since 1948. STEAMLASS (STEM plus Art, Language Art, and social studies) by reading information about super moons and answering open-ended questions, participating in activities such as creating a Super Moon Anticipation Calendar to mark off the days to the last super moon and locating places where super moons were photographed using U.S. and world maps. Students will also have a flipped classroom assignment that will require them to create their own simple language using various types of graphics that they display on their own Rosetta Stone and bring to school for other students to try to decipher. Goal: Working together in pairs, groups, and individually, students will learn about Super Moons investigating STEAMLASS concepts. Objective: Students will use mathematical, science, engineering, language arts, history, technology, and observation/photography to study and engage in activities to learn what super moons are, their history, and why they appear in the sky. This unit is for Upper Elementary and Middle School students, but can be adapted for lower and higher grades.