Team Building: Project Human

As we begin a new year together it's very important that we are all comfortable working together to accomplish both academic and social tasks. To kick off the year, the 8th grade AVID students participated in ProjectHuman. Upon entering theAVID classroom each student was instructed to select one piece of recycling (bottles,cartons, boxes, etc.). Studentswere then split into random groups and given a few more materials - a coffee straw, popsicle stick, sheet of card stock and a roll of masking tape. Each group was give 20 minutes to create a "human" using only the materials they had.

At end of the building time, groups were asked to"debrief" their experience. Discussion questions included:

• Now that you know the project, would you have changed what item you picked? Why?
• What challenges or frustrations did you have during the process?
• Did your end result match your original vision? Why or why not?
• How can we relate this experience to our life together in AVID?

New Year... New Group... New Adventures

The 2011-2012 school year in into it's second week and things are beginning to normalize. The newest group of 8th grade AVID students has their AVID Binders and are ready to go. I look forward to the adventures we will have as a class this coming year.

One big change for our campus this year is that ALL students, in ALL grades are required to maintain an "AVID-like" binder. This came as a request from our teachers, almost all of which attended the AVID Summer Institute this summer. All classes and teachers will also be using the Cornell Note format this year. Because of these two things, the AVID strategies, and hopefully successes, will be spreading across our school.

Recent Guest Speakers

During the past two weeks our AVID classroom has hosted three different guest speakers who came to share their experiences with the students.

Last week Ms. Monique Paige, 8th grade science teacher, and Mrs. Leann Hooper, a district

technology facilitator, both spoke about their experiences as college

basketball players. Ms. Paige played basketball at the University of Arizona. She shared her experiences with the recruiting process as well as the particular challenges of being both a student and an athlete at a major university. Mrs. Hooper played at East Texas Baptist University

and shared with students why she chose a smaller school instead of a larger university.

Mrs. Knight, our school's librarian, visited this week to talk about different kinds of alphabet books. The AVID students are working on putting together two of these books with a college theme to keep in the front office for visitors to read.

AVID In the News

The AVID program in Mesquite ISD was mentioned in the most recent addition of the Mesquite News and our AVID program at A.C. New was mentioned specifically! It is always good to get the "good news" out about our AVID program.

Star Local News Mesquite News News Mesquite ISD keeps it AVID

QuickWrite: Believing in Yourself

Our second QuickWrite (a short timed writing to help get ideas on paper quickly) of the year centered around a quote from Henry Ford. "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right". Students were asked to respond as to what Ford meant. While not everyone came to the same conclusion, most responses dealt with the importance of believing in one's own abilities to succeed. Conversely, when you doubt your abilities, you are often predicting your failure.

For our AVID students, many are just now understanding the hard work involved on the path to college. The outcome of their life has not been determined at this point. With the support provided through AVID, without a doubt these students can achieve their college goals.

Team building: Tower of Power

Being able to work in a group is a skill that will be beneficial throughout someone's life. Through collaborative activities, AVID students are able to learn how to more effectively work with students from a variety of groups.

The challenge this week was called Tower of Power. Students were sorted into groups different from their regular table groups. Each group was given the same set of materials:

• paper bag
• 3 index cards
• 2 pieces of paper
• 2 large paper clips
• 3 small paper clips
• a straw
• 1 rubber band
• a small plastic drink lid
• a ruler
• a paintbrush

Groups were given 20 minutes to build the tallest tower possible with only the provided materials. Towers had to be free standing and remain standing during the measuring process. The group in each class that designed and built the tallest tower won one of our fabu

lous AVID prizes. The tallest structure out of both classes was 34" with second place coming in at just under 33". After the activity, each student was given an opportunity to evaluate the group process and identify areas of frustration. Evaluations will be discussed in groups.

Research: Texas Colleges

Part of the focus of AVID is College Awareness. In order to expose the AVID students to the many colleges here in Texas, the 8th grade students each created a PowerPoint presentation of a particular school. A "lottery" style selection process was used to ensure a variety of schools were chosen. Students were given five days to research their school and put together their presentation. As a part of this process each student will write a letter to their chosen school requesting information. Over the coming weeks, each student will present their slide show to the class.