Sometimes, when we go to the movies or as we watch a show on TV, we are transported into the plot.  Directors understand that their selection of background music can change and enhance a scene.

Now it is time to turn it around.  This time, the music comes first.  Do not watch the video; instead, let the music lead your imagination.  As it plays, allow it to transport you into a scene that has yet to be written.  Then, write the scene.  Use all the visual imagery you can muster in your writing.  At the end, you will share your writing.  Will it stand on its own, without the music in the background?

One of the Christian journals I follow produces good science content.  Since we recently considered cave ecosystems, I thought I would share this short article about one species of bats.

Last week's study of the Battle of Bunker Hill made us familiar with the famous utterance, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes."  We thought that to be a most interesting quote, and we had to think about what it meant and why it was declared.  The Patriot soldiers at Boston's Bunker Hill only had five musket balls and limited gunpowder at their disposal, so they could not afford to waste their shots.  They had to conserve their ammunition, so they were told to wait until the British soldiers came closer before shooting.

While I still anticipate attending the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute, next summer, I enjoy watching videos to orient myself to the area.  I also like to hear about historically significant locations within the area that I don't want to miss when I visit.  

Sometimes, when we go to the movies or as we watch a show on TV, we are transported into the plot.  Directors understand that their selection of background music can change and enhance a scene.

Now it is time to turn it around.  This time, the music comes first.  Do not watch the video; instead, let the music lead your imagination.  As it plays, allow it to transport you into a scene that has yet to be written.  Then, write the scene.  Use all the visual imagery you can muster in your writing.  At the end, you will share your writing.  Will it stand on its own, without the music in the background?

There is a three-number code on the cannon.  When you multiply the first number by 112, the second by 28, and the third by 1, then add the three products, the result is the weight of the cannon.  All students should be able to do this by this point, making use of skills learned in our regular math lessons in the past couple of weeks.

LWe don't like it.  We don't like it one bit - this idea of "going virtual" - but we're going to be ready if it ever comes to this.  Last week, we had a single positive case of C19 in our classroom, and only a handful of positives in our school, but because of this one, we have two other students quarantined.  Quarantines have occurred for two other students in the past, due to possible exposures outside of the school setting.  One more is currently home, as well, because of a family member who tested positive.  As of now, that means three are still learning from home.  I am posting lessons and activities for them to work on in our Google Classroom.

Interesting to note is that we have only had one possible transmission of C19 in our school.  Others have been contracted in other settings. That single case might have been passed on, but because the student was already quarantined, the spread seems to have been contained.

Superintendent Moss has stressed to us that we are not considering a change to our school calendar as some other districts have.  What we are doing seems to still be holding.  Should we ever be called upon to cancel in-person classes, though, Hoggatteers will be ready to log onto our Google Classroom site - Inside the Fort - to find assignments and activities.  We will also gather from our respective houses, every day in that situation, for virtual meetings.  I will teach lessons there before turning students loose to work on their assignments.  School will continue.

That means, we practiced a couple of times, last week, to ensure that students can find and get onto our platform, as well as connect for a Google Meet if needed.  Again, we don't like it.  I certainly don't like staring at a screen all day and talking into a microphone rather than seeing three-dimensional people sitting in front of me in flesh and blood, but we can and will do that if the call arises.  It just won't be the same.  

This puzzle starts just like normal, with regular pieces.  This one makes a rectangular map of Boston, depicting it as it appeared in the early 1800s.  From working this part of the puzzle, we could better appreciate the single entrance to the Boston Peninsula, and we could better understand the challenges of defending Boston against a superior British Navy during the American Revolution.

After the first layer was complete, I unpacked the next layer - a bunch of foam pieces that go on top of the original map.  This layer depicts Boston in the 21st century, and it shows how different the coastlines are today.  Much of the Charles River and other waterways have now been constrained and controlled.  The Boston Neck has been expanded to increase the land area of the city.  I liked seeing parts of the first map peeking through the blank spots of the foam map.

We notice how virtually all of the farmland has changed to an urban setting.  Highways have filled in from various directions, and it's easy to imagine the increase in traffic.  If you look at these pictures, you will notice white spots where many of the modern buildings have been added through the years.

Next it was time to construct the remaining two D's.  A poster in the puzzle box shows pictures of the plastic buildings that are included with the puzzle.  I used the poster to install the buildings in the order that they were constructed in the city.  In this way, not only was height added to the puzzle, but also that fourth dimension of time.

We could see Boston's development through time.  The 4D puzzle was fun to put together, but it felt different than puzzles I've worked in the past.  It makes a nice display to help with studies of Boston, Massachusetts, and just makes me want to visit the historic city even more than before.  Here is the site of the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and the Battle of Bunker Hill.  Here is the major site in the conception of the United States.

Hoggatt Cave has been a staple in my classroom for more than 26 years.  This year, the class will not conduct tours for other classes due to our distancing protocols, but we still wanted to adhere to our study as much as we could.  Here are some pictures of how our classroom looks, this month.