February might be the shortest month of the year but it turned out to be the busiest for our TAG class! We started the month by learning about 2017 World Affairs (statistics/infographics about the world's 196 independent countries), and news from around the globe. The students were given the task to write a headline article (using the infographics) for a local newspaper titled #GoodNews. The article had to inform others about the good news coming from all around the world and what's ahead for 2017. We also discovered the CIA World Factbook website and used it as a resource to learn more about world events, news, and statistics. This was all part of our NEWSWATCH 2017 lessons. We continue to read each month about kids from around the world that are working to make the world a better place. We've met Olivia Bouler whose passion is to save the birds, Anup Chalise from Nepal who started a campaign to plant trees and help with the climate change problem, and Parrys Raines from Australia who started a campaign to reduce plastic litter in the oceans. Our debate this month was "Should Schools have Dress Codes?". Student opinions are posted on my blog page. During this month we started our final artist study for this school year. We are in the process of learning as much as we can about Ansel Adams. So far we have used 5 different sources of information to gather facts about his life and his work and students are in the process of creating student projects (websites/podcasts) to showcase all that they have learned. Those projects will be complete by the end of March. RAK WEEK 2017 took place during the week of February 12-18th and my TAG students wrote positive messages on over 200 different sticky notes and we posted the messages all over the school. We left messages near water fountains, bathroom mirrors. student desks, classroom doors and more! We worked hard to spread kindness during that particular week! We also studied quite a bit about preservation and conservation issues as it applies to our coast and animals. With that said we invited Ms. Natalie McElyea to our classroom this month and she provided the students with wonderful opportunities to learn more about the importance of wetlands and helped raise awareness about the value and benefits of wetlands for both humanity and the planet. The students continue to work on their "Imaginary Worlds". Samples of students' creative writing projects include: creating a gathering space, forming an organization, creating a holiday, creating historical artifacts, devising a menu, planning a parade, and writing a fictitious history. Last but not least in addition to all these ongoing projects and having a guest speaker visit our class, students in grades 5-8 went on a field trip to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab located in Dauphin Island, Alabama. I created an entire page dedicated just to that experience so be sure to click the link to that page to see pictures and learn about our experience there! WOW!! So much in so little time.......we wouldn't have it any other way!!:)