Balderdash

Another stunning couple of rounds, today:

Xanadu (picked by Stanley):

- a super rare element that is found in thin layers of rock

- a time or place that cannot exist because of a paradox

- a place of idyllic beauty

- an authentic doodoo

- a type of dew

- a crystal whose exterior is very valuable

- a rare type of Mediterranean flower, ranging in color from dark blue to dark purple

afterclap (picked by Mike):

- the echo of a gunshot

- a clap after a marvelous production or play

- a sarcastic type of clap that shows disliking

- applause slightly delayed after the line or action being applauded, which interrupts a continuing performance

- an earthquake that hits right after the first earthquake, and is twice as dangerous

- a clap of thunder that happens moments after a flash of lightning that strikes a tree

- clapping multiple times

- the round of applause used to get an encore in a big theater

- an unpleasant squeal

As You Like It performance

We have a date, a time and a venue!

Our class's production of As You Like It is scheduled to take place at 7:00 on the evening of Wednesday, December 16, at the Kerrytown Concert House (415 N Fourth Avenue). There will be a dress rehearsal earlier in the day (during school hours). Parents and friends are all invited to attend!

This does mean that we have a lot of rehearsing and line-learning to do in the next three and a half weeks. Please help your children to practice at home (as they need). I'm also wondering whether the children might be available for some after-school rehearsals in the coming weeks. Is there a day of the week that works best for everyone? I'm quite open after school, most days.

I will put this in an email, as well...

A story of apples

"There once lived in Damascus an enterprising peasant who had three daughters. One day, the peasant told a qadi, a judge, that his daughters were not only very intelligent but blessed with rare skills of the imagination. The qadi, a jealous and stingy man, was annoyed at hearing a peasant speak so praisingly of his daughters' talents. [...] The qadi had the three girls brought before him. Then he said to them, 'Here are 90 apples for you to sell in the market. Fatima, the oldest, you will take 50; Cunda, you will take 30; and Shia, the youngest, you will take 10. If Fatima sells the apples at a price of 7 to the dinar, you other two will have to sell yours at the same price. And if Fatima sells her apples for 3 dinars each, you two will have to do the same. But, no matter what you do, each of you must end up with the same amount of money from your different numbers of apples.'

" 'But can I not give away some of the apples that I have?' Fatima asked.

" 'Under no circumstances,' said the wretched qadi. 'These are the terms: Fatima must sell 50 apples. Cunda must sell 30 apples. And Shia must sell the 10 apples that remain. And all of you must sell your apples at the same price, and all of you must earn exactly the same profit in the end.' "

Such was the problem posed to our class by The Man Who Counted this morning. The kids ultimately came up with three solutions, and while none were the same as that presented by Beremiz, in the book, each was an example of creative and intelligent problem solving:

— The girls could sell their apples in unequal lots of equal price. So, Fatima could sell all her apples in a single lot of 50 for any price she chose; 15 dinars, for example. Then Cunda would sell her 30 apples in a single lot for 15 dinars, and Shia would do the same with her 10.

— The girls could combine their apples into a single lot (e.g. 90 apples sold en masse for 30 dinars), then split the profits evenly.

— Owning and selling are not the same thing. The girls could, on leaving the presence of the qadi, divide the apples evenly among themselves, deciding that each sister owned 30 apples. Upon arriving at the market, Shia could then hand 20 of her apples to Fatima to sell, on the understanding that the profits of the same would be handed back to Shia, the owner of the apples. Then, Shia would sell 10, Fatima would sell 50, and Cunda would sell 30 apples, and each receive the same profit.

What ingenious solutions!

For the curious, here is the solution presented by Beremiz:

"Fatima starts selling her apples at a price of 7 apples for 1 dinar. She sells 49 apples at this price, but keeps back 1.

"Cunda sells 28 of her apples at this price, but keeps back 2.

"Shia sells 7 of her apples at this price, but keeps back 3.

"Then Fatima sells her 1 remaining apple for 3 dinars. In accordance with the rules of the qadi, Cunda then sells her 2 remaining apples for 3 dinars each. And Shia then sells her 3 remaining apples for 3 dinars each. [...] Therefore, each made a profit of 10 dinars, and thus the problem set by the envious qadi of Damascus was solved."

Casting

We have our parts for As You Like It—check it out!

Maria: Rosalind

Mike: Celia, Adam

Alec: Phebe, Duke Frederick, Corin

Max: Orlando, Touchstone

Parker: Silvius

Peter: Oliver, Charles the Wrestler

There are a few parts still to be assigned (Jaques, Duke Senior, various attendant lords, etc.), and we will have to ask for some volunteers from Mrs. Carpenter's class to take on smaller roles, requiring less rehearsal time—but we'll get to that after our class is a little more firmly grounded in the play.

Since I've never produced Shakespeare with this age group before, I'm still uncertain of how long it will take before we're ready to perform; the show will be either just before the winter holidays, or in January. I'm expecting to make that decision in about two weeks. I also need to talk with Joanna about possible performance spaces—but I will keep everyone updated on our plans!

Poses of many kinds...

Last week, when the kids were teaching each other about math concepts they'd recently learned, one of my students had to teach me. He was showing me how to make parallel lines on a grid, and I realized... we were tiptoeing right on the verge of the concept of slope. Slope is something that's usually studied rather later in mathematics, but this seemed to me like one of those wonderful Summers-Knoll moments when one can take an idea and run with it. So, I made sure to introduce the concept with each group, last week, and today I wanted to review it with them a bit, just to solidify the idea. It's a bit of a tangent right now, but the concept will come up again, and not too long from now, for some of them. So, we began by reviewing on the board, but then we started looking around the room for something with a slope we could measure. It was Jesse who presented us with an option:

We measured her from her head to her heels, and found the slope she formed, using the floor and the table as our X and Y axes. (If I'm remembering right, her slope was something like 113/-120.) Go Jesse!

And here's just a taste of our ongoing dramatic efforts: Alec and Mike expressing unrequited love.

Science

This month's SK theme is "electricity and magnetism": our first scientific theme of the year! We began, today, by discussing the scientific method, since we'll be careful to use that in all our experiments. I gave the kids an example of an explanation arrived at without using the scientific method by writing a short story about a farmer in the middle ages who leaped to the conclusion that rats were spontaneously generated from the corn he'd spilled in his barn. We then talked about the story, our impressions of the farmer, and our own beliefs about where rats come from. The kids made some fascinating comments about the character of the farmer and his process of deduction; they said he "didn't think it through, just went with his first thought," "didn't go to school," and that he was "religious." These were particularly interesting comments because I hadn't put any information about the farmer's background into my story!

I want to find out a little more about what the kids already know about electricity and magnetism, and then we'll begin some experiments. Hopefully, that will include a trip to the Hands-On Museum in a couple weeks.