Welcome, Foothill 9th Grade Team!

Well, here it is...I feel the possibilities for greatness brewing!

Hello, gracious colleagues in excellence!

I started a blog for the purpose of “discussing” the integrated project AKA America Eats…

I figured I/we could post “conversation starters” and links to polls/surveys/voting forms for our group so that people can respond and share their feedback in a recorded setting.  Being able to do some of this process asynchronously will also allow us to participate on our own time without having to have extra meetings for some things.   It also will allow everyone to share their thoughts, feelings, opinions before we make decisions.  Also, some things can be done without meeting face to face…it’s about using time effectively and efficiently for everyone.

This is not to replace our meetings but to maybe get some of the discussion clarified for final decision making before coming together.

I hope you will participate.

;0) Conni Carr

Topic Experts

So, we chatted about choosing one of the 8 topics for which to be the "expert" or "teacher resource" for our freshman groups and some of what that might entail...

Add your thoughts, changes, twists to the proposal to the comments section for this post for others to ponder.

Proposal of Duties

Expert Teams

• We need eight "home base" rooms for the topic groups to meet once the launch occurs.
• Original line up was as follows:
• Topic 1 Adams I106
• Topic 2 Dowler F107
• Topic 3 Duston H105
• Topic 4 Geib G108
• Topic 5 Miller I105
• Topic 6 Rodrigues F109
• Topic 7 Savio I107
• Topic 8 Vega D107
• Suggested subject area line up as follows - departments can decide final assignment...
• Topic 1 Animal rights - Health/Geo or English
• Topic 2 What is in our food? - Health/Geo
• Topic 3 Food safety - Biology
• Topic 4 Healthy food for everyone? - Health/Geo
• Topic 5 Worker's rights - Health/Geo or English
• Topic 6 Does the company matter? - English
• Topic 7 Genetic modifications/DNA patenting - Biology
• Topic 8 Food labeling - Biology or English
• Each 9th grade team member chooses to be an “expert” for a particular topic
• 2 team members for each topic, from different departments preferably
• Biology teachers take the science-themed chapters (see above)
• Health/geography teachers take the social/political-themed chapters (see above)
• English teachers take on the remaining chapters (see above)
• Other departments join as second member of those teams
• Partners review the Food Inc. DVD chapter together for their topic looking for relevant issues, angles, debatable topics, contributing factors, etc.
• Keep in mind the focus question from the study guide for the chapter
• Each partnership drafts at least three balanced resolutions for their topic area 
• Multiple resolutions in case there is too much similarity between topics and we need an alternate
• Drafted resolutions could be used alternately the following years to keep the debates fresh
• Submit final resolutions at the end of quarter 1 (October) to Jennifer/Anthony for final analysis and editing
• Entire team can select final 8 for next year’s project at our November meeting