Seventh Grader Research Articles

One-Way Zebra

One-Way Zebra Colin Fleming (bio) Keywords Colin Fleming, Fiction, hockey, summer camp, teenagers, adolescence It was the day after Christmas, and watching Danny Splighter skate for the first time in my life was like the holiday was happening all over again. Danny’s family had just moved to our town of Belchertown, out in Western Massachusetts. This was his first practice with my team, the Belchertown Springs. Our name was embarrassing. Other teams got to be the Bears or the Marauders, but Belchertown has a lot of natural springs in it, and I guess the thinking was that instead of clawing you or something cool, we’d defeat you by way of backyard flooding. Or that was the joke I heard my dad make, anyway. I was one of our best players, but I had never seen anyone as good as this kid. Danny would cover more of the ice in one stride than the rest of us would in six. He was so fast that when he was gliding he still went past you easily. His size was average for a seventh grader, but less than that for a seventh-grade hockey player in our town, while I was maybe our team’s biggest player. Because I was good and big, other kids usually found it surprising how much I loved to read. That was my thing even more than hockey. I remember how in fourth grade I’d try and get my work done fast so I could read books like White Fang and the Three Investigators mystery series. You’d be surprised how easy it is to make a new friend just by recommending a Three Investigators book to them. But my favorite book was this one written by Ted Williams about his life. He was a Red Sox star in the 1940s whose dream was to be the best hitter who ever lived. When he got to the major leagues, though, he couldn’t stop talking about the individual batting styles of the stars of the league. He was so specific. This guy did this with his hands, this other guy’s left foot pivoted ever so slightly as he snapped his wrists and drove the ball 450 feet. You’d think he was describing ballet dancers. But I understood that kind of enthusiasm as I sat on the bench and watched Danny deke defenders so hard that even our top players fell over. “Jenks!” Coach Olin yelled out. Hardly anyone called me Todd or Jenkins by middle school. Most teachers even called me Jenks. [End Page 276] I hopped the boards and took my place on the red line. Coach wanted me to go one on one with Danny to get a better idea of just what he had here. Normally it took guys ten strides to feel like they were right on you, but Danny was a stick’s length away after two. He held the puck outward and back behind his right knee, and when I went to poke it away he pulled it through his legs, bouncing it off the inside of his left skate, as I tumbled over and he went in to rifle the puck into the top of the net before our goalie could move. I didn’t feel embarrassed. Because that was the coolest thing I had ever seen. We started to become really good friends when break was over. Our desks were next to each other in Ms. Pucci’s class. No one really liked Pucci. She was one of the youngest teachers, maybe twenty-two, and you could tell that she didn’t pay much attention to what was going on in her class. She did her makeup a lot, right with us sitting there, and the regular joke was that she was always getting ready for a date. Danny and I had to write this little script for a pretend TV game show. That was a standard Pucci type of assignment. And I remember thinking, this kid is really funny. He wrote questions like “What is a tree made of?” and the answer would be “wood,” and there was this other one that...

Construcción del concepto de tecnología en una red virtual de aprendizaje

<p>Este artículo presenta los resultados de la tesis doctoral titulada “Construcción del concepto de tecnología en una red virtual de aprendizaje”. El objetivo de esta investigación es caracterizar el proceso que realizan estudiantes de séptimo grado al construir el concepto de tecnología cuando interactúan en una red virtual de aprendizaje. Apoyado en elementos teóricos desde las redes de conocimiento en los procesos educativos, las concepciones sobre tecnología y los procesos de conceptualización, se diseña y desarrolla la Red virtual de aprendizaje en tecnología –REVATEC-. Con base en el desarrollo de las actividades propuestas allí, se realiza desde la metodología de teoría fundamentada, un análisis de los enfoques instrumental, cognitivo, sistémico y cultural que se construyen en torno a la tecnología, la forma como se relacionan y el proceso de construcción del concepto en los procesos de interacción de los estudiantes que participan en esta red. </p>

All My Sons

All My Sons

Social-perspective coordination and gifted adolescents’ friendship quality

This research examined links among academic ability, social-perspective coordination, and friendship quality, within the context of gifted adolescents’ friendships. The sample consisted of 120 early adolescents (59 girls, 61 boys), 81 of whom were identified as gifted. Academic ability, sex, and grade significantly predicted social-perspective coordination (an indicator of psychosocial maturity) in multiple regression analyses. Social-perspective coordination, perceptions (self-concept) of ability to make and keep friends, academic ability, sex, and grade predicted perceptions of the overall quality of friendships. Being a female, seventh grader, or adolescent not identified as gifted, significantly predicted higher friendship quality. Social-perspective coordination and self-concept based on having a close friend predicted higher levels of friendship quality for the gifted participants.

Jasmine and the Bee: Spelling word-initial [t h ] in English

Jasmine was an American seventh grader whose first language (L1) is Punjabi and second language (L2) is English. A good speller, she tied for first place at her regional spelling bee. She maintains that she then correctly spelled the tie-breaking word: tomography . After requesting an instant video replay of her word, the judges declared Jasmine’s spelling incorrect: <d-o-m-o-g-r-a-p-h-y>. We examine three questions: Is Jasmine’s presumed-high word-recognition ability consistent with such an error? Did her L1 interfere with her L2 pronunciation? Did an L1-influenced pronunciation cause the judges to perceive her word-initial /t/ as [d]? After inquiring of Jasmine about the spelling event itself, we examined the considerable research on Indian English, spelling, speech production, and speech perception; we also audio-recorded Jasmine’s spoken language at various style levels to assess the degree to which Punjabi may be influencing her English pronunciation. The first question remains without a confirmed answer, though our assumption is that it is ‘no’. Work on Indian English indicates a probable ‘yes’ to the latter two questions. Spectrographic analysis of Jasmine’s word-initial English [t h ]-sounds demonstrates the shorter voice onset times associated with the nonaspirated /t/-sounds of Punjabi and Indian English. It is probable that Jasmine pronounced the ‘t’ [t h ] of tomography with little or no aspiration, and that the judges heard the near-unaspirated [t] as a [d]. Jasmine’s experience demonstrates that the Scripps National Spelling Bee’s sole reliance on dictionary pronunciations of Standard American English might well be adjusted to accommodate contestants who speak a nonstandard, or a standard but non-American, variety of English.

An Experimental Study of Teaching Vocabulary by Using Hyponymy Games on the Seventh Grader F MTs Syech Ibrahim Payakumbuh

Language is an effective tool to get communication, interaction, and information about other people, society and other groups. Whenever people think about language, they usually think of mastering vocabulary. Mastering vocabulary means that they know all the words in the language which we use. In this research, the writer would like to carry out the research under title “An Experimental Study of Teaching Vocabulary by Using Hyponymy Games on the Seventh Grader of MTs Syech Ibrahim Payakumbuh. It was quasi experimental method. The population was all of the seventh grader at Seventh Grader of MTs Syech Ibrahim Payakumbuh. But, the writer just took one class as the sample. The objects of the study was the seventh grade of 7c class. From the result of statistic calculation, it is obtained the value of to is 8,9 and tt is 2,64. So tott. The comparison between t-score with t-table (2,64 8,9). It means that hypothesis of the research is accepted, or there is significant difference between the results of teaching vocabulary through hyponymy games for the Seventh Grader of MTs Syech Ibrahim Payakumbuh. Copyright © 2014 by Al-Ta'lim All right reserved

What Can We Learn From Seventh Graders?

In education, consider three comanity subjects that aren't counted but should be: language use, mental models, and the DIKW hierarchy. Then factor in how a seventh grader tackles a simple word problem. In learning, there are content and processes. Consider three comanity processes: language use, mental models, and the DIKW hierarchy. Then factor in how a seventh grader tackles a simple word problem.

Outlier, Or A Statistical Explanation of Fear

As a seventh grader, I would sit in algebra class thinking I understood what my teacher had explained -- the order of operations or how to factor a polynomial -- but I would get home, try to do my homework, and my “knowledge” was gone. I had a vague idea that these formulas were about complicated relationships: the division and commonalities of beings. But just as I didn’t have the experience to allow me to discern the true nature of the human relationships these abstract concepts could represent, I didn’t know how to apply these new calculations to anything practical so they would make sense. I’d go home and cry over my homework each evening as if it were a lover with whom I couldn’t communicate. And, in a way, it was.

Ordinary Police Interrogation in the United States: The Destruction of Meaning and Persons: A Psychoanalytic-Ethical Investigation

Ordinary Police Interrogation in the United States: The Destruction of Meaning and Persons: A Psychoanalytic-Ethical Investigation Benjamin A. Galatzer-Levy (bio) and Robert M. Galatzer-Levy (bio) At 6:30 A.M., January 21, 1998, seventh grader Stephanie Crowe was found stabbed to death in her bedroom doorway. When police arrived, they told the family not to speak to one another. At the station, the family was required gradually to undress while being videotaped. The children were separated from their parents and taken to a facility for abused and neglected children. Crime scene investigation revealed no likely means of entry. Shortly before the murder, a strange homeless man interacted with neighbors, going to various houses looking for a supposed girlfriend. Police attention focused on fourteen-year-old Michael Crowe, Stephanie’s brother. He seemed to them to respond abnormally to his sister’s death. Michael, infatuated with fantasy games like “Dungeons and Dragons,” had violent pictures on the walls of his room. Awakening at 4:30 A.M., after the time the police determined his sister was killed, he passed her doorway without noticing her body. Most of Michael’s long interrogation was videotaped, except for thirteen minutes in which he was arrested and decided to confess. Police told Michael they wanted to use a Computer Voice Stress Analyzer, a device its manufacturer claims can detect lying. (There is no systematic evidence for the claim.) Michael agreed to the test but his interrogator, claiming to notice some reluctance, asked, “What’s the problem, Mike?” The boy replied, “I spent all day away from my family. I couldn’t see them. I feel like I’m being treated like I killed my sister, but I didn’t. It feels horrible. I’m being blamed for it.” The detective responded, “Mike, you need to trust me on this. This is going [End Page 57] to work out. What we’re after and what’s important is that we get the truth of the matter” (Sauer and Wilkens, 2009, p. 10). Mike was told that he showed deception during the Computer Voice Stress Analyzer interview and that the crime scene was being investigated. “They’re going to find all kinds of stuff, and you know that . . . I’m looking at you right now—okay?—and inside you’re about ready to burst” (p. 11). Michael began to cry. The detective told him that all he could “give back” was the truth. “You’re going to have to put all the cards on the table. Science is in our favor. Technology is on our side.” Mike continued to deny involvement after two-and-a-half hours of interrogation at which point the detective lied to him, “We found blood in your room already. It’s easy to make mistakes in the dark. We know who did it. What we need to do now is to get over the fact that it’s been done and get down to why it was done and get on with our lives here.” A little later he said, “You need to help us understand how to help you. Just because a person makes mistakes—just because a person does something bad . . . a) it doesn’t mean that the world has come to an end, and b) it doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person” (p. 12). The detective told Mike, “I’m going to try everything . . . that the system can muster to help you through this” (p. 13). Michael was interrogated for six more hours later that day. He was told that there might be “two Michaels” (p. 13) and that since he was only fourteen he would not be held to the same standards as an adult street criminal. At this point Michael entertained the idea that he might have been insane or in some other way committed the murder without being able to recall it, as the police had suggested. He was told if he failed to cooperate he would go to jail; if he cooperated he would get “help.” The police said they were growing impatient. He had a limited time to confess. “The reason I’m sounding impatient, Mike, is that...

Teaching Disaffected Middle School Students: How Classroom Dynamics Shape Students’ Experiences

Mr. Springer is the most caring teacher. If he would yell, he would say sorry and stuff like that. He would say, I'm sorry for and he would explain why he was yelling and everything, not like a lot of teachers at my old school. They would just yell and not say sorry. -Nathaniel, seventh grader Nathaniel and his fellow students are all too familiar with having teachers yell at them. The vast majority of these students have a long record of disciplinary infractions and academic failure, and they have all been expelled from their comprehensive schools for committing zero tolerance offenses. They are the kids that most teachers wish would disappear to make it easier to teach the rest. They are the casualties of increasingly strict discipline policies, and they present a challenge to public education to better meet their needs. Teaching these students presents a host of difficulties for which even the most skilled teachers may be unprepared. This article examines instruction at a school for expelled middle school students and illustrates the practices of its most and least effective teachers. Though the study described here focuses on a school serving expelled students, lessons learned apply to all teachers and administrators working with disaffected young adolescents. Understanding where Nathaniel goes to school Nathaniel is one of the 20,883 students expelled from a California public school during the 2008-2009 school year (California Department of Education, 2009a), and he belongs to the 1.9% of California secondary school students assigned to alternative schools for disciplinary reasons during that same year (California Department of Education, 2009b). Due to the increasing number of violent incidents on school campuses, zero-tolerance policies have proliferated among school districts across the United States (Casella, 2003; The Civil Rights Project, 2000). These policies serve the purpose of removing student offenders from comprehensive schools but do not adequately address the educational needs of these students after expulsion. In California, expelled students are sent to community day schools (CDSs), where only general legislative guidelines apply to daily school practices and little is known about what actually occurs to educate students (Gillson, 2000). The lack of knowledge in this area is especially troublesome since students like Nathaniel are disproportionately at risk of dropping out of school, are likely to become involved with the justice system, and are likely to become both victims and perpetrators of violence (Ingersoll & LeBoeuf, 1997). Successful early intervention with these students can recuperate significant lost revenues as well as human potential (Levin, 2009). This study focuses on middle schools because young adolescents are experiencing an especially vulnerable life transition during which positive intervention efforts can yield tremendous results (Barr & Parrett, 2001; Skiba et al., 1997). Because CDSs are uniquely positioned to provide such interventions, this study aims to add to our knowledge of the possibilities and limitations of current CDS practices by getting an in-depth look at classrooms in one average school.1 Data collection for this study occurred at Vista Hermosa Community Day School in a large, urban district in southern California (all names are pseudonyms). The district serves more than 50,000 students, with at least 100 attending the CDS throughout the course of a given school year. While the school is divided into two sites-one serving high school students and the other serving middle school students-data collection occurred only at the middle school site. The school shares the charge that comprehensive middle schools have in addressing students' maladaptive behavior to reengage them in school. Lessons learned in this qualitative case study resulted from 75 hours of observations in seven teachers' classes and school-wide meetings; 17 interviews of students; 33 interviews of teachers and administrators; and analysis of relevant school documents, district information, and student records. …

A Visit to My Junior High School 50 Years Later

It is not unusual for people to attend their high school or college class reunions, but who would want to go back and visit their old junior After all, this is a time that most of us overlook or want to forget. However, for me it was a meaningful time in my life, and in many respects, laid the foundation for whom I have become. It was during my junior high years that I decided to follow in my parents' footsteps and make teaching my career, later becoming a teacher, a principal, and a professor of teacher education. It was also during my junior high years that I first began to participate in organized sports, which I went on to pursue in high school, college, and during my first years as a teacher and coach. [Editor's note: John Swaim is today a competitive master swimmer in his 60s.] Most important, I had my first date in junior high with the girl I eventually married, who became the mother of our two children and with whom I have spent the last 40 years of my life. So, for me, going back to my old junior high was not only a stroll down memory lane but also a chance to reconnect with the source of my beliefs about middle school education. Planning for the visit My visit did not just happen; it took some planning on my part. My wife, Sue Swaim, executive director emerita of National Middle School Association, and I were planning a trip to Kansas City where we had both grown up. She was attending a middle school meeting, and I had two days to myself. I was looking for a productive way to spend those two days when I realized I had been a seventh grader at Northwest Junior High School in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1957, 50 years ago. I thought to myself, Would it not be interesting to visit my old junior high? So I called the principal and made arrangements to spend a day at my old school. The old neighborhood Although I had made arrangements to meet Mr. Williams, the principal, at 8:00 a.m., I left the hotel an hour early so that I could drive through the old neighborhood to see how much it had changed in 50 years. I rationalized that a trip through my old neighborhood would give me a sense of where the current students from Northwest live; in actuality, it was probably more for nostalgic reasons. First, I drove by my old elementary school, which had been torn down and replaced by a new school. This was somewhat disorienting, but I managed to leave the school and find the route I had taken every day from school to my home. The houses along the way were basically the same, but 50 years had certainly taken their toll. As I approached my old block, I was hoping my childhood home was going to be just the same as I remembered it, knowing full well the chances of that were slim. However, to my surprise it was the best-looking house on the block, comparatively speaking. I wanted to stop the car, go knock on the door, and thank the current owners for taking such good care of my house. I then followed the route that I walked to Northwest every day. Again, the neighborhood was not the same middle class, blue-collar neighborhood where I grew up. I did notice that the old laundromat where we used to hang out was gone. You might ask why young adolescents in the 1950s would hang out at the laundromat. We had dubbed it the Dryer Olympics. We would crawl inside one of the large dryers and see how many spins you could make-of course, /never participated. Arriving at school I pulled into the school parking lot, and the school looked just as it did 50 years ago, with the exception of a new addition that had been added the year after I left Northwest. So, maybe it is not so new. I walked up to what I remember as the front door and found it locked. I went around the building to four other doors and found them also locked. I do not remember the doors ever being locked when I went to school. I went back to the front door and found Mr. Williams standing there waiting to greet me. He pointed to the doorbell beside the door that I could have used to gain entry. …

The Secret War for Texas (review)

88Southwestern Historical QuarterlyJuly army by finding the trunk and opening it again. Back in the present, die three keep their adventure a secret. Who, after all, would believe them? The tale could have easily ended there, but thank goodness it did not. Hannah , Nick and Jackie are soon off on anodier adventure, this time to rescue Mr. Barrington (Journey to SanJacinto). The trio is joined by a substitute teacher, the niece of Mr. Barrington, and they are caught up in die events leading to die batde at San Jacinto. Again, Hannah, Nick and Jackie meet historical characters, diis time on both sides of die fighting. They grow with each of their experiences and learn, notjust about history, but about themselves. Melodie Cuate's series, "Mr. Barrington's Mysterious Trunk," is great. The history and historical characters, as far as we can know diem, are right. The human experience is compelling. The fictional trio, Hannah, Jackie and Nick, are believable and the reader will feel as if he knows diem. These are books that the reader will not be able to put down and will wait impatiendy for die next installment . (Here, I must add a personal note. After readingJourney to the Alamo, I lent the book to two students, an eighth grader and a seventh grader. Both of these students loved the book and wanted more. The eighdi grader even convinced his motiier to buy him his own copy!) Cuate is a fourth-grade teacher in McAllen, Texas, who clearly understands the minds of her young students. She is currently working on the eagerly awaited next installment of the series, Journey to Gonzales . This reader strongly recommends these books and can easily see diem being used with great success in fourth- and seventh-grade classes. Victoria, TexasDeborah Hardin The Secret Warfor Texas. By Stuart Reid. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2007. Pp. 248. Acknowledgments, introduction, illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 9781585445653. $29.95, cloth.) Scottish historian Stuart Reid examines England's role in early Texas and the arguably related activities of his three-times-great-grandfather, Dr. James Grant, in the Texas Revolution. Focusing primarily on Grant's part in the ill-fated , 1835-36 expedition in which Texas rebels intended to attack Matamoros, Tamaulipas, the author develops a two-part thesis diat challenges traditional interpretations . First, in contrast to the usual idea that England's interest in Texas began after Texas became a republic, Reid asserts that almost as soon as American setders first arrived in Texas, England launched a twenty-year "secret war" with the United States—a war aimed at making sure Texas remained an impenetrable barrier to American expansion toward die Pacific Ocean. Second, contrary to the customary claim that Grant's land speculation interests motivated his participation in the Matamoros expedition, Reid maintains that Grant served as a British agent who, as part of the secret war, wanted to provoke a Federalist insurrection that would ensure Texas either remained a part of Mexico or became part of a new republic of northern Mexico. The generally chronological organization of Reid's crisply written book con- 2oo8Book Reviews89 tributes substantially to the clarity and coherence of his arguments. After clearly stating his thesis in a concise introduction, he uses his first chapter to provide evidence diat Grant's anti-American actions as a British agent began in die 1820s and included a clandestine involvement in the quixotic Fredonian Rebellion. In the next six chapters, Reid quickly shifts to die mid-i830s and traces Grant's numerous activities, first as a Coahuilan businessman, legislator, and recipient of controversial land grants and then as a warrior in the Texas Revolution. As the author shows, Grant's actions in the Revolution included fighting against Mexican troops in the siege of San Antonio de Béxar, helping to instigate the subsequent Matamoros expedition, and serving as an expedition leader until Mexican troops surprised and killed him on March 2, 1936. After devoting his eighth chapter to die relationship between England and the new Republic of Texas, Reid closes with a postscript that focuses on the administration of Grant's estate and the disposition of certificates issued to Grant in connection...

On a Practical Method to Link Performance-Based Assessment and the Rating on the Permanent Record Card in the Seventh Grader's Biology Class

On a Practical Method to Link Performance-Based Assessment and the Rating on the Permanent Record Card in the Seventh Grader's Biology Class

The constitutionality of random drug and alcohol testing of students in secondary schools

Adolescent drug and alcohol use is a major public health problem. Multiple studies indicate that substance use is a risk factor for physical and mental disorders in adolescents. Secondary schools and the communities they serve have been facing a long-standing problem of substance abuse. American adolescents have become quite accustomed to drug prevention being a part of their curriculum. However, some policy decisions made by school administrators have been legally challenged. In 1989, Vernonia School District serving a small community in Oregon, instituted a random drug testing policy of its athletes. In 1991, the parents of a seventh grader refused to give their consent for random drug testing. The seventh grader was denied participation in the sport and sued the School District arguing that the school policy violated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and Article I, Section 9 of the Oregon Constitution. In 1995, on appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, the School District won the case. The Vernonia School District versus Acton case became a landmark case, but random drug and alcohol testing in secondary schools has been a subject of multiple court cases. The authors discuss three of them. Both Federal and State Courts have recognized that a secondary school environment in itself represents "a special need," for which suspicionless searches are sometimes necessary to maintain order, safety, and discipline. Drug and alcohol testing programs in secondary schools may still be challenged on its legality. Therefore, examining court sanctioned programs and their long-term efficacy statistics is recommended.

My Soldier

The first time I tried to kill a man, I was thirteen years old. I was a seventh grader at Oxford High School; he was a soldier, probably around nineteen or twenty, from nearby Fort McClellan. I don't remember his name now, though he must have told it to me. I remember little of what he looked like or the things he said to me. Mostly I remember how much I wanted him to die. In 1985 in Oxford, Alabama, there wasn't much for kids to do. At night they'd drive around, looping up and down the highway between the mall and the Sonic, stopping for fries or burgers or to make out on Thrill Hill. They'd drink and smoke pot. Soldiers from the fort, making their own loops among the pawn shops and movie theaters and bars, would often intersect with the high school students and try to hook up. I suppose they were sometimes successful, though most of the kids I knew regarded guys from the fort as trashy, foreign, and dangerous. At thirteen, I was too young and too straitlaced for this social scene. I spent my nights with homework and Stephen King novels, waiting for puberty (long overdue, by my estimation) and adulthood. I'd had a few crushes, but by and large, boys were still strange and often malicious creatures best avoided. As for the soldiers, I never gave them a thought when I noticed them at matinees or in the malls on weekends. They were simply another fixture of the landscape, like the red clay soil or Snow Creek or the World's Largest Office Chair next to the defunct furniture store downtown—something I noted as I passed by. So this man, the one I tried to kill, I ordinarily would have passed by if he hadn't introduced himself. It must have been a Sunday afternoon, when the Sunshine Skate Center in town had a special rate and parents dropped off their kids for hours at a time. I had never really liked roller skating because I was tall and gangly and graceless even in tennis shoes, and the [End Page 99] additional element of wheels seemed to invite disaster and disgrace. I was there to chaperone my younger sister as she giddily circled the rink over and over and over. I was sitting on one of the carpet-covered benches, unlacing my rented skates and considering another game of Space Invaders, when he walked up. He was taller than I was, but probably shorter than I am now, only about five-foot-seven or so. His build was slight but wiry, and he looked vaguely uncomfortable in his jeans and T-shirt. His hair had the standard military buzz, and he sported a thin, sandy mustache on his lip. He said he and his friend had been watching me skate, and pointed to the wall, where another buzz-cut stood smirking. "I told him I was going to come and say hey to you," he said. I have no idea what, if anything, I said in reply. My ears rang with blood; I must've been blushing like a neon sign. He looked over at his friend, back at me, and asked to sit. I must've nodded because he sat close beside me on the bench. He smelled like cheap snack bar pizza and cigarettes. He asked me my name, how old I was, and I told him. This is when he must've introduced himself, though I cannot recall that information, only what he said next. "You're pretty," he said. Are there any words a girl more desperately wants to hear, yet fears hearing? I was tall, skinny, and freckled, with lank brown hair and crooked teeth still years away from braces. I was also smart and shy and was used to being teased by the boys in my school. This felt like a setup. Probably I said nothing and looked...

Circles of Humanity

How does geometry appear through the eyes of a restless seventh grader? I tried to imagine it as I leafed through the Teacher's Edition in preparation for my first-ever encounter with teaching geometry. The pages of boring definitions and sterile, aloof diagrams gave a grim prognosis of glazed eyes and distant minds. There had to be more to it than this. The sign on the wall of my physics classroom reminded me of Einstein: “Geometry is the mathematics of space and time.” For a brief instant I considered trying to teach geometry through the topic of general relativity at a seventh-grade level—and although I came back down to earth from that idea quickly, the inspiration had served its purpose, sending me on an exploration to find more unique perspectives from which to teach and learn geometry. My discoveries evolved, and the consequent path that I took with my students turned out to be less abstract and esoteric than the fabric of space and time; instead, we delved into the topic of geometry as being a powerful sociological tool, solid yet enigmatic, a human and cultural representation of the world and the universe.

10.7 Heart rate variability trends in 90-minute period prior to onset of ventricular arrhythmias in ICD patients

�pattern in the V1 lead with the ST-segment elevation 0.2mV of a coved-type ECG was defined as “typical” Brugada-type ECG. Results: the Brugada-type ECG was found in 11 (10male) of 20387 children (0.054%, 95%CI: 0.022% to 0.086%). There was no child with typical Brugada-type ECG. The prevalence of Brugada-type ECG in male was significantly higher than that of female even in children (0.096% versus 0.010%, P=0.012), and was increased according to aging (first grader: 0.01%, fourth grader: 0.05%, seventh grader: 0.08%, tenth grader: 0.23%, p<0.008. ANOVA). Conclusions: the prevalence of Brugada-type ECG in Japanese children was much lower than that reported previously in adult population (0.7%) and was increased according to aging.

Masters as Mentors: The Role of Reading Poetry in Writing Poetry

Emily Dickinson once wrote, “If I feel physically as if my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” Upon reading these words, Village School seventh grader Eleanor Unsworth replied, “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I run around screaming, ‘Ahh! Where’s my head?!’”

Breast-Less by Choice

When I was twelve years old, my mother told me that she would pay for my breast surgery. I figured she was just picking on me again. She invariably thought I was too fat or too thin; my eyebrows were too thick, my legs too long, my torso too short, my hair too light, my skin too dark. Like certain primate mothers, my mother had a need to pick and preen. The minute I walked in the door, she saw things about me that called out for her attention. Maybe it was because she loved me, but it seemed I could never live up to her expectations. Or maybe this was just one of those things Chinese mothers did, but had my mother gone too far this time - offering cosmetic surgery to a seventh grader?

Breast-less by Choice

When I was twelve years old, my mother told me that she would pay for my breast surgery. I figured she was just picking on me again. She invariably thought I was too fat or too thin; my eyebrows were too thick, my legs too long, my torso too short, my hair too light, my skin too dark. Like certain primate mothers, my mother had a need to pick and preen. The minute I walked in the door, she saw things about me that called out for her attention. Maybe it was because she loved me, but it seemed I could never live up to her expectations. Or maybe this was just one of those things Chinese mothers did, but had my mother gone too far this time - offering cosmetic surgery to a seventh grader?