Lots of late students today- guess it was that kind of day!! The good news is that the class attendance is normalizing now and catchup is in full progress. Good day in the 'steam' of the classroom but yukky, nasty day outside!
Homework
The only thing I assigned for homework tonight is the last section of a worksheet we started in class today which asked the students to translate algebraic expressions into the English language version. So if, for example you have "a number added to another number" it would translate into "x+y". Vice versa: if you had 5x+3y, the English would be "five times a number added to three times a number. (the phrase 'a number' represents a variable which can be any letter of the alphabet but x and y are often used). There are about 8-10 examples to practice as we did a couple in class. FYI many students did finish it in class.
Reminder that any student who wants to enter the Remembrance Day competition must have the entry ready by the end of the day tomorrow for pick up on Wednesday.
Tomorrow I will also send home an update on H1N1 vaccination clinics in our corridor.
FYI photo retakes were today
today was also hot lunch day
We are taking a week break from spelling units and focussing instead on word and vocabulary usage. The next Unit test will start spelling for Term 2 and will be November 26th.
General Day
Returned Unit 8 spelling test
Completed a vocabulary challenge using some of the words we have studied in Units 1-8 this time putting them into use in sentences and chosing 5 to write a paragraph
I read another chapter of Word Nerd
Next we did a seating change experiment in which the student at random pulled names and the students formed group of 4-5. I am not sure if it will work- we have agreed to try it for the week. So, when the students were out at Music this morning I shifted all the desks into new groups!! So far so good. We'll monitor the success (or lack of it!!)
Math today was short (I had 25 minutes) and we managed to get through a review of the Algebraic vocabulary that we have been learning. It is all laid out for the students to refer to on a two page sheet. Hopefully, whenever they are stumped, they can go back to this page and refer to it for immediate help. The practice today was for the students to translate English Language into algebraic format and algebraic format back into the English version of it. This assists a student to be able to recognize algebraic expressions when they are solving written problems.
The ironic thing about teaching math is that it is more difficult to explain it in words!! It seems a lot more complex than it really is.
After lunch (indoor :0)
DEAR reading time- the students had a much quieter reading time today once we got settled and I introduced the reading logs and the 'bonus' reporting activities - all students received them today. I am aiming to make us accountable for the reading time we have. It was also interesting to me that in a recent self-assessment about 10 students responded that they would appreciate more quiet time in class and I think that is very legitimate and important. Somedays there is just too much going on the kids brains are stimulated to the max and for some it is a source of anxiety and headaches.
We had a really interesting and enthusiastic discussion about the theory of evolution - looking at how science and history come together in a messy package to give us the theories of animal, plant and man's evolutionary progress (process). We discussed the creationist perspective and the scientific version from the Big Bang on and looked at a chart of the different stages. These students are full of interesting facts and even corrected me a couple of times when I got a bit ahead of myself!! (they are experts from watching the Nature of Things and the Blue Planet). It is cool and I need to be on my toes... wish you could have been there- you would have been proud of them. Some of us still need to work on better listening skills !!!
To the library next for a book exchange - then to computers- check these sites
http://www.algebra.com/ and http://www.mathfun.org/ I had the students surf some of the on-line interactive math material before I gave them some free computer time.
Keep dry. I am still plugging away at report cards and I let the students know I had missed my deadline and had to ask for an extension!!
Happens to us all I guess. See everyone tomorrow.
Mrs. J.
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