Monday Novemebr 9th, 2009

For a wet Monday it was a relatively quick day- the hours, once again, seem to be jam packed and busy. I collected the novel projects today and considering so many have been away ill, it was a bit of an effort on my part to 'visit' each student individually throughout the day to catch up with their personal independent assignments and figure out fairly who needs a bit more time.
Thanks again to parents taking care of their children's homework pick up- it is much appreciated. I hope everyone gets back to full health soon.

Tonight's Homework

NO New Homework- the majority of students have worked hard and have nothing new to complete tonight
Others, especially if they have missed class, have a bit of an extension until Thursday to get the overdue work in for assessment for term 1 (Report Cards are due into the office on Monday Nov. 16th)
There will be a redo of unit 7 spelling on Thursday and a unit 8 spelling test on Friday 13th

Reminders
Remembrance Day assembly tomorrow after recess
our volunteer readers are Kai, Kortney and Emily - there will be an early snack and recess to accommodate the assembly
Legion competition posters due by Nov 18th
tomorrow is the last day for the Hot Lunch orders (for Nov 16th)

Day in General

• Spelling returned Unit 7 prepped Unit 8 (test and redo later this week
• Had a good discussion about a short story about the loss of individuality when young people join gangs. The story is called On the Sidewalk, Bleeding written by Evan Hunter. It is set in 1970's New York but is timeless in its theme about the pointless loss of young life to violence, the futility and the danger of a 'gangster' life. It asks readers to consider what is important in life and it turns out that having a gang tattoo or jacket to be 'recognized' can have unfortunate consequences.
• I aslo taught a reading strategy to help students answer questions called QAR (question answer relationships). Ask them and see if they can recall the three types of questions which are the basis of all questions. The three levels are literal (on the lines), inferential (between the lines) and critical (beyond the lines). Understanding the type of question being asked guides students' reading. It helps them know more confidently where in the story and what they need to read to access specific information. Critical questions require higher order thinking by encouraging readers to form connections from the story inferences that relate back to their real world experience. I have always found that if I really listen to the students they have some profound insights about life and make some of the most surprising connections to the reading selections.
• Music was next with Mrs McPhee
• Math today focused on solving equations to isolate and solve for the variable using 'inspection' or balancing- what you do to one side of the equation to isolate the variable you must balance and do to the other side too until the variable is solved.i.e.
• 11+3-k=12
• 14-k+k=12+k
• 14= (+)12-12+k
• 14-12=k
• k=2

Lunch time was so wet we called an in-day although some of our boys braved the weather and headed outside anyway- remember they like to get wet!!!!!

DEAR time and some madly tried to complete semi-finished novel activities :) I have spent some classroom money on a bunch of new books and was happy to let the students have a look at them today. There are approx. 40 new reads added to our class library.

We did a bit of reading of the text for Socials and tried to discuss the quotation "the roots of our present are deep in the past"... it is a bit abstract but the students did a decent job trying to put it into words of explanation. The consensus was that we would not have the same kind of present life that we enjoy today if things were different in our personal (family), collective (Squamish) and general (Canadian) history. The things that formed or drove the past still affect us today- I am hoping to instill in their minds the importance of ancient wisdom, the knowledge of our elders and the place that history (which we are making today) plays in our future. It is pretty deep but , in my opinion, an overlooked part of where and how we find ourselves today. Many students and people in general find it enough to think just about the now, the technology, the fast forward pace of our present day and haven't thought about where we are going long enough. I heard a quotation recently that went, " Life is meant to be lived forward and understood backward". Interesting thought- we live it but we don't understand it until much later. So we only really have 'hindsight'. Isn't that a bit unsettling?

Computer time rounded out the day and I introduced the students to the on-line math resources for our current textbook Math Links 7. go to http://www.mcgrawhill.ca/ link up to the window for elementary and secondary schools then hit the link for MathLinks which has its own box and hit 'go'. It will take you to a wealth of on-line quizzes, practice and games for the math concepts we are covering.

Hope everyone stays dry tonight- it is very wet outside the classroom. See you all tomorrow. Mrs. J.