Had a bit of a challenging day with some aspects of students taking responsibility for their own learning. I switched math to the first part of the morning because of the assembly for Pink Day- and I found myself in a quandry about what to do for the small number of students who defend their lack of participation with the battle cry "I'm bored".
I have found that often 'bored' students tend to have missed instruction (been absent), have not really paid attention to the instruction or directions and then are in a catch-22 of no practice-no understanding and therefore they tend to shut down. It's easy to blame 'boredom'. The other scenario is that the work is not challenging enough and they are confident with the skills and need to move onto more advanced concepts. I had both situations in class today.
We discussed the building of sport skills before a person can become a top class basketball or hockey player and I tried to present the 'boring' practice as skill building (the diving board) but I'm not sure they really understood the analogy. Some skills are dull but they are necessary to set the ground for more advanced practice!
Homework
Math booklet- complete the remaining geometry questions to do with angle measurement
Forms - still have one set of Camp forms outstanding and 11 Term 3 Goal Sheets!!
French- les refrigerateurs hand in asap (new project underway now)
General Day
Math - Geometry- measuring supplementary (180) and complementary (90) angles, recognizing acute, obtuse and reflex angles and guessimating the measurement of angles formed in relation to the shape of a figure. See - totally boring!!
I introduced the next French project today- we will be inviting a friend to a pretend lunch or dinner for which we create a menu in French and set the table using vocabulary for the utensils and plates etc. We began a game using the vocabulary today called "Qu'est ce que c'est...? in which a student mimes the use of a certain table setting utensil or place setting item and the others guess what it is- I had to remind them to try guessing in French. Grade eight will be focussed the studenmts confidence with speaking the language. So this term I would like to focus on dialogue and inviting a friend to lunch is a great way to get them talking en francais. Boring!
Snack- Pink Day Assembly- we had a bit of a discussion when we got back to class. The student wanted to know if I had ever been bullied or if was a bully and I think I shocked them by saying yes to both questions. I'd like to follow up this topic in more detail in a personal planning class soon. I attended a workshop on Bullying last year and have a lot of resources we can explore together- it's making time for it. Boring!
Mythological stories- each group reads another Greek mythological story- today they read to determine the real life setting or area mentioned in the story (geographical) as we are following up last week's map activity this afternoon. Boring!
DEAR time- not all reading as I allowed some time for completion of incomplete acitivities that are late or incomplete. Most used time wisely :) Boring!
Socials- follow up map activity using master map on the overhead (students noticed right away that I had two Mycenae- so quick and observant :)) Then we began our virtual tour of Greece starting in Athens ( the slides form my 1993 high school tour seem old technology now- I wonder if I can modernize them!!) Anyway, we are on our way tomorrow to visit the Acropolis. Snore- Boring to the max.
Art- some are working indeoendently, some with a partner, others a group and they are really getting into the Greek mythological monsters, gods and heroes. So far some great ideas and some pretty creepy looking Cyclpos, Medusa and a Kraken. So talented. But ultimately mega boring!
Dismissal - extra boring bu they all left anyway.
I had an exercise class and missed the Bottle depot tonight (it shuts at 5pm) I will enquire about our bottle drive fundraising Thursday. Good news- Squamish Mills has sent a $50 donation for camp to the school.
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