Wednesday Sept 29th

Tonight's homework
Spelling Test #2 tomorrow
Students who did not complete the Ch 3/4 questions from the novel are to finish them at home - some have a few more to do than others
Personal Planning activity is still up for completion- have a few more in but less than half the class- no more excuses!!!
the four students away Monday have been brought up to date with the work they missed and have to catch up by the end of the week.

General Day
Busy morning
journal entry today connected to the novel- the students randomly chose a job from the 'hat' (thanks for the loan of your hat Thomas :)) and they had a chance to discuss it with a partner and then a group of four. Next they had to complete a few questions about they would feel if this was to be their job for the rest of their life. Some had very emotional reactions to jobs they did not like. I look forward to reading their resoning!!
Math reviewed the homework- quite a few students needed some help and instruction to complete the practise correctly. Again if your child is not completing the practise work, we are limited in assisting him or her- participation and practise activities are not optional!
For Language Arts today we listened to ch 4 of the novel and the students worked on some chapter questions for chapters 3 and 4, We had a class discussion about DYSTOPIA and some students were very insightful connecting the book to the recent movies Avatar and WALL E.
As a class we really need to work on the procedures and expected skills/behaviours for class discussion. A few are attention hogs, some are formulating answers before they have really listened to the questions being asked, a few are rude and comment negatively on their classmates contributions and then their are the majority who are just doing their best to listen and learn and contribute appropriately. It's a very interesting social experiment conducting a discussion in class!! LOL
Afternoon was challenging.
If you check last Wednesday, it was a bit similar. Poor transitions are eating up our time for classes which means by the time we get to the end of the day, we are having to 'crunch' time. The schedule might need tweaking but some things are not easy to adjust at the end of September with so many other classes using the facilities. I believe WE have to accept and work toward more efficient transitions.
DEAR time was provided. During it I conducted a spelling test#1 redo. I also allowed the students who were away yesterday or who needed to work on the novel assignment some time during reading time to do that if they wanted to.
We held a private nomination activity for students who wanted to represent the class at the school leadership forum. We will publicly vote on the top three nominations tomorrow, The top three students are to present a brief speech about why their classmates should vote for them.
At computers today I shared the Math Links 7 website and all its web connections, quizzes, games and chapter links. It was a struggle. I need to rethink the computer set up and have put the students on notice that their will be a seating plan, some basic  lab etiquette (rules) and end of computer class procedures need to be much quicker if we are to get to the gym for the last half hour!!
We have a visit form the RCMP tomorrow- they will be doing their Dare training practicums in class from 9-9:45 tomorrow morning.

See everyone for the LAST day of September tomorrow!! WOW
Mrs. J.