Wednesday October 6th

It is so lovely outside- I'll try to keep this brief so I can enjoy the last of the sunshine!

Homework tonight
Spelling Test #3 next 12 words (I encouraged all students to try as many of the 12 as possible as it is an easier unit than most)
Math problems using decimal computation # 4,5 and 6 (#7 and the section Extra for Experts is optional- although a challenge is always good for the brain!!)
Novel , The Giver- keep reading and making between 3-5 notes about how you are thinking or feeling now as the story builds - we did more towards our Chapters 6-10 notes for our Reader's Response activity
Mon. Ch 5 and 6 Tuesday Ch 7 and 8 Wednesday Ch 8 and 9 Thursday Ch10 - notes in rough draft only as we will be working with them in class and at computers

Please note that some students have overdue and incomplete assignments from previous days. I have spent some time identifying what needs to be completed and those students know who they are. I don't expect everything to be completed in one night but my advice is to keep on catching up with completion of all incomplete activites.

Reminders
verification forms still need to be returned by approx. 10 students
hot lunch $$ (due Oct 12th after Thanksgiving)
Parent Evening choice form which was attached to the Homework Info. sheet (due Oct 12th after Thanksgiving)
A school Newsletter went home today to all parents
T-shirt orders?
PAC carnival Oct 21st- looking for volunteers

General Day
There certainly is a lot going on in our school and in our classes! Today we met Ms. Nadia Sorban- our replacement music teacher for Mrs. McPhee. Mrs McPhee is preparing to take her maternity leave soon.

I always share my TOC notes with my students as I like to share the perception of visiting teachers with them- it is interesting to note that at issue were transitions and noise level but generally it seemed to be a good productive day. Ms. Borsoff will be in my class again on Friday of this week so the students have a chance to do it even better!
3 students won local ice hockey tickets for their help and general assistance to Ms. Borsoff. Congratulations to Lexie, Tracy and Brooke. (Callista made it to the list too but she brought the hockey tickets so she gets a Scholastic book voucher.)
We did a right/left brain vocabulary activity this morning connected to the novel. A number of phrases and names were completely muddled in order that they could not be recognised without a good deal of letter/sound sense i.e. moving vowels and sound units or phonemes together until they made sense to the brain. It was challenging and some students had difficulty focussing on the confusion of the letters but we answered together and everyone was able to get the correct words and spelling.
We spent some more time on the Reader Response for novel moving along into notes for chapters 7 and 8. I reminded students that I wanted their personal reaction or thought about the things they note as I don't want a summary of events but an idea of their reaction. For example...one student wrote
"... when Jonas shared his dream I felt embarrassed for him becuase it was so personal. I would not share that at breakfast or anytime with my parents maybe my brother but not my little sister"
The idea is to read to find a reader's connection to the story.
Math today was productive but also it is a bit frustrating as our continuity is interrupted when students don't have the resources or practice work at hand to start into the lesson
We are slowly inmproving our transition time (great news :)); however, there are quite a few who have 'left it at home' (?), can't find it, haven't got their text out after several prompts and that takes time away from the actual instruction and practise time. There is no point in starting any instruction or review unless I have all my ducks in a row, on the same page and ready to be active listeners!!
Math content- review of the fancy phrases 'front end estimation and relative size' both are monikers for rounding and estmating with accuracy what the answer will be (where the decimal point will be placed). We looked at several step problem solving using decimal numbers. There are three for homework- again some students managed to complete in class.

DEAR time - great job- amazing difference from September- next week we will record prgress now that we are sustaining reading of fiction and non-fiction materials.
French- WOW! we did tres bien aujoud'hui- we managed to review and listen to the sound connection to basic French questions- Comment ca va? Qu'est ce que c'est?. We have also begun a review of school words and supplies en francais. We completed two activites in 20 minutes! Bravo tout le monde!
Computers- today we started using the program called Inspiration to create our webs and maps for "The Day I was Born" (not me - them!) The students have made a great start on the activity. They are so good at using all the neat doo hickeys that dress up their work (dragging images and adding icons)- so cool!
I have a great assistant in my computer class called Marie Peace who is currently volunteering and giving me great ideas and advice. She is new to Squamish and is a former U.K. teacher who specialised in IT (Information technology) teaching at high school in England. She has helped me set up a more learning oriented session for use of computer technology. We have implemented a seating plan, established some e-safety ground rules, used the teacher's Insight program to have students all on the same page at the same time and that has had a positive impact on the general behaviour and noise levels in the lab. Marie found a neat time coutdown image that can be useful in future classes. I am impressed at the progress the students and I are making under her direction. Thanks, Marie.
We finished the day with a 25 minute CRAZY game of "Gold Rush" outside in the sunshine. I had a method in my madness of setting up such a frustrating  game- I truthfully had forgotten to get the pinnies and didn't want the class to wait until we retrieved them from the gym SO I intentionally set - no safe area, no walk back, no jail, no real rules or boundaries and add no pinnies! It took 10 minutes before the students began to realize that the game was a mess- no rules meant that everyone was making up their own- no one knew who was on which team, some students lost interest and started to wander after the geese!!, others got so frustrated that they tried to get their teammates to agree to and a few came to me to ask what they should do. It was fabulous for me becuase I was able to finish the day with a quick review of the basics we have been struggling with in Phys. Ed. class. Namely, we need fair teams, we need established rules that everyone will uohold, we need our teams once established to work together and finally we need to ensure that we can enjoy our activites and not feel upset or frustrated by taking part in them. Next time I won't have to explain why the rules are the rules as hopefully everyone will buy into them and have a better experience playing together. I promise I not to do this too often. Actually I don't think the students will let it happen to them again!!

Dismissal 3pm

Got to get out to see some light!! Have a great night. (that rhymes!!!)
Mrs. J.