Tuesday January 11th

I need to keep it short tonight because it was such a frustrating day that I would like to get home and relax a bit so I can reflect on the day without being blinkered by my emotions.

I have just spent an hour and a half switching up the seating plan - on Thursday apparently we will be adding student number 29 to our already 'full' class!!

Homework
Socials Project - complete another section- see yesterday's possible schedule.
I have set only the Unit 13 spelling this week to allow students to concentrate on the project- it is due on Monday January 17th.

General Day
Started with a review of story 'grammar' looking at the plot graph and discussing how author's use specific writing 'tricks' ('applications of language' if you will- apps) to hook and maintain the interest of readers.
We discussed the hiughly popular J. K. Rowling and the Harry Potter novels as an example.
I am trying an experiment of reading a chapter a day from a novel that was a big hit last year (Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen) and asking the satudents to determine if they can recognize how the story development grabs them or if they can recognize the aspects of literary devices at work.
Chapter one went over well except that for some reason my reading glasses gave up the ghost and fell off my face into two pieces?? Don't ask- the day kind of went downhill from there. I'm just grateful I had a good night's sleep so I could deal with it all unravelling!!

Band next- TOC for Ms. Sorban said that things went well with the instruments but some students 'choices' meant they could not participate in Band class.

Math- continuation of the opposite principle in subraction of integers. One of the biggest time wasters in the class for this lesson was the proliferation of students who either didn't have the work from yesterday, couldn't find it or didn't care to...so frustrating. Once we got the lesson going, it was difficult to get some students to understand that part of their responsibility in the learning process is to actually make an effort to try the examples or at least copy the solutions that we work together on the board!!
I hope that more students understood the procedure today- the instruction on using the integer chips was a BUST but I think the number line was working for them!! More practice will be undertaken in the coming days.

Since when do students think they have the choice to come to class and choose not to do any work and then get upset when they are asked to participate with the plaintiff cry "BUT I wasn't doing anything!"
That's the problem. If you are not doing anything- what are you supposed to be doing and can you do that?

Girl's basketball practice at lunch was interrupted by some of the 6/7 boy's making more bad decisions!!

DEAR time was much needed but shortened by how long it took the class generally to calm down before we could proceed quiestly into the building after lunch. I just practiced that 'patience' that is my word of the year and they evetually realized we wouldn't be going anywhere out of the cold weather until they had calmed down and stopped yelling at each other! Whew.

Socials time in class was very noisy but for most was productive- Students NEED to bring their work to class for me to check- there are a few students who claim to have done great amounts of research work but I haven't seen a page!! I am actively pursuing the progress using the schedule as a guide for the week as the days slowly disappear. Tomorrow there will be class and computer time for all students. I shared another completed example of a former student's project and made available for those whjo need it a 'visual' of how to set up the final document for presentation. Wednesday or Thursday I will be providing an MLA bibliography sample.

We finished the day with a guest presentation by Charlene Williams, Deanna lewis and Cynthia Lewis our first Nations teaching assistant on dances to songs that are both family and village songs of the Skomish people. That took place during our Phys. Ed. time today and finished in the classroom.

Once we had thanked our guests and packed up for the socials homework, for the last five minutes, Mrs Fanzega talked to the students about volunteering her time as a basketball coach. She asked the students to consider how their behaviour at lunch impacted her work with the girls at lunch time. Hopefully better decisions will be made in the upcoming days and weeks!!
Hopefully we can settle down and work better together- it just takes a little bit of thought and consideration to work as a unit again. TEAM together everyone achieves more.

SEATING plan change tomorrow - there hasn't been a lot of discussion about it but it is needed and I did put a good deal of thought into who sits where but still some will be surprised tomorrow.
Ah, tomorrow- another day.....
Do some work on your project tonight.
Mrs. J.