Thursday March 31st

Last day of March already!! Started rainy but ended with some sunny breaks after the lunchtime rainbow:) I hope weather wise it is looking 'up'!

30 students here again today! Oh my, it is a handful and then some!

Homework
Students took home their FSA results from the government testing that they did in February this year. If you have any questions feel free to call or e-mail me
Novel - keep reading!! Not just to end Ch 5 (which should have already been reached!)- novel assignments for Ch 1-5
Speeches 1pm tomorrow for the Public Speaking forum
Practice your part for your instrument in the upcoming concert- extra band practice tomorrow 9:45-10:30am
BRING those intruments please
Return intention to attend (or not) the upcoming parent meeting next Thursday April 7th

Good news. I now have ALL the Gr8 registration forms. Thank-you

General Day
French- J'ai Faim- les activites pour "bandes dessinees" - this resource is a comic book type story using key vocabualry for food and the different parts of the verb avoir. We completed the assignments together : vrai ou faux, choisis le bon mot, complete la liste A par une phrase de la liste B etc.

Band

Students completed the 2011 government Satisfaction Survey in the computer lab


Language Arts: Novel work time- rather noisy as students returned from the lab- took a bit of settling down
"Hormones R us" it seems- very chatty and easily distracted!!

Math (10 minutes) a look at the angle shapes created by a transversal (line) through a pair of parallel lines: alternate, corresponding, opposite, interior, exterior and how the angle 'relationships' always hold true. The rules will be better explored next math session which might be Monday given how busy we are tomorrow with an extra band practice and the Public speeches at 1pm!!

DEAR time- same old students reading and same old students wasting time - last day of March for reading record completion- only half of the class turned in a reading record for March which was very disappointing. I had a rant about how the April reading record will 'count' toward their June reading Learning Outcome and is manadatory...blah, blah, blah (Charlie Brown's teacher)

Science - trying again!- the result of today's lesson is making me think twice about the chemistry unit starting tomorrow first because of time available and secondly because I'm not sure that they are ready as a group to undertake the responsibilities of the science lab. expectations. I may have to change the experiments planned and leave the chemicals out!!!
What was the problem? Ready... pretty much all around the room...
silly noises, interruption with off-task comments and call outs, eating when asked not to, interacting with one another when asked to listen carefully, drumming, with pencils, giggling and laughing at who knows what and other general disrespectful behaviour that makes it very difficult for a lesson or activity to flow. It is clear to me that if I do conduct any chemical experiments in the near future, some of my students will have to be excluded if their behaviour does not improve. I need to notify parents. I abandoned the activity and decided to cut my losses (their losses) and try something completely different.

I took some control back by referring to the expected reaction to an earthquake and evacuation procedures for exiting the building. We had a planned Earthquake drill this afternoon so there's nothing like a chance to practice for the possibility of the real event. I think it did sober a few up and things were a bit better from there on.
Having now returned the majority of the students to some sanity, I displayed samples of an Art project which we will be starting next week. It uses old calendar pictures to cut into geometric shapes, cut up and piece back together- the effect is actually quite eye-catching and I have approximately six different methods of fragmenting the picture before piecing it together again- they seemed to like the 'show' or display (thank the Lord for former students' samples).

Earthquake drill: drop-cover-hold on- after shaking count to 60 seconds- evacuate building

We finished a bit of a gnarly afternoon with the distribution of the students results of their testing on the FSA's which we did earlier this year (Feb.) They are sent home for your persusal. The overall results showing not meeting, meeting or exceeding expectations are attached to the front of the booklet.

3pm Dismissal
Have a good evening.
 Mrs. J.