Tuesday, April 19th

Pre- adolescents are 'funny' weird and funny 'ha, ha' kind of semi-grown ups...take the following example.
I had planned a math test last week for Monday but we had an assembly for a performance in the gym.
Today...
Me: I gave everyone an extra day for the math unit test for geometry- we'll do it today.
Student(s): But you didn't tell us!
Me: It's on the blog, the board and we discussed it yesterday. The pre-test you worked on Friday is the prototype for the test. Let's do it today before we all lose track of our learning.
Students (in unison): We're not ready or We didn't study or We think it's unfair or Do we have to?
Me: Would you ever be ready? Will you study tonight? Will it ever be fair? Will you ever WANT to?
Students: No! Nuh uh! There's a hockey game on tonight (Canucks can wrap up their first Stanley Cup series) and we have girl's and boys' floor hockey after school!!

So we did the math test... I looked at the papers as they completed it. I recognised that some were truly 'not ready' (not many but one or two). So I spoke quietly to those students and I suggested that they take home the pre-test and try again. At first they were embarrassed and then they both thanked me for the second chance. That made my day.
Really encouraging learning is not about catching kids not studying or not understanding; for me it's about finding out what we can do together to make learning happen. The part they sometimes forget though is that they need to be a part of their own education. I can't make learning happen for them without their effort.

Homework
Nothing new
Novel continuing work on novel study assignments

General Day
Started with Novel time for the first 40 minutes. I am doing my best to keep up with the assignments that are now coming in. The Tuck Everlasting  novel group seem to be more on top of things than the other group. It could be that the stories and assignments are so different (and the Tuck Everlasting group has a majority of female readers- I know sexist comment BUT the girls are so into the premise of the story much more so than the boys!) Shhhh

Band

Math review for the test (20 minutes) I went over the main ideas for the review test and we looked at the pre-test AGAIN :)

Family Groups- this week is our community Pitch-In week so we buddied up and our K-7 groups went foraging around the perimeter of the school to pick up any garbage or unsightly messes. It thankfully was a nice half hour in the fresh air and the students did a fabulous job. I was very proud of the leadership shown by the grade seven students who were 'garbage-seeking missiles :) They were great with the younger students and we definitely enhance the area around our school. I had to laugh as one of my students and his group came back with enough gear to open a shelter- door, couch cushions etc. They were so proud of themselves that I couldn't help agree with their fabulousness.

MATH TEST- yes, we did the math test for the unit on line geometry. It took all of 10 minutes for some 20 minutes for others and the pain was over (so glad I wasn't talked into leaving it for another day) lol

DEAR time reading wasn't used the best today as the group generally seemed to have had all their brain cells used up on the math test!!

I tried to introduce a new game for Phys Ed today- in retrospect it was a bad idea but I live and learn. I should have had another floor hockey run as they had extra curricular games tonight BUT, no,  I had to try something new. It wasn't great. It was a  game called Crossfire which maybe was enjoyed by about half of the class! Oh boy, I'm not sure if I will try that one again. It wasn't terrible it just wasn't played or executed by the students the way I envisioned it. C'est la vie.
Back in class, I whined a little about our communication issues and the students agreed with me. That made my day again. Twice today- so encouraged.

Art
We managed to fit in an art session today- yeah- the band posters are beginning to be completed and they look great. Some students actually used small clip art pictures of the instruments they were getting frustrated with trying to sketch and they worked the clip art pieces in very well. I had to look very closely to recognize that they had used clip art in some cases. Great job.

3pm clean up and Dismissal

The students have to get themselves ready for their hockey games against Stawamus.
Good luck everyone.
See you tomorrow
Mrs. J.