Wednesday April 20th

It is sometimes difficult to post any earlier when I have meetings or activities after school but better late than never, right?

Homework
Again nothing new for math as we are starting a new unit on circle geometry
Novel same as it has been - keep reading -finish the book and move through the designated assignments (my Tuck Everlasting group is onto the creative assignments for the final chapters while the Surviving the Applewhites group is generally at Ch 6-10 with a few at Ch11-15)

Keep on keeping on!! SUGGESTION to those working slowly on the novel work - use some time this long weekend- if you don't want to do it on your long weekend - use the class time more wisely!!

FYI the 'grad' hoodies arrived today (they look really good on the students) and I gave them out to the students who had pre-paid- there are four left- please remember to bring payment tomorrow if you want them this weekend.

Reminder that tomorrow is our last day together before the Easter Long Weekend. School will resume Tuesday April 26th

General Day
Started with a bit of French. We have already covered the irregular verbs of etre and avoir. Today I wanted to explain the verb structures of the irregular 'regular' verbs for -oir, -re and -ir conjugation. It is not easy to listen to and apply so today I provided the students with some notes and conjugation charts ONLY tomorrow we will use the charts to apply the appropriate verb endings (I hope!) :)

Novel time next- lots of activity- most are working through the assignments but I know I am having a difficult time keeping up with every one in class and there are a few students who are not using class time wisely and not completing the work at home (so guess what?)- they are behind on the expected work! What to do?
My intention is to have the novel work completed by the end of the first week in May so after Easter break there will be 9 school days to finish the work.
Generally I am impressed with the caliber of assignments being submitted.

Math- Oh Boy!
I assessed the unit review test last night and it was worse than I initially thought! So instead of NAGGING which I am wont to do, I decided we would analyse the statistics of the results. The students didn't know what the numbers represented until later. We found the mean, mode and median and asked what the marks told us and didn't tell us. Average mark 55%, Median 56% Mode 100% Range was 100-13= 87
all over the map!
The students concluded that there was a huge range of scores (check), that the average score suggested that the content mastery was weak (C-) (check), that the most frequent showed a few had mastered the content (check) and that the median score showed that there were as many low score as high scores. I then revealed that these scores were from the math review- no one was really shocked!
What might these results  suggest to us?

• That you need to teach better- (okay, I agree, but it wasn't the only answer I was looking for!!)
• That we need to study (take home the pre-test and look it over for understanding)
• That we need to study more efficiently
• That we need to believe that completing the pre-test accurately will be the prototype for the test
• we need to pay attention to the details

Agree, agree, agree so 40% of the class has managed to show competent understanding of lines and angles, the other 60% will be redoing the test- same concepts different questions the week after Easter.
I find it frustrating to have spent so much time on the same concepts and find that so few have mastered the content. I will examine my teaching of the concepts - perhaps I have moved ahead too fast and not ensured adequate undersatanding. It is a challenge with 30 students and the typical management issues that are faced during a math class. I will not however pin the answer to better results on my head alone- the students need to make their own best effort and I find many do not pay attention to the lessons in the first place and then do not bother to study. There is a general lack of seriousness among this group but is that what being 12 or 13 is about today? Are we expecting too much? Am I? Does it really matter?

Feel free to offer me any ideas or advice that might help me as I struggle with my role as 'jack of all trades'!!
Anyway we went over some of the answers for the test together.

At computers today we virtually 'went to Greece' to track our trip route for social studies and to cost out how much it would cost for a trip if we were to book it today. Then I 'hijacked' the student computers thanks to the Insight program and showed them the cost of a school tour using a tour group like EF Educational tours. We traced the perimeter of our Grecian Odyssey.

DEAR time- having some issues today- more unrest during reading time- some silly antics that are rather tiring to have to keep dealing with. I have tried ignoring them but that doesn't seem to be working well.

Personal Planning
Distributed the book Respect Yourself and today we went through the first ten pages- it is a very up to date resource that has the students consider their own self-esteem and confidence as they get into the social scene of adolescent dating and on-line behaviour. There were some students a little uncomfortable but many giggled and recognized the scenarios. I think it was worthwhile and I bet you they would ace an assessment on this topic. LOL

Phys Ed
Okay, I gave into the pressure to do more floor hockey as both the boys' and girls' teams have their final games tomorrow. Line hockey it was. As you know the Canucks did not beat Chicago in a clean sweep! Our boys won their game decisively but the girls lost their stamina in the second half of their game yesterday so Thursday is going to be much better all around. It better be :)
I gave out the hoodies before dismissal.
3pm dismissal
Have a good evening
Mrs. J.