Monday June 20th

Yeah for me, Duty week this week!
Was I wicked in another life?

NO HOMEWORK
Reminders
A letter regarding the return or summer rental of the band instruments was given out today- if you have a school instrument please return it- if your child would like to consider another instrument talk to Ms. Sorben. The company will be here next Monday to check and collect or rent the instruments for the summer months.

Remember the fieldtrip permission forms and payment- if there is a parent or guardian who would like to join us on Friday, please give me a call or e-mail or leave a comment on this Blog and I'll get back to you.
We are about 26 students so far and we have two parents and myself - we may need one more person.

Tracy, Lexie and Chloe- need your photo payments please for Mrs. Cardiff (I have your photos in safe keeping :))

General Day
Congratulated the students for the leadership at Sports Day on Friday.

Discussed the last term and year end report cards that I managed to complete this weekend. We discussed how the year end grade is the one that will be recorded in their permanent files which will be sent onto Don Ross.

Started a 'project' based on a virtual $1000000 called Spend A Million

They have been creating crazy Dream Homes in art and this is a bit of a virtual reality follow up costing things out and trying to determine the reality of what things actually cost. (not including taxes and legal costs on property etc.) after all it is meant to be a fun project!! Not so realistic that it 'bites' you!

The students have to spend a million dollars and MUST find a place to live (anywhere in the world) where they have to buy property whether it is a house, condo, cabin, apartment or 'mansion'- it has to be accommodation that is 'traceable'! They MUST also spend some money on a mode of transportation that they can afford and then the remaining money has to furnish, entertain, sustain and be invested either in a business or a source of income (legal of course!) They can make a charitable donation if they so choose...

Our first order of business was to brainstorm:
some wanted to partner up and pool their cash
we answered a few questions about modes of transportation and what would be suitable accommodation (house boat or yacht okay but must cost mooring, gas and marina fees and have a permanent place to stay as home base even if it is your friend's basement that you rent when in town!!), donkey- really?, luxury cars- can you afford them okay but NOT to live in, trailer okay, motor home- okay for vacations but does not count as a permanent place to live etc. you get the picture, right?

Next we went to the computer lab for a 'costing' check and some were shocked to find out the value of a dollar- I heard
"Where do I have to live to make this money go longer?"
"Should I live in Italy or Greece?" "Italy- Greece is having some economic things that suck happening"
"I need a cheaper house this one costs too much- how much is an apartment?"
"I wanted a Maserati but that car costs 750,000 and I can't live in it!" (try costing the gas $$$)
"Man, I want this life stuff in Hawaii- look at the beaches that we can get to after school "
So I kind of enjoyed trying to guide their thinking and enquiries about the kind of things that would lead them to make their decisions.

Next I returned their math review from last Thursday for the Fractions unit- we reviewed and did them for the class on the board exclusively using the improper fraction method (that my former, now Gr 8 students, said is used to teach the skills at Don Ross). I'm not sure what to say about the test results- the students who could - still can; the students who struggled and practiced did a satisfactory job; those who didn't try did the same as they always do when they don't try- not very well. Approx. one third of the class achieved an A or B, a third of the class passed and a third failed. 3 students achieved 100%. The average mark was 55% (c-)
:(
My real frustration when it comes to math achievement is how to make a difference for students who have opted out of their learning responsibility- what to do when they have decided that they don't need to listen to instruction, don't complete classwork, don't review, practice or study for tests and then don't really seem to care that they are unsuccessful- the vicious cycle.
My common sense tells me- get them to be more personally responsible for their learning- how?
Often parents are also afraid of math and their own experiences are not positive so they tend to excuse their children- "Oh, I could never do that either". There has also been a lot of change to the methods used to instruct too and so I think some parents are very confused by the processes and they are genuinely feel unable to help. It is a conundrum- I would like to spend some time exploring next school year with parents, students colleagues and whoever can help address the problem.

DEAR time took a bit of settling- some finished watching the end of the Friday movie in the gym.
A group set up to work on the year end speech on behalf of the class and some worked a bit more on their spending project.

We discussed the band instruments and the pros and cons of returning or keeping for the summer...

Next we used the magazines and computer images to collect and graphically represent the items and ideas that the brainstorming and computer research for the Spend a Million project generated
half hour cutting and searching for the perfect 'kitchen' , 'bedroom' and /or 'house' - not pasting yet but it was an interesting thing to observe...

Phys. Ed. Line handball and/or soccer
Took a while to get organized but maybe we played 20 minutes. Things are same old same old!!!

3pm Dismissal.
Home to complete the reports for Don Ross now!!