I swear that I need a degree in classroom organization: setting up desks and ensuring that every student is included (even when they exclude themselves), the floor space is used to the best advantage, the viewing of the instructional area remains open and unobstructed, the grade six and the grade seven students are integrated in groups together, special considerations (particularly eyesight and hearing) are catered to, student requests (for the most part) are given some weight and finally students who should not (or cannot) work together are kept separated.
That's just the planning- then, add the moving of the desks into their new homes and the re-arrangement of the chairs and student bins around the room (both the latter steps I get the students to help me with). I have just finished and have started our daily Blog. It's alread 4:15pm.
One student just returned for a forgotten spelling list and I had a bit of trouble locating her desk's new home!! Thank goodness I had them identify their desks with a 'sticky' label before they went home tonight.
It is an exhausting process and there are always students unhappy with whatever scenario for seating in class no matter how much time, health and welfare is expended in creating a new plan. It is impossible to please everyone but I always make the effort to try to ensure they can 'live with it' for a couple of weeks.
Homework
List # 2 Term 2 next 15 words from address to altar
Math 7 (most completed in class)- Translations w/s (slides on the Cartesien Plane)
Reminders
retake photo packages went home today with your children please ask to see them if they forget!
Thank-you for the permission slips and payment for Cross Country Skiing (Decemeber 14th)
Today was the due date for the skiing fieldtrip paperwork. If your son or daughter would still like to go skiing in the Callaghan, please ensure the permission slip and payment is in at the very latest by Wednesday- I have enough students to hold/confirm the booking. Currently 16 of 26 have returned forms and payment. I have one volunteer parent (Thank-you) and will not need anymore as we are going with Ms. Gregoire's class and she has enough volunteers to cover the safety ratio.
General Day
Daily French was silly- I couldn't think much beyond the date so I wrote en francais something like, "No daily French today because I can't think of what to write this morning"
(I guess parce que (because) was a new word, the verbs penser and ecriter)
Spelling List # 2 for Term 2 from address to altar
We did our usual look or in-depth analysis on the list to determine the tricks and the reasons why they might have made it to such a list (of spelling demons).
I returned last week's test and must say that I observe a bit of a slump in results mainly due to not studying (despite the routine and the daily time). The average mark was 9/15 (60%)
A redo will be given as this is a new term and I think many can do better with a bit of study!!
I did a quick instruction on the grammatical difference betwee -ice and -ise as there is an example on this week's spelling list:
advise (verb) and advice (noun).
Grammar- a look at (review actually) of the 8 parts of speech and how they can be defined and identified. The students each have a reference list and a study sheet on the flip side to test their memory. I haven't told them yet that I will be 'testing' their knowledge of these parts of speech on Thursday with the spelling test- I'll do that tomorrow.
Wordles (visual phrases) worksheet was next for all but particulaly for those who had completed the morning's work- we began looking at them last week. FYI not many of the students noticed that I photocopied all the correct answers at the bottom of the page- our powers of obserrvation are not 100% right now and that includes me (tired?)
Twice today I wrote the word practice/practise on the board missing a very inportant 'c' Sheesh-how can I expect my students to soar?
Band
Math
productive class yet again :) Just a few needed to be reined in!
Today we reviewed identifying coordinate points on a Caresien Plane, plotting coordinate points, creating one dimensional geometric patterns and completing linear points using a table of related factors (i.e. like x+y=10)
Then we plotted a translation of a pentagon shaped figure , plotted a slide (translation) of its points and joined them up to create a 3-D figure in three quadrents of the Cartesien plane.
Once this bit of magic was created, we started work on a worksheet trying outr hand at mini-translations which I believe are the elements of design.
A few struggled to read the points and accurately jpoin the points but the majority of students focussed and did a great job. This is a math unit that requires good hand eye-coordination and some patience as well as precision. I find it interesting how many enjoy this type of application math. It is fun and I enjoy the fact that the students enjoy it so much. What's not to like?
Silent Reading
Science outline for the Virtual Pet Project was distributed today. This was meant to go to students on Friday but somehow it was missed! So, today I gave the option of working on either socials, science research or finalising the novel activities in the time in class and at computers today (which was extended beyond our normal 40 minutes to nearly an hour!!) I have also expanded the science activity to include either a brochure or a Power Point presentation (PPP) so I thought that it was a good use of the computer time today to show/explain where and how they could access a brochure template (using Word) and the PPP through MS Office. It felt good being able to assist these digital natives with some of the more utilitarian uses of the computer!!
I am still learning myself.
Library exchange
Computer research and word processing (many seem to like the idea of the PPP)
back in class seating plan results of the 'extensive' class survey- too much information from the students imput but I got what I asked for...(one student wrote down the names of 4 classmates he could work with and 10 more he was sure he would be unable to work with - that's nealy half of the class!!)
Anyway I set up as best I could 4 groups of 5 and two sets of three.
I need to call one student to ask for assistance as I haven't been able to accommodate those requests this time around- I'll see if he can live with it for 8 days. Wish me luck as I don't really want to mess with my desks anymore- told you I need a degree- bet that would make a really interesting Masters Thesis: the benefits and drawbacks of social organization in the classroom on creating an effective learning community. I wonder if it's been done?
Dismaissal after a review of tonight's homework and reminders.
Have a good evening.
Mrs. J.
No comments:
Post a Comment