Terrific Tuesday (sunny and bright!)

Tuesday Jan. 10th

If you had popped into the class last night you would be forgiven for mistaking me for the custodian- no one prepares you at university for the job that moving students' desks into a new seating plan can become. The desks we have tend to have the leg screws come loose (Oh, I can think of so many plays on that phrase!!) and I was busy locating the desks in their new homes while using my Robertson screwdriver to even up and secure the desk legs!! Sheesh
The good news is that the time I spent last night meant absolutely NO whining or upset today and everyone settled very nicely into their new locations and seemed to get along fine with their new neighbours. YES!

We had a very busy and productive day in my humble opinion- we worked hard and I was a bit grumpier than usual with my ducks that wouldn't get in a row!! lol

Homework or Stuff for Home
apparently the students prefer me to use the 'stuff for home' phrase- they think they'll be more likely to do it if it wasn't called 'homework' (I haven't studied that phenomenon yet!)
Spelling List #4 for test Thursday (anyone who missed or wishes to redo List #3 obviously needs to be studying last week's list as well)
Math 7 (actually due Thursday) page 2 of the subtracting integers workbook from today's class
Social studies project work

Also:
Have you handed in your French fridge?
How close are you to completing your PPP for the Virtual Pet Project?

Reminders
Class spelling bee Monday Jan 16th to determine the top three for next Thursday's 6th annual school spelling bee (using the words from the Canspell spelling booklet)

General Day
Introduction to the procedures for and work on the SRA independent reading program.
Features:

• Each student was placed on an independent reading level from a timed reading test and has a record book to note and record activities and achievement
• each book has a graphing record mid way through and a statistics page at the back to determine their individual achievement (percentages) on each reading selection
• each book requires students to determine how long each book takes for them to complete and asks them to reflect on the successes and difficulties that they may encounter in a given selection
• There is a comprehension (multiple choice) section and a word recognition/language section that requires students to work also following directions for reading, vocabulary and language for the selections.
• Once a student has mastered the colour level they started at (minimum 3 cards at 100%) he/she will move up to the next reading level. This program SRA 2c has a top level of grade nine reading selections.

Today we started the work for the independent reading program which we will work on until spring break in March. At that time I can report on individual student progress focusing more on the level of reading they complete the program at instead of worrying about where they start in the program. I never tell students what grade level they are starting at although I know they can use their noodles to figure out who is reading more challenging material.
Any hoo...to start, this class are spread out across the spectrum from a starting point of grade four 4 readability to grade seven 7 readability. We will be adding this program to our other reading endeavours and will be working on it every Tuesday and Thursday for a half hour. Students are expected to complete one card per session and will use that day's afternoon reading time to complete the reading selection if necessary.

Writing: Paragraph writing  (follow up from Monday)
Today we used a topic sentence and specific details to create a unified written sample paragraph from a program called, How to Write a Paragraph.
It required students to dig through and edit any details that were not supporting the topic sentence. We managed to bring a wordy set of supporting details from 15 to 8 (which is much more workable). We cut 7 details that did not tell more about the topic. From there we reviewed the acronym CARE:
Change, Add Re-arrange and Edit for sentence combining and the students wrote unified paragraphs before recess. Average time for a good (unified) 8-9 sentence paragraph using this method= 12-15 minutes.
That's impressive.

Math 7
Today we corrected or reviewed the methods for the problem solving samples that needed multiple steps to be completed. I had to give a little pep talk (okay I didn't NEED to but I felt I had to because I was struggling to get the class' undivided attention for review of these steps and I know there are a few who will continue to struggle with these types of problems despite how many times I go over the procedure!)
From there, we started the booklet for subtraction of integers using the concept of changing the subtraction sign to addition and switching the second numeral so...
-3-(-9)= -3+ (+9)= +6
4-(7)= 4+(-7)= -3
-10-(4)= -10+(+4)= -6
-10-(+4)= -10+(-4)=-14
Two concepts to remember: two negatives make a positive and the zero principal.
The zero principle is important if you are using the integer chips method of subtracting integers because if you do not have enough 'chips' to subtract we need to add 'zero' in the manner of a positive and a negative chip (+1-1=0) until we have enough that we can subtract.
Just the concept of separating the subtraction symbol from the integer sign was a lot of thinking for some students but I must say, despite some minor setbacks, we are all handling the subtracting skills with confidence. Another two busted points for me! I have asked that the students try page 2 of the booklet for Thursday as Mr. P's class are going skiing tomorrow so Math 6 and Math 7 will resume Thursday.
Enjoy your skiing :)

Silent Reading- lots of time for socials text related work during this time too!

Socials time (projects) many are starting to make excuses about why they haven't managed to progress very far. I did a very grown up thing, I stuck my fingers in my ears and said "la,la,la. I can't hear you"! Very professional-like, huh? The students have had LOTS of time, assistance and guidance and some may be spending the weekend completing the project. C'est la vie. This is really good practice for them and a good using time wisely learning experience! Nuff said.

Phys Ed.
Basketball drills and 5 on 5 games today
Good news today we were MUCH better at following the rules of the ball passing drill and we actually got through it.
Good solid passing and playing today- I enjoyed it and I think they did too. Having an issue with footwear however and must remind students for safety to have proper gymnasium footwear. We have had a very kind donation of running shoes to the school so if finding $$$ for shoes is not an option right now, there is an opportunity to find a pair from our donated running shoes.

Back in class I read one and a half chapters of Word Nerd - will finish the incomplete chapter tomorrow. It was a funny chapter about Ambrose hiding in the back of Cosmos's car as he drove to a seedy part of the city and how he (Ambrose) inadvertently stopped him (Cosmo) from setting back his personal progress by getting mixed up in drugs again.

Clean up, prep for Dismissal after a run through the homework section on the board.
Have a great night everyone. I have to get to the curling club.
Mrs. J.