You would probably have a chuckle if you could see me at the classroom computer this evening! The Epson technical guys arrived today to hook up the digital overhead and have hooked up the computer to the new overhead which means until I get a splitter that I am seeing the blog on my 7 foot white board and not on my blank screen- now there is a bonus to this!!! Gotta look on the bright side- as we have a system which shuts down the classroom lights when there is no movement, the light from the whiteboard screen is allowing me to continue to type in the light instead of the dark. When the lights go off I have to jump up and wave my arms to get the lights to come back on!!
I'm sure the custodian thinks I am a little weird when she finds me sitting in a dark classroom but after five lights-back-on jumps up in class, I just give up and have been known to use a flashlight!! I wonder how much electricity such a measure saves the District and maybe then I could stop whining about it!
Never a dull moment- it is exciting to have a new teaching gadget and to know that I have a bit of a learning curve ahead of me (us actually, as many teachers at our school are venturing forth with new teaching technology. Well it's not exactly 'brand new' but new to us) I have homework and will need some specialized professional development time with colleagues who are learning and from those who have gone before (or sold it to us!) I'll keep you updated.
The first thing we will be doing is getting the students to show their power point presentations to the class using the overhead- I am looking forward to that as are the students.
Stuff for Home
Socials project work- tomorrow is the last classroom and computer day available (the project is due early next week)
Spelling Bee (class version Monday) study over the weekend for those serious about the annual spelling bee on Thursday January 19th. The winner will be entered into the next level.
Math7 try the first 15 examples for practice subtracting integers for tomorrow's class
Reminders
Friday 13th tomorrow bring a good luck charm :) Kidding!
Students have been asked to take home their 'stuff' that has been living in the cloakroom (it is so funny to me to still be calling it the cloakroom as we don't wear cloaks anymore! When I went to high school in Scotland, the teachers still wore black cloaks - no, it wasn't medieval times, Keanan- sheesh!)
Check head , clean combs and brushes, bring a plastic bag to keep your coat in it (cloak) and tie hair back :) Eat lunch and snack sitting at you own desk and not on top of a schoolmate. lol
General Day
forgot to do daily French and no one apparently missed it !!
Spelling list #4 and redo for List #3
SRA reading program 30 minutes
Writing paragraphs with unity
Our activity today had the students making decisions about which details supported the topic sentence about the city of Toronto. It was more challenging than the one we did on Tuesday because it asked for details that proved Toronto was a city that embraces both old and modern architecture. We finally managed to bring the 15 statements to a 7-8 sentence paragraph by combining a couple of the sentences and editing the points that could be considered frivolous (like shopping in the Eaton Centre Mall!)
Math 7 today I did my best to instruct the students how to subtract integers with integer chips and we completed and marked pages two and three of the booklet. It was difficult to keep their attention and I was getting a little flustered when the technology for the digital overhead arrived mid-lesson. I missed a number on the number line and they (thanks, Autumn!) got me again (Busted points at 66)
Using integer chips can sometimes be a bit confusing because you have to add enough to subtract using the zero principle (not principal, that's Mrs. Paxton who was able to see first hand today how smug my students can be when they 'bust' me!)
so, if I have -7-(+9)
students can use yesterday's method and alter it to -7+(-9)= -16
Or students can use the zero principle and -------= -7 but I don't have 9 positive chips to subtract so I have to add +++++++++ and --------- using the zero principle. Now I have 9 positive chips to subtract and once they are subtracted I have 16 negative chips left.
Then there is the number line which gives a placement visual (if you remember all the numbers, of course!)
My concern, as always, when I teach different methods to master a concept is that there might be confusion. The intention in suggesting different methods is for the individual student to find a way that their mind (brain) can understand and use that as their 'go to' method because it works for them.
We still haven't opened the text to chapter 9 yet.
Homework was for the students to complete the first 15 example on the last page of the sample/practice booklet.
Silent reading was far from silent as we took advantage of the nice afternoon and the fact that the guys were still connecting the digital overhead to go for a walk and talk. I tried a camp game which asks students to pair up and very 30 seconds during the walk a new question is asked and they have to walk and talk and listen to each other (I actually tried this earlier this school year but had to abandon it as the students were not ready for such a venture- we didn't get out of the parking lot.) Today, while I'm not sure if it was 100% successful, we did manage a half hour walk and some did talk but I'm not sure how much they 'heard' (really heard) or listened to each other. I am tempted to 'test' it in a journal entry tomorrow but maybe I should have thought about that immediately after the walk. I'll sleep on that thought and see what the students think. Some just like to be heard over everybody and others were not used to listening to the people they had to partner with even for half a minute. Questions were meant to encourage sharing:
If you were an animal what would you be and why?,
What's your all time favourite pizza topping,
Defend your favourite band (or music genre) from its critics
If money is no object where would you like to go for spring break etc.
We tried a bit of reading on our return to class but there was some excitement about the new techno toy- that's okay, it's not everyday we get new gadgets to learn with and I think the students might be able to figure it out more quickly than I can so I look forward to learning from their tinkering. This summer I watched a video about learning from technology and it basically said teachers must learn to be or be willing to be in the passenger's seat as we watch our children learn to drive the technology. I like that metaphor but it doesn't make it less scary for us old school educators. What if they drive us off the cliff? Ha Ha
Phys. Ed. Class game line number basketball 5 vs 5
Mainly played girls vs boys today to encourage the girls to pass to each other and to go in for the ball instead of waiting for it to show up in their hands!
Once the ball hogs were dealt with we managed to have some fair play for the most part. What's with the running lay ups? We are not in the NBA! Slow it down under the basket (in the key) because many baskets are being missed due to 'heroic' impatience.
We also had a chance to use our new basketball hoop which is regulation height. It seems higher but it has a smaller backboard according to Mr. Parker. We had a good basket making drill today using the new hoop- nice 'swish' sound too :)
back in class I read another chapter of our class novel and the students worked diligently on their Egyptian profiles (well most did- a couple sat in a trance and listened to the story- I'm glad they didn't drool!)
Clean up, homework review and prep for home.
Have a nice evening
Mrs. J.
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