Thursday April 26th

Happy Birthday to my brother (who is not so 'little' anymore!) You're catching up with me!!

Another night another meeting. I have to get to the AGM of the Teacher's Association tonight so I'll post homework and the rest later (again!)

Homework
spelling test for Unit 4 tomorrow (no one asked to re-write Unit 3)
biogrpahy poster- keep moving forward one section at a time
no math tonight (I actually didn't get the chance due to the class picture session) however students should be considering a survey question for their statistics project

Reminders
oops, I forgot to hand out the camp letter!
All grade sevens received their FSA results and booklets to take home tonight- please remember to ask for them- if you are interested I will add a bit to the post tonight after the general day as commentary
FYI report cards on May 7th

General Day
(later alligator day #2) What a week!?
Well, it was an in the door at home at 8pm!! The walk-in clinic is brutal but I really needed to see a doctor.
Anyway...

Spelling practice- no one wanted a redo of the Unit 3 spelling words.
I am conflicted about whether or not I should absolutely insist that some students redo. If I insist and they do worse than before is that a real learning opportunity? Are they savvy enough learners by grade 6/7 to know or really understand what they need as learning 'opportunities' ?

Biography poster time for those who need it and Atlantis (the lost city) reading activity for those completed their posters.

There was an extra band practice this morning (thanks to Ms. Sorban) for the students who are performing in the Monday assembly. We were left with a small group in class and provided some much needed time (40 minutes) to help with organization,  find information for the poster activity, assist with the crossword puzzle for the activity (Atlantis) and generally do the rounds of the students left. Class size really does make a difference; don't let any government convince you otherwise.

Math 7 we completed the last two pages of the statistics booklet which in part is analyzing the best graphs to use depending on the data being used, shared, compared. Even although I set the two pages for homework, only a handful of students competed it before class- there is absolutely no point in making a big fuss about it but it is a daily frustration that many students do not make any effort on their own. At high school I think they will find it more difficult to progress successfully in math without some practice, study and completion of work not completed in class.
I just gave out the template for preparing a question for a survey/statistics project when the call for our class picture came. We switched the classes back and went for our class picture. We played a few rounds of science/socials vocabulary 'Hangman' for the ten minutes left before lunch.
Apparently, a teacher somewhere was fired for playing Hangman!

Silent reading was anything but today because I (mistakenly) thought that the grade sevens would like to have some time to look through their FSA results and peruse their booklets.
Some were very upset that their paper registered a 2 for a math answer which was awarded a 4 on another's. The students started to question the 'point' of the FSA's and it is really hard to explain that without becoming political. In the interests of professionalism, I skimmed over my opinions. But one of the students asked, "Who cares?"
My answer: only the government and the pundits that use the data to compare schools are happy with this unreliable (statistically unreliable) so-called 'assessment'. Now, let's move onto something more positive!

Take the results with a HUGE bag of salt and wait for the real assessment of your child's achievement.

Really- would you be happy if you started a job in September and were told you would be assessed in January for the year's achievement but you weren't to know ahead of time what specific skills would be tested? It is all politics. It counts for nothing but may give us an insight into how well our children can write a 'cold'  test (one that we do not know what, especially in math, skills will be tested).
Is that about authentic learning?
How is that encouraging more responsibility for personal learning?
I challenge any adult to try the multiple choice numeracy section of the FSA themselves and see how they would fare. You can go to the Ministry website and see for yourself. Actually try the grade four level!

I have to stop before I tell you how I really feel!

Personal planning 
We have reached the reproductive system! Lots of nervous laughter and sniggles (that's a cross between giggles and sniggers). Using the resource- the Teenage Handbook, we were able to use the diagrams and locate all the various amazing parts of the female and male reproductive system. Some of the students are still at the 'gross-me out' stage but the vast majority were duly impressed by the information and the differences but parallels in the ability of the male/female  reproductive system. I did the reading in the booklet just in case it was too difficult for students to get through it alone.
I have encouraged anonymous questions.

Phys Ed. class games of 'skittles'
The teams seemed to work okay- I kept switching up the sides of the gym as that gave me the opportunity to amend the 'rules'. Nice to see everyone participating in the same game although sometimes flying balls and lack of attention do not mix well.
Everyone survived.

Finished the personal planning session and had the opportunity to show some amazing blown up photographs of an ovum being fertilized by a sperm. Some were not impressed but others thought it was crazy amazing that such internal events can be photographed!

Clean up- reminders about tomorrow and Dismissal.
Have a good what's left of Thursday night.
Mrs. J.