Thursday Feb 21st

Three things I am grateful for today...

1. I just had a visit from a group last year's grade sixes (now grade sevens) and they came to reminisce about a couple of crazy things that happened in class last year (now that the 'then grade sevens' are up at the high school). We had a laugh about a certain student, no-name-will be divulged, who Bhangra dance around the class every time we had a transition and about that student's ability to mimic me perfectly (okay, I thought it was rather nasally and whiny) when I said "Pleasssse stooop taaalllking"!!! Good laugh.

2. My custodian brought me a home made and baked apple pie- yummy treat. Thank-you so much. I have had a birthday this year that just seems to keep going. This week alone I had an eagle puppet Monday, and a staffroom cake on Tuesday, a specially crafted card on Wednesday an apple pie on Thursday. Thanks everyone- you can take a break on Friday LOL

3. Shhhh the students have gone home for the day- I have one of those weird headaches that makes me feel lightheaded and the students have so much energy (especially the grade ones that we had visit at buddy time for the last block of the day) that I can't keep up. I heard one of the little ones (Tyler) ask Dylan if his teacher was crazy and Dylan caught my eye and told him "Yes, a little" :) Gotta love it- have to be a little crazy to do this job.

No homework - yay
No homework just thought I'd type that again!

Reminders
band class- please remember instruments
Tropical day tomorrow dress like your on vacation in a tropical oasis
camp forms ???
one student left to catch up on FSA

our day...
daily French

spelling d/e words

SRA reading lab

Math 7
pre-algebra
using equilibrium to solve equations using brackets and solve for the varaible x
Example: 5(x+2) = 25
Some can look and see abstractly that the answer is x=3 but to go through the steps is difficult for some
5x+10=25
5x= 15
x=3
- what you do to one side you do the the other- inverse operations. I showed them a short YouTube video about Math all around them to try to answer the perennial question about why they have to learn math skills and concepts.
One thing that I observed in class today is the difficulty many students have when things become challenging. They tend to get completely distracted by anything that isn't the equation and give up instead of following the steps that I did generally for them to follow and try one on their own.
We did 6 different examples and went over each in turn. I tired to get them to show each other but they need to be more practiced to do that well - no point in learning it incorrectly. I need to go back to the drawing board on this skill.  How can I encourage more risk taking and get them to stay with the challenging examples?

Silent Reading- took us longer to settle today but we did get there
Scholastic order arrived today with the students books and I now have three more CD's of classical music to share with the students:)

collaboration groups worked together on a very special assignment. 5 (maybe it was 6) groups of varying sizes worked on their concept of the ideal seating plan and decided on a new classroom floor plan- they have been asking for a few days now when we were going to change seating and I wasn't prepared and had this great idea that maybe they might have some better ideas or at least new ideas than I had
They worked so seriously - we had some great plans- now I just need to look them over and bring back a master plan and see if it is acceptable.
It is interesting to me that some individuals were unable to contain themselves working in this way with their classmates because they felt threatened by the ideas that other teams had. During presentations, we had at least one hissy fit based on a seating arrangement that was 'abstract' and may never actually be realized!
 Ah, hormones- keep calm and carry on!

Our final afternoon activity was our buddy class with the grade ones- the grade ones adore the grade 6/7's  and love coming to our class for a visit and work session. Today we did the puzzle pieces with and for our grade ones and they were amazing. I can't wait to see how the puzzle itself will come together. Our theme was diversity. The grade sevens are so good with the little ones and I was impressed with their work and direction.

once everyone was back in class we cleaned up, packed up and prepared for dismissal
no time for a chapter today :(

Have agood night
Mrs. J.