Thursday, April 11th

Happy Birthday to my sister- I haven't had the chance yet to contact her so just in case she sees this first- you never know!

I'm  posting a bit later than usual tonight due to a meeting after school. It is always nice though when meetings validate some of the strategies and understandings that we have as teachers about our students. Sometimes I am so focused  on the things that aren't working well or the things that I am still trying to improve that I forget about the little triumphs and the things I do that make a difference every day in the lives of the children we work for that I don't give myself enough credit. So tonight's meeting may have been long but it was validating and worthwhile!

Homework
keep reading the novel
Honour Band students need to complete the Classifying Triangles worksheet for Math 7

reminders
flamenco performance tomorrow afternoon.
signing of the 2013 silkscreens finally (I have been away and then the students have been away!!) hopefully, we'll get it together! SOON

Our day...
daily French

Language Arts: narrative poem today Flannan Isle by W.W. Gibson
We read the poem, discussed the inferences, thought about the feelings of the men who had to go to the island to look for those who were missing and wondered anew what might have happened to them.

I'd have to say that this is one of those poems that I read when I was in school in Nineteen Canteen and I have never forgotten its simple power (I'm sure my former English teacher is beaming down at me from up there in the English Teacher's pasture). It is the story of a mysterious disappearance of three men who were in charge of the operation of the lighthouse on  a remote island off the coast of Scotland in the 1900's (so far off the coast it is nearly considered to be in Ireland- very remote!)

We analysed the poem and how the story was immortalized in poetic form and compared it to an old Globe and Mail newspaper article from 1946 about the incident. The fact that it is based on a true event always sparks student interest - the students liked the spooky feelings created by the words and how the mens' disappearance is still a mystery to this day.

The students completed a number of question activites referring to the poem and I was impressed with their effort and understanding of the poem from our discussion. We looked it up on the internet and found some interesting theories and now we are talking about the Bermuda Triangle...(love the connections)
I'll have to see what I can find for a Bermuda Triangle activity :)

Math 7 today we reviewed the connections of the angles in the shapes that included both a quadrilateral and a triangle on the parallel lines and used our understanding of the patterns and relationships to complete the remaining missing angles. Bottom line remembering that alternate and corresponding angles are equal and that most angles on  a line are either complemetary (add to 90) or supplementary (add to 180) is key to determining missing angles- it can't ever change that's the beauty of the ancient art of geometry since ancient Greek times. Love it....
Classifying angles and triangles: scalene, equilateral and isosceles (don't you just love the names of them?)

Silent reading
mostly silent! Some completed the morning poetry work ...

French
Regular -er verb declension (conjugating -er verbs)
We looked at (review) 20 -er verbs of everyday use i.e. parler, liser, regarder and cut off the tail -er and used the stem to add the regualr verb endings. Using a chart and a brief lesson we completed a couple of activities using the pattern for forming -er verb endings.

The students were beginning to get a lot restless and were begging to go out side for a game!

It was such a beautiful afternoon that I caved in to the pressure to take the class out into the warm sunshine where we split into two teams for a rousing game of California Kickball. Most students enjoyed it and for me it was the fresh air and the fun of watching the students enjoy themselves (well most did!!) that was uplifting.
I haven't had the chance to do this this year yet so this was the first outdoor, in the sun, listening to the birds, watching the kids play and it was really neat. There is nothing like watching as a student who is not expected to lands a kick on the ball that goes soaring over everyone's heads while five opponents try in vain to stop it.
Go team.
It's not about winning though- I have a neat 10 minute video to show the students tomorrow (as there wasn't enough time left today)

Great 40 minutes outside.
We headed in for the end of the day and cleaned up before the bell. Thanks to the students who helped with gathering and returning the equipment and rememebring to give me my keys back.

See everyone tomorrow.
Have a good night.
Mrs. J.