Friday September 20th

Friday already! I am hoping everyone will get a good rest this weekend - I think it might be homework for all of us -get a good weekend rest and come to school next week ready to sharpen pencils and brains and get to some serious work :)

reminders
verification forms : Austin, Erik and Eddie
communication forms: Angelo, Kayleigh, Bobby and Eric (and five in Mr Parker's class)
immunization forms: Elijah, Gabriel and Braedan
8 emergency kits to collect for a full class set: Braedan, Taylor, Bobby, Dylan, Eric Hunter and Angelo

Whew!! Lots to keep track of every day but we are getting there slowly...a few still have a planner payment outstanding but I would rather not announce that to the world and perhaps I will just pop a reminder in individual planners. Having some difficulty with students who seem to make a habit of leaving palnners at home - need to get that fixed - it is on my radar for next week's business.

No Homework this weekend- read? Practice some math on-line? Enjoy soccer? REST up for a busy week next week!

Our Day was interesting

I began the day and used the morning for a class community meeting which was necessary for our agreement about how we are planning to socialize, work, learn and gather together in this class and generally at break times (which have been problematic). I wish you could have been there- you would have been impressed with the seriousness and sharing that happened.
The students each have a journal which besides using for writing will also be a method for them to communicate with me when they need to without having to feel they are 'reporting'. The plan is for them to write when they need to and leave it on my desk for follow up.
I asked the students to pick the top three ideas we shared for four topics: Litening, Responding, Respecting and Celebrating (what it should look like and feel like) and from it we will create the text of our student 'charter' which all students will agree on, sign and be held to throughout our year together. It gives us all a frame of reference. I will post it when we are completed.
Students shared with each other things that they wanted for themselves this year and listened to each other. It took some time but I believe it will be time that as we move forward will be productive as we can call on our 'charter' to remind each other of our agreements about working and learning together.

and just so you know - not one student said they wanted to be miserable and mean and have a horrible year :) YEah for me!

We played a couple of goofy games together and it was nice to see everyone laughing and participating together.

math7 first quiz on multiplication and division skills that we have started the year with.
General results 20 students wrote
10 managed between 6 and 8/8 (100%)
3 managed half (4/8 50%)
7 are unable to mutiply or divide yet and need more practice! they managed 0-3/8
I cannot make them practice and neither can you - it has to be something they feel is important enough to work on for themselves. It would help if you remember to ask them to review the week's math work every Thursday night and remind them to review- quizzes are every Friday. Thanks.
Next week I will be attempting to set up 'partner math' in which I will pair up a student who can with one who might need a bit of help and see if that does anything for improving weak skills. I will not however allow that to affect work of students who might need a bit of math challenge.
I introduced what I call FSA style problem solving- In January 2014 the grade sevens write the provincial FSA assessments and I like to start early into introducing the style of the problem solving that they will be asked to undertake for assessment.


Read to Self - a bit interrupted today by comings and goings and tooings and froings hopefully the 'bathroom' visits will decrease as they get more attuned to the schedule (by the way I can now prepare a schedule as all the other blocks of time are now booked and agreed to. Ask to see it next week )

Computer time : BC Science 6 and 7 on-line. Students learned how to log onto the science work for our MHR (McGraw Hill Ryerson) texts and completed the first quiz for the first chapter as a pre-test.
Earlier this week we used a reading strategy called THIEVES for reading content area text and I explained how to extract information from text (socials and science) using features such as T titles, H headings, I introductions, E every first sentence (topic sentences) V visuals, E end of chapter questions and S summaries- you would be blown away by how much can be learned without having to read every single word of text by using these features. It is not a replacement for reading but an assist for understanding what is being read.

some free time was in order. I like to keep a watch on their on-line habits and so far so good- I'll keep you in the loop. The Insight program allows me to keep everyone safe and appropriate and I haven't had to cut anyone's internet access yet :)
Experts said that students using computers would isolate them from each other and the good news is that these students are actually interacting with each other more than ever showing each other tricks and sharing the games together. It is more social than I expected!

Back in class the students asked for a 20 minute game time so out came the cards and the games and everyone seemed to be inclusive and content: some read, some played Spanish Poker, some used dominoes to set up and knock over, I lost a couple of hands and lots of chips to Autumn (she swears she wasn't fixsing the cards!) and a few were happy to use the chalk and mark the board (yes, I still have a chalkboard) Funny how it makes them so happy to mark silly things on the board. It was a nice social end to a busy week.

I finished the day with planners and the beginning of chapter 7 Word Nerd.

Have a great weekend.
Mrs. J.