CNN students -- It has been a year since the earthquake and Japan is still dealing with the Fukushima nuclear reactors. They did a special report on the radiation challenges and the student wrote on the courage of the reporters covering the topic and what the 30 to 40 year effects would be. They also learned and wrote about what exactly is Leap Year and how did it come about. Finally CNN recaped Black History month with many students giving short biography lessons on heros that made a difference.
Release Test Questions -- We practiced two more. We are practicing the theory of reading once and then reading a second time. The questions are then looked prior to reading for the third time. The rationale? The first time we read something, we frequently stop or hesitate regarding how to phonemically say something, our mind wanders regarding something we read, and begin to visualize what we are reading. Studies show that the more we fluidly read text, there is a direct increase in our comprehension of what we read.
I
strongly discourage the reading of the questions that must be answered
until after the first two reads. Quite simply when we know what the
questions are, we become way too transactional in our reading style.
Words and sentences are skipped in our need to efficiently find the
answer. There is no time limit on these tests, so we have no need for
efficiency; we need mentally strong and accurate answers. Science -- the student watched two Brainpops and took notes. Homework due on Tuesday is the floppy book pages 59 through 61.
Vocabulary -- we had some interesting “villains”
The class voted to take the spelling and vocabulary tomorrow to increase our silent reading time on Friday. Here are the words: Spelling and Vocabulary Words.
Singing
Math:
We just about completed the day with examples from last night and working on tonight’s math.
The big thing about tonight’s homework is it MUST FOLLOW the following format:
Line 1: write the original expression TWICE both on the left side and the right side
Line 2: replace the value(s) of the variables under the two expressions
Line 3: Using EITHER the + - or a number line, show how you derived your answer.
Line 4: Circle or put a square around your final answer.
See here for examples.
End of the day:
I gave an overview of my meeting yesterday with Wells Middle School. We spent 8:30-11:30 with the Language Arts and History departments from Wells. They explained how they met recently with their counterparts from the High School. The high school had laid out some critical standards that they needed incoming 9th graders to have mastered before entering high school. Then Wells met with us to outline some critical standards that they needed 6th graders to have mastered prior to joining Wells if they were going to leave 8th grade ready for high school. The
The same meeting happened from Noon-3:00 p.m. with the math team. Their big emphasis was they had much pressure to have all 8th graders mastering algebra prior to moving onto high school. So we fleshed out what critical arithmetic standards incoming 6th graders had to master prior to Wells. So all of this information was shared with the kids. I will try my best to clean it up and share it with you.
Other topics of interests:
The bring your own computer/tablet to school -- yes, we are on the beta program for the district. Fallon is in the process of trying it out at the middle school and we are going to try it out for the elementary schools. However our district lawyers wanted to look over the liability paperwork prior to anyone bringing in computers from outside the district. So the legalese has been finalized and now these forms are going to be presented to our School Board for approval (tentatively two meetings from now). I had thought this would happen much sooner than this however I am someone who has disdain for bureaucracy.
Windows Live and more specifically, Window’s Skydrive; We are again on the beta end of this. We are finding many learning opportunities for our district’s IT department. Within 12 months, the entire district will be “in the clouds.” Our email and our saving of documents will be accessible wherever we can get a web-browser. This will be awesome for research projects, longer papers and communicating efficiently with the students regarding their work. There have been and there will be some bumps in the road as we get the Skydrive working. Please be patient with us, the IT guys are trying their best.
Friday -- is Read In Day. Wells administrators are visiting in the morning to emphasize the need for reading and answers some basic questions.
School board member and C-5 parent, Mrs. Miller, will be reading. The remainder of the day will be hard core, to the extreme, silent reading. It is one of my favorite days of the school year. Students may wear appropriate pajamas, however parents must ensure they are properly covered for a place of learning and for the weather conditions.
Students may wear slippers while in my class however they MUST HAVE shoes or appropriate foot wear for before school and recess time.
Students may bring blankets, pillows and “sugar-free” snacks. Logically we don’t need to give kids a sugar high when we are about to ask them to concentrate and read for 3+ hours. Also popcorn, while a personal favorite, tends to get all over the classroom.
Finally I have a family matter/commitment on Thursday therefore Mrs. Cooper will be running the show. I apologize for missing yet another day however all of the other X amount of days I have been out recently have been under the direction of district efforts/requests. Tomorrow is something of the utmost importance and could not be rescheduled nor could it occur on a weekend. Thank you your understanding.
Kind regards,
Ron Hubbard
http://www.diigo.com/user/iamron
http://mrhubbardsclass.blogspot.com/
Use my Gmail account and you can make me your coach on http://www.khanacademy.org/class_profile
“I am not perfect, but I am fully committed to working on myself.”
David Richo
Homework for the week:
Math354-355 1-20 all due Thursday (you may choose either - + or number line, however you must use one or the other.
358-359 1-15 all due Friday chapter review
Book Card -- due on Friday, March 2nd
Click here for the instructions and also you can try dropping your file into the book card folder
Science
Pages 59-61 due Tuesday
Vocab and Spelling Words for the week
Test on Thursday
Grammar all due on Thursday
318, 319, and 320
Free-Write due on Thursday
Students should have written their 1,000 word short story over the last three weeks.
We are now working out the challenges of moving everything over to Windows Skydrive
lastnamefirstname @ dublinusd.com
password 5 digit i.d. and initials
Cargo rotation:
Math Workbook (floppy) pages 8-1 through 8-3 due THURSDAY.
