Tuesday #132 2011 2012

Day 132 of week 29
Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Exciting and big news...since offering to allow students to retake tests and earn a higher grade, I have had zero students take me up on the offer.  Well, today I had two students retake math tests.  In both cases they had practiced the specific skills covered in their tests (redoing the reteach lessons, khan academy and www.ixl.com)  and they “significantly” raised their overall math grades.   In both cases students turned 50% test grades into 90% or greater grades!!   All they had to do was practice and pre-schedule a time after school to take the tests.  One student loved it so much that he is already planning on taking the division test again either later on this week or next week.   Any student is encouraged to practice &  improve their skill knowledge and then retake/improve their math grade, spelling grade, vocabulary grade or theme test grade.  

Spelling pretest

CNN Students -- Today’s big lessons were about the Supreme Court and the Health Care Bill.  We talked about the pros and cons of making it mandatory to have health care.  They then discussed how the Pope spoke with the people of Mexico and urged them remain faithful and turn to God during these times of poverty and gang violence.  Finally they discussed how professional memorizers go about memorizing long streams of numbers.  

Camp Information -- we handed each student three things:
1.  A camp packet -- read through this.  We require the health form completed by THIS FRIDAY.
2.  A camp check list -- keep this so you know what to pack and what not to pack
3.  DUSD’s official medicine forms.  Yes, the district wants you to get your pediatrician's autograph authorizing any and all medicines.  Even the over the counter ones that you can purchase at Safeway, CVS, Target, etc..(e.g. ibuprofen, Claritin, etc..)

We also spent about 30+ minutes answer all their questions about camp.  If you have questions, do not hesitate to ask your son/daughter they probably know the answer.  

The students then completed a survey telling us who are their top 3 people they would like to hang out with while at camp, warn us about any dietary needs and they could share if there were people they didn’t want in their cabin, etc.   

Math time -- students with averages 90% or higher on our tests this year are working independently and collaboratively on 6th grade curriculum that I have assigned them.  Therefore that group of students have nightly homework of 30 minutes working on 6th grade curriculum (www.pearsonsuccessnet.com or www.ixl.com)

Science Rotation and Cargo rotation.  Therefore it was a busy busy day.

Students did have 35 minutes to write their homework in their day planner and also begin tonight’s homework.  

On a much less exciting note, students with missing learning opportunities are eating lunch from 12:30-12:45 and then returning to our class to work silently until they complete the missing homework.  Regrettably this is the first time in 9 years of teaching that I have had to resort to these type of draconian methods.  However a significant amount of students are not finding the personal responsibilities of learning or the desire to “do the right thing” a strong enough incentive to practice skills learned in class.  Since we have not found motivation through altruistic &  intrinsic methods, we will try “inspiring” through punitive methods; and in a related note a part of me is dieing inside :(

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
"You can't make a great play unless you do it first in practice."
~Chuck Noll~

Homework for the week:

Book Card -- Non Fiction book is due Friday
Quotes can be cool facts about the non-fiction topic
Main character -- what ever the non-fiction topic is

Science -- 1 more day to turn in extra credit and science packet (due Wednesday)
2 and 3 sentences due Wednesday

Math:
90% or above -- 30+ minutes of 6th grade curriculum practice (www.pearsonsuccessnet.com or www.ixl.com)
The rest of the class:
240-241 all problems due Wednesday
254 1-22 all due Thursday  **must show work, homework being turned in
258 1-22 all due Friday **must show work, homework being turned in

Non Fiction Reading Practice + 5th grade science practice:
El Nino reading is due Wednesday
Nervous System reading is due Thursday
Water Pollution reading is due Friday

Cargo and Geometry (all students)
Page 318 and 319 all problems from our math book

Vocab due Thursday
P.B. 347, 352 and 356
5 challenge words or mini posters

Free Write due Friday:
I bought one of those sets of “writer’s block dice.”  You roll the dice and different pictures come up and you write about them.  Here is what came up today:
hand, parachute, fire, cell phone, tepee, smile clock, rainbow and book
Students, at a minimum, need to include four of those things in their free write.

Grammar due Friday:
P.B. 357, 358, and 359