Tamar!!

To honour Tamar's forms (the Media Release one) being brought in, I have posted two photos of our funny guy, Mathematician.

Monday

A really nice read.  This was written by author Gary Karton who speaks about how he learned to understand and turn his learning differences/difficulties into a gift and the skill of writing.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-karton/discovering-the-gift-of-a-learning-disability_b_3177365.html

Information on the Lunch program at AMG.  This was supposed to be sent home in the handout package a month ago but wasn't.

A summary of what we have been doing in Math class.  Discussions and review for an upcoming test will begin on Tuesday.

This is a website that my daughter's Grade 5 teacher shared for multiplication.  It is an interactive, fun game:

http://www.brainormous.com/online/loader_multiflyer.html 

Homework
- the 8 multiplication quiz has been put off until tomorrow; 100 pattern charts were provided to the students to assist them with the review
- Grade 7 Science Test
- completion of Language/Myth homework missed by some students

Weekend update

I have a few items to add, but only an image of the Homework board:

 It was my intention to hand out One Hundreds charts to the class to assist them with practicing some of the Multiples we have reviewed. I forgot, but am providing a link to a few pages where you should be able to print one.
https://www.google.ca/search?q=100s+chart+pdf&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&gws_rd=cr&ei=Mu9FUvu-KYSHygHq14GYBA


The Grade 7s got into the action of putting the Math homework on the board.

 Here are a few images/screen shots of the Math games we have been playing.  They're a great review of the concepts we are learning about in class.

IWe started a short, Art exercise involving the creation of a Coat of Arms.  I have done this exercise for years and years.  It adds some nice colour to the room and makes a statement about who the learners are in the class.  Here are some samples I have collected over the past ten years; they serve as models for other students to see:

Enjoy your Sunday.

Thursday

Sometimes it is easier to explain things with images and a few comments, so here I go.

If I have not already posted these images from a set of poems, which I suspect I may have, here they are:

These poems were done with a short message about what makes them special.  We will be doing another activity involving a Coat of Arms activity to add some more colour to the classroom.

The Grade 8s will be slowly thinking about what high schools they want to attend.  Our school counselor, Ricardo Rodriguez, gave me the information night dates for the following high schools in our area.

There are a few tutoring opportunities I would like to share with you:

This is a program aimed at students who speak either Spanish of Portuguese at home.  I sent this home with the students yesterday.  This is just the first page.   The name of the student has been blocked out.

Free online help with Math for Middle School through TVO (TV Ontario)

As time goes by, I am beginning to learn more about the students in Room 52.  Since they are in the HSP program, they receive more intensive support in Language and Mathematics.  It has been my aim to "chunk" the work into smaller parts.  Here are some of the images of our work from Math.

Homework completion on the board.  I do not correct homework, I only check it for completion.  The responsibility is on the student to check it and ask questions when they are uncertain.

Eric is pointing out a pattern he has noticed on the 100s chart about the multiples of 9.

Trine and Jessica playing some of the Math games involving Multiples and Factors.

Problem solving is an area many students have difficulty with.  I took an example from some class work we were doing and explained how it can be broken into smaller parts to help increase their understanding. 

 I collected the Language notebooks to check over the initial brainstorming for the assignment on creating Myths.  I will provide the students with some feedback and have them go ahead to complete the second portion of the planning.  Writing on the draft will not begin yet.

I finally put together the suggestions from the class on the Expectations for Room 52.  Here they are:

 Homework:

Grade 7:  p. 6a # 3, 4, 6a
Grade 8:  p. 6 # 5, 6, 10, 12


Thanks to those parents that dropped in during Curriculum Night in Room 52.  I wanted to add this photo about the logic behind the HSP program, as outlined by the Special Ed. department in the TDSB:

 

Wednesday: Links to Math Games on Multiples, Factors, Prime and Composite Numbers

I always think it is kind of fun, and wise, to play games to help learn or reinforce a concept that is taught in class.  Playing on the computer does not always have to be about racing, fighting, or running (I am sure there are some other verbs I could think of, but they slip my mind right now).

We will explore some of these games in class and can also be played when not at school, if you have access to a computer.

This is a Halloween themed game on Multiples:

http://www.mathplayground.com/multiples.html

A Mr. Potato Head (or is it Mrs.??) game involving the skill of understanding multiples:

http://www.ezschool.com/Games/MultiMultiples.html

I have not played this game yet, but this one concerns Prime and Composite numbers.  This is something the Grade 8s will be looking at:

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/mathgames/numbers/fruit_shoot_prime.htm

Once the concept of GCF and LCM have been taught, we may play this game:

http://www.math-play.com/Factors-and-Multiples-Jeopardy/Factors-and-Multiples-Jeopardy.html

Photo Day and Curriculum Night

Photo Day is tomorrow morning!  This information has been on the board for the past two weeks.

Curriculum Night is Thursday at 6:00 in Room 52.  Drop in to hear about programming in the Home School Program (HSP) classroom.

CAT 4 growing pains

This is post #300.  Cool.


The majority of students in Room 52 have completed the CAT 4 assessment.  I feel as though I should be celebrating this post, but feeling a little anxious about getting back on track with the Language and Math program in our classroom.

We have been moving our discussion along about our upcoming assignment on creating a Myth in our class.  This assignment will combine elements of Storytelling and Drama, along with Writing.  To introduce this unit, I posted this picture in class to try and see who might figure out the mythology behind it:

The assignment sheet (which will be broken down into a more manageable size for the class... often known as "chunking") looks like this:

We will begin on Part A in class tomorrow and have Part B for homework on Wednesday night.

I have decided on trying to do Math separately with the Grade 7s and 8s.  Obviously, the Grade 8 work may be more challenging, but there will always be extra time for the students to ask questions and get clarification for things they don't understand.  There are times when the two groups will work together.  In a few photos below, they are working on an exercise which is a review of Multiples:

Also, we did a review of the multiplication table for Nine and used an interesting rule that I learned from the JUMP Math program:

Another interesting thing we began doing this week had to do with developing the skills of observation and inferring (using reason, evidence, and observation to explain)s.   of observation.  In the photo below, I asked the students the simple question of "What is going on in this photo?"  The idea for this exercise comes directly from the New York Times newspaper.  24 hours after the photo is posted, there is an explanation of what is going on in the photo.

Many other teachers have used this skill of showing pictures or drawings to a class and asking them to explain what is going on.  This idea is not exclusive to the New York Times.

I am not sure if this form made it home, but insurance is available for your son or daughter, if you are interested: 

Forms available in the class.  Please ask Mr. Proudfoot for one

Also, Scholastic books are available to order.  The current catalogue is available in Room 52. 

Available in the class on the side counter

Sorry for my delayed post.  I am also busy coaching the AMG Senior Cross Country team.  Please feel to write a note in the agenda if you wish to contact me or reach me at marc.proudfoot@tdsb.on.ca

Have a quiet remainder of your evening and a positive Wednesday.

CAT 4

The assessment for CAT 4 begins today.  For some of the students new to this assessment, I modeled for them how you begin to fill in the answer form.

The CAT 4 is pretty long and the students will be given ample time to complete it.


Yesterday I had a question in the morning for the students that related to some work we have been doing in class.  I try to make connections between subjects or topics to help reinforce some key ideas or concepts.  This one had to do with multiples and the skill of understanding what they are.  We used the Hundred chart to show how many multiples of 2, 3, 4, and 5 there are.  Here is Junior's example:

He used a legend with different colours

We used Megan's chart to look at a few of the patterns on the chart:

The shading exercise is another way to reinforce the multiplication tables and to prepare for some of the exercise we will be doing in class.

Here is the question I was talking about:

 

Here are three sample answers.  

One has the correct answer with the process/steps missing and the other answer explains itself a little more with supporting details.  There were many other students in the class who got this correct, and had another approach, but I selected this one.

Correct, but missing s some supporting details

Junior explained to me that he subtracted 25 from 33 to figure out his answer of 8

The answer I calculated hints at some of the work we will be doing involving Common Multiple.

 The IEP input page will be sent home today seeking your input on the Strengths and area of Needs for your learner in Room 52.  This is what it looks like: