Saturday: A week with minimal entries

I did not do very many entries this week, but have a lot of things to share.


*** photo retake day is Wednesday, November 5, in the afternoon ***
*** permission forms and money for Etobicoke Outdoor Education Centre are due ***

First I will begin by letting you know that the Progress reports will be going home on November 12.   On November 14 (the late afternoon and evening) and the morning of November 15 (to 12 p.m.) will be the Parent Teacher interviews.  Request for interviews will be sent home on Monday.

As one of the lead up activities for the Progress Reports, I had students do a journal exercise where they had to do some reflection.  Using a blank page 1 of the Report Card, the students assessed themselves on the Learning Skills section.

Mr. Proudfoot's sample.  I only did the comment section.

To me, this is the most important portion of the report.  The habits and skills that the students learn at a young age can help them throughout their academic career.  To be honest, students may forget some of the content taught in specific subjects, but the habits and sense of responsibility they internalize can last a lifetime.  Hopefully, these are some of the skills the students will carry into high school, into their first jobs, and post secondary school.


Reading Buddies resumed with Mr.McLaughlin's class on Thursday.  It had been postponed, due to some conflicts in our schedule.  Here are a few shots from the activity:

 Here are a couple of Rewrite samples I did with the class to show them how to do them:

 In a class, 8 students who were able to do Rewrites to improve their test scores on the most recent Math test, only 3 did it.  2 of those students improved their marks and should be proud of those efforts. 

In Math, we have moved into our second unit that combines Measurement and Number Sense.

It is a unit combining the skills of converting between different units of measurement and understanding Place Value (thousandths 0.001 to millions 1 000 000).  For the Grade 8s, they will also be introduced to some Exponential Notation.  The exponents for the given place values can be seen on top of the chart.

This bottle is measured with the prefix milli, which is 

known a thousandths of the standard unit of grams, used for mass.

On Friday, I was very impressed with the work the Grade 7s did on the homework on Place Value.  I am going to continue reviewing the concepts and providing the students with some opportunities for learning by playing games in partners and online.  Here is the homework sheet we looked at, along with some helpful comments to help the students.  Just below this is a snapshot example of some questions the Grade 7s did.

One of the authors for this work

The other author

In Language, we have moved into the area of sentence structure and working on developing Compound Sentences in class.  Here are some samples we worked on:

For homework, the students will be doing some Drama and be in the role of one of the characters from the Myth they have written.  I have modeled the activity for the class, based on a Myth I wrote and the expectations of the assignment.  Here it is:

This Drama will lead into the Storytelling section of the assignment.  Have a good weekend.

Two photos from the Halloween Dance. Unfortunately, I did not capture a lot of shots of students from Room 52.  Megan is hiding in one of the photos, but Cassandra is enjoying herself!