This blog began in Room 52 at AMG Junior and Senior Public School in 2011.
This site has followed me to a few schools since then and now joined the roster of retired blogs in the social media universe. The journey and reflection will continue in different and exciting spaces.
Room 52 remains one of the most significant places of teaching and learning for me and grateful to the students and staff who supported me there. Thank you.
Last month our class was looking at the rising use of Electronic cigarette use in the province. There have been some new regulations in the province now. Here is the link to the story, along with a shot of the web page where the story came from:
On the Grade 8 Math test on Friday, instructions were given about reducing the fractions to the lowest term. This was something we practiced in class in small groups. As part of the review of the most recent test, we will look at this:
The results:
We are walking through the questions, as a group. Completing Rewrites is an option for any grade below 50%
Finally, I have completed the Progress Reports (my own creation), which I spoke about two to three weeks ago.
As we prepare to wind down the school year, the last main Language assignment for the year, I have been thinking of ways to help the students understand how the "Food" assignment works. While there is a bulletin board in the back of the room with the requirements of the assignment, I have also produced this poster, which I will review today:
Dress Code Challenge: Members of the Intermediate Division are looking for creative ways of coming up with new expressions of clothing, while adhering to the dress code.
Grade 8s are eligible to purchase clothing with our updated school logo!
5th Annual Grade 8 Graduation Luncheon
Here is the most recent photo of the Homework chart:
Ask your son or daughter if they are keeping track of what is expected of them!!
There are some Term 2 assignments that some students have not completed. I will still accept and grade them, but the students must take the initiative to complete them.
One of the exercises I designed for them will have them, in groups or on their own, measure the Experimental and Theoretical Probabilities using a simple spinner.
To explain this, I also will use this link for an online spinner:
The following results were based on the experiment I did to compare the two types of Probabilities. In this case, I only spun 36 times. The number of times the students spun was a multiple of the possible outcomes of the spinner they selected. For example, if you had 6 outcomes, I would suggest doing 36 spins.: 1/6 = 6/36. So, if there were 36 spins, each colour would come up 6 times. The fractions in orange are equivalent. Both fractions are equal to a Probability of 16.7%.
A shot of Brendan's spinning work:
If the number of spins is increased, the Experimental and Theoretical Probabilities are supposed to come together or balance out. For example, using the same program, I had the computer simulate 1000 spins with the following results:
We had the same experience when we looked at the dice rolling game where the two die were multiplied together.
When we then had 6 groups pool the results of rolling the dice (for a total of 216 times) we ended up with this data:
The possible products (answers of the dice being multiplied together after being rolled) are on the left and the number of times the answer came up are on the right
The "Food Project" project is a multi-step Writing, Media, and Art activity. Right now, we are focused on the writing process and looking towards developing our drafts. To provide some perspective, I copied a few pages from the Ministry Exemplar outlining a Level 1 (D) and Level 4 (A) finished product. Yesterday, we looked at a Level 3 (B) example.
All of the students should now be in possession of the materials they need for working on this project. By the end of the day, I hope that I will have the bulletin board set up with samples and guidelines to help the students.
A reference point for students to see all of the components required for the "Food Project" assignment.
The project began as jot notes and is proceeding through the stages outlined on the board.
A list of potential Literary devices is posted here and will be handed out to the students:
If you have not donated to the Jump Rope for Heart cause, please consider it!!
It has been close to a week since I posted on the blog and there a number of things I would like to cover in this entry. I have been having some Internet issues in the classroom and running into problems showing the blog to the class.
So, here we go.
As a part of the review of the Grade 8 unit on Probability, we have run into a situation where fractions may have to be reduced. This is some work that we did in the Progress Report term in the Fall. Here are a few screenshots of when we were actively reviewing how to reduce fractions:
Here is an instructional video, that is not too long, that will also illustrate this idea:
When calculating the probability on 2 independent events happening -- something we will do in class tomorrow-- it is quite possible that a fraction may require simplifying. A number of the questions we took up in the homework today required some simplifying.
The homework has been looking at Theoretical Probability and I would like to move this into comparing it more with Experimental Probability. Actually doing the Math and the experiments will make this more fun and meaningful for the students. Here is another YouTube video comparing the differences in the two forms of Probability:
As for the Grade 7s, and Math, I had a few students -- Mickayla and Kavishan -- point out an error I made on the last test. So, as a result, I pitched all of the tests and spent a fair bit of time, today, reviewing where I went wrong. It is possible to learn from errors and I apologize for any confusion I may have caused. All of the Grade 7s will get another shot and doing another test on Transformations.
Here is a silly, but informative review video on Transformations:
Another video on Motion Geometry from Discovery Education:
I mentioned that the Internet has been giving me some problems in class. Before I left for the trip, I spent a fair bit of time preparing some information relating to the food project assignment. I am hoping that these problems won't be a problem tomorrow. I will post up the Success Criteria for this assignment:
This is one of our final Language assignments for the term. To guide the students, I will be doing a project to support their learning. Today, I had a question from Drile asking what the paragraphs might look like. I am going to post a couple of samples of what a Level 3 project might sound and look like:
I forgot that Tuesday afternoon was the Jump Rope for Heart event; that brought my plans to a halt. That's okay. It really looked that the students had fun.
The 2 announcements concern the upcoming Portugal Day celebrations and a Community meeting discussing the proposal of a bike lane.
While I am away at Camp, there will be no activity on the blog. See you soon.
While working through a rough copy for my own food project to model for the students, I came across a website that offered a series of example of how literary devices may be used.
This was taken from the Internet and looks to be a part of a project a student did. I was looking for a simplified way of presenting a variety of devices the students could use for this project. From this list of 8, only 1 should be selected. ** My one critique with this slide show is the incorrect use of Metaphor. When using this strategy, you do not have to use like or as; this would be for a Simile. A Metaphor usually asks you to compare one subject to another. For example, "He was a beast on the Basketball court." A Simile uses like or as: "The two dancers moved like shadows across the floor."
A more detailed explanation of these devices may be seen on:
I went back to the list of 8 examples from the slide show and decided to do some snooping on the Internet for examples of ads that use each of the techniques. Here are some, not necessarily in the same order that is in the slide show:
