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.
Here is a link to another video about the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Liberia.
This media production was created by MSF and points to one of the key concepts in our study of Media Literacy:
1. The Media contain value messages. MSF, while an excellent organization, created this video to highlight the excellent and important work they are doing.
Before we get into a deeper conversation about the issues in this article, let us think about how K-Pop, and Pop Music in general, is a form of Media. All of the concepts can be attached to elements that we see in K-Pop.
Members of EXO going through their routines.
In the article, there was a mention of the emphasis on particular standards of "beauty" in Korea. I just heard about this story today and thought it would add something to the discussion.
In addition to returning to completing Reading Responses, I am going to assign this. It is a fun, creative way to explore an element of a book you are reading.
This chart (updated from the prototype developed with 7/8A) will be explained with two supporting issues before a short, online assignment is given.
The information on this chart is derived from the Nelson Geography Grade 8 text, the Geography curriculum from the Ontario Ministry of Education, and The Critical Thinking Consortium's book, Teaching Geographical Thinking. We will use this chart to explore the Toronto Blackout of 2003 and the Ebola outbreak in Liberia in 2014 before the online assignment on the flooding in Brantford is posted.
Looking at a Case Study on the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Liberia & deconstructing stereotypes of the "single story" of Africa (...which is a continent, in case you forgot)
This short video, produced in collaboration with Unicef and the Red Cross (among others) will help explain the Case Study used in the Grade 8 Geography textbook on the 2014 Ebola outbreak.
This is an image from the Grade 8 textbook which explains the Gritzner project a little more. This period will be a working one where you will have the laptops to help you think about the location you would like to select.
This note is already on GC. It is the outline for my "teacher modeled" project on Niagara Falls. As you can see, I am not done and that is okay. This project will take some time and that is why you will have at least one week to complete it. If I have any additional notes to add, I will post them on GC.
I am going to have to look at all of the references I selected and make sense of them. (This is where taking jot notes will come in handy.)
There was a moment when I thought this unit may be going on to long but then I realized that was a very narrow way of looking at the topic. The 10-lesson unit is not moving along as fast as I thought it would.
There is a lot of discussion, talk, and role-play going on. I would also like to think that we are learning some crucial lessons about how to relate to one another. Ms. Jocelynn shared a short video about learning how to communicate with each other.
The video recaps the three main type of communication we often see. It is quite possible that these types overlap:
I forgot to post this on GC last night. It is an example of conversion from the King Henry metric chart.
Use the chart to determine if you are travelling up (decimal moves left) or down (decimal moves right) the conversion chart. Once you have done this, count the number of spots you have to move and go for it. In this example, when we moved the decimal, we added zeros to serve as place value holders.
Working from left to right, each container's capacity is ten times greater. So, the 1 mL becomes 1000mL or 1 litre by the end.
This is not a very good photo of the unit for centilitre (cL):
But why did we decide upon the powers of ten in the Metric System. Let's ask this wise person from back in the day...
Geography:
In the Grade 7 curriculum, one of the overall expectations is this:
Application: analyse some challenges and opportunities presented by the physical environment and ways in which people have responded to them (FOCUS ON: Spatial Significance; Interrelationships)
In Grade 8, one of the sub-expectations reads like this:
A1.2 analyse how processes related to the physical environment may affect human settlements in the future
To help you understand what it means to have Geographic eyes, we will use the example of the 2003 Northeast Blackout, which a lot of you were not around to experience.
This is a post Report Card journal on the Learning Skills and Work Habits. The intention is to inspire some reflection as a springboard for improvement for Term 2.
Posted on GC, this is a What's Going On in This Picture journal due on Thursday.
The new Math unit -- Measurement -- will provide a brief opportunity to review some Place Value, among other things. Detailed notes about this topic are posted on GC. We used the distance from Toronto to Tokyo to convert from km to m and how many times it would take to run around a 400m Track.
The second term is right around the corner. We will be transitioning from History to Geography. This poster will serve as a cool -- at least I think so -- transition point between the subjects.
For your first exercise, you will be responsible for thinking of a place you have visited, or know of, or would like to go to, and how you can respond to the three pressing questions, generated by Charles Gritzner: What is Where? Why There? Why Care? Unsure of where to begin? Let us look at two examples. The first one will be Mr. Gritzner:
Before I go to the second example, consider Mr. Gritzner's unique way of studying this topic:
This is the type of question that brings all of the angle relationships together. I will make some notes below the photo to help you review a little bit.
I apologize for it not being done with a ruler.
- all straight lines (like the two parallel lines) add up to 180 degrees (there are three examples of supplementary angles going on in this drawing)
- I began to solve this question by filling in the unknown 70-degree angle in the triangle and seeing the ALTERNATE (Z shape) angle possibility
- once I had this, I knew the angle to the right would be 110 degrees (180-70) and it is also confirmed because the CO-INTERIOR measures total 180 (70 + 110) which has a C shape
- knowing two angles in the triangle (60, 70), I could do some subtraction to find the missing angle:
60 + 70 = 130; 180-130 = 50 degrees
- just to be sure, the top 3 angles on line GA, when added, equal 180: 60 + 50 + 70 = 180
There are some other ways to explain this, but I do not want to put TOO much information.
This will have to wait until this coming Friday's Media Literacy class.
These two examples of ads were tagged for the specific slogans they use but we did not get around to starting this exercise. Instead, I used one of these ads to help the class complete last week's exercise on applying the Key Concepts (of Media Literacy) to a series of ads.
For Concept #2, the President's Choice ad might receive a different response or interpretation if you happened to be a Vegan, Jewish, or Muslim (because of the ham). At least 1 of the 6 concepts were applied to the package of print advertising given out two weeks ago.
An older Health/Media Literacy assignment had us learn that "breakfast loves Nutella." This is an example of a slogan which fails to mention that Nutella contains, in 2 tablespoons, five and a half teaspoons or 5 and a half packets of sugar (http://www.businessinsider.com/nutella-has-the-same-sugar-as-five-oreos-2013-10).
Homework assignments are written on the Homework board, usually on GC, and then onto the Homework chart in the class. These items relate to the 2 video postings down below, which relate to the key idea of being RESPONSIBLE for your learning.
homework board
Top portion of the Homework tracking chart, which is posted in the class and updated for COMPLETION or INCOMPLETION of items
Inspiring videos (related to the completion of incompletion of Term 1 work)
Will Smith on Fault versus Responsibility:
Young boy in Trinidad on honest and hard work:
Mathematics
The Homework and more in-depth notes can be found on GC, but here are some useful items related to the next stage of our Geometry unit.
Nice Work!
old photo: parallel lines, transversals, and TRIangles!
This is a short in-class, and then independent, assignment on the idea of how slogans work in the Media we encounter on a regular basis. The original assignment was developed by Ms. Brougham. This will be part of the Term 2 evaluation.
We will use the same folder of advertisements to review last week's exercise and begin working on the slogan assignment.
