Educational Reflections (formerly Rumblings from 52)

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.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Mrs. Cimesa had her last day today. I wish I had had the sense to have all of the students come together, along with her, for a class photo. What I will do it post the fruit of the work of a project they worked on over the past couple of weeks for the Media stand of Language Arts. Here are photos I took of the projects. The students received their grades for these assignments. There are a couple of images missing from this set of photos. I apologize for not having them up and will post them tomorrow.


The projects, grouped together.

I will be continuing Mrs. Cimesa's focus on Media Literacy as I return to some other curriculum areas and re-orient myself to teaching full days once again.

Today's journal looked like this:

To help the students along, I began a possible entry for them.

As I mentioned in last week's blog entry, the Math tests were returned. For the Grade 8s I decided that I would do a review of the most recent test. I noticed a number of students had difficulty solving some of the lengths of the other sides of a right angle triangle when the hypotenuse was given. Here is a sample image of what I am talking about:

This came from http://ronblond.com/MathGlossary/Division03/Pythagorean%20Theorem/index.html

After the re-teach, we will have a re-test!

I was pleased to see a couple of new names on the Level 3 and higher result sheet for the Grade 7s. Megan and Tamar joined Junior as recipients of marks higher than 70% . Again, I am not stressing the mark, but I see the amount of effort they put into their Study Sheet and on the test. Excellent role models!

There is still the possibility of doing Rewrites for some students. This requires a certain amount of effort and persistence. They aren't due to till Thursday. A sample of how to do one was jotted down on the board.

Until I post again. Goodnight.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Mrs. Cimesa's teaching placement will end on Tuesday, April 22. There are only 3/16 students who need to complete the major Media project for evaluation. Once they are all done and up on the bulletin board, I will take some photos to place on the blog.

It has been a very busy three days this week. The whole class was out at the TIFF Kids screening on a series of short films. Even though I did not watch them, I captured a couple of images inside the theatre. They are not the best shots, though.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Grade 7s and 8s went on separate trips to the Science Centre to attend workshops related to the units they studied over the course of the term. They also had time to browse and enjoy themselves with the various exhibitions they encountered. Here are a combined set of select images over the past couple of days:

Yes, there was snow on Tuesday morning!

Parent Council will take place on Tuesday, April 29, 2014 in the Library at 6:30.

Pizza lunch info:

You have the opportunity to be a part of the ICAC or Inner City Advisory Council and have a say in how you feel our Model School, AMG, is running.

Due to it being a long weekend, no homework has been assigned.
The two Math tests, from last week, will be returned, along with the major Media projects. If I can upload the file, here is a short video of Tamar and Junior presenting their projects.

Have a restful weekend.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Happy Friday.

Most students handed in their Study Sheets for the upcoming Math test. This test will happen during the last period on Monday. The students will be allowed to use their Study Sheet, if they completed one. There should be opportunities today to review, by completing some co-operative work, along with playing some links to some games that I have been re-posting over the past month:

Pay close attention to the questions on Area. Work through all of the games. Do this today and, if you can, over the weekend.

Grade 7: There are enough links here to help you review some of the work we have done so far.

This Funbrain website activity is probably the best place to start because you can select the level of difficulty for either Perimeter or Area of both: http://www.funbrain.com/poly/index.html

Another solid review of Perimeter and Area. You may either select from Area or Perimeter when you click on the link: http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/perimeter_and_area/index.html

An Area and Perimeter game that uses a grid. You can check your answers, once you are done:
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/ShapeExplorer/

to be continued

This is a virtual version of the activity we used with Geoboard and elastic bands:
http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_281_g_2_t_4.html

A Geoboard like activity that looks at both area and Perimeter from PBS Kids: http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/media/games/perimeterarea/perimeterarea.swf

A game that involves an understanding of both Perimeter and Area. You are in charge of designing the layout for a party: http://www.mathplayground.com/PartyDesigner/PartyDesigner.html

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Wednesday: Part 2

This is an important message that I have up on the front door of the room. Not many people decide to look at it, but I think it is worth a review.

Internet link for Prezi for 'Pink' Day assembly. This was put together, based on ideas from a small group of Grade 8s.
http://prezi.com/oprpwm2omiaf/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

One the topic of body image; some people are sometimes teased because of how they look. We talked a bit about this during our morning assembly. Mrs. Cimesa is using two videos related to concepts of beauty.

Still in the area of media, we, along with Mrs. Ayearst and Mr. Baupre's class will be taking in a film at the TIFF Kids film festival. We will be watching a series of short documentaries from a series called What Now http://tiff.net/festivals/tiffkidsfestival/films/what-now
The field trip form will go home today. THERE IS NOT COST FOR THIS TRIP!

There is one trailer for one of the documentaries in the series on Monday. Take a look:

I will post the posters that are being used to help the final Media projects for Mrs. Cimesa.

Overview of options available

Option #1 R.A.F.T. (role, audience, form, topic)

5 key concepts associated with Media Literacy

Option # 2: Creating a new product

Option #3: Concept Map

Here are some images of the Grade 7s working on the rough copies of their projects:

Cassandra

Eric and Tamar

Caleb

Tamar

The permission forms for the TIFF films are due back ASAP!!

Wednesday, April 9: Part 1

I seem to have been in a deficit, or slight hole, with my blogging as of late. There is a lot to report, though, so I will begin.

An old What is Going on in this Picture from the New York Times is posted here for review:

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/03/whats-going-on-in-this-picture-march-3-2014/

The 8s are finishing up their look at the Pythagorean Theorem and will be handing in Study Sheets tomorrow for an upcoming test. Some of the questions were problem solving based and others were more challenging due to the solving questions when the measurement of the Hypotenuse was given and one of the "legs" of the triangles required a length to be solved.

The Study Sheet is graded out of 5. Feedback is provided by me on what the students should pay attention to as they prepare to write the test. These sheets may be used during the test as an accommodation.

The Grade 7s are also doing a Study Sheet and working on some problem solving questions on Area and Perimeter. I have experimented with having students work in groups to work on these problems and develop a Study Sheet; sometimes they are motivated best when working with other students.

A reminder:

A number of students completed the Journal entry last week about an event that changed their life. To help the students along, I wrote a sample, including some brainstorming. Eventually I produced a written work to help guide the students. All writing done in class should follow the model of what we learned from our unit on paragraphing:

taken from: http://cavemanenglish.blogspot.ca/2010/11/hamburger-paragraph.html

Mrs. Cimesa, Room 52's Student Teacher from OISE, has been working hard on the Language unit that has been focusing on developing the students ideas around Media Literacy. She has been mixing media, with theory, and has now moved on to having the students work on a culminating task/project.

Further images will be added to this ongoing unit.

Here is one of the clever and catchy videos used in class.

The theoretical part is based on the cubes that were designed and constructed by the students last week: