Media Literacy: Introduction and initial wading into the world of Fake, information on the Beep Test, Homework

Media Literacy:  What is this thing called Fake News?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/in-the-trump-era-of-fake-news-more-u-s-schools-focusing-on-media-literacy-1.4275693

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/quiz-can-you-spot-the-fake-news-headline-1.3934368

During this class, there was a story about Erwin Sniedzins, who obtained a degree, which was fake.  The story can be found here:  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/fake-degree-toronto-investigation-1.4287347       The site for the university in question, at first glance, looks pretty good:  http://www.kingslakeuniversity.org/about/

Erwin Sniedzins

In fact, the "university" is a product of a Pakistani software company, Axact.  By Googling the name, you will see the numerous stories about this type of misrepresentation.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=Axact+fake&oq=Axact+fake&aqs=chrome..69i57.7766j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I haven't laid down any heavy theory in relation to the Principles of Media Literacy, but this class introduced a key one:  all media are constructions.  In this case, the medium of the Internet was used to misrepresent a school that didn't exist. 

Physical Education:  Beep Test

On Google Classroom I posted a link to the age-graded assessments for today's Beep Test.  In case you can't get on, here it is  http://www.topendsports.com/testing/norms/beep.htm  We will be doing this again at another interval so you can measure your progress.

This is how it looks and this offers a brief explanation of the test.

Homework

This work should be recorded in the agenda.

A hard copy of the calendar and Sports practice schedule went home on Friday.

Enjoy your weekend.

Study Sheet and Word problems, wicked 4 Corners and a Middle Discussion, Homework board

The guide for the Study Sheet was listed here.  As an example, I did this one:

Here is an example of a Study Sheet from a former student.  Coincidently, the topic in questions involved factoring and multiples:

For some students in the class, some of the concepts may still be a little confusing.  Without too much information, I will construct a short note on how you can use the multiplication table and a 100s chart to help you with some of the questions on the upcoming test.

The other portion of the word problems from Tuesday was this question:

The solutions to the problems, from the students, are here.  What is missing, though, is some feedback.  I will look at them tomorrow and post them up so each group can see the strengths and suggestions for improvement.

For practice, I will post the sample Study Sheet on Google Classroom within a few hours.  For those students having difficulty logging on, we can aim to sort that out before the end of the week.

History

It was super inspiring to have the first of three 4 Corners & a Middle (perhaps I should copyright this) discussion on the renaming of schools.  I was a little apprehensive about students coming forward, but he had some great contributions as evidenced by my furious note-taking for the group from 7/8C:

Homework

The Homework board has found a place at the front of the room and in the corner.  Most of the items are either referenced on the blog or on Google Classroom, or will be.  Here is a shot from today's board:

The agenda should have these items in it and should be used. 
Tonight's Math Homework is on Google Classroom.  A note, incorporating some Math teaching today, will be handed out tomorrow.  

Everyday GCF and LCM, Kent Monkman exercise...

Before moving into a review, or introduction, of fractions, I thought I would spend some time on the concepts of Factoring and Multiples and how they occur in everyday life.  I discovered some questions from this website:  https://quizlet.com/17008055/real-world-gcf-and-lcm-flash-cards/

I put the challenge to the class today for one question and we will look at the other one tomorrow:

I will post some of the photos of the student solutions -- and provide me with some insight into the thinking-- tomorrow morning.  For now, I will post the answer the sheet I put up on the projector:

A collection of inferences and thinking from our Kent Monkman painting:

Barbie meets History, 4 Corners exercise, John A Macdonald and another story on name changing, Math HW

History

Yes, this is a part of a future lesson:  http://www.macleans.ca/society/hbcs-colonial-barbie-comes-with-some-baggage/

Questions for 4 Corner discussion exercise for the next History class:

To my knowledge, this is the one school in the TDSB that has Sir John A Macdonald's name:

http://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/johnamacdonald/

I realize that this issue may sound complicated.  I hope that this article will help in explaining some of the issues at play.  I will read this to the class before we begin our exercise.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/08/24/john-a-macdonald-schools-should-be-renamed-elementary-teachers-union.html

a group at work, consolidating their positions

Another story of an actual school that was renamed was in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Cornwallis Junior High was renamed because the original name was attached to a man named Edward Cornwallis.  According to a story in NOW magazine on March 20, 2017 by Pamela Palmater, he "was responsible for putting bounties on the scalps of Mi'kmaw people, causing many deaths."

This challenges a frequent Stereotype of man Indigenous people that they frequently scalped European settlers:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/491947959275528225/

I have used this resource from Rethinking Schools to promote some critical awareness of issues students are not aware of:

From a British Colonial administrator in the province of Massachusettes in 1755.  I will scan a better copy.  From Rethinking Columbus:  The Next 500 Years:  https://www.rethinkingschools.org/books/title/rethinking-columbus-expanded-second-edition

Here is a story, from this past summer, on the Edward Cornwallis statue.  I believe this relates to the discussion we will be having in class.

Here is the story of the school's renaming and then a photo of the new school:

http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/cornwallis-junior-high-officially-renamed-1.759067

https://twitter.com/hfxcentjh

Math Homework

I was pleased to see a number of students who completed the assigned homework and some who were working hard today to catch up.  We put a select number of answers on the board and checked them.  This is a typical part of our process for checking homework.  If there are questions about the work, this is the time when we can ask them.

I know this may look messy, but the correct answers are there.

Homework

- Truth or Dare Community Circle

There can be two possible ways of presenting this information to the class.  The two options are posted.  The 3 statements are my example:  statement #1 is true.  

Health and PE & Math HW and a review of Multiples and Factors and Homework

Health and Physical Education

A couple of days ago, in PE class, I was having some difficulty explaining this warm-up type game that I imagined to be fun.  Here is the YouTube video for it, which should help:

As with most things related to YouTube, there are always so many videos to be distracted by, but this one will probably help with an illustration of people playing the game:

Math HW

A couple of sample questions from the homework:

Here is a helpful video for review.  I am unable to post any of the Flocabulary videos.  

Still unsure, check out this helpful page:  

https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/factors-multiples.html

A multiplication chart can be used to find the factors of a particular number.  In this picture, you will see one of the factors of 12:

http://www.free-math-handwriting-and-reading-worksheets.com/images/multiplication-chart-to-print-3.jpg

If you look for another 12 on the chart, you can see that 2 & 6 are also factors of 12.

I was explaining to Winston that a 100s chart will help you find common multiples if you are having difficulty with your multiplication skills.  Here is a link for a printable 100s chart:  https://www.montanamath.org/lessons/100chart.pdf

Here is a sample of someone's work on a chart.  The common multiples have more than one colour on them:

http://www.mathforsuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/crop-prime-climb-part2-3.jpg
The blue is for the multiples of 5 and the orange is for the multiples of 2.  They overlap and have a common multiple of 10.  This would be considered the lowest common multiple of 2 and 5.

Homework

I updated the letter I sent home yesterday.  Please return the lower portion of it.  Thanks for your patience.

- outstanding forms from Dovercourt package

- Grade 7 Immunization form

- quiet reading book for Monday morning
- Math: p. 6, #6; p. 12, #4-8

- prepared to play "Truth and Lies" (2 lies and a truth) I may move this to Monday's homework since I did not explain this.  Here is an explanation of the game.

Instructions: Have everyone sit in a circle. Each person prepares three statements, two of which are true and one of which is a lie. In any order, the person shares the three statements to the entire group. The object of the game is to figure out which statement a lie. The rest of the group votes on each statement, and the person reveals which one is the lie.  From http://www.group-games.com/ice-breakers/two-truths-and-a-lie.html

Have a great weekend.  That was an awesome first week!!  What a super class.

Grade 7/8 History, a few corrections to the letter home, 7/8B Mathematics, Housekeeping (including Curriculum Night date)

History:  Lesson #2

When I knew I would be teaching Grade 7, I wanted to use one of our final class discussions to move the discussion forward about key aspects of Canadian History.

July 1, 1867 was the day the British North America act took effect, establishing our great Nation.  Using government archived maps you can catch a glimpse of what the initial nation looked like and then move backward in time to see the initial colonial roots of the nation.

https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/confederation/023001-5005-e.html

To celebrate the 150th birth of our nation, there were many celebrations.  For many, it was a time to pause a re-think some of our nation's history.  Here is Canada's current Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau:

The popular Canada 150 award winning icon can be seen hhere:  http://canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1469537603125#a1

The finalists for the contest can be seen in this from this page:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-150-logo-contest-finalists-1.3155808

To be mindful of what PM Trudeau said, Canada, as a nation, has not treated its First Peoples very well.  As a result, this prized and beautiful logo as been "reimagined" by another artist, Eric Ritskes.  The idea of reimagined came from our class discussion last year and was suggested by David Gasser.

http://canadianart.ca/news/artists-resist-canada150-social-media/

In History class, we will be using our sense of Historical Thinking to reimagine and rethink some of the things we have learned or not learned about our history.  To help you with this initial group inferencing exercise, we look at a short clip from a Globe and Mail news video around the Canada Day celebrations. https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/globe-editorial-after-150-years-canadas-indigenous-citizens-are-finally-being-heard/article35506457/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&

This connects with today's group exercise.  We will be using some inferencing skills to record some observations around the following painting by Kent Monkman.

https://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/523/news/article33515222.ece/BINARY/image.jpg

Who is this artist?  Here he is explaining why he creates some of the things he does.

Mathematics

I sat down with the Grade 7 and 8 curriculum and was looking for points where concepts overlapped.  We will be beginning in the Number Sense unit and looking at multiples and factors and using this as a springboard to a unit on fractions.  For both grades, we will be doing a review and then, down the road, break into grade specific groups for developing particular skills.

Understanding this particular unit will be a lot easier if you know your multiplication table or in the process of learning it.  I have been a great fan of the Jump Math program (https://jumpmath.org/).  They have publicly posted the strategies for learning your 1-10 multiplication table in 5 days:

https://jumpmath.org/jump/sites/default/files/TipSheet_Times.Tables-01.pdf

Housekeeping

I completed a letter to go home today but there are a few corrections to it and I apologize to the families who have it.  I will print it out again so you can have a new copy.
As I find my groove, as I suspected I would, I am feeling more comfortable in articulating my approach to teaching and excited about the coming year.  I do not know the specific details, but Curriculum Night will be on Thursday, September 28.  

- a second timetable is available for the locker and to bring home

A thought to consider, a letter to my June self, a journal entry, Growth Mindset....

A quote that made its way into a discussion last night.

http://lifehacker.com/5831343/everyone-is-a-genius

If there are any new users to the blog, you will see that a posting is usually a work in progress.  I often come back and add elements to it.

In Language, we will be working on refining some basic skills of writing sentences (Writing strand) before we cross strands into the worlds of Reading, Media Literacy, and Oral Communication.  Today, we will work on an activity, inspired by a former teacher of my daughter, called a letter to my June self.   looking to cross

This non-graded bit of work will be broken up into a pre-writing and final copy.  The pre-writing is to get your brain thinking about some possible ideas.  I like to provide some examples for my students when we do work in Language.  Here are two samples of the brainstorming:

Before we do that, there will be a journal entry to do today.

My sample (for encouragement):

The Journal Response book will serve different purposes and subjects.  For today, it will be for a short response from this clever book.






On the back of the schedule, I handed out yesterday, there was a copy of a chart on Growth Mindset, which was developed by Stanford University Psychologist, Carol Dweck.  I try to avoid the habit of handing out meaningless items to students so I will take a moment to explore this way of thinking by using this link to help:  https://ideas.classdojo.com/b/growth-mindset

The link to the class dojo page needed an account and I just created an account I will use with the class.

History

When you teach a rotary based-subject, the lesson often evolves from class to class.  The following issue, recently in the news, will be a launching point for us.  Here is one perspective and aspect of our first Prime Minister: 

In the end of August, the issue around John A Macdonald's name being attached to schools was brought up.  Here we have another perspective:

The themes and time frame of the issues explored allow for some overlap of the Grade 7 and 8 History program. 

A letter will be going home tomorrow! I am sorry for the delay!!

It begins!

Hello.  The first day has come and gone and the classroom is now real.  What do I mean by this?  A classroom, for me, is not real until the students have visited and the year begins.  As a Teacher, there is always a slight adjustment to the pace of the classroom and I will find my groove soon enough.

We are having some technical issues with the classroom data projector.  This is something I use on a regular basis with my teaching and I will have to improvise until a new projector is purchased.

Homework:

- Fill in and return forms attached to the information package sent home
- Complete Coat of Arms exercise
- $5 for agenda
- $5 for lock

Nagging Math issue

I remember having my Grade Four teacher, Mr. Purchase, tell us that we would not be permitted to graduate from Grade 4 until we learned our multiplication tables.  It created some anxiety, but those tables were learned and not forgotten.  Mind you, this was back in the late 70s and we had to master a number of items that are now referred to as the basics.  I like to think of those skills as foundational skills that are needed to build and develop other skills.  Similarly, if a simple sentence can't be composed, how can a paragraph be written?

I say all of this with the following editorial in mind:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/math-eqao-scores-1.4270882

I was the Grade 6 teacher last year and I had concerns about how the students would do on the Math portion of the EQAO assessment.  While there were probably no old-school type Arithmetic questions, having a solid grasp at answering these questions would help boost our students' success in Math.  If students felt more comfortable and confident with the foundational skills (I will not use the word basics, since it seems to set off alarms in the heads of some folk), this would ease up on a lot of t he Math Anxiety that our sons and daughters seem to articulate.

An Inquiry based approach to Math is great, but skills must be established first.  Learning how to play Jazz on the piano is awesome, but without the foundational skills, it will probably sound wretched.  I would like to see the Math curriculum's breadth ease up a bit so we could create a generation of students who won't ever say they hate Math and do much better on the assessments they are required to complete.  To be continued, for sure.

Classroom Prep & a list of initial supplies

The first day of school is fast approaching.  The new room, 217, is set up and ready to go and will become real when the students arrive on Tuesday morning.

Last year, the Grade 6s from both Pauline and Dovercourt received a sheet outlining what supplies they will need for Grade 7.  I posted that list on the blog last Spring, but I took a snapshot of a Memo that Ms. Broughham will send home on Tuesday.

The agenda and lock are $5 each.

What will be new for the Grade 7s is the use of a binder, dividers, and paper for the various subjects.  For now, there are both types of paper in Room 217.  I will be providing a notebook for Journal Responses and will be moving toward a lined paper system for the subjects I teach: Language, Mathematics, and History/Geography.

I am very excited about moving back up to Intermediate division.  Adolescents are very enthusiastic and open-minded.  There will be lots of learning all around.  I will be learning about Google Classroom"s teaching potential and adjusting my lessons based on the reality of Rotary Further details about the year will be coming on Tuesday.   

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.