Thursday Dec 22

Today as a quick quiz and then on to reading.

We got to page 152 in the text, too.

I also collected Part 1 of the Unit today, too.

Tuesday and Wednesday Dec 21

Tuesday was the last day we were working on our CA in class.

Wednesday we went back to reading and studying Speak.

We got to page 132 in the text and we talked a lot about the novel, as we took about a week off to get the CA done for the class.

Questions and the Theme study are due tomorrow. Short quiz, too.

Then, back to Speak.

Monday Dec 19

Ahh... I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Tomorrow is the last day for Culminating; then back to Speak and the Break. We will, of course, be doing Speak and possibly Poetry after the Christmas, too.

I also updated the due date for Speak, Part 1 - it's Dec 22 instead of the 20th.

I'm hoping that I've helped my students by scheduling the CA ahead of other classes that my students are doing.

In any case, I know that this week I'll be marking these and other major projects.

Friday Dec 16

The first Newspaper article was due today.

I'll be marking them over the weekend.

On to the next part of the Culminating Task and then back to Speak next week!

Thursday Dec 15

We finished watching the film Coach Carter, so according to our schedule, we are on Day 2 of the CA.

It was a pretty good film, in my opinion. A great message and currently on Netflix.

We are back in the portable on Friday and working on the next step in the CA together.

Wednesday Dec 14 and Help with stuff

Potential headlines from Coach Carter

Entire Richmond Basketball team suspended.

Another Basketball player arrested


We continued to watch the film for the CA, Coach Carter in class. It's going along ... well. I was hoping to be done watching the film by now, but ...ah well, it's a decent film.

In any case, we are back in the portable for tomorrow, too!

Tuesday Dec 13

So ... we are going to be taking a quick break from Speak and going on to get our CA done for the course.

If you have any questions or concerns about what we are doing and why, please just ask.

In any case, we started watching the film Coach Carter today in class.

#awesome

We also go the CA today - the writing for which we will be doing over the next few days.

Friday Dec 9 and Monday Dec 12

Friday was a school Mass day. There was a special schedule out and I think we had a very brief class.

Monday was a regular day. We read Speak and got to page 113 in the text.

There was interesting discussion about various topics, not the least of which was talking about a beeper back in the 80's. See pic below.

In any case, keep going with your questions and your listening!

No games, no texting ... only one way communication.... not nearly cool

Thursday Dec 8

First, this

Today, again with Batman as our guest teacher we got to page 77 of the text.

We did get the unit outline for Speak ... and we got the due date posted both in the classroom and on this blog.

We'll be doing a Mass tomorrow and the Culminating Activity next week.

Wednesday Dec 7

So ... we clawed our way through some reading today - my throat made me sound like Batman, so it was a tough go. We got to page 56 in the text.

We got these questions to do for homework, too:

Monday 5 and Tuesday Dec 6

It's the feast day of St Nick .... wooo!

We read some of the novel Speak ... I still have to get the links up for that novel onto this blog. We needed to get the newspaper article on Eye of the Dragon in to be marked.

We also got these questions for homework:

Unit out tomorrow, ladies and gentleman.

I also forgot to get the update done yesterday. We did the OCA part 2 yesterday. It's getting marked today. Should be really exciting.

Friday Dec 2

So today in class ... we did a little work on the Newspaper Article for Eye of the Dragon.

At the other half of the class, we started reading the novel, Speak.

No questions for homework, just reminders about due dates!

Oh and we talked about these apps today too:

Thursday Dec 1

So we worked on our newspaper articles.

We took a look at a couple of articles from today's Milton Champion to see the structure of the article and plug it into the model we got.

I asked the students to work on their article and then showed them how to work by putting together an article while on my laptop.

We set the due date for the article Monday, Dec 5th.

I also set the CA dates, too. I did ask my students to put them into their own electronic devices, but I will publish those dates here later. I'm hoping that my students got those dates into heir own devices this morning.

It's the opening paragraph...

Wednesday Nov 30

This was an alright kind of day.

 We spent the time going after the Webquest that was given out a while ago ... It was due today, and I got a few in.

 I also showed what we were going to work on next - a newspaper article from Eye of the Dragon.

We'll hear more tomorrow and later on, too.

Tuesday Nov 29th

I delayed the quiz one day in hopes that more people would show up.

Ah well, the quiz went on without a hitch.

Then we spent the rest of the class working on the webquest and admiring my calligraphy on the due date sheet:

Monday Nov 28

Stuff was due today ... and out of a class of a whole bunch, I got a few.

Sad, sad teacher. As an FYI, there are 33 teaching days left in this semester.

We worked together on a Webquest for Eyes of the Dragon ... which will be due on Wednesday, Nov 30th.

We'll start the next unit tomorrow or Wednesday.

Quiz on EotD tomorrow, too.

And this is what the teacher is reading today:

So far, a pretty good read.

Thursday Nov 24

Well, today was a bit of a mess.

We started working on our stuff, but then got called down to the cafeteria to hear the Pathways presentation.

Which was off the hook, by the way.

In any case, we then went back to class and worked on the character sketches we need to finish for Monday.

Wednesday Nov 23

We finished the novel today ... oh, thank goodness, we finally finished Eye of the Dragon today ...

We will be handing stuff in Monday...

ok, onwards to tomorrow!

Monday Nov 21

Hey everyone ... I'm doing this blog post at the front of the room ... I guess so that people can see just how straight forward doing this process of updating a blog can be.

In any case, we care close to the end of the unit on Eye of the Dragon. We got to page 344 of the text, which is chapter 107.

We also got the due date for part 3 of novel. It's Thursday, November 24th.

Tomorrow ... character sketches!

Friday Nov 18

Well, I went looking for today's post ... and I couldn't find it anywhere.

I do apologise to the loyal followers of this blog. I thought I had this done.

I did not.

We got to page 322 of the novel. I assigned Chapters 103-105 #1 and 2 for homework.

Monday will be better. Pinky swear!

Thursday Nov 17

Today was a bit of a trouble focussing. We did get through to page 302, but when given time to get some work done together, I saw a lot of struggles with self-regulation.

All good. We will strive to get better.

Here are the questions that are due with Part Three ... so far....

Wednesday Nov 16

So this happened today in class:

We got to page 290 in the book ... and we got the questions handed out to Chapter 130 ...

In any case, we will adapt and overcome this novel. It's almost done ... less than 100 pages left.

Next we read Stephen King's The Stand:

I'm kidding, I'm kidding ...

Tuesday Nov 15

So ... those are the questions we got today. Seems I printed off the wrong ones yesterday.

Ah, it happens.

In any case, we had a short quiz today, as announced. We are moving on to the last section of the novel, and we got to 270. Should be awesome for the rest of the week!

Monday Nov 14

"Dwarfish ghoul" was used in the novel. Here one is....

Ok, so I tried to keep things relaxing today. It IS Monday, after all. I did have to post that pic, and I'm kinda creeped out by it.

In any case, I also have the questions that are due tomorrow here:

Ok, we are all good, at least for a Monday. See you Tuesday!

Later edit ... saw this...

Friday Nov 11

Lest we forget...

So today we read a lot ... we got to page 230 (Which, I'm told is a great time for dentists appointments)

and we got the following questions for homework:

Chapter 65, 65. 66, 67

1. Why give the reader only parts of the plan in this chapter?
2. What does Ben think about Peter? What does Penya believe? 
3. Why give the line “Storms are not over in Delain” in this chapter?
4. What does Chapter 66 tell you as the reader?
5. What does Chapter 67 tell us about what’s happening to Peyna?

Ok, what else .... oh yeah, the due date for the next set of questions, too:

Thursday Nov 10

This is quite ugly. Something is up with everything today. I'm unable to post pictures .... or upload pictures.

Odd...

In any case, here are the questions for tomorrow. We read to page 212.

Chapter 60, 61 62, 63

1. Why are the two men “being careful” in their letters to each other?
2. Why, do you think Peter wants these things, really?
4. How does the younger Staad “become a man”?

We also set Wednesday, Nov 16th as the date for the next part of the journal to be handed in.

This is from another blog. I've posted this one before ... same feeling today

Wednesday Nov 9

...we moved right on to Wednesday.

A nice day, in the bigger scheme of things. Things will continue as they have for us here. Or at least they should.

We did read until page 199 in the book and got all the questions from Chapter 55-59 from the list of questions .... and we will be getting the next set tomorrow.

I will be posting the link for the questions on the blog, as I have a few students away at the moment. They can download the questions at their leisure.

I did also talk very briefly to the rest of my students about their marks I'm inputting for them this week for the midterm.

Tues Nov 8

Well, today was ... a Tuesday.

We started off today with catching up on a bunch of questions for homework.

Then we read to page 187 in the text and got questions for the next two sets of chapters, as we are still catching up to where we are in the novel.

Chapter 46-49 2, 3, 5

Chapter 50 - 54 2, 4, 5 and 7

I love question 7, as I mentioned in class. Has the line

I love this novel....

Monday Nov 7

So ... yeah.

We did a couple of cool things today. The coolest was reading from the book - we got to page 172 in the book and ... got a bunch of homework for tomorrow.

We also got a chance to conference with each student about the midterm mark today. Most are ready to go, some have some material still to hand in.

On to tomorrow!

Friday Nov 4

Oh, it's Friday.

 I'll not post that song ... at least not this week.

 In any case, we got a short quiz on the first bit of Eyes of the Dragon this morning.

 After that, we got to read to Chapter 41.

 Keep on keeping on:

Thursday Nov 3

So ... there was a still a number away today. I'm honestly hoping you are keeping up with your courses, including this one.

 Today we did a fair amount of work together on the Theme and Terms Study for Eyes Of the Dragon. We did also have an example of student work from a quiz. We took a look at the structure of a level four answer from a quiz that was done recently. It was a very good dissection and discussion of what worked and what did not work.

We also did a couple of fun things - on "how to use you phone for things other than Instagram" or "How to use your phone as a tool, not a toy". I showed students a few apps I use - Learn Swift, Polar Beat, ICE and At Bat to name just a few.

Learn Swift is an app designed to help people learn how to put together their own apps for the iPhone. Polar Beat is an app that can monitor your heart rate as you exercise, as long as you have the heart rate monitor chest strap. (A student asked me; I have the H7 Polar HR Monitor). At Bat is an app that let me watch major league baseball games off of my cell phone with a monthly fee. I watched most of the season either on my phone or on my Apple TV at home.

The ICE app is not shown but is a way of letting EMT personnel make a phone call off of your phone, just in case you can't speak to them in an emergency.

After we finished with the projected material, we got to read to page 142 of the text. It's almost halfway through the book, and we have some material due tomorrow!

One other thing I said I would post for this class was this:

Wed Nov 2

We were a little light in terms of people in class this morning ... I'm hoping if you were away, that you are reading up on what we did this morning in Period One

Well, we read to page 130. We are getting into the search for the assassin.

We also got chapter 32,33 ..36 questions 1, 2 and 3 for homework.

We were going to do the Theme Study and Term study sheet today, but I'll leave that until tomorrow when I have all my students here.

And I'm trying something out here:

Tuesday Nov 1

So we did some one on ones today - giving back essays, updating and discussing some things owed to the teacher for class and some even did quizzes for me.

Preparation for midterm marks being entered this weekend/Friday-ish.

We had a bit of time after we finished that, so we read to page 117 in the text.

Then we had a light discussion of the Theme/Terms study we need to get started in the next few days.

Actual picture from class today. Well, not really.

Monday Oct .... Oh, I forget what day it is

Yeah, I didn't. I was in a costume as were more than a few of my students.

But, I have a different idea about today. I'm all for wearing costumes that are appropriate, and we had those in class. However, I'm also about getting the work done when at work.

I'm sure the grown-ups reading this blog would tend to agree that even if you are at work in a costume, you are still at work. When at work, do the work.

So, we read and got questions to do. We got to page 108 in the text and got Ch 23-26 2, 3, and 4. We also got Ch 27-29 Questions 1 and 2 for homework.

We also got the due dates for our current unit.

Friday Oct 28

So ... yeah, it's Friday. How about that.

Everything is going to be all right, as Friday always arrives.

Well, we took up homework and we read together as a class. That was pretty cool.

Then, we got Ch17-22 2, 3 and 5 for homework. As well as Ch 23-26 #1.

I did also mention that my students should be up to date on the homework as next week we will start to look at the terms and add a list of vocabulary to the assignments due.

Thursday Oct 27

This was mentioned in class today:

make funny GIFs like this at MakeaGif

So ... we looked at the homework from the novel today.

Four questions ... and yeah. We need to at least attempt the homework, please.

In any case, we read to the end of chapter 18 and got Chapter 13-14, both questions, Chapter 15-16, both questions and the first question from Chapter 17-22.

Five questions.

I'm going to keep moving forward.


 
via GIPHY

Wednesday Oct 26

So ... we mentioned the Three Stooges today in class. Honest, we did. We were talking about how the King of Delain might admire this type of humour ... and what that says about that character.

I did another round of speaking one on one with my students about things due and past due, too.

We did get quite a bit read today in class, getting to the end of chapter 13. We also got the following questions for homework:

Ch 6-10 1, 2, 4, and 6
Ch11-12 1, 2, and 3

Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk....

Tuesday Oct 25

So ... stuff was due today.

I got some emailed, some handed in on paper ... and a lot not handed in at all.

Disappointing.

I did also chat with most of the students I missed yesterday about material and assignments they owed but I still have a few to chat with when they get back.

On a brighter note, we read the novel Eyes of The Dragon today in class, too. We got to age 26 in the text. It was totally cool.

We also got questions 1-3 from chapter 1, and 1-4 from chapters 2-5 assigned from the new unit outline.

Woot!

Monday Oct 24

Today was a day of halves.

The first half of the class, I gave everyone a chance to work on the material due tomorrow. During that time I was able to conference with everyone about their marks and what they had not yet handed in.

I have a few more to go, as a few were away today.

The second half of the class was the start of reading the new novel, The Eyes of the Dragon.

What. A. Book.

Friday Oct 21

Well, today was a "work" period - students and the teacher conferenced about the different mini projects due next week.

As well, I was able to put some links onto the course blog for the next unit, including the audiobook if parents want to follow along with the class.

Thursday Oct 20

Yeah. The OSSLT was "on" today.

Not really, but we worked it out by the end of Period One.

Wednesday Oct 19

Ok so today we finished the film version of the film - Malcolm X. What a movie!

We also mentioned in class two other films, too. One was Power of One and the other one was Invictus. If you have a few spare hours - watch both films!


                   

Due date for the mini projects was set as Tuesday Oct 25th!

Tuesday Oct 18

Well, we did the unit quiz on Malcolm X and handed in "the stuff" for the book.

We did chat about the mini projects, too. I will post the due dates for that shortly.

After that, we watched ... or tried to watch the film.