Wednesday, November 30, 2011

What we did




Today we had a double block in humanities class. In the first block we worked on our note taking for Pathways we also watched 2 videos on how to do note taking. Then we had brake. In the second block we worked on the not taking for a little bit then while everyone else was working on the note taking Ms. Lees asked if anyone needed help with time zone for geography and a couple of people went over to her for help. After we were finished that we had 2 spelling tests fot the can spell spelling B. We split the sides of the class the right side was girls the left side was boys and for this spelling b you were not aloud to talk well the girls did not do a very good job of that. Well the boys were so quiet that u could here a pin drop.




Why we did it




We did this because we needed to work on note taking and it was for homework. We did it so that we would have less homework and that we would be able to get it done in class time and not go in for flex time.




Learning Intention




The learning intention was to learn how to take notes properly and to get more practice for the future.




My comments...

Sorry guys, but my comments haven't been working for blogging, so I decided to make a whole new post with all my comments for previous posts. Don't worry, I am on a mission today to figure out why my commenting isn't working.

My November 28, 2011 Learning Log Post------ Thank you Alice! Yes, because I heard that in University there can be up to 300 people in one class, and they just sit and listen as the professor talks. A person I know that goes to University said that in his class there are hundreds of people each day, and he has never even met the professor before. So much different than Elementary school!

My Post about being Admin------ Maybe I am admin, I just never noticed. Thanks to both of you. :)

Alice's November 29,2011 Learning Log------ This looks great! Lots of detail and I like how you described the work we did in class really well. You even explained all of the different types of notes and such. Now you get to have a whole week to relax.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Tuesday, November 29th : Reflection ! :)


What We Did
           We started the class talking about the portfolio conferences. We only got to have 2 conversations yesterday, so Ms.Lees said the people who haven’t got the conferences yet might have to come before school or afterschool for them if we don’t have enough time soon. Don’t worry because she said since we worked pretty well in class today, she’ll try to do most of the conferences tomorrow in double block so people won’t have to come before or afterschool hopefully!
           After talking about the portfolio conferences, Ms.Lees went around the room to check if the persuasive paragraphs we had to write for homework were completed, exercises 1 and 2.  After, she wrote on the board what we should’ve done on our note-taking booklet we got yesterday since some people didn’t know it was for homework. We had to read the whole booklet and do some exercise on it and highlight the key ideas. She also talked about the upcoming geography test on Friday and that we should’ve looked at her blog for information because all the details such as materials we need and specific things that are going to be on the test was on it and that we should study by looking at the things that we are going to get tested on. (We could take out the geography worksheets that are in our portfolios to take home and study but we need to bring them to school everyday because Ms.Lees still needs to see it for the conference if you haven’t done it yet!) She also informed us about the Canspell spelling bee coming up in 2 weeks and that we should start studying with the word booklet we got if we haven’t yet and she handed out a sheet that had all the information on it like the rules and how it works. We practiced how the spelling bee works at the end of class today too! Everyone had the chance to get to know how it worked so we wouldn’t freak out on the day of the spelling bee.  
           Also, we were given a QAR (Question-Answer Relationships) booklet today, which you could put in your English or Social Studies section in your binder. We were given time to work on the booklet and the booklet was about the QAR strategy that could help us, the students to categorize questions by where and how they find the answer to the question generally asked in textbooks. By learning the strategy, we could be able to find the answers more easily, quickly, and accurately. There were a couple sheets just explaining about what they were and there were basically four types of questions that you answer to, such as RT (Right there), T&S (Think and Search), A&Y (Author and You), and OYO (On Your Own). RT is when it’s a type of question that you’ll find an answer right away by just looking at the textbook and when the way they phrased the question is almost exactly the same to the words in the text. T&S is when you have to look at different parts of the text to find the answer. A&Y is when you use the information that’s on the text and put your background knowledge to answer the question. Lastly, OYO is when you just use your own experience and knowledge for the answer. For us to get used to this concept, we had a couple exercises to finish like figuring out the type and answering some questions.
           We were given time to finish our note-taking booklet and the QAR booklet first and if we were finished, we were allowed to work on an assignment that had note-taking skills involved after reading texts from a textbook called Pathways. Not many people got to the last assignment yet so Ms.Lees said she’ll give us time to finish it tomorrow in class! J

Why We Did It
           Since most of us have finished organizing our portfolios, it is very important for Ms.Lees to take time to go over it and talk to us about our improvements and such because it’s for our letter grade and I’m sure you don’t want a mark that says I (Incomplete). I think it’s very important for us to know what marks we get because we can know what we need to work on through out the year and what our strong parts are. We would be able to know why we got those marks and be able to say what mark we think we deserve and have the chance to self evaluate!
           It’s good for Ms.Lees to check everyone’s homework because, not only she’s looking at our self assessment skills but it’s very important to keep along and know what we are learning and know how to do them. It’s great to check if we get it or not because once we don’t do our homework, we’d get behind which wouldn’t be good. I thought it was great for Ms.Lees to tell the class that she had information about the geography test coming up this Friday because I honestly didn’t check her blog and I almost would’ve missed it! I’m very relieved she made sure we all checked it or else I would’ve been the one without all the supplies we need for the test and get confused about what we are getting tested on. We went over the spelling bee rules and tried a session of it to make sure everyone knew the rules and understood how it worked so they wouldn’t get scared and confused on the real spelling bee day.
           We learned the QAR strategy and the different types. The main reason why we learn this is because so that we’ll be able to find out what type of QAR it is and so that we could find out the answer much quicker and accurately. It’ll help us know what kind of answer the question needs and it’ll help us think of the answer. We’ll know what kind of things to look for. Such as, if we figure out that the question wants an OYO type of answer, we’ll be able to know right away that I shouldn’t be focused on reading the text the whole time; I’ll have to use my own thinking mainly.  

My Reflections/Connections
           I know why portfolios are really important in humanities because yesterday when I had the conference with Ms.Lees, I got to know where I’m exactly at and am able to go through the things that I didn’t get. I also definitely knew what I needed to work on through out the year. I need to speak up and give lots of ideas in class because my mark lowered down a lot from oral so I just want to tell you that, don’t think oral won’t affect your mark as much, it does a LOT so always try to volunteer and put your hand up in class! I never tried this portfolio method in my previous years at school so it was a new experience for me and I think I really like it because I get to know why I’m getting those marks and Ms.Lees talks about the things that I could improve on and work on for next time so I get a better mark! J
           It’s good to check homework every class because I know that my math teacher doesn’t and people would not do their homework sometimes and they would get a bad mark on their math tests. I think teachers should check the students’ homework because it’s for the students goods because people who get more practice obviously gets better marks so I think the teacher should force everyone. Also, when she says she’s going to collect our math homework everyone would rush and copy the answers from the back in the last minute which I think is very bad because you don’t learn anything. The teachers checking the students’ homework could get the students used to doing their homework up-to-date so it’ll help them in different subjects too and they won’t always rush at the end and learn nothing. Having our homework done up-to-date would be helpful in any other subject because which teachers like procrastinators?
           I’ve never actually tried a spelling bee contest before so I’m very nervous but also excited in a way. I find that spelling bees are REALLY helpful because it’s good to know the meanings of words and it builds up your vocabulary skills by practicing them. Being able to spell words correctly every time is great because you’d be able to help people around you when they can’t remember how to spell something and it’s good for the future because if you get to work in a company when you grow up and spell words wrong in documents, that’d be horrible!
           Being able to know what kind of questions they are is very helpful and important. It could help you solve questions really easily if you’re taking an English test or even a science test because you need to understand what kind of question it’s asking first before you look for anything else. You can see if you have to look for the answer in the text or in your head and it’ll save you so much more time! 

Homework
           - Finish all the paragraph assignments that were assigned for homework if you aren’t done still. (Narrative, descriptive, explanatory, and persuasive)
           - Complete reading and doing the exercises on the note-taking booklet for tomorrow.
           - Finish the QAR booklet for tomorrow.
Tips
           - Practice for Canspell! It’s coming up in 2 weeks, get ready! Get your friends or family to test you on the words with at least 4 words a day.
           - IF you want to have some time to study for the geography test that’s on Friday, go to flex tomorrow at lunch or on Thursday at lunch.
           - Ask your study buddy if you have a question about homework.
           - If you can’t come to school or can’t finish your homework by tomorrow, contact Ms.Lees by e-mailing her. (E-mail is on the “Course Outline” yellow sheet)

Schedule for this week : 
Monday : Olivia
Tuesday: Alice 
Wednesday: Luke
Friday: Luke 

LUKE will be doing his blog reflection tomorrow! :)

          

Admins...

Alice or Daniel--- could you please make me an administrator along with you? I would like to be able to see the design options and play along with the sidebars. Thanks :)

Monday, November 28, 2011

What We Did
The past few classes have involved a lot of catching up.
First, Ms.Lees wrote down all of the people’s names on the board that still had to finish their portfolios. Finishing their portfolios involved:
· Putting all of their required work in the order that was given by Ms.Lees and her checklist.
· Finishing the work that they had not done that needed to be put in the portfolio.
· Stapling each section together
· Go over the whole portfolio until we were completely satisfied with it.
We should ALL be finished our portfolios, and if any of you aren’t, then you need to finish As Soon As Possible. Ms.Lees is not going to give us any more class time to work on our portfolios, so you need to be responsible and go in tomorrow morning. If you can’t make it in the morning, then make sure you email Ms.Lees to let her know, and hopefully she can work out a different time.
While people were finishing their portfolios, Ms.Lees taught us a little about Persuasive Paragraphs. She also quickly went around the homework to make sure we’d completed our homework. We learned that persuasive paragraphs are used to convince someone to think of something the same way as you. For example; you may do a paragraph on why real Christmas trees are better than fake ones. Then you would need to have points to support your side, and you would want them to agree with you, or at least see your side by the end of the paragraph. The booklet said that Persuasive Paragraphs:
-argue a plot
- tries to convince reader to think a certain way
-gives supporting reasons
If you want to test if your persuasive paragraph is well written and convincing, you could ask your friend their opinion on a topic, and then get them to read your paragraph. After they’ve read it, you could ask them if their opinion changed, and if not, then why?
After she was finished our lesson on persuasive paragraphs, we had to start working on our “Paragraph booklet.” We did two exercises. For both exercises we had to choose a topic that had two sides to it. It could either be from the examples in the booklet, or a topic from our heart map. Both of the ones that I chose were from the examples (I know, BORING.) First, we had to do a plot outline for each paragraph. The plot outline had to be brief, but include enough information to guide us in the right direction for writing. Each paragraph was supposed to be approximately 5-9 sentences, going over is okay, but it HAS to be at least five sentences.
Ms.Lees also handed out a new booklet for our Social Studies section (my first socials studies work for grade 8- Yay!) The booklet is/was on note taking, and finding the main ideas when reading something. We did not go over note taking very much, but from the looks of the booklet, there are two different forms of note taking. The mapping method and the outlining method. The outlining method resembles what you would write down in a plot diagram. You basically read over the whole paragraph and then decide on what the main idea is. Under where you’ve written down the main idea, you jot down other important information. For the mapping method, you can create a web or diagram with the main ideas. In the middle of the web, you put the main idea, and you create lines coming out of it with extra important information.
I don’t think that many of the class even got to the booklet today, and most of us weren’t even finished the paragraphs.
While all of this was happening, Ms.Lees had time to take a few of us aside to discuss our portfolios and our individual marks. We had to tell her what we thought we deserved for an overall mark, and what we were struggling in. She only managed to get to a few of us today.
Why We Did It
It was very important for us to finish our portfolios because Ms.Lees NEEDED for them to be complete in order for her to review our mark with us. Conferencing with us is a good idea because if she just handed us each a mark, then we wouldn’t know why we got it and we wouldn’t be able to discuss our mark with her. We also wouldn’t be able to improve as much because we wouldn’t know which areas we were/are struggling in. Everyone in the class would be extremely confused, and we all need a chance to explain what mark we think we deserve.
Ms.Lees went over our persuasive paragraphs with us to make sure we completely understood what persuasive paragraphs are, and so that we didn’t get them confused with the other types of paragraphs. By knowing the criteria for persuasive paragraphs, we could improve our paragraphs because we understood how to achieve the best mark possible for our paragraphs. This also helped us with our Paragraph Outlines because we learned how to choose the Topic Sentence, Main Ideas and Concluding Sentence for this certain type of paragraph.
Learning how to take exceptional notes is a very important skill for high school and University/College. We are learning about note taking so that we will easily be able to jot down simple but important notes in our classes. Notes can take a while to do, but the booklet teaches us how to take notes fast so that we get all of the information we need down. Sometimes when I take notes, I am so concentrated on writing that I don’t hear everything the teacher says. And then I get confused.
My Reflections/Connections
I had my portfolio review today with Ms.Lees, and I found she really cleared up some of the stuff I was confused about for me. These portfolios are very serious things in Humanities, and throughout Elementary school, I never really did any portfolios. So this is definitely new for me. I have to say that I did like how in grade 7, my teacher would give me my mark back for whatever homework I did within the same week I handed it in. That way I knew how I was doing throughout the year, and I knew my EXACT mark. This year, Ms.Lees marks are work using a different method. I have really had to adjust this year to the Ms.Lees way of marking. It is quite a challenge, but challenges are good sometimes in life.
Being able to write an excellent persuasive paragraph is a handy skill to have. It will help you with speeches in life, and is great if you want to join the debate club. It also helps you with your writing skills, because persuasion is a complicated thing, and it is even harder to do in writing. I am really glad that we learned about this type of paragraph because I learned about the other three types of paragraphs last year, but I’ve never done much on persuasive paragraphs. Lawyers and Police Officers need to be good at persuasion. The whole point of being a lawyer is to persuade the judge to see your side and to get them to agree with you.
I absolutely LOVE writing, so I think understood the point of persuasive paragraphs. I was able to complete both exercise one and two with no trouble, and I think I found some pretty good points for my side. I’m not sure if it was enough to make someone change their mind, but I managed to find some pretty interesting and convincing facts.
In high school and University/College you take a lot of notes for pretty much everything. Math, Humanities, Cooking, Sewing, Science, French, etc. Anyone can take notes, but not everyone can take GOOD notes. Notes help you study for tests. Instead of frantically going through your binder or text book, you can just read over your notes and try to memorize them. By going over the two different types of notes, you can decide which one best suites your writing or studying style, and which one you are most efficient at. Being able to find the main idea of a paragraph and extending on the main idea to important points also helps us if we want to be a reporter or journalist because we can write articles from the notes.
I plan on taking notes to study for my upcoming geography and math tests that I have this week. I think that the booklet will really help me improve my notes, which will hopefully help me improve my grades.
Homework
- Finish both exercises 1 and 2 in the Persuasive Paragraph section of your booklet. (Don’t forget to do a paragraph outline FIRST)
- Practice for Canspell
- Note taking booklet, exercise 1 and 2 (read over the pages too)
- Study for Geography test on Friday


Tips:
-If you are not finished your portfolio, make sure to go to Mr.Pocock’s room tomorrow morning to finish it, or contact Ms.Lees.
-Get your friends or family members to quiz you each day for the spelling bee. I printed out an extra copy of the words and hung it on my wall
-Put your note taking skills to good use and study for the Geography test on Friday
-Check out Ms.Lees blog for information on the Science Test
-Contact your study buddy if you have a question about homework
-If you really enjoy doing persuasive paragraphs, you should try going to a debate club meeting
-If you’ve already had your portfolio meeting with Ms.Lees, make sure to discuss how you’re doing with your parents

Schedule for this week:
Monday- Olivia
Tuesday- Alice
Wendesday- Luke (Daniel did his last week)
Friday-Luke

ALICE IS TOMORROW!!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Question

Why didn't Luke post as scheduled? Discuss with me in class Monday.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Thanks Daniel

***I am going to have to post my comments as a whole new post each time because my commenting isn't working. Hopefully I will find the cause of this soon.***

For Daniel's post on November 25: Thank you so much Daniel! Now Luke owes you and you don't have to do any learning logs this coming week. We will get him to do your Wednesday and his Friday :)

Friday, November 25, 2011

November 25th Learning Log - Daniel, because Luke wouldn't do it

What did we do?

Today, right after starting class, we had a homework check from Ms Lees in order to confirm that we had finished all of our homework. Due to most of the class not being finished their homework (Heart Map, Paragraphs (Narrative and Descriptive), Paragraph Outline), the majority of the classroom stayed in, while those who had finished their homework had went outside and later came back in to help out others who were struggling.



After the catch-up session, we talked about Expository Paragraphs and were assigned to work on an outline for our expository paragraph, before we wrote it.

Why ? (Learning Intentions)

We didn't do much today, so the only thing we really learned was 'Expository Paragraphs' and we learned them in order to add to our knowledge in writing. We learned about how they were about being explanatory and how they should be structured. By learning about paragraphs, it improves our essay skills, which is significant to being a good and interesting writer.
My Reflections / Connections:

I believe that learning about these paragraphs are very significant in the process of becoming a good writer, due to the fact that being limited to simple paragraphs would make it hard to write anything interesting, such as a book or an essay. We've been touching on writing different kinds of paragraphs these past few weeks, which helps many students learn about how to write in a different form.

Homework: Due dates and tips

-If you still haven't caught up with your homework (Heart Map, Descriptive and Narrative Paragraphs) you should finish them over the weekend or go to Flextime for help.

-Work on your Expository Paragraph

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

DAILY SCHEDULE

Monday - Olivia
Tuesday - Alice
Wednesday (Double Block) - Daniel
Friday - Luke

November 23rd

What did we do?

Today, as a class, due to the fact that most of the class was not in attendance the last day, we looked at what the people from yesterday's class had worked on and also how the learning logs were supposed to be written in our blogs that we have been working on for Humanities. (Heart Mapping and Narrative Paragraphs) After reading through the information on Narrative Paragraphs, we were given some time to do our given work, which included our Heart Maps, Paragraphs and also our Atlas work.



Eventually, it was break and after coming back in, we had another lesson, but this time we learned about 'Descriptive Paragraphs.' This time, we learned about the expectations for them and also were assigned to highlight parts of a paragraph that make it descriptive.

Why ? (Learning Intentions)

The learning intention of today was first of all, to learn how to use the blog and the expectations for writing our learning logs.

Also, the point of learning about the Narrative and Descriptive Paragraphs was in order to make sure we can write proper paragraphs using different styles and different words.
The reason for doing Heart Maps were in order to put out our thoughts and personal things in life onto a piece of paper, which we can use as a reference in the future when we need to think about a special moment in life or a significant person that we've met.

My Reflections / Connections:

Learning how to blog can be a very important skill, due to the fact that many writing jobs require knowledge in blogging, such as writing for a magazine.

Today, learning about different kinds of paragraphs has helped my knowledge in writing, due to the fact that it helps people learn about how to properly write and construct a paragraph and what the expectations for a proper paragraph are in high school.

Homework: Due dates and tips



-Remember to go to FLEX if you have not finished your atlas work. (Is it okay if I am unable to attend FLEX? I need to retake BEEP Test tomorrow)
-Homework: Atlas work (Flex), 2 Descriptive and 1 Narrative Par., Heart-Maps with most of the page filled.
-If you are unable to write for the blog, due to family matters or due to the fact that you are occupied, please contact other members in your blog group and/or Ms. Lees


-Daniel K

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Tuesday November 22nd Reflection

This is the second reflection post from our group. I am assigned to do the reflection for Tuesdays. A lot of people didn't come to class today because they thought the school was closed but it was acutally opened so we still had class. We worked on some things in class today so if you didn't come, you have some catch up to do! Don't panick because this is why we do daily reflections online so you can check out what we did in class! Here's a review of the class session today! :)

What We Did

In the beginning of the class, we had to settle in and get ready for the lesson. A lot of people didn't have their binders and supplies with them so we had to borrow our peers. Since we didn't have the geograpghy worksheets with us, we weren't able to work on them with the atlases in class today. We also didn't have time to go over portfolios so Ms.Lees will likely start them tomorrow in double block! 

When we were all ready, she assigned us to create a web or jot down ideas in a heart shaped column  of the things we thought were important to us with the title, "Heart Mapping" on top. We could write anything that we thought were important. Ms. Lees had some questions that could help us write notes with the document camera. The sheet had examples of the things that could be important to us, such as memorable times, family, friends, crushes, relationships, books, and more. We were given about 30 minutes to complete this and Ms.Lees said we should've written 30 things easily.

After we were finished with "Heart Mapping", Ms.Lees gave out a booklet with different kinds of examples of paragrapghs on them. There were 3 different kinds. There were narrative, descriptive, and persuasive, but we only looked at the narrative ones and Ms.Lees said we will be concentrating on narrative paragrapghs mostly. We read the examples that were on the booklet and found out what narrative paragrapghs were like.

The last thing we did today was, we started writing a narrative paragrapgh with topics such as, winning the lottery, the haircut, Christmas morning, but we could write about another topic. Ms.Lees recommanded it to be non-fiction and be from your own experience because then, it would have more detail to it.

Why We Did It 

We spent time "Heart Mapping", writing notes about the things that we thought were important in our hearts because Ms.Lees said it's good to have ideas down on paper so we don't forget. Also, we will be using the ideas later on in the year constantly when we are doing other assignments such as speeches, paragrapghs, and more. We are learning about writing paragrapghs so it'd be useful when we can't think of a topic to write about. It was important for us to jot down our ideas because some students have trouble thinking of a topic for assignments and they spend half of the time trying to think of one. By doing this before, it'll be easier for us to recognize what we are going to write about. 


Ms.Lees went over how there were 3 different types of paragrapghs and we learnt about the narrative type. It's very, very important for us to know the 3 different kinds of paragrapghs and what the differences are, even though we haven't learned about the descriptive and the persuasive ones, I remember my sister saying that you have to write LOTS of paragrapghs in highschool and in essays and it's very important to know the rules for how to write them. It's important to know how you can develop and improve your writing skills. You need a topic sentence, introductory sentence and a concluding sentence. It wouldn't make a good paragrapgh if you don't have those 3 main things. 


We were assigned to write a narrative paragrapgh with our own topics for practice so that Ms.Lees and ourselves can check if we are on the right track and if we are misunderstanding the concept of it. By writing a paragrapgh, we can go over as a class and check the things that are needed in a narrative paragrapgh and correct our own work and see the mistakes if we do get anything wrong. If we see our mistakes we'll be able to improve and remember it next time we write a paragrapgh. 


My Reflections/Connections 

I'm very relieved that we got the chance to write down ideas for our topic that we can write about because I'm one of those people who'd take half of the writing time trying to choose/decide what topic I should write on. I think I'm caring more about my topic because I once had a topic that I had nothing to write about so I'm more  careful with my topic so that I don't get one of those again. It was pretty easy creating a web for it because I had a lot of ideas on my mind. By doing this, I was able to find a right topic for my narrative paragrapgh easily by looking at my "Heart Mapping" map. It only took me 10 seconds to decide. Organizing and planning for the future can be very helpful in any other subject in school. For example, I could use the web skill for planning for a science project because it'd save me much more time. I wouldn't have to stop every section to decide what I'm going to do. I'd be able to know the things I have to do. I never used to plan ahead but I learnt a good skill I could use! Also, thinking of the important things in my life reminded me of my french class. We always have to talk to our partner about what's important in our life and topics similar to that and I was always stuck on what to say, but now I know a lot of things that are important to me and it'll be easier and it will take me less time to think about it!

I understood what narrative paragrapghs are. It's a paragrapgh that the purpose is to tell a story and usually tells about an event that happend. Even though we haven't learned the other two types of paragrapghs yet, I think the narrative one would be the easiest, or the most comfortable type of paragrapgh for us because I think the descriptive one would need lots of rules and lots of good describing words and I think the persuasive one would be the hardest because you have to change their mind and get the reader to think a certain way. Persuasive paragrapghs would be great practice for debating. Writing narrative paragrapghs would be great practice for me if I want to be an author when I grow up and want to write stories. Also, it could help me if I want to write a certain article that needs a narrative type of writing. 


I have just started the narrative paragrapgh and I haven't finished it yet, but I was having a little trouble trying to figure out the introductory sentence because I didn't want it to be too boring. At last, I found a sentence that wasn't too dry so I'm happy now. I actually think the narrative paragrapgh isn't hard to write because it's basically writing about an event that happened and all the details, so it isn't very hard for me yet. Maybe it'll get harder as the lesson goes on. I think it's good to get practice and get checked over if you're on the right track. For almost every subject in school, it's good to write an example and discuss it about it to check if you're doing it right and see if you can do it and demonstrate it the right way. If you don't try and you just go straight on without the correct way, you'd have lots of troubles in the next years of highschool and it'd be hard to fix. You could've gotten a formula wrong in math because you never got much practice and thought that was right untill you get your marks back and realize you made a mistake. It's always good to check it over and see if you can complete it the correct way. 


Homework

- We didn't get a chance to work on our geograpghy worksheets (landform map) with the atlases today so I think Ms.Lees would probably give us time tomorrow or we could go to her classroom at flex on Thursday at lunch! 
-  I'm pretty sure you have to be finished your portfolios by now even though Ms.Lees haven't started calling us up to talk with her yet because she gave us time to work on it at flex yesterday at lunch but if you aren't finished, come to flex on Thursday at lunch!
- Ms.Lees would recommand us to finish our narrative paragrapghs that we were working on in class today for tomorrow. 
- You should be done your "Heart Mapping" web/notes by now because we had time to work on it in class today but if you aren't done, finish it for tomorrow. There has to be at least  10 things. 

Tips

- If you need help with your geograpghy worksheets (landform map) or any work we did in class, go to FLEX for help on Mondays and Thursdays at lunch! 
- If you didn't come to class today, don't forget to e-mail Ms.Lees (e-mail is on the yellow course outline paper) or ask one of your friends in your class! 
- If you're having a trouble making a blog because we haven't used this much yet, check out the grade 9 blogs or your classmates! 
- If you missed class or don't remember what we did today, go to your classmates blogs and read their daily reflections for today! :) 

Monday : Olivia .B

Tuesday: Alice .B

Wednesday : Daniel .K

Friday: Luke .W

               DANIEL will be doing his blog tomorrow! :)    



Our Group Name

So we still ned to decide on a group name. Alice, Daniel and I are ahead because we went to class today, so maybe we will have time to discuss some ideas during class. If you guys have any ideas, then please post them here or tell us tomorrow. Thanks!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Monday November 21st Reflection

This the very first official learning log post for my group. Each day of the week, a new person will be in charge of doing an online learning log reflection. I was chosen to do the blog post today. This is my first ever Humanities blog post, so I'll try to do the best I can. Here's an review of the class session today.






What We Did


Today, Ms.Lees went over the guidelines for Humanities blogging. She explained that these blogs are basically online learning logs, but a little more detailed. I only need to do one of these a week, which I am quite happy about.

We also discussed with our groups the schedule for blogging, and how we could improve our blog to get the best mark we can achieve.

In class, we did not get a lot of new work done, because we had to check our portfolios. We made sure that nothing was missing, and we had completed all of the worksheets required for the portfolio. Almost everyone was finished their portfolios, and were quite satisfied with their finished work. A few people had to make some changes to the size or order of their portfolio.

Ms.Lees handed out a mapping worksheet. We needed to work on pages 67,68 and 70 in our mapping booklet. These pages were on the Landforms of South America. We needed to label parts of the South America map (page 70) and answer questions about it (page 67-68).

We were given quite a bit of class time to work on these sheets because we needed to use the
in-class atlases.

Why We Did It

It was important for Ms.Lees to go over blogging with us because if she hadn't most of us would have no clue what the heck we were doing; and I would have been one of them. I didn't realize that I could easily view other students' blogs to see how online learning logs were done. This helped immensely because by viewing other blogs, I was guided in the right direction. Ms.Lees seems pretty observative, and I think she realizes that she needs to go over this several times before we all understand.

Double checking our portfolios was a key step for Ms.Lees to evaluate our marks over the term because it was most likely our last chance to make sure EVERYTHING was how we wanted it to be before Ms.Lees went over it with us. Not only do the portfolios show us and Ms.Lees how we've improved over the term, but it also helps us with our organization skills. My portfolio really helped me understand that my comprehension and work is quite strong is some areas, but that I also need to work harder and prepare in others.

The South America Landforms map and questions were to help us improve in placing and finding landforms on maps. Most of us in the class already know a lot about North America and it's landforms, so by doing a South America map instead; it was a bit of a challenge. We learned some key terms in mapping, and learned lots more on the different types of water bodies. We also learned how to follow precise instructions while answering the questions.

My Reflections/Connections

I am VERY, VERY glad that Ms.Lees went over her expectations for blogging, and showed us how to work the blogs. I have to admit that I am not technology gifted, and I would have no clue what I was doing whatsoever. Luckily, once she had taught us how to blog--- I think I understood most of it. I'm glad that we get to do these blogs because I haven't done much blogging before, but I've always wanted to try it. Believe it or not, blogging is actually an important skill to have, because from what my sisters have said; you do a lot of it in high school. Also, blogging can help me when I am older because businesses do a lot of online blogging and computer articles. I am in the Newspaper club, and I write a monthly article. Blogging has a similar format as newspapers, so this will surely help me improve my articles.

My portfolio is pretty much complete, and I am 90% sure I have everything in the correct order. I missed the main day that we were working on portfolios, so I had to rush to put mine together in time. Luckily, I had all the work required for the portfolios, so it wasn't too much of a struggle. Learning how to make a portfolio will come in handy when I am older and I need to make one for a job application.

I understood how to do most of the mapping on a Landform map, and I was able to answer almost all of the questions in the allotted class time. For a few of the questions, my friends and I had to work on together to find the correct answer, but we managed to find it in the end. I was uneasy about some of the terms because our class missed the day that we learned them because of an assembly. Luckily, we are going to go over them this week. Being good at mapping is useful for many reasons. If you're on a road trip, and you are using a map; you need to know how to use it or you will become lost. The mapping we did today had very specific instructions, and one little mistake could mess up the whole map. Knowing how to follow instructions is important for many things in life. Such as cooking, all different types of math, projects and building things. If you want to become some type of builder when you're older, then you NEED to be good at following step-by-step instructions. If you're not; then the things you're building can brake or even become dangerous.

Homework

We didn't have a TON of homework today.
-For those of you who didn't finish your landform map: don't worry, you will have time to work on it tomorrow because we are not allowed to bring the atlases home. Just make sure to work quickly.
- You should be finished your portfolios by now, but if you aren't; come in during FLEX to finish it.

Tips
- Make sure that you work extra hard in class tomorrow because most of us still need to finish our South America map and questions.
- It can be hard to concentrate when people are talking around you; so respect others and either ask Ms.Lees or if you're allowed, ask your friend when you need help.
- Whenever you are behind on your work, go in during FLEX to catch up and get extra help.
- If you miss a day, make sure to either email Ms.Lees (you can find her email on the school website) or ask one your study buddies. We have study buddies for a reason!
- If you are unable to complete your assigned work, make sure to email Ms.Lees to let her know. If you have a good reason, then she will usually let you off the hook and give you extra time to finish it.
-If you need help with your blogs, you can look at other group's blogs, or check out the English Grade 9 homepage and blogs.

***Hope I helped and feel free to ask me any questions or give me suggestions*** :)

Schedule- This is the schedule we decided in class. Sometimes there may be changes to it if someone has to much homework or is going away. Just make sure to let the WHOLE group know.

Monday- Olivia B.


Tuesday-Alice B


Wednesday- Daniel K


Friday- Luke W

I am pretty sure ALICE will be doing the blog tomorrow. :)

THANKS

I'm not an ADMIN, so I don't think I can change the title of our blog. Alice or Daniel, could you please change it to something else--- like Ms.Lees asked--- so she doesn't get confused? Thanks :)