Tuesday, December 13th Reflection Post

What We Did
     When we came into class, we moved our desks into groups instead of rows like before. Just incase you didn't know, EMILY CHEN won the spelling bee that was held in the thetre afterschool yesterday. She will take a written test and if her score is high enough, she will go to the regionals which is awesome! Ms.Lees also talked to us about the geography contest that's coming up soon. She said it'll be on soon after we come back from winter break. It's basically a geography contest where grade 8's to 10's participate and the school picks the finalists. Don't stress about it because it's just a contest, we won't get marked on it which is a good thing to hear! 

     Ms.Lees handed out 7 books that took place in the middle ages, per group and worksheets for each person. It was a "Book Pass" worksheet. We just had to read each book and fill in how we thought the book was. We had to circle if it was easy, hard and e.t.c. We also had to point out if we were interested in it or not. After, we circled them, we had to write briefly about why we thought it was (what we circled) in full sentences. For example, if I circled easy and interested. I had to explain how I knew the book was easy for me and the reason why I'm interested in the book. We got about 50 minutes to finish the reflections for each book (total:7). We weren't able to read the whole chapter or read half of the book because we didn't have enough time. I only read a couple pages to get the idea of the book. I also read the summary on the back of the cover so I could know better. On the very back of the worksheet, we were assigned to rank the books and choose what we'd like to read the most to least, in 1-7. I chose a book that looked like it would have a lot of action and intenseness in the story for 1st because I love scary/intense stories and the book I chose seemed to have a lot of them. After we were done, it was time for our next classes already so we just left our books and worksheets on the desks and left. 

Why We Did It 
     We put our desks into groups because I think we are going to do lots of group discussions and such this term, and it'd be a lot easier to do assignments with the desks together than, having them in rows. Everyone could look at each other and be able to reach things if it's in the middle. It'd help groups to discuss better. Also, it was helpful and important for Ms.Lees to inform us about the geography contest coming up because if she didn't, we would've been panicked when the time came. We do the contests so it could build up our geography skills if we study and it'll give the people who are great in the geography section, a chance to get recognized. Ms.Lees said a grade 8 won the contest before so the grade 8's COULD do better than the grade 9's and 10's if they work up for it so do not discourage yourself! :)

     By writing the things that we think about the book would show Ms.Lees what kind of books we like to read and by choosing our favourite books out of the 7 would help her decide which books to give to who. We had to write rankings from 1-7 because we might not get our first choice because there are certain limits to the  amount of books. All of us won't get to get our favourite books but hopefully our second favourite! She will get us to read the books we get assigned, over the winter break and we are going to create a web on a piece of paper eventually after we get back from vacation. Ms.Lees drew on the board as an example, with Japanese Middle Ages in the middle and culture, transportaion, government, and e.t.c as the main ideas and wrote about them. The novels will help us know better about the middle ages and this is the main reason why we are reading these novels. Not only would it help our English skills, we would learn social studies at the same time! It'd be way better to learn about the middle ages with an interesting story than just reading the informations off from the textbook.

Connections/Reflections
     I think putting our desks into groups could be good AND bad because people seem to fool around more if they sit facing each other but it'll be good when we have group discussions because we won't have to move our chairs and do a whole lot of things. It's good to face each other and talk a lot in group discussions. I remember in grade 6, we had our desks pulled into groups and it was helpful because the teacher could make groups easily and if we had a big project we could use each others desks to put posters and things. The bad thing was that, the group of boys always got into trouble because they always fooled around since it was harder for the teachers to see under the desks.  

     I think it's good how we just had our geography test so not many people would've forgotten about the things that we learnt and it could help us do the contest. I am still stressed about it even though it won't count as our mark because I think it would be embarrassing if I get a really low mark. I think geography is great to review because we'd use the skills we learnt, so much when we grow up, like the scales. My mom always have trouble reading maps but now, I could read it for her since I learnt how to read them! 

     I think it'll be lots of fun reading about the middle ages. I'm very excited to read the book about Japan, I think the title was "The Sum.....'s Tale", I don't remember but I hope I get to read that one! It was interesting reading a bit of every book and getting a chance to know what each book was about. I think it was a great way for Ms.Lees to get us to do this because sometimes, teachers would assign random books to students that they are not even interested and it's usually not so great. I would rather like the teacher to know what kind of books I have in mind and choose the nearest one as possible for me. If I get a book I don't like, I wouldn't want to do the assignments involving the novel at all! It'd be great to recommand other teachers to do this because it'll make the teacher and the student happy. :) 

Homework
- If you haven't finished the oral language skills chart yet, finish it for tomorrow!  
- You should've finished the worksheet we worked on today in class, if not, you should've asked Ms.Lees if you could come in somtime to finish it after class. She wants it ASAP. 

Tips
-  If you were not at school today, check out the reflections for today!
- If you aren't able to finish a certain homework, contact Ms.Lees by her e-mail (on the school's website)
- Check through your binder to see if all your work is completed. If not, finish it! 
- If you don't get something or beind, go in for flex on Mondays and Thursdays at lunch (11:10).
- You better try to catch up on all your homework, because I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want homework during winter break!

Schedule
- The schedule is posted on the side bar of this site
I'm pretty sure Luke is doing his post tomorrow because he owes Daniel one! :)