Tuesday, January 31st --- Learning Log Post! :)

What We Did

     Before class, I was nervous for the novel group presentation that was planned for today but I was also happy that I could get it over with because it has always been delayed since last week! Happily, but sadly we didn't get to present them today because we didn't have enough time! 

     Right as we got into our usual seats, Ms.Lees told us to have a reading time for 10 minutes because she was at the LEO club and she didn't have time to eat her lunch! While she was eating quickly, we had to read our novel, "There Will Be Wolves" chapter 3. If some people had already finished reading chapter 3, she told them to read it again so they could refresh their memories. Ms.Lees also reminded us that if we haven't finished our chapter 1 and 2 questions, we should better be finished by ASAP! When we were reading our books, Ms.Lees went over some of the blogs and she found some errors so she stopped us from reading and we all looked at the blogs with the projector screen. Ms.Lees wanted every single group blog to follow her blog so she can know which blogs are her grade 8 class blogs and also, it'd make it easier for her to mark everyones. She also wanted everyone to follow her blog individually too. If we haven't changed our names to names we get called in class still, she'd like us to change it! 

     In the middle of the class, one of the teachers from our school came in with some pears and talked about the new program that was going on. We all got a brochure that explained about the program. Fruit and vegetables would basically get delievered to each classes every now and then and we would eat them. It'd help us get the habit of eating lots of fruit and vegetables and it's very good for our health! 

      After having a small break with our pears, each person had to go find 2 more people and make a group of 3. Once we have made a group of 3, we were assigned to go sit at a table together. Ms.Lees gave out 3 tokens/chips to each person in the group and we had to tell what our answers were for chapters 1 and 2 "There Will Be Wolves" questions.  We took turns sharing our answers and if one of the other two people in the group wanted to add something to it, they'd have to put in the token and speak. If we wanted to add some things to our answers, we had to use a different coloured utensil. Since there were only 3 tokens for each person, once that person used up all their tokens, they weren't allowed to speak or add to the other group members answers. We could only use up 3 tokens per chapter.

Why We Did It
      We had time to silent read for about 10 minutes right when class started because Ms.Lees had Leo Club at lunch and she wanted to eat her lunch quickly. Also, reading chapter 3 from the novel was going to be assigned for homework anyways so it was good that she gave us time to read at least some of it so we wouldn't have too much homework for tonight. I believe Ms.Lees is going to get us to do something like answering questions for chapter 3 so it's good to read it! Also, Ms.Lees wants us to change our blogger profile names to our real names with last name initial because for example, if my blogger name was Princess, Ms.Lees wouldn't be able to know who it is and I'd probably get a 0 for the blogs and that wouldn't be good! So remember to change it to your real name if you haven't done so yet! 
     They are holding a fruit and vegetable program because it's very important to have a habit of eating fruit and vegetables on a daily basis. I know some people do not like eating them when they actually should. It'll be a great chance to get to know about more kinds of fruit and vegetables and who knows, they might actually start liking them! There are so many benefits you could earn from eating them. It's very healthy for you and even some vegetables and fruit are good for your brain and concentrating skills. It'll develop your school work habits! 
     It's very important to know how to communicate well with groups and discuss your own answers. You actually have to be brave to share your answers because some people like myself worry that it might be wrong but it's worth trying and nobody really thinks that you're stupid just by one question. We also did this with a group so that we could hear what other people wrote because you obviously miss some things unless you're perfect and you could add on to your own answer to make it better. Also, by adding some things with a different coloured utensil would help Ms.Lees know if you're trying to improve your answers and know what's needed and make Ms.Lees sure that you fully know what a good answer is.      
     The main reason why we used the tokens were so that everyone could have the same amount of turn speaking and sharing their answers. Some people like to talk and talk forever without letting anyone else talk but sometimes, there are people who don't like to talk and likes to sit in the corner and just agree with everyones' answers because they're too shy. It's a great way to improve our communication skills with the tokens because EVERYONE gets a chance to talk and nobody gets excluded or talk too much. A discussion means when a bunch of people discuss their answers and ideas together, not when one person dominates the whole discussion. 

Reflection/Connections
     I really like silent reading in class because I think I get more concentrated than when I read at home because when I'm at a place where I HAVE to read, I'm more focused and it's always good to do most of your work at school and have less homework. At home, I tend to get distracted easily because I'm usually surrounded by computers and people I could easily talk to anytime. 
     I remember in elementry last year when we had the fruit and vegetable program. I think it went pretty well and everyone ate lots of fruit and vegetables last year! I liked when they had tomatoes because I love them and not a lot of people liked them so I got to eat a whole bunch of them! One thing that I thought that the classes had to fix was that, whenever they delivered gross vegetables or fruit, people would go for them and would spit it out and they would do that again which is a lot of waste! I think those things happened because the fruit bins were in the back of the room last year and our teacher didn't even care about them so everyone in our class did whatever they wanted to with the fuit and veggies. Some of the boys in the class even threw tomatoes at each other once and that wasn't good at all!  
     I agree that the tokens are a great way to get everyone to talk because I know that sometimes, I would talk a lot less or a lot more than other people and I've always thought that it was unfair in a way. It went really well today with Olivia and Razia because we all took turns sharing our answers and we all had used up all of our tokens by the end of chapter 1 questions. I think I improved my talking/communicating skills from the novel group I was in for "The Sammurai's Tale" because a lot of people in our group were very quiet and it made me talk a lot more than usual. I asked so many questions and I shared lots of ideas and I leaded the group and I thought it was a great practice for future because I'd eventually have to work with people I don't really know that well. I also really like sharing ideas in a group like we did today because I'm always worried that I got the wrong answers and I think it's a great way to check if I'm on the right track and I could always add more things onto my answers and I'd feel more confident with my answers.
      I think that these communicating skills will eventually help A LOT in the future because you rarely get a job that doesn't inquire talking and you'd have to communicate with other people who you don't know. It'd be a pain in the butt if you didn't know how to lead the group or lead the conversation. By doing this practice, you could get used to these environments and you wouldn't panick when you get older. If you were working for a company, you would definitely have to share your own ideas with other people and you would know what to do because you've already had lots of practices! :)


Homework
     - Learning Log posts on blogs if you're assigned by the group to do it today
     - Finish reading chapter 3 of "There Will Be Three Wolves" by tomorrow.
     - Don't forget to comment on your group members posts and give them useful advices and nice comments! 

Tips
     - Make sure if you weren't here today in class, check your peers' blogs, call one of your study buddies or contact Ms.Lees with her e-mail. (Her e-mail is on the school website!)
     - If you aren't able to finish certain homework by tomorrow, contact Ms.Lees by her e-mail and ask for an extension with good reasoning! 
     - If you have some catch up to do, go in for flex on Mondays and Thursday at 11:10! 
     - Check your binder to make sure ALL of your work is completed and finished.
     - Make sure your chapter 1 and 2 questions are DONE by tomorrow. It was already due today! 
     - If you have some extra/free time, read some more of "There Will Be Wolves" so you don't end up procrastinating at the end and rushing without understanding the story very well. 
     - Make sure you read up to chapter 3 of our novel by tomorrow! 
     - Refresh your memory about your last novel so that you could present your webs well tomorrow for double block.
     - If you aren't sure how to write good learning logs, check your classmates or even the grade 9's posts.
     - If you aren't sure about the upcoming school events (for example : Junior's Dance), check the school website! :) 

Schedule
     Monday : Olivia B 

     Tuesday : Alice B 

     Wednesday (double block) : Daniel K

     Friday : Luke W 

   
 DANIEL will be blogging tomorrow! :) 
      

Moday January 30, 2012

What We Did
Today we all
headed to our classroom to find that we were actually going to do the lesson in
the library. We have gone to the library for humanities many times before, so
we all knew the drill.

Once we were seated at the same table as our blog groups, Ms.Lees explained that we would be
filling out some sheets on our blogs. We did this about a month ago, so she
didn’t need to go over much with us. Apparently many of us didn’t fill out the
sheet correctly last time, so we had to make sure to be extra careful with the
format we used.

The first sheet was for the WHOLE group to fill out together. There were three main parts
of the sheet. One was to put our previous goals from the last time we checked
our group learning logs, and explain whether or not we reached our goals. If
so; then why? If not, why not?

The second part was for us to set new goals for next month (February). We then had to
explain why we thought these goals were necessary, and explain our plan on how
we would reach them. It was important that we put a fair amount of detail. For
example, if we said:

“We want everyone in the group to get at least a four out of five.” When it comes to
how, we can’t say “We will all try harder.” INCORRECT! You would at least need
to say “We will go over the criteria and our previous posts that were not good,
and compare them so we know which areas we need to improve in.”

On the back of the sheet, we needed to put each of our names down, and list all of the
times we have posted and commented. We also needed to give the dates, and for
comments we needed to give the name of the person’s post we commented on. This
was a record for the month of January.

After our groups were finished filling out the sheets, which took from 15 to 30 minutes;
we were given individual evaluation sheets. Ms.Lees asked that we didn’t go
with the same partner as last time. She said it was out responsibility to find
someone who we know we can work well and efficiently with.

We were supposed to work with our partner to choose two of our posts from January and
give each one a rating out of 5. We also needed to give five valid points of
proof on why both of us had decided on that mark. The rest of the class was
spent doing that, and then it was time for fourth block.

Why We Did It:

We go to the library whenever we need access to computers. Many of us don’t have laptops, so
it would be impossible for us to do it in our classroom. Teacher’s can reserve
time slots to use the library, and Ms.Lees seems to do it quite often. Madame
Monk is also always in the library, so we have an extra helper if someone needs
assistance.

Today we NEEDED to used the computers or else we wouldn’t be able to view our previous
blogs to mark them. It was necessary to view our blogs so that we could
critique them with our partner and thoroughly look through them to find
mistakes.
Ms.Lees gave us the group worksheet so that she could evaluate not only our individual
effort, but our blog groups overall improvement through the months.

It was important for our group to set goals together so that one person isn’t totally
slacking while the others are exceeding. We need to support everyone in our
group. If we all take turns pointing out the bad and good in our blogs, and how
we can improve, than there is a better chance we will improve.

For Example:
There may be four people in a group, and three of them are at satisfying
levels, but one may be just horrible at blogging. The group can support them so
that they don’t bring the group down with them.

We checked our previous goals to see if we met them and how we improved because not only
does it help us set new goals, but it also builds our confidence!

We set goals for the month of February so that we have something to aim for. If we didn’t
have goals, then we wouldn’t try as hard to improve. Having goals sets a line
that tells us what we need to do and it also puts a bit of pressure on us so
that we actually TRY!

The reason we made a list of all our posts and comments is so that Ms.Lees can see if we
have been doing an equal amount of work and she can also make sure that we have
been doing our posts when we were/are supposed to.

We marked our personal posts with a partner so that we can get another person’s opinion.
Sometimes we may not notice mistakes that we have made until someone else
points it out to us. If we were to only mark ours, many of us would either give
ourselves a 5 when we didn’t deserve one, or be too modest and give ourselves lower
than we deserve. If our partner were to only mark it, then they may get
confused about something we write or might be pressure to give us a certain
mark. By putting our minds together, we can agree of the perfect mark that
matches our blogs, and we can give each other tips on how to improve.


Connections/Reflections

I am glad that we worked in the library today because sometimes the portable can be a little
secluded. It’s sometimes nice to be able to observe other people and work in
different places. I really like the atmosphere of the library because you can
see a lot of what is going on around the school. In elementary school, we had
laptops that we could reserve for our classroom instead of actually going to
the library to use them.

It was nice for my group to have a chance to get together to discuss our group’s progress.
Sometimes I need to discuss with my group issues for our blog that have come
up. My group sometimes has an issue with coordinating the days that we will be
blogging. We all have specific days, but sometimes we just don’t have time that
day. Due to sports, family events or school related things. I remember one day
someone in our group had a band concert, and need to switch days. But none of
us were available to switch because their day because we had our own activities
that got in the way.

I feel that our group has ALL improved by at least one point. Luke’s has doubled in length,
which is great. One of our goals from last month was to go up, and we all reached
it! YAY! Each time our group reaches a new goal, we reach the bar a tiny bit
more. I think this is clever because soon our group should reach excellence.

Working with Alice to fill out our blog post marks really went well for us. We were able to
decide a reasonable mark easily and we didn’t waste a TON of time. We both put
quite a lot of detail in each other’s mark and I felt that we were fair to each
other. I would have probably given myself a four, because I wouldn’t feel
comfortable choosing a 5. With Alice there, she reasoned with me if I deserved
a five or not, and I felt more confident and less awkward choosing my mark.

I remember in grade 7 I did a HUGE science project with 4 other people. Only I and one
other person did anything on the project. I was upset because it seemed unfair
and I was worried the teacher wouldn’t realize all of the effort I put into it.
Luckily, we all had to fill out a sheet marking how much each other did out of
10 and how much of my part I did. I didn’t feel comfortable giving my effort a
10/10. The other people in the group all gave me around a 10/10, so in the end
I ended up getting a 10. I was really grateful we did this, because in the end
my teacher was able to see my effort.

By setting a goal for myself, I feel more obligated to improve my blogs. When I know I have
a goal I need to meet, then I tend to try harder.



Homework:

There wasn’t any mandatory homework today.


Tips (includes some homework related stuff)

-If you haven’t
finished your There Will Be Wolves chapter 1 and 2 questions, make sure to do
that because we will possibly be reviewing them tomorrow
- When you
have spare time, try to read your novel (There Will Be Wolves) so you don’t rush
through it later.
- Reading
your novel gradually will help you absorb and remember more of the information
- Our
speeches for our webs are tomorrow, so make sure you can explain your poster
-You don’t need
to write a speech (for the web), but make sure to have a basic idea of your
sections
- For ideas
and tips on blogging, check out the other grade 8 and 9 blogs
- If you haven’t
completed your blogging review with your partner, go to FLEX or visit the
library with your partner during lunch.
- Check the
school website http://www.firehawks.ca/ for more information on school upcoming
events
-Email
Ms.Lees if you are sick or have questions. Her email is on the school website
- Always notify
Ms.Lees at least a week before you go on vacation so she can give you the work
you need to do
- If you
ever need help, go in during FLEX. It’s usually on Thursdays, but always double
check with Ms.Lees


**** Sorry, the blog is being silly and wouldn't let me colour code or re size anything, so the titles are a bit confusing :(******

Schedule

Tuesday (TOMORROW)---- ALICE
Wednesday- DANIEL
Friday- LUKE

Comment on Daniel's recent post! :)

I don't know why but it wouldn't let me comment on Daniel's post so I decided to just make a post about it! :)

Great job Daniel! I really like how your improving a lot! It's a LOT better than the first couple learning logs you posted a long time ago. I can see that it has a lot more detail and writing in this one, but I still do think that there's more room for details. For reflections and connections, I noticed that you mainly write about how it can help us in other subjects/places. It's really good but I'm thinking that maybe you could connect to your own life and talk about your past and for example, things that you did in elementry that's similar to what we are learning now. I also like how you included the tips section this time! Good job, but don't forget to write who's going next at the end if you can! :)

Learning Log January 18th

What did we do?

Today, we all came in class and sat with our novel groups. We continued our group project of making a web chart, whereas everyone in the class divided into groups of the people that read the same book as theirs. The people in the groups had to work together in order to create a huge web chart of elements in the story, such as 'justice' or 'education.'


For the whole block, we were supposed to work on the web, but Ms. Lees gave us an assignment to assist her in marking the geography tests from last month. We all were given two tests and went through all the questions in order to confirm if they were right. We were also told to tally the marks.


As a class we finished tallying up the scores for all the geography tests (including the 4th block class) and we were all told that we would be given extra time to work on our web charts on Friday, due to the fact that we were supposed to have the whole block on that day to work on the charts.

Why ? (Learning Intentions)

Although for most of the day we worked on marking the tests, we also had some time to work on our charts too...


I believe we had to help Ms. Lees work on the geography test tallying, because all the marking that the students had done before was not very organized or neat.
Also, working in groups for our web charts helps us develop our social skills and also allows us to work with peers and have a chance to brainstorm ideas about certain things, such as, like in this case, a book that we read.

My Reflections / Connections:

I think working in groups for our web charts was a good idea, because by doing this we get to develop our social skills and skills in working with peers, while having a chance to brainstorm ideas about a certain topic. Personally, all these skills are very important to have and are essential in our learning,


Our ability to work with peers and our social skills are a necessity in the modern world, for they are important in the future, when having to work in groups or having to work with others. For getting a job, social skills are essential.


Working on brainstorming and thinking of ideas is very important too. It is essential in human learning, because we need to be able to think of ideas and be able to expand on the topic or category. Outside Humanities or things in school, brainstorming is important for having jobs that create innovation in the world or for making brilliant things out of a simple idea.

Homework: Due dates and tips

-Work on the good copy paragraphs if you haven't
-Make sure your web chart is almost done or completely finished for Friday
-Remember to study for your finals

December 17th, 2012 Learning Log Post!

What We Did
      Some people came in class late today because of the snow. Snow is always exciting and fun but it could be annoying sometimes! Snow means more traffic since people usually don't like walking in the snow and getting their shoes wet, and it's hard to drive in! We are expecting more snow tomorrow so, you should get ready and prepared! Hopefully, nobody will come in late for class tomorrow morning! The block order is 3412, not 3311 because of the final exam dates for grades 10-12. 
     Right as we came in the class, we had to sit with our novel groups in our usual spots. Ms.Lees gave us time to get all our information on the poster (Concept Map) today. We were supposed to have all our information at school today about our novels, if not it meant our homework wasn't complete. Ms.Lees wasn't happy about that because we already had a couple days to finish them. She warned us by saying if we don't do our assigned work from our group, we might eventually have to work on the posters by our own which would mean more work and it'd be horrible! 
     If we haven't picked our poster paper yet, we got to choose if we were going to use the half sized one or the big one. Basically, our whole group got 3 categories for each person and we had all of our information already. The categories would be like eg. transportation, culture, occupation, and e.t.c. We would split the paper in different sections and each person would work on their own categories! When writing the information down, Ms.Lees doesn't want us to write them in full sentences on our webs. She wants them in point form or words. Ms.Lees also wants some images like pictures and diagrams on our webs such as venn diagrams, charts, and more. If you want to back up with some more information, I recommand you doing some research on the computer! Your novel is your first resourse and if you don't have enough you could do some research with other supplies.  
     We worked on our webs for the whole block and Ms.Lees said that she'll give us one more block to finish them tomorrow. She'll expect us to finish them by the end of the class, if not, we'll have to find a time with our group and come in for flex. We had time to discuss with our group about the lay-out and our group started writing down the ideas we already had. If you didn't have your information at school today, just make sure you have them tomorrow! My group planned out about what kind of pictures and diagrams we were going to place when one person was writing the information down. Our goal today was to use our time wisely. 
      At the end of class, Ms.Lees wanted our oral reflection sheets out and fill them out for today. There are 4 categories asking you "Tell your idea?" , "Ask questions?" , "Listen respectively?", "Keep the conversation going?".  Just a reminder, IF you haven't finished the paragraphs yet, don't forget to finish all of them and hand them in because it was already due yesterday (Monday). You need your narrative, descriptive, explanatory, and persuasive paragraphs with all their rubrics, outlines, drafts, and good copies!

Why We Did It
     It's a great way to learn about the middle ages (history) by doing this group project. By doing the assignment, you can prove you've read the book and you learned new things about the middle ages. The main point of doing this project is so that we get the idea about the middle ages by reading interesting books. You can learn many things about the middle ages by what kind of transportation they had, the culture, government, geography and more. You could find out how different it is from now to back then by comparing the government and even geography. The book I am reading right now, had Lords who ruled the country in Japan but today, we have presidents and prime ministers. It's a lot more fun to read if you compare the things we have right now to the things they had back then.  Since the novel has more interesting story to it, it makes it more fun to learn about the past than just reading the boring textbooks that just talks about the facts.
     Not only do you learn about the interesting facts about the middle ages, you get to know how to make concept maps. It's an important skill to have because you can use it before almost any writing. They teach you how to jot down the main ideas in particular groups, and organize them by colour coding, and making digrams to provide more image and information. Knowing how to make concept maps could help you a lot in the future. Such as before you write a big essay, you could write all of your ideas and use it as a brainstorming method. It'd help even when you're doing a big project because you'll know what goes where and you'll be able to make sure you have all the information. It'd be way better than just adding informatino along the way because it could get confusing and messy even.
     The reason why Ms.Lees gave us time in class to work on it was that so we don't have to use our own time and it's hard to find available times for all the group members. If the group can't get all together, it'd be very hard to work on it at home and such because it's very important to get other people's ideas and work on it together. If this happens, it could lead to having one person doing all the work by her/himself which wouldn't be fair AT ALL. By working together, we can make sure we are all on track and everyone has done their job. 
     It's very important to know how to work in groups together because most likely, everyone will eventually have a job something to do with that. It's important to know how to listen respectively to others and share ideas. It'd be very bad in the future if you don't get used to it and always talk about your own opinions because it wouldn't make any other people happy. Jobs such as firemen, police officer, doctor, a person who works for a company. By working well together, it could help you increase your mark, and lead to having no arguments. 
     Ms.Lees wants us to fill out the oral reflection sheet because she knows that collaborating skills are really important and she wants to know how our groups are doing and check if everyone's doing their work and everyones cooperating each other. It's good to concentrate in class and finish most of the work because I'm sure nobody would want to have extra homework. It's good to get ourselves used to completing most of our work in class, not at home.

Reflection/Connections
     I really enjoyed "The Sammurai's Tale" and I love learning about history because it's always interesting when comparing right now to back then. The social ladders are always interesting to me because it's so different to now. They had so many different classes back then and everyone was treated differently by what class they were in. Nowadays, it's not as important as it was a long time ago. I know I learned about different country histories and it was a lot of fun because I got to know so many new things like their religion. I thought Greece and Rome was especially interesting because the few women rights they have. It's so different to modern day because now, we are almost treated equally, but I do think men still have more power. I always wonder why women never hardly get to be the president and everyone thinks men would do better. I believe there will come a day where there will be  presidents who are mainly women! :) 
     I know that the concept map that we are doing right now, will help a lot in the future for me. At first I thought it was a web but it's a little more develped than a normal web. They have many diagrams and they're colour coded. It's a lot more useful than a web. I could use them before doing a huge project or when I'm doing a research because it'll help me organize all my information neatly and I'll be able to know that I have all the information I need.
     I'm very glad Ms.Lees is giving us enough time to work on our concept maps because I'm usually a procrastinator honestly, but this time, I've promised myself that I'd work on my project on time and be on track so it doesn't affect my group members. Like Olivia said on her last post, I remember last year, I'd stay up till 3am finishing the group projects because some people wouldn't do their work and it led to procrastinating at the end which was horrible! I'm a type of person who likes to do most of the work because even if one of my group member is really good and perfect, I'm worried that they won't do something. I really hate myself for having a personality like this but sometimes it's good because it leads my work to being perfect most of the time. 
     I'm very happy that my group is working very well so far because I was a bit worried at first honestly but we're not having any problem at all! It feels like to me that everyone's working very hard on their assigned work and we're all helping each other if someones having trouble finding certain information. My oral reflection sheet has always been positive so far and I hope it continues on like that. 

Homework
- make sure you have ALL your information for the concept map tomorrow! 
- If you brought your poster home today, make sure you work on it a bit so that you'd feel comfortable in class tomorrow! 
- If you haven't handed in your paragraphs yet, you better hurry! 
- complete your oral reflection sheet for today

Tips
- If you weren't at school today, make sure you check your peers' learning log blog posts or contact Ms.Lees! (her e-mail is on the school website)
- If you have any questions about your homework or you're not sure of what to do, contact one of your buddy to ask!
- If you aren't able to finish certain homework, make sure you discuss the problem with Ms.Lees by e-mailing her the day before!
- If you don't have any homework, look through your binder to see if ALL your works done incase.
- If you have some catch up to do, go in for flex this Thurday! Try to finish all your work by next week Wednesday because I don't think you'd want to come to school next week Thursday and Friday when everyone's home resting. 
- Make sure you study for your finals even though we are not having finals for humanities! 
- If you're not sure of what to do for your blog, check other peoples' posts or even check out the grade 9's! :) 

Schedule
Monday : Olivia B
Tuesday : Alice B
Wednesday: Daniel
Friday: Luke

DANIEL will be doing his blog tomorrow! :)    
  
      
     
 

What We DidToday was a snowy day! Yay! A few of us were late because
there we LOTS of cars dropping off kids and it was really crowded. Also, the
people who walked had to bundle up all nice and warm, and walked slower so they
didn’t slip. I almost slipped about 5 times!

Once the class was settled, we chatted a bit with Ms.Lees,
but then it was time to get to work. Ms.Lees asked us to all get into our novel
groups and get organized with our webs/ concept maps. We were give a larger
than normal piece of blank paper that we were supposed to roughly plan our webs
out with. My group split our draft into sections, and discussed whose topics
would need more space than the others. Topics that play a large part in our
novel; such as religion or geography require a large amount of room
for all of the information and pictures that we chose to include. Topics such
as clothing or transportation (they really only rode horse back then) needed
quite a smaller space.

Our groups were all multitasking. Some of us still didn’t
have all of the information we needed for our sections, so we continued to do
our research. We are expected to include several different ways of displaying
information. A few examples are pictures, diagrams, social pyramids, charts,
tables, point form, etc.

After we had spent most of the class time working on our
projects, Ms.Lees asked us to fill out our group evaluation sheets. There are
four columns on the sheet and in each column we are supposed to write our
personal opinion on how we did in each department. The four columns are did
you:
-Tell your idea?
-Ask questions?
-Listen respectively?
-Keep the conversation going?

We’ve filled out this form before when we did a group
discussion on the movie the First Night, so hopefully by now you all know what
you’re doing.

For more information on our Concept Mapping project, you can
visit my post from January 9, 2012 or watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QENMp0K2-Zk


Why We Did It

We spent most of the day working on our group concept maps because
it is hard to do most of the group work at home. We need to be able to
coordinate our ideas and make sure we are all on track. By doing it at school,
we can distribute the work evenly and make sure everyone does their part. If we
were to tell each other to do the entire project at home, then most likely only
half of us would do it. This would cause the rest of the group to struggle and
become behind. This would be completely unfair for the people who did do their
part and they would most likely end up doing the slacker’s work as well.

We are doing a web on our novel to prove that we read the
whole book, and learned from it. The web will show all of the important assets
of the novel and what we have learned about the Middle Ages from it. Most of
the novels include journeys; mine sure does! We can display our geography
skills by mapping out where they live and how/where they travel. Most of us are
doing a social pyramid or ladder, which is a very important thing to know about
the middle ages because each level or the ladder (knights, kings, peasants,
etc) teaches us more about their daily life and what kept the organization
together. Without kings, there would be no laws and everything would turn to
havoc. Without peasants or farmers, all of the civilizations would die from
lack of food and resources. Each and every single person played a key role in
the High Ages.

Learning how to do projects in groups can definitely help
ALL of us in the future. Throughout our lives, we will use the skill of being
able to work in groups and cooperate many times. Some jobs that you NEED to be
able to work well with others are:
- A doctor
- A teacher
- A boss (for pretty much anything)
- A nurse
- A doctor
- A police officer
- A fireman
I am sure that throughout high school and college/university,
it will be very important to be good at displaying information using a web or
concept map. Concept Maps have many different parts to them. They teach you how
to display information in effective ways. Before writing a big essay or doing a poster,
you may want to consider doing a concept map first. This way when you get to
your good copy, you are on track and already have all of your information
down.

The reason we are filling out the group evaluation sheet is
because Ms.Lees wants to make sure that we are using our time wisely and
everyone in the group is doing the work they were assigned. Ms.Lees doesn’t
want us to do no work at school and save it all up for home, because we need to
learn how to get most of it done in class. We need to explain what we got done
each day to prove that we actually accomplished something.


Connection/Reflections

I am really excited about this project. I love doing posters
because you get to display both your artistic and writing side of you. We haven’t
done a ton of art in Humanities (which is reasonable) so I am looking forward
to it. My teacher in grade 7 didn’t do a lot of posters either and we barely
ever did webs, so this will be good practice for me.

I am very interested in the Middle Ages and all of the stuff
to do with queens and nights. The social ladder is so interesting how some of
them were able to get away with pretty much anything, while others had to live
from rule to rule. It makes me realize how fortunate I am to have such a
beautiful and wonderful life with so many rights. In modern society, the women
have just as much freedom as the men. I agree with almost all of the main laws
we have, (especially to do with murderer) but I didn’t believe with many laws
they had back then. The men really high up on the social ladder could get away
with killing the lowest class people. Nowadays no matter how much money we
have, NO one is allowed to harm others. Our laws nowadays make me feel a lot safer.

I have to admit I am a tiny bit nervous about doing a group project from past experience with them. I have been in groups before where I was the only one in my group that my part,
and I stayed up all night before it was due finishing theirs. Lucky for me, my
group seems quite capable of understanding and doing their part. This is good practice
for me because I often boss people around when doing group projects, and I need
to STOP that.

It’s good that we are filling out the group evaluation sheet because it’s our chance to explain how we are contributing. We can also privately tell Ms.Lees if someone is not willing to do their part, or if they are not cooperating with others. This will make her aware so she can keep a
closer eye on all of us. So far I haven’t had any problems that I need to tell anyone else about, and hopefully that continues.


Homework


Try to finish writing down the information you need for your
sections on the web. I would suggest you complete your group work evaluation
sheet so you don’t forget about it later.

Tips

-when you don’t have any homework, I suggest you look
through your binder to make sure you are caught up on ALL of your work
- make sure to respect your peers and not chat too much
- 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. You should have at least 2 people in our classes numbers or emails by
now.
- 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.
- Finals are coming up, and I suggest that you make sure you are up to date
with your Humanities homework so you don’t build up too much homework and have
time to study
- Your course selection sheet should be handed in by now; if it’s not, be sure
to get it in as soon as possible.
-Communicate with the people in your group! Make sure you
have all of their numbers if you have any questions about the project.
-If you need more information for your concept web;
either reread some of your book or find some valid websites.


The Schedule is the same as always (at the sidebar)

ALICE IS TOMORROW!


P.S. SORRY THAT I COULDN'T CHANGE THE FONT SIZE OR COLOUR. MY COMPUTER IS MESSED UP RIGHT NOW AND IT IS NOT WORKING! :(

What we did?

Today in class we sat down in our normal assigned seats but then Ms. Lees told us to go sit in our reading groups that we were assigned to which was our book. Then we worked on our webs that we have to do from our story that we were supposed to read over the winter break and talk about that book in the groups that we were put in and you had to start off by listing down points and then you had to follow up with your points but splitting up all the points and headings that your group came up with equally so that everyone in your group has atleast one or two headins to work on. Then when we were done finished in our reading groups Ms. Lees told us to go back to our regular seating positions and finish our editing on our paragraphs that we have worked on and finished a long time ago and what we had to do is sort them in four piles one was for the sheet that your partner had to fil out and then your good copy of your paragraph then your rough drafts then your outline of your paragraph that you were supposed to have done by that last class on friday. Then after we have finished our paragraphs we got out our agendas or our pieces of paper if you didnt have your agenda or you lost it and wrote down what we had to get down over the weekend and all our homework that was due.

Why we did it?

We did this because i think that most of the class had no idea what to do on the graphs that we had to work on in our reading groups so we worked on that to know what we are going to be doing with those groups and our book. I think that we worked on our paragraphs for about 30 minutes because no one had them done and we still werent finished editing/proofreading them from the last class with our substitute teacher because Ms. Lees had meetings to go to.

Conections/Reflections

Some of my connections that i have to what we did in class on friday was that i think thhat we can use our graphing and plotting skills to start a web in other classes such as
- math
-humanities if we do it again
-science
and for future refrences to look back and see what we did in humanities 8 and then to look back if you forgot how to do webbing and sorting it all out.
My reflections for what we did in class is good because i thought that it helped me out a lot that Ms. Lees was there to tell us what to do and to have done by a surtain date or get caught up on the paragraphs that we work on. So i thought Fridays class was a big succsess for me because i was stuck and now im not.

Tips

-if you are needing help for your portfolio you should go in for flex on thursday or meet with Ms. Lees and go in the morning to finish your portfolio up and other work that we have done in class.

Homework

- to have your paragraphs done by monday and all your outlines and roughdrafts.
- to have your book finished if you havent finished it already.

January 11th Learning Log

What did we do?

We started off the day by going into our novel groups, which were groups of people who were assigned to read the same book over the winter break, and discussing topics. We took notes in certain categories from the book and were assigned to draw a picture related to the category and the book. For the whole block, we worked like this, in groups.


After a whole block of discussing the groups, the class came in after break and we were told to continue working on our discussions for a couple more minutes. After the time had passed, the teacher told us to go back to our seats and assigned us to get our paragraphs from November that we had worked on and trade with a partner to review and mark them. We were giving sheets, such as the 'Editing Checklist' and the 'Supportive Scoring System For The Writing Process.'


We did what we were assigned, until class was over.

Why ? (Learning Intentions)

What we did first, the group discussions, I believe was done in order to help our skills in working with peers in groups and to help us reflect back on events of our assigned books and expand on them.


As for the second assignment, whereas we had to review and mark our partner's work, I think that we were assigned to do this in order to see examples of criteria in a good paragraph and to improve our own paragraph writing skills at the same time.

My Reflections / Connections:

In real life, it is very important to have good social skills, such as working in a group, or peers. By working in groups, we learn to share information and work with others within the group and also to collaborate in order to finish assignments and projects. In our world, skills such as these are very essential for getting jobs or being in interviews.


Reviewing work is also essential in life, for it helps us see how much we've improved and also shows are level of skill in that field.

Homework: Due dates and tips

-Congratulations to Sara and Jordan of our Humanities block for passing on to the finals of the Geography challenge
-If you need help, you can go to Ms. Lees, during flex
-Finish the good copy of your paragraphs by tomorrow

January 10th, 2012 Learning Log Post!

What We Did

     Finally, today was the day for our "Geography Challenge" contest! I know, it sounded really scary when we were practising, but it wasn't that bad as I thought it would be! A lot of people didn't know half of the questions so nobody felt bad about low marks which I thought was good! :) Right as we got into class and the bell rang, we got dividers and got ready to take the test. We had 9 rounds with 10 questions per round which had 90 questions in total but it was out of 100 because a set of round included naming the place and the number on a map that was provided. Every round had different types of questions such as, food, Canadian animals, rights, and e.tc. She repeated each question two times unless someone asked to repeat it again. She wasn't allowed to give hints like she did when we were practising because that's the rule. Some questions, I didn't know AT ALL, so I just left some blank which was allowed. After we finished 3 rounds, we exchanged our test sheets with the people who sat near us and marked each others. Every round was out of 10 except for one round. After the test was finished which took up the whole block, our marking partners added up the scores out of 100. We had to determine the top three people who got the highest marks in class. Jordan was first with the score of 49 I believe. One more person had to get picked because two people tied for third place!  Ms.Lees said that the test this year was the hardest one so far, so don't worry if you got a low mark because it doesn't even count for our report cards. It's just a enrichment to challenge our geography skills! 

Why We Did It

     Some of you might think it's just an enrichment and we are just doing this for the contest, but it's actually a great way to improve our geography skills. It's a great chance to know all the variety of geography types and learn about them because it'll eventually help one time in your life. The contest is held to find out the top geography experts from our school from grade 8's to 10's. I am pretty sure it's held around the region and if you do well enough, you get to take another test and compete with the other schools! It does include a lot of background knowledge because I know that I was able to relate to things that I heard on the news before to the questions which helped me a lot. You don't know how much I've learned just from the practice rounds we did in class. I was able to learn new things that I've never ever heard before. As we do the questions, we can realize our errors and correct them, which will be in our heads better! It'll help us remember and point them out through out the years. It was a great chance to learn harder geography and develop our skills.

     Geography skills is an important skill to have especially when you're an adult. When someone asks you where a certain place is, you should be able to know right away. You never know when your going to use those skills. For example, someone might ask you if Spain is along the coastline and you'll be able to reply yes quickly without even checking anything. It'll be really handy. By knowing the places, it could help you find exact locations and such.

Connections/Reflection

   It's very important to have geography skills because one of the rounds was about the news. It's always helpful to know what's going around the world so you can think about it and it'll help your social skills. You can also discuss it about it and find out how it can get solved which needs higher level thinking. As you go through higher grades, I know that teachers want students to use higher level thinking and probably will discuss a lot about the issues that are going around in the world. 

     I've learned so much from the contest because more than half of them I didn't know, and I got to improve my geography skills. I tried my hardest to use my background knowledge but it didn't work too well! I learned something new, that England is part of United Kingdom. I've always thought they were the same thing. I learned some interesting facts too! Such as, 6 people in average die from car accidents in Canada every day. I thought it would be 2 at first but I was wrong. Also, there was a question about what fruit that is yellow and sweet is grown in Thailand and some other places. I thought they grew lots of bannanas so I put down bannanas but I was wrong again. The answer was pineapple. Now, I know I shouldn't always think all yellow fruits are bannanas! I'll remember that one very well! 

     Knowing how the weather, land surface, e.t.c are like, it'll help you decide where to go and where not to go! Say you want to go to New York for vacation. You can't just go at a random time because you never know if it's going to be cold or too hot. Researching is always good because you can find out how the weather's like in different seasons. I wouldn't want to go to New York in the winter time probably because I've heard that it's VERY cold in  the winter time but I wouldn't want to go in the summer time either because I've been to New York in the summer time before and it was too stuffy and hot! Now, I would think carefully and plan when the perfect time is to go and I would decide as the spring time probably because it wouldn't be too cold or too hot! This is how you can basically use your geographical knowledge. You might think learning all of this is a waste of time but wait till you get older, you'll regret it! 

Homework

     Ms.Lees didn't assign any specific work but if you are not finished your notes, you better finish it by tomorrow. She said she will be collecting them soon for the people who haven't handed in yet and put it in the "Late Work" folder! You also should finish your novels soon if you haven't done so yet because we might work on planning out our webs tomorrow in class. 
ALSO, remember to bring warm clothing for the "Warm & Fuzzy Drive" by Friday IF you can please. :)

Tips

     - Even if you think you have done ALL your homework, go through your binder and check if your worksheets are all completed! 

     - Start thinking about the main ideas you could put in your web for our little novel web project Ms.Lees talked about. 

     - Try to sit beside someone who doesn't talk and makes you work because you want to concentrate on your work in class, not your fellow classmates! 

     - Start thinking about what courses you'd maybe like to take next year for grade 9. (Think about what you're interested in and what you're good at!)

     - If you are not sure of the "Learning Log Blog" post criteria, check out your classmates blogs or even the grade 9's since they've had more experience with them and should know how to exactly follow the criteria.

     - If you have missed todays class and can't figure out what we did today, of course check out your classmates blogs or contact your study buddies for more information if needed. 

     - If you aren't up-to-date with your work, go to flex this Thursday at 11:10!

     - If you aren't able to finish certain work, contact Ms.Lees by her e-mail. (It's on our yellow course outline sheets) 

Schedule

Monday : Olivia B

Tuesday: Alice B

Wednesday: Daniel K

Friday: Luke W

DANIEL will be doing his blog tomorrow!    

    

What We Did
I feel like our class was quite well behaved today, so we got through a lot of stuff.
Today we started off by discussing course selection. Ms.Lees explained that on Wednesday some counselors will be coming to our class to discuss our class options for last year. Choosing grade 8 courses was more of a practice round for the real thing: grade 9. Last year for grade 8 courses, there weren’t a whole lot of decisions to make. Our only options really were to choose whether we wanted to join band, and if not; then we just had to choose the order in which classes we wanted the most to least. There are MANY more course options for grade 9. Some classes are mandatory, such as; English 9, Socials 9,Math 9, Physical Education 9 and Science 9. If you aren’t taking a language, then you have room for 3 electives. If you are taking a language, (such as French or Spanish) then you can only take 2 electives. A few examples of electives presented for grade 9 are:
- Foods (cooking)
- Drama
- Choir
- Woodcraft
- Stained Glass
- Art
As you can see, there are several different options for grade 9, and it will definitely be a hard decision to make! Guess what? Even more classes are offered each grade, so by the time we get to grade 12, there will be dozens of options!

When the counselors come, try to listen tentatively; because they will most likely be able to answer all of the questions you have.

After we had finished our quick discussion with course selection, we moved on to the Geography challenge. We had two practice quizzes; one on Europe and the other on Celebrations around the world. I have to say that I fail almost all of the geography practices; there are just so many options and answers! The REAL geography challenge will be TOMORROW, and we will spend the whole class time answering 90 questions. Ms.Lees said that we don’t exactly need to study because geography is such a broad subject, and there are way too many facts to study. Plus, it could be on practically anything geography related, so I would have no clue where to start!
Once we were finished with the practice, we moved onto the main part of Humanities class today. We learned that we are going to start a project with our novel studies groups. We will do the project using a Concept map. Most of didn’t know what a concept map was, so Ms.Lees got us to brainstorm a criteria sheet to show us what a proper concept map looks like.

A concept map resembles a big web. The main idea goes in the middle, and details on the topic (in our case, our novel) come out of the middle. Our maps can/should include pictures, information bubbles (or paragraphs), charts/tables, Venn diagrams, a ranking ladder and many more things to help us grasp the idea of our novel and its era. We will also be peer editing each other’s concept maps, and the paragraphs we have written.

Right before class ended, Ms.Lees handed out some sheets of paper. One was a personal rubric criteria sheet for Concept Mapping, another was a Group Work Rubric, next was a Writing Process checklist and lastly was a sheet on how to do superb editing.
I am really excited to do the project, because I love the chance to show creativity. Now I just need to figure out how to get Jin and Jeffrey to behave….
Why We Did It
There are many reasons why we are choosing or courses so early within the year. One is that the councilors, teachers and other school staff need plenty of time to look over our choices and choose classes that will work for us and fit our needs. A machine is actually the one that makes our schedule, but the councilor still needs to make sure that it is even and there aren’t too many tricky subjects all in one semester. Another reason is so that for some reason we do change our mind about what classes we wish to take, we still have time to change it.

The reason for the councilors to discuss it with us is so that we have a full understanding of what we’re getting ourselves into. They should be able to answer all of our questions and if we are worried or can’t make up our minds, the can definitely assist us. Make sure that you ask ANY questions you may have on Wednesday, because others may be wondering the same thing.

The reason for doing the geography challenge practices is so that we are fully prepared and aware of what to expect on the challenge tomorrow. Many of us are slow at answering, so now we know what to expect t and how much time we have to complete the whole test. We also now know what kinds of questions will be on the test and have a pretty basic idea of our knowledge level for these types of question. If you got 0/10 every single time on the practices, I am sorry but don’t expect to get 90 on the actual test.
We went over the Concept Map criteria so that we ACTUALLY know what a concept map. I mind as well state the obvious: If you don’t know what a concept map is---- then how the heck do you expect to know what to do on the actual project? Ms.Lees worked hard to give us a pretty clear understanding of what is to be expected from us and our groups. It should be organized and colour coordinated. The lines should link and vary, our font should make sense and we should include linking phrases. She went into quite a bit of detail, and even showed us the grade 9’s examples ones for a reason! This way we know what she expects from us and can’t say we didn’t get what to do as an excuse.

Peer editing is quite an important step to our project because most likely you will make a mistake and not notice it, but others may notice it. If you go over it with someone else, then you have an extra pair of eyes and ears. They may be REALLY good at grammar, while you may be great at varying sentences. When you put your skills together, it can make your work even BETTER!

The sheets will come in handy during the project. We can look at the rubrics to try to improve our projects and to know how we can get the best mark possible. The editing sheet will help us improve both our sentence structure and our peer’s sentence structures. The writing process worksheet teaches us the steps to making a wonderful, structured paragraph. It also reminds us what to look for when proofreading.
Connections/Reflections
I am really glad that the councilors are coming in to discuss our options for next year. Without them I would be completely lost. There are so many wonderful courses to choose from. I really want to take cooking, woodwork and art; but I will only be able to choose 2 electives. Plus I haven’t had art yet, so I am not sure if I will enjoy it or not. But I am trying not to worry, and do plan on asking the councilors about this. I have two older sisters and they are both telling me to choose different things, I am so confused!

I think it is important to start being able to make decisions at a young age so that when we are older and are in University or have job we can consider our options and make the best decision possible. We have to make decisions every day; whether it’s something big such as moving or something small like what flavor of ice cream you want. A few jobs that you need to be a talent decision maker to excel in are: a judge, a principal, a police, or a doctor.

My sister is very good at geography and is always making fun of me because I don’t know where many countries are. I remember one day she gave me a map of Europe and asked me to label all of the countries, but I refused to. Looks like it came back and bit me in the bum! Today we had to label a map of Europe and I was quite clueless. I guess that taught me to listen to my sister.
Being good at geography is very important if you want to go on a vacation. You can’t just randomly point at a place on the map and say “I am going there tomorrow!” No way! Before travelling or even moving, you need to consider some key things. You need to know the climate and what the weather is like there throughout the months. Where it is and how close it is to your current home and relatives (flight fees can be expensive.) The population and what month is the busiest with tourists. Its capital city and the main cities around it. The land features (mountains, lakes, ocean, etc.) The countries laws and the type of money they use. What language they speak. Their celebrations, customs and religions. These are just a few important things that you SHOULD know. They will definitely aid you when deciding where to visit. Historians, travel agents, pilots, and teachers are some occupations that need to be excellent at geography.
My family is going to Las Vegas in the summer, and I know that my parents seriously considered the climate before deciding where to visit. This way we knew what to pack.

I have never heard of a Concept Map before, but it sounds quite similar to a normal web. I am really appreciative that Ms.Lees went over the criteria and handed out all of the worksheets because I will definitely use them. I was looking at the grade 9’s webs and thinking “wow, these are complicated. What’s going on?” But now I pretty much understand what they were trying to accomplish.

In grade 7 we did next to nothing using webs; but let me tell you, we did a TON of writing. My teacher was a writing machine, so I am grateful that when it comes to writing, I know a lot of important things. We also used marking rubrics often, so I am pretty clear on how they work and how to use them properly. I love making charts and diagrams to represent things on project, and I love making posters. This is exciting!

Making posters reminds me of grade 5 because we did lots and lots of posters; many even on h
history. I did a BIG project on King Henry VIII, and it was 31 pages long. I have a feeling that even though there were several centuries in between King Henry VIII and the Middle Ages, they had a lot in common. Hopefully my knowledge on him and his era with help me with this project. I find it so interesting how much we have accomplished and invented over the centuries. Thank god toilets were invented before I was born!
Homework
We don’t have any specific homework for tomorrow. But there is a lot of catch up work you should be finished. You were supposed to have finished your novel by now, but if you haven’t, get to it! Your notes should also be almost finished or finished. Make sure to hand them in as soon as possible.

You don’t HAVE to study for geography challenge tomorrow because it doesn’t count for marks. If you are very about the challenge and want to go far with it, then study your heart out!
Tips
-when you don’t have any homework, I suggest you look through your binder to make sure you are caught up on ALL of your work
- It is okay to talk with the people close to you from time to time, but make sure you stay on track and keep your voice down so that you don’t disturb those around you.
- 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. You should have at least 2 people in our classes numbers or emails by now.
- 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.
-Even if you didn’t compete in the spelling bee in the theatre, it’s still important that you improve your spelling skills for the future.
- Finals are coming up, and I suggest that you make sure you are up to date with your Humanities homework so you have time to study the next few weeks.
- Don’t stress about the Geography challenge tomorrow! Just try your best and use your background knowledge.
- If you know you are going to have a lot of homework tomorrow, don’t procrastinate and do your homework today so that you aren’t loaded tomorrow.
Here is a link to the grade 9 course selection:
http://www.sd36.bc.ca/frshts/cselection%20books/Grade9.pdf
Here is a link that gives more information on concept mapping: http://users.edte.utwente.nl/lanzing/cm_home.htm

Schedule:
Monday: Olivia
Tuesday: Alice
Wednesday: Daniel
Friday: Luke

ALICE IS DOING HER BLOG TOMORROW!!