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! :(