Friday February 24 Blog :)

Hi guys! This is exciting because this is my 10th blog.... which means I am FINISHED. Yay! :)

What We Did
We went over a lot today. Once everyone was sitting down and
the attendance had been taken, Ms.Lees explained that the upcoming weeks before
spring break will be very busy because we have a lot of work to cram in. Chapter
9 questions were due Wednesday and Chapter 10 questions of There Will Be Wolves
were due today (Friday). Wednesday was a busy day so Ms.Lees didn’t get a
chance to confirm that we had done our homework. She went around the classroom
asking to see them. Obviously there wasn’t time for her to read all of the
questions thoroughly, so Ms.Lees quickly skimmed through them for errors.
Mostly to see if we were still using “I think” and if we used proper grammar
and capilization. Some people’s responses are great and really extend on the
question, while others are still poor and not up to grade 8 standards. Ms.Lees
also asked us to look at our Chapter 1 and 2 responses, and when we did, we
realized how much we had improved in such a short period of time. Some
responses had gone from ill grammar, 1 sentenced (sometimes not even a proper
sentence) answers to paragraphed, interesting and extended ones.
Once Ms.Lees had finished checking everyone’s homework and
had given the ones that hadn’t finished a quick scolding, we moved on to
bibliographies. Ms.Lees asked us to look at the sheet she had handed out in the
beginning of class. It is doubled sided and gives all of the formulas for
different types of resources. It has over a dozen different types. There is an
online source section and a print source section. Within each section, there are
6-7 different types of print/online sources.
Here is one of the examples:
#4 of Online Sources: TOPIC WEBSITES
“Section or page title.” Website name. Date of Access

Real Example: “Tibetans are not anti-Chinese. His Holiness tells
Chinese reporters.” Tibet.com. 8th May 2008 http://www.tibet.com/NewsRoom/hhchinesemedia1.htm
When doing a bibliography, make sure that the URL is all on
the same line, no matter how small you have to make the font. The whole
bibliography should be in alphabetical order of the last name of the
author. The sheet also included this:
General Order of Information for all Bibliographic Entries:
Alphabetical! (Not Numbered!)
1.
Author of the article (if known) - last name.
First name.
2.
Title of the article, in quotation marks
3.
Title of the source
4.
Edition number (if there is one)
5.
Date or publication of the edition
We didn’t discuss the bibliographies for a long period of
time, because we still had a lot to cover in today’s class. Ms.Lees wanted to
review There Will Be Wolves chapters 6-10 so that we would be prepared for the
test. People interpreted some of the major events in these chapters different
than others. Ms.Lees went over the questions that she knew many people had
struggled to understand, and refreshed our memory of each chapter. We took
quite a long time to review the chapters because a lot of people needed help
and had questions. Once we were finally finished reviewing everything, we moved
on to the quiz. It wasn’t a very long quiz and only had 10 questions. 5 of them
were multiple choice and the other 5 you had to put the events in order. Some
people breezed through it, but the people who hadn’t done their work and didn’t
read the chapters struggled. It only took approximately 7 minutes for the class
to complete the quiz/test, and then we exchanged them with the person beside us
and quickly marked them. Once everyone’s was marked and handed in, class was
over.

Why We Did It
Ms.Lees did a homework check because MOST of the kids in the
class are pretty reliable, but there are a few people who don’t always do their
work. If she didn’t do a regular homework check, then some of the students
wouldn’t feel the need to do their homework at all. The students wouldn’t think
it was a big deal. This would be very ignorant because obviously there are
going to be tests (which we’ve had) and/or a project for There Will Be Wolves.
It would be pretty pointless for all of us to read the novel, but not do any
work related to it. Ms.Lees also wanted to make sure that our work was up to
her standards. If she didn’t check any of our responses until we had finished
all of them (chapter 1-12), then they would most likely all be of equal
quality. But if Ms.Lees checks every time we do a chapter, then she can give us
suggestions on how to improve, and support us along the way.
We spent some time going over bibliographies because for
many of us, it is a whole new concept. Either that, or we’ve done it before in
Elementary school but it wasn’t as hardcore as high school. Many of us are
struggling with it, so Ms.Lees wanted to try as best as she could to ensure
that we get the basic idea of how to create a bibliography. Bibliographies are
important so that Ms.Lees can make sure we don’t plagiarize. If we didn’t make
a bibliography, then we would be able to find one good website and copy word by
word. Then there wouldn’t be any proof that we actually learned anything. Hopefully
when we are writing the bibliographies we can use the formula sheet to our
advantage.
We reviewed Chapter 6-10 for There Will Be Wolves because some
parts of the novel have been a little complicated and people could misinterpret
what the novel is implying. For example, not everyone understood that Master
William’s health connects with the events of the Crusade. We had a test on the Chapters 6-10 because
Ms.Lees needs to verify that we had been reading the novel and taken the time
to understand what is going on.

Connections/Reflections
I am glad that Ms.Lees checked to make sure that we did our
homework because I did do my homework so I had nothing to worry about. It would
be unfair for half of the class to do all of their work and be treated the same
as the people who never do their homework. If I didn’t get rewarded for doing
my assigned work, then I wouldn’t feel the need to ever do my work. We need
praise and support to fuel us to keep trying. Ms.Lees was able to give many of
us the good news that we have improved. When I compared my Chapter 1 responses
to my Chapter 10 responses, I could really see improvement. It encouraged me to
keep trying to get better and better. My responses went from filling up 2-3
lines to filling up at least 10 lines. This made me feel proud. I actually don’t mind doing the responses
because it really gets the wheels in my head spinning. In grade 7, I read a novel called The Cay,
and each week I got in to a group with several other students. We would discuss
our novel(s) and answer questions related them. This was good practice for the
questions we have been assigned for There Will Be Wolves.
I have to admit that I am still a bit confused on how to do
a bibliography. I understand 90% of it, but it may take me a while to perfect
it. I am sure that the formula sheet will be a HUGE help; I just need to take a
better look at it. This will definitively help me in the future. I plan on
going to college or university when I am older, and several people have told me
that for almost every project you need to do a bibliography. I want to practice
doing bibliographies now, so that when I reach the older grades, I can breeze
through them.
When Ms.Lees went over the Chapter 6-10 responses, I was
relieved. I realized that I had actually answered some of the questions
incorrectly. For one of the questions, they asked how Ursula’s innocence was
shown when the man with coals approached her. I had assumed that the correct
answer was that when she tried to defend herself from him, she didn’t use her
so called ‘powers’. Turns out that I didn’t understand what the question was
asking. The correct answer was that she was young and thought of the world so
innocently, so she assumed that he was just offering them for free and being a
nice neighbour. When in reality, many of the people on the Crusade were
murderers and criminals, and not many of them could be trusted. I found that
the test wasn’t too tricky because I had read all of the assigned chapters, and
worked hard on my responses. As long as someone asked questions when they were
confused and did their homework, then they probably managed to do well on the
test. We did a test a few days ago for chapters 1-5, so I knew what the format
for this test was going to be like.

Homework:
Your “Day in the life of _________” diary is due
on either Monday or Tuesday. If you finish it for Monday, then you will be
assigned your skit group on Monday which will give you an extra day to plan it
out. Friday was your last opportunity for you to make sure you have at least
10-12 learning blog posts. If you still do not have 10 posts minimum, then you
need to tell Ms.Lees and have a GOOD reason!
Tips:
-I suggest that you try to finish your diary for Monday so
that you can get ahead for your skit
-You had over a week to catch up on your learning logs.
There aren’t any excuses that I can think of if you don’t have at least 10
blogs.
-You can find several ideas for your skit on YouTube. We watched
some in class and there were some great examples
- If you ever need help, you can ask one of your class
buddies, email Ms.Lees, go in for FLEX or check the class blogs.
- If for some reason you cannot finish your homework or project,
then make sure to email Ms.Lees with a good reason in advance
-Try to check Ms.Lees and your peer’s blogs daily. Sometimes
there is important information on them
- When you have a lot of homework, and you just can’t seem
to concentrate, try setting a goal for yourself. Tell yourself how far you want
to be on your homework in half an hour. This makes you pay more attention and
speeds up your work.
- If you still don’t understand how to do a proper
bibliography, then you try looking it up online. There are many useful
websites.
-If you find that you have spare time, then go ahead and do
more of the chapter responses. This way when Ms.Lees assigns that chapter for
homework, you’ll already be done it! J
- If you want to know what Ms.Lees has planned next for us,
you can check the calendar that you copied down.

Wednesday February 23rd Learning Log

What We Did

On Wednesday, we started off class by talking about our future schedule. Because of a problem at her house, Ms. Lees warned us about delays that could occur, so she wrote down a plan for which showed when all our homework was due and when we would work on other projects. After she showed us the plan, we were all told to take out our chapter question and as a class, we reviewed them together. We were told that we should have added extra things to our answers if we hadn't written them down already.

After the block ended and we came for second block, we were given the 'There Will Be Wolves' Ch.1-5 Test, which in my opinion was very easy. The test had ten questions and asked about the characters, along with the storyline/plot.

Finally, when the test was over and handed in, we were all told to finish our notes for our Medieval Diaries or, if we were finished, to work on our chapter 10 questions.

Why We Did It


I think we reviewed the chapter questions because we needed to improve our answers as a class and also make sure that we didn't miss anything. We could look back at it and see how the questions should've been answered. As for the test, I think tests are important, not only because they review previous work, but to also confirm that we're learning or, in this case, that we're actually reading the book.

The Middle Ages project is also very important because it is a huge learning experience for the students and also provides us with a lot of knowledge on what it was like to live back in the past, without any technology.

Connections/Reflections


Personally, this was not very fun for me to do. I do not like taking notes. But realizing that I was learning a lot from this project, I learned that this was very beneficial for my education. In the future, this knowledge in taking notes is essential for organization and also, taking tests, reviewing older work is something that is also very essential in the future... Not just for jobs, but also for when we participate in future educational activities.

Homework and Tips


-Finish Chapter Questions by next week
-Come to flex if you're not done or if you are stuck
-Get your diary ready by Monday

30 Day Challenge Progress Report

After proposing my 30 day challenge, I have been doing fairly bad with trying to reach my goal. Although my goal was to try not to sleep everyday after school until I had finished my homework, almost everyday after school, I fell asleep due to being tired. We were told that we would try to accomplish our goal for thirty days, but I have failed to accomplish my goal, so I technically do not qualify for the 30 Day challenge anymore.

Friday February 17th Learning Log Post! :)

     Sorry for the late post everyone! I haven't missed a single day of posting on my blog so far but somehow, I needed one more post. We need 10 posts all together and if I include this one, it adds up to 10! I'm very happy that I don't have to do anymore of these because these usually take me a long time to write! My plan was to post on the weekend for Friday's post but I started it and didn't get the chance to finish it sadly. Yesterday, I worked on it for a little bit and I had to work on other homework. So I finally got the chance to finish it today! :)

What We Did :

     On Friday, we started class with talking about the blogs. A lot of people didn't have 10-12 blog posts so Ms.Lees reminded everyone that we should have enough by the end of this week. She's giving us one more week to wrap them all up and to finish them! I know some groups have 5 people in their group and they'd probably have to make up for a lot of them! You can post on any day to make up and it doesn't matter if your blog member posts on the same day as you. If you're really behind, I recommand you posting everyday this week!

     Due to the teacher job action, it is predicted that there will be NO student led conferences this term. Parents usually come to school and look at their children's work to see how they're doing at school but this time, the students might have to bring their work home and show it to their parents by themselves. Nobody currently knows when the teacher job action is going to end!

     We talked about the notes we had to take from pathways with the substitute on Wednesday for double block. Ms.Lees was quite proud of us that we finished all of them without complaining for the two double blocks! Apparently, we didn't have to take notes that day. Our substitute forgot about handing out some worksheets that she photocopied. It's okay because it was good practice for us anyways!   Ms.Lees made a T-chart with Do's on the left and Don't 's on the right. She metioned some of the things with note-taking. In the Do's column, it said to use abbreviations/symbols, organized format, use keywords, and be accurate with the source. She doesn't want us to use Wikipedia as a source because anyone can change and edit the information on the website, and some facts could be wrong. For the Don't's column, it said not to use full sentences, copy from text, avoid unnecessary words and repetition.

     We went over some notes together as a class as examples. Ms.Lees took a couple examples from people in our class and she looked at each one. She told us some of the things that we shouldn't do again when taking notes such as, copying the text right off from the book, writing full sentences, not having a certain format (ex. outline, web, e.t.c ) as she mentioned already in the T-chart. She wanted us to focus on the key words, and writing brief point forms instead of full sentences. Some of the examples we looked at had full sentences. A lot of those could get shortened. Most people had their strengths in some part of note-taking. Some were very organized (Outline) with certian labels and spacing. When she was showing everyone the examples, she highlighted the things that the person who took notes of it, should leave because it was good. Everyone in the class had to highlight their own work too. We highlighted some of the things that were good and that we should keep. 

     After looking at the examples, Ms.Lees let us watch some videos on youtube of the middle ages as sort of a reward for taking all the notes without complaining on Wednesday. We watched a couple videos called "Horrible History" and they had some interesting songs and skits. They were quite funny and weird! 

Why We Did It : 

   Ms.Lees reminded everyone about the blogs because some groups haven't been posting for a couple months. Since we need at least 10 posts all together, they should better get their work done soon! Some people in the class even forgot about them and they were saying "OHHHH RIGHT!" as soon as Ms.Lees mentioned about it. A lot of people have been giving excuses that they didn't have time or their computer broke. They will have to have at least 10 posts at the end of this week eventually or else, they wouldn't earn the mark they want. We have one more week that we can make up for so everyone should better work hard! It's very important for everyone to keep organized and plan ahead of time than rushing at the end (procrastinating) like I sometimes do! Ms.Lees will be marking one of our recent posts soon! 

     It was important for Ms.Lees to point out the do's and the don't's of note-taking. Everyone should know what they are supposed to do. They could improve next time by recognizing the things that they haven't done. Everyone always has some space to improve. Since Ms.Lees metioned the criteria, people won't be able to yell out that they didn't know they weren't allowed to do whatever they didn't do correctly next time. It's their responsibily to listen to the teacher and do what it's expected. She had to go over the expectations because some of the notes weren't so good. They had some of the "Don't"s. A lot of people had full sentences in their notes! 

     It's good to look at other people's examples because most of the time, people make the same mistakes as you do and you could learn how to improve next time. Also, it's a good experience to know the different ways people organize their notes. Different people have different styles of note taking. I'm personally more of a outlining person than a webbing person. Sometimes, it could be very uncomfortable sharing your work and letting everyone else see your work, but it builds up your confidence! You should never be ashamed of your work because it's the reason why we are sharing and trying to improve. 

     Taking notes is an important skill that you would be most likely be using in the future a lot! Sometimes, while taking the notes, you get a better understanding of the content. By putting them into your own words, it helps you to understand better. Notes are a great source for studying because they're in key words and they're very organized and they're very easy to read. 

     We watched the videos of the middle ages because we worked really hard the past few classes and it was a great way/time to relax. Since we're learning about the middle ages right now, it was a fun/exciting way to learn about them by listening to the music lyrics and looking at the skits in the videos. Also, we are planning to do a little skit with our little roles we got for our research project. It could help us think of ideas for the skit lay-outs in the future. 

Reflection/Connections : 

     Even though doing the blogs was stressful the last couple months, I think I learned and improved a lot than the beginning. I'm very proud of myself for my accomplishments.

I know I had trouble with relevancy the past few posts but I think I did okay on this post. I've noticed that a lot of my group members improved a lot too. I saw huge improvement from especially Luke. He used to write just a couple sentences for each category but now, he actually writes paragraphs! He definitely improved greatly! :) I'm very proud of him as his group member. Now, we just need him to post a little more to fill up at least 10 posts...

     I thought it was a great way for Ms.Lees to point out what we should and shouldn't do because that way, we exactly know the criteria and nobody will be able to argue about the expectations. I always like having the criteria in front of me when I'm doing certian work for school. I remember last year for projects, I used to look at the criterias like 100 times just to check if I had everything. Once, me and Monika (in block 4 class) had to do a skit for a HACE project and we were the only ones who got 20/20 because we had all the information that we needed. Other groups thought they just had to make a funny skit with a certian drug in it. I made sure a couple times to check and added more things incase! Checking my work was worth it even though it was very tiring! :)  

     I know that note-taking skills are very important to have. Even in elementry, I took notes when I was doing research, but I didn't do it properly. I used to write full sentences for my notes when I was young but as I got older, I realized we had to write point form for everything. I love taking notes because I don't usually like writing full sentences because they take too long to write and I love how notes are so organized like outlines. As I already mentioned earlier, I'm more of a outlining person than a webbing person. I find that when I create a web, it looks really messy because of the uneven circles and such. Outlines are so well spaced out and neat! I heard that you have to take notes for most of your coarses in university. Last year, we had to watch a video on ancient Greece with a substitute and we couldn't write the notes because it was way too fast. We complained about it to the substitute and she told us that it was nothing compared to the notes we have to take in university in the future and I was pretty shocked. I don't know how I'm going to survive in university! That's probably why people create symbols for note-taking because they take way faster. The teachers (professers) don't write every single word on the board for everyone to copy in university. They just talk and talk and we have to catch every single word they say and write it down if it's something really important. I'm actually a bit scared of university but I'm sure that if I prepare for it well in highschool, I won't have any trouble! :)

     I really liked watching the middle ages videos at the end of class because I was very tired that day and it was a great time to just relax and enjoy the video without taking any notes on anything. At first, I thought the videos were stupid and funny but they actually had story lines in them and they were all true facts so I found them interesting. I found the famine song interesting and I sort of freaked out. I'm really excited to work on the skits after we do the research because even though I'm shy most of the time, I love working on skits with people! They're always fun and exciting! :)    

    

      

Homework : For tomorrow (Wednesday)

- finish "There Will Be Wolves" chapter 9 questions 

- finish role-playing notes for Friday

- Study for the "There Will Be Wolves" quiz tomorrow! 

Tips : 

- If you weren't at school today, check out your peer's blogs and find out about what we did in class today!

- If you aren't able to complete certain homework that is due tomorrow, don't forget to e-mail Ms.Lees for extension with a good enough excuse! 

- If you haven't completed all your work that is supposed to be done already or you need help with something, go in for flex on Thursday at 11:10!

- Be sure that you read all the chapters from 1-8 for "There Will Be Wolves" for the quiz tomorrow! 

- Visit the library at lunch for information about the role-playing notes. They are due on Friday so don't procrastinate and do them on Thursday!  

- If you want to check out a book from the library, make sure you bring your Go-Card with you!

- Check out the "Middle Ages for Kids" website if you're looking for information about your role.

- Make sure you look through your binder and check if ALL of your work is completed. 

- Visit the school's website for information about the upcoming events at our school! (Type in Fraser Heights Seconday School on Google) 

- If you don't have 10-12 blog posts, be sure you complete at least 10 of them this week! It's your last chance to catch up! 

- Check the P.E office for information about the upcoming sport events. (Badminton coming up soon!) 

Schedule : 

Anyone is allowed to post this week for catch-up if they don't have at least 10 blog posts!  

          

          

    

  

    

    

     

I am really sorry.
This post today is for yesterday’s (Monday) class. I had a lot of homework to
do yesterday, and only managed to finish half of my blog.


What We Did

On Friday, Ms.Lees had announced that we would be spending
all of today’s class in the library. So, the whole class met there when the bell
rang. Once we were settled and all sitting, Ms.Lees explained our upcoming
project. We are/were all going to be individually given key roles from the
middle ages and are going to do a project on the roles. Everyone from the class
took turns picking from a bucket a slip of paper with the role on it. Some were
happy with their role; while others weren’t. A few examples of what people got
are monk, lord, bishop, merchant, and so on. Some jobs will be easy to research
because they are very famous roles, therefore they will be difficult to find
information on. A few people had jobs (I think one was a falconer,) that were
very tricky. Those people got to exchange for a new role. Once everyone was
organized and knew what their jobs was, Ms.Lees quickly gave us a basic
explanation on how to do a bibliography for books, articles and websites. We
also took notes while she spoke. Ms.Lees then handed out a sheet with four
sections on the front. They were:
1.
A Day in the Life of _________
2.
Role-Play Meeting
3.
Bibliography
4.
Getting Started on Research
We read over the sections, and then got into groups that had
to do with our roles. For example, there was a “royal family” group and another
group was “religion.” We chatted with our group for a few minutes, but then
Ms.Lees informed us that we needed to fill out #4 of the sheet. For number 4,
we had to choose 4 main topics that we would focus on for our project. These
had to do with information on our role. Some common topics that my fellow
classmates chose were Jobs, Education, Clothing, Food, Shelter, Rights, Home
Life and Family.
After we had decided on our projects, Ms.Lees gave us the
rest of the class period to find notes on our role. She had a big cart full of
at least 30 different books about the Middle Ages and the different roles. Some
were on churches, while others were on clothing. There was a large assortment
and many different ones to choose from. If we weren’t in the mood to look
through books, then we were allowed to use the computers instead. Ms.Lees
strictly explained that we are required to use at least one book and at least
one website in our bibliography. So if you didn’t use a book, then you are
expected to use one tomorrow. The class was pretty well behaved, but the
library is a whole new environment, so some of may have gotten off task. We
were allowed to choose what type of method for note taking we wanted to use;
although most of us chose the “Outline” method.
Right before class ended, Ms.Lees told us that she expects
us to do a 30 Day Challenge progress report, although I am not quite sure when
this is due. She also told us that our notes for our role are due Friday, so if
you don’t finish your notes in class, it will be homework

Why We Did It

We worked in the library today because we needed to use the
internet for researching our roles. Some of us used books on the Middle Ages
from the library, and it would have been a huge hassle for us to check them out
and take them back to the class. We have gone to the library as a class several
times before, because unlike Elementary school; our school doesn’t have laptops
for us to take to the classroom. Some people aren’t always reliable, and Ms.Lees
knew that if she asked us to find ALL of the notes at home; then many people
probably wouldn’t do them. We also need at least one book in our bibliography
and I am guessing not many people have a “The Life of a Lord’s Son in the
Middle Ages” book lying around at home. ALL of our notes are due Friday, so if
she asked use to get a book from the public library, many of us wouldn’t have
time. A lot of us get more work done when we are in the library because we know
that if we are loud, we will disturb the older kids. And let me tell you, some
older kids can be REALLY scary.
The reason we each
have individual roles is because there were so many different jobs, lifestyles
and classes in the middle ages and it would have been a huge struggle for us to
learn all of them. This way, we can become an expert at one of the roles. The
way we are going to present our roles is even a little fun. People tend to
remember and learn new things better when they actually like learning it and
are paying attention. That’s why this project is such a great idea; because in
the end we will have learned about the life and responsibilities of each key
role.
Ms.Lees taught us how to do bibliographies because it is
very important in the future for us to know how to do them. Many projects that
we will be doing in the older grades require a bibliography; might as well
start young! We also need to do a bibliography so that Ms.Lees can make sure we
don’t plagiarize. We need to write down EVERY single source of information that
we use so she has proof. If you do happen to not be a good little child and you
plagiarize, then you could get in big trouble.
I firmly advise you NOT to cheat. There are serious consequences.


Connections/Reflections:

I was really excited on Friday when Ms.Lees announced that
on Monday we would all get our roles. In my mind I was going over all of the
possible roles I could get and pros and cons of them. At first I wanted to be a
monk; mostly because I was thinking that I could really rock the bald look. But
then I realized that a monk probably wouldn’t be the best role for me because I
am not religious whatsoever, and religion can be really complicated. If I were
a monk, I would have to have a lot of knowledge on religion, or else I would
have a TON of studying to do for the project. Then I considered being a Merchant,
and it seemed like a pretty good job, but there are so many different types of merchants
and it would get really complicated. In the end, I didn’t have a certain role I
wanted to be. I was the last one to get my role, and the suspense was killing
me. I got Bishop/Archbishop. At first I didn’t even know what it was, but I
guess that is the whole point of the project!
In Elementary school we did bibliographies in the later
grades (mostly grade 6 and 7), but they weren’t as intense as the ones in high
school. We usually just wrote down the name of the book and author or the URL
of the website. I remember that once in grade 6 we learned how to do them, but
no one really remembered. I am glad that Ms.Lees went over the format again. I
am still a little uneasy about the format, but practice makes perfect.
Whenever Ms.Lees announces that we will be spending the
class in the library, I jump for joy! I really enjoy the working environment in
there because we are allowed to talk quietly with our peers; but we also manage
to get a lot of work done. I, personally am very frightened of the older
students, and I wouldn’t want to do anything to disrupt them and make them mad
at me, so I tried my best to be respectful. I also love when we have free time
to take notes and get out work done. So I really enjoyed finding notes today. I
spent a lot of the session planning out the sections and what types of notes I
needed, so I didn’t have a lot of time to actually find a lot of websites or
facts. I did, however get a chance to skim through the books and many of them
had a lot of useful information. I suggest that if you are struggling to find
information online,then be old fashioned and try to find what you need in one
of the books. There were so many available; at least one has to talk about your
role.
Being able to find notes on a specific topic independently
is a very important skill for the future. In higher high school grades and
University/College, you are constantly jotting down notes. We use notes as a
study guide for tests and to help us with projects.


Homework (This is due tomorrow--- Wednesday)
-Finish There Will Be Wolves Chapter 9 Questions
-Finish role-playing notes for FRIDAY
-Study for There Will Be Wolves quiz

Tips:
-If you did not manage to finish your role-playing notes in
the library, then they are due Friday. Try not to do it last minute, because
your notes won’t be as accurate or important
-It is hard to study for the There Will Be Wolves quiz, but
just make sure you have read all of the required chapters
- If you have NOT done at least 10 learning blogs, then you
need to use this week to do some make up ones so you can catch up
- You should have 10-12 learning blogs
- Make sure to comment at least twice a week on your group’s
learning blog
- Try to support your group members by reminding them to do
their blogs if they need to catch up. Sometimes they just need a helpful push
in the right direction
- If you need to use the Middle Ages book(s) from the
library, then go in during lunch and Mme.Monk will probably help you find them
-Look at your notes from Ms.Lees or look up online the
proper citation frormat for bibliographies if you have forgotten
- If you ever need help, you can email Ms.Lees or ask one of
your Humanities buddies
- FLEX is usually on Mondays and Thursdays, make sure to go
if you are struggling or need to catch up
-If you ever miss a day, make sure to call the office or
bring a note in.
-Many sports are starting up, so make sure to check up on
them in the P.E. area
-Find all of the school news and upcoming on the school
website. http://www.firehawks.ca/
-Here is a link for the school library: http://sites.google.com/site/fhlibrarysite/Home
It includes lots of helpful websites and tips.
- If you ever need to check a book out from the library,
remember to bring your Go-card.

My 30 day challenge progress report! :)

     I'm not sure if it's just me that's not doing so well but I'm pretty unhappy with my progress so far. I obviously don't feel so great about myself now because I feel like I've done such a poor job so far. But if I think about it, I DID improve at least a little bit. It's hard to say I am successful with my 30 day challenge but I at least tried! :) Just to refresh your memory, my 30 day challenge was to not procrastinate. I know it's a problem for a lot of my friends and Daniel (my blog group member) has a similar challenge too! My goal was to take it by step by step and work it up slowly. I was first going to start out with decreasing the amount of time I spend on Facebook everyday. The second step was to try not to take naps afterschool because it leads to pushing my homework till later. I have a bad habit of taking naps afterschool. It leads to doing my homework later at night which makes myself sleep later and yawn a lot in class the next day. It's a BAD habit that I really need to fix. I also wrote in my goal a few weeks ago that I'll try to finish my homework before dinner time! 

     I know, it has been a hard time for me to resist myself from going on Facebook. Facebook is such an addicting website! I actually spent less time on Facebook than I usually did. I used to spend about 2 hours on Facebook on weekdays afterschool but I decreased it to about an hour! I know, I still have a lot of work to do, but I'm almost there! :) I also tried to finish my homework before I went on the computer, and a lot of my friends helped me out with that. I remember sharing my goal with the class a couple weeks ago and Ms.Lees told everyone to ask me if I was done my homework whenever they saw me online. Surprisingly, a lot of people DID ask me and I felt pretty guilty the first couple days when I went on it without completing my homework before! I was really surprised when people from the other block 4 class asked me, I was a bit creeped out but it turned out that Ms.Lees told them about my goal too! My peers helped me a lot with this little goal. I know I have a lot more to go, so I'll remind my friends again to ask me whenever they see me online and now, I could try to set my goal to go on Facebook for 30 minutes and decrease the amount everyday.  

     My second little goal that was part of my big goal was to not take naps afterschool. I don't think I've been doing so well with this one because I haven't been getting lots of sleep lately and I can't concentrate if I'm tired usually. I think this one's the hardest because I can't help it. It's just my body that's tired and that can't concentrate. I really should get in the habit of sleeping earlier so I don't take anymore naps. I tried to reach this little goal by myself but I don't think it's working that well, so I'm going to tell my sister about it and tell her to remind me if I fall asleep. It'll be hard to not take naps at all suddenly, so I'm going to decrease the amount of time slowly each day. I think this goal is going to be my main goal for the other half of the 30 day challenge! Also, since I took naps, I didn't really get the chance to finish my homework before dinner. I think I succeed maybe for 5 days! At least, I improved a little bit.  

     I feel pretty good about myself with the Facebook part of my goal because decreasing the amount of time on it is a really big thing for me. I could never go off Facebook! It's just so addicting! I think it's going pretty good so far but I'm not so sure about the not taking the nap part. I'm always so tired afterschool so I really need to work on that part a lot more! I haven't looked at all of my peers 30day challenge goals but I have been helping out some of my peers by reminding about their goal and I even discussed about it with some people in the other class (block 4) and it was very interesting to hear their goals! I think almost everyone's trying except for a few that forgot about it! I really hope we can be all successful on our 30 day challenge goals! I think it's time for us to work EXTRA hard because we don't have too much time left!

MY 30 Day Challenge Progress Report

At first I wasn't going to admit it, but honesty is important. So I am just going to come out and say it... I haven't been very successful with my 30 day challenge. :( I know, I know... I should have tried harder and I am not too proud of myself. There are a number of reasons why my challenge hasn't been going too smoothly. Just to refresh your mind, my challenge was to plan out a whole story and complete at least 3 chapters of it within a month.
I piled way too much on me. I thought it would be easy, but boy was I wrong! Planning out a WHOLE story, and what to include in it takes a lot more time than I had expected. You have to decide how much and what you should include in the chapter. Plus, you have to have all of your settings, characters and plot planned out so that you don't miss something or forget to include an important detail. Or else, your story will go no where. I should have thought of a more reasonable goal, and planned it out more. For example, I could have said that in the first week I would finish my outline, in the second I would write Chapter one, and so on. But I didn't!
Another reason my challenge hasn't been running smoothly is the time factor. I know that a lot of people have had this problem... We just can't find the time to do it! My challenge takes hours and hours. Between school, family and homework, sometimes I find it a struggle to find time for my story. Some people's challenge take up no time at all; such as not eating candy. Not eating candy doesn't exactly affect your time; but it does affect you in different ways. You need a LOT of will power to complete that challenge. The only time I can ever find to work on my story is the weekends, but then I feel like I am cramming it in and I get a brain block.
The third reason is that I haven't felt too motivated. I always plan out these extravagent story ideas in my mind, and get so excited about them. But when I try to put them on paper (or in this case, on Microsoft Word), I realize that they may not be as great as I thought. Or that there are loose ends in my idea that I need to fix or the whole story won't make sense.
BUT I AM DETERMINED! So I have decided to give myself a second chance and I am going to attempt to modify my 30 day challenge and complete it! Now, there isn't much time left, so I may need to extend it to more like a 40 day challenge. I really would like to tie up all the loose ends up my story idea and get typing! My challenge now is to finish my WHOLE Plot outline, plan out my next 3 chapters and complete at least one chapter--- but attempt to do more within the time limit if possible. I am going to keep a notebook or journal, with a timeline in it. I will say how much work I need to do each week, and the appoximate amount of hours it will take. This way, when I am sitting around bored and not knowing what to do, I can look at my journal which will remind me to work on my novel. Some days I may even bring my journal to school so that when I have free time, I can jot down new ideas in it. This way, when I don't have access to my laptop, I can still be working on my journal. I have already told my mom about my challenge, but I am going to ask her to try to remind me to work on my story every once in a while. Like they say in the IDEO Shopping Cart video; deadlines are important because they help you reach your goal and keep you on track. If you don't have a deadline or planout, then you may just forget about your goal in the first place and keep putting it off.

I am not very proud of the fact that I have only done a little bit of my plot outline and Chapter 1. It makes me feel and sound weak. BUT, it has made me more determined than ever to complete my challenge. Many of my peers have said that their challenge is going well, and I will admit that it makes me feel a little discouraged. I have also heard some people say that their challenge isn't going as expected either, so I feel like there are some people on the same page as me. Hopefully the ones in the class that have been struggling can work though all of this together. Because if we DO complete the challenge, then it will give us encouragement and make us want to try more new things.

February 15th Wednesday Learning Log

What We Did


On Wednesday, after coming to class, we were greeted by a substitute, due to the fact that Ms. Lees was unable to attend today. We started off by receiving our marks for our 'There Will Be Wolves' Chapter Questions. The substitute marked them using a system where an 'X' meant that it was unsatisfactory, or incomplete, a checkmark with a '-' meant that it was satisfactory, but under Grade 8 expectations, talking to the teacher about our assignment. We were assigned to take notes (in whatever form we preferred) on:

-The 'Manor Life' in the High Middle Ages and how the lords of manors lived. Along with how ordinary/commoner life was like, compared to the higher, noble class life.

-The roles of women in the middle ages and during the Feudual Period, and how their rights differ from the modern age.

For all of first block, we worked on these notes until break.

When second block started, we continued to work on these notes, for most of the class hadn't finished them. By the end of the block, most people had finished and went on to their 'There Will Be Wolves' Chapter Eight Questions.

Why We Did It

The reason we worked on those notes, about Manors and lords who owned them and also about roles of women in the middle ages, is because it helps us learn about the middle ages and how it was like during the Feudual-Contract Period of the High Middle Ages. This also helps us improve our note-taking skills, which are essential for looking back on things or studying about particular things.

Connections/Reflections

I thought that this assignment was very important, for I learned alot by just taking notes in this double-block session. The class got to learn alot about what it was like to live in the Middle Ages, when the Feudual-Contract was still in place, and how the lives of Nobles and Barons differed from those of Commoners, who are the freeholders and serfs.

Note-taking skills were a big factor in the double-block session, because other than learning about the feudual contract, we also got to improve our skills in note-taking. This is very important for future assignments in any subject, for note-taking is critical in learning and studying.


Homework


-TWBW Ch.8 Questions
-Notes must be finished.. If not, go to flex

My thirty day challenge

I consider myself a very procrastinative, so for my thirty day challenge I chose to stop sleeping after school and immediately work on my homework, without doing anything else. I chose to do this, because I tend to get lazy constantly and I'm known to get easily distracted. So by finishing my homework, or at least working on it, at an earlier time, I get to sleep earlier. I consider this both a personal and academic challenge. Sleeping earlier is more healthy for me, and finishing my homework is good for my grades.

Tuesday, Feb. 7th -- Learning Log Post! :)

What We Did 
    As we got into class, we sat in our usual seats and Ms.Lees talked to us about the 30day challenge posts that were supposed to be done last night. She noticed that a lot of people didn't post it and everyone had different excuses. Some peoples' computers didn't work so hopefully those people posted them today! You should probably post on her blog or send her an e-mail about the problems so she understands and gives you an extension on your posts if it happens again. If you don't, Ms.Lees wouldn't know what had happened and think that you just forgot to do them which would be marked as INCOMPLETE homework. I don't think you would want that! Also, she went over how people just wrote 1 or 2 sentences for them, when she exactly said that we had to write a paragraph. She was quite dissappointed because we've been doing so many blog posts and we weren't able to meet the expectations. We also had to write WHAT the 30day challenge was, WHY you chose that, and HOW you're going to achieve your goal. 
     After we went over the 30day challenge expectations, Ms.Lees partnered everyone up with people who we've never worked with. We had to sit beside them, not in front of them so we could see each others work and such. We were assigned to go over our chapter 3 and 4 answers to improve on each others. We had to look at things such as, if the answers had  "I think" in front of the sentences. We had to make sure they were all complete sentences, had reference to the pronouns,could be able to know what the question is, have no spelling errors and no general/vague language like the word "stuff". We critiqued on our partners work and talked about it together to amend our work. We all had to try our best to meet the criteria for Ms.Lees. 
     Almost at the end of the class, Ms.Lees talked to us about how phrasing the words could change the whole meaning to the sentences. She said that if we say we are correcting each other's work, it sounds like we have lots of mistakes and we are just correcting them by ourselves, but if we put the word amend in it, it sounds like we are just improving on the good peice of work that's already there. It sounds a lot more nicer and formal. By saying this, people wouldn't get their feelings hurt as much if they think "correcting" is offensive for them. She also gave an example of saying car crash, not car accident because car accident leads you to think that it was just an accident and it wasn't anyones fault. The truth is that it's usually SOMEONES fault, so using the term car crash sounds more fair and that it was just a crash that had happened, not just an accident. Another example was that, from now on people are going to call child porngraphy, sexual abuse images. Child porngraphy might sound like the children wanted to take those photos for money and they were intended when it's actually forced and it's sexual abuse. It's officially illegal for children to take these kinds of inappropriate photos in Canada. 
     At the end of class, Ms.Lees gave us a couple minutes to work on our chapter 5 questions so we don't get much homework tonight. It didn't turn out too well because some people in the class talked and wandered around when it was supposed to be a quiet working time and Ms.Lees was VERY dissppointed about this so Ms.Lees assigned it for homework and she expects every single answer to be meeting expectations and thorough! 

Why We Did It 
      Some people posted their 30day challenge very poorly with only 1 or 2 sentences without following Ms.Lees instructions. It was important for Ms.Lees to go over and review our 30day challenge post expectations because we've been doing different kinds of posts on our blogs for quite a while and if we still can't post good work without meeting expectations, it's a problem! It's important for everyone to know what is expected and know what they're doing. It's always good to understand the criteria and do the assignments correctly. It's also good to do what is expected and get a good mark! Who doesn't want to get a good mark? :) 
     It was a great way to make friends and talk to new people by working on improving our answers. I know that Ben's partner was Angela and they've never really talked to each other before and by doing this assignment, they were able to know more about each other and get the chance to talk. It was a great way to improve our collaboration skills by doing this! Ms.Lees put people who were very strong with answers with people who needed help on some things and we were able to amend on each others work and improve our answers. It wasn't just correcting our partners work. We had to talk to each other and discuss about what we thought about the question and if one of the partner missed something, they  would  add to their answers. It's a great way to improve our work because sometimes correcting peoples' work can be mean and might be offensive but by adding on what we thought we should add, we didn't feel sad or offended at all. It's always good to know how different people think and compare. One person could be strong in a certain area and the other could too, so they would fill in their empty spaces and improve greatly. 
     It's important to know that phrasing words slightly different could lead to changing the whole meaning to the sentence. By changing a word in your sentence could make the person who's listening to you feel differently. Some people might hear your saying offensively, but after you change a word, they might feel okay about it. 

Connections/Reflection
     My 30day challenge goal was to not procrastinate. I know, some of you guys that don't know me very well might think that I always have my homework in class and I'd probably go home and do my homework right away. YOU'RE WRONG. I'm a very huge procrastinator. Even though I know it's a big problem for me, I always tend to do my homework really late which is not good at all! I remember I went to bed at around 3am a couple times to finish projects last year. Some were even group projects because my group didn't cooperate vey well and I had to do most of the work. Bad memory for me! :( But it was okay because we got to evaluate our group members and they all gave me a good mark! I know it's going to be a quite of challenge for me but as I already mentioned on my post yesterday, I go on facebook a lot which I think is the reason why I push my homework to the lastest. I'm going to try to spend less time on it and see if it works! I'm probably going to take one step at a time because if I try to reach my goal all at once, it might be too much for me! I wish it goes really well! 
     I think that collaboration skills are very important because you won't know every single person that you work with when you grow up. It's not like your going to be best friends with every single one of them! Even if you work with people who you don't know very well, you got  to be confident and try not to feel awkward at all. I'm a really awkward person with people I don't really know well. I'm usually creepy and weird in front of my friends. (Olivia should know very well :) I usually feel uncomfortable telling people what they should add and maybe change with their answers because I feel like I'm mean and it might be offensive for them. I didn't feel too uncomfortable with Dinny because I've worked with him last year in grade 7 before and he doesn't seem to get offended if I tell him that he might've got the question in a different way or such! 
     I think it's important for people to say the write word when speaking or writing because I've realized it makes a lot of difference! I personally feel depressed if people correct my work and leave a whole bunch of crosses or corrections on my work but by saying amending, it's less offensive and I understand it's just a step to improve our work, not a time for dissing about each others work! 

Homework
     Finish chapter 5 questions for tomorrow! 

Tips
     - Remember to think back at what you looked at with your partner today and check if you don't have any errors in your answers to chapter 5 questions. 
     - If you were sick or didn't come to class today, check your classmates blogs to see what we did today!
     - If you aren't able to finish certain homework by tomorrow, contact Ms.Lees by her e-mail and ask for extension with a good excuse!
     - Check your binder to see if ALL your work is done and if not and you need help, go to flex on Thursday at 11:10! It's usually Mondays and Thursdays!
     - Don't go too far ahead on your novel because you might forget some of the things when you're doing the questions!
     - It's National Sweater Day on Thursday! :) 
     - Make sure your blogs are perfect this week because it's your last chance to improve!
     - Check grammer/spelling before you post your blog! 
     - If you have a question about your homework, post on Ms.Lees blog, e-mail her, or contact your study buddies! You should have at least 2! 

Schedule
Monday : Olivia B 

Tuesday : Alice B

Wednesday (double block) : Daniel K

Friday : Luke W (Don't forget to do your last weeks post ASAP! ) 

DANIEL WILL BE BLOGGING TOMORROW!    

MY 30 Day Challenge

Hello Everyone :)
After debating for a long time, I have finally decided on what my 30 day challenge will be!

I have always enjoyed writing very much, almost every day I come up with new ideas for novels. Sometimes my dreams even give me a starting idea that blooms into a whole new story. I picture the names, their appearance and personality and the whole story plot. The problem is: they only ever stay in my mind. I never actually put them on paper. I have had this problem for years! I manage to plan everything out and have developed practically the complete story. It's such a waste for me to just keep it in my head. A few times I have actually started putting the plot down on paper and maybe even written a page of it or two. But that's all that happens! I have at least ten different documents in my computer of my started stories, but I never manage to get past writing a chapter.

In grade 7, we had to write a story that was almost partly a novel. I loved putting my ideas on paper and I managed to ace the project. The only reason I finished it though was because I HAD to. It's not that I don't want to write a novel or that I don't enjoy it, because believe me; I do. It's almost as if I have a fear of failing.

That's why I have chosen to try to start at least one novel. I want to finish at least 3 chapters, and maybe if I manage to do that before 30 days, then I can extend the amount of chapters. I realize that that may not sound like a lot, but planning out a WHOLE story and all of the characters takes a LOT longer than you may think.
The type of challenge I have chosen isn't exactly something that I do separately every day, but it does change over a period of time. What I mean by that is that I may not do an even amount of writing each day do to how busy I am that day, but the result over time should add up. When 30 days has passed, then I can add up the amount of pages and divide them into 30. This way I can see my average amount of pages per day.

I plan to achieve this goal by motivation and believing in myself. I have a friend named Ashley who loves to write too, and she always motivates me to write. We can compare our stories and progress, so when I see her write a lot, then I will want to as well. I will need to put a lot of time and work in to my novel, because I would like for it to be top quality. Tomorrow, I will go through all of my story ideas and choose one. On my calendar I will have a mini goal. Such as: Write at least 4 pages of your novel during the next three days.

I would love to hear your opinions on my goal and if you think it's realistic or not. :)

Exciting Group Name!

Hello everyone! (:
Me and Olivia were discussing about how we should make a new unique name for our blog posting group. We were looking at our blog site in class when Ms.Lees was going through them and since our background picture is bunch of ostriches, maybe we could name it "The Attack of the Ostriches!" I think it's very unique and I like it a lot! I've already made the changes so if you guys don't like it, comment below and we'll try to arrange an another name for it! 

30day challenge! :)

     "Oh, I'll do my homework in a few minutes. I have to do something else!" This is what I think to myself most of the time during the day after school or on the weekend. As you can tell, I'm a big procrastinator! I would always do my homework after dinner or a couple hours later. This is how bad it is. Surprisingly, I've hardly went to school with incomplete homework. I always do finish it before the next morning. I remember I had to do a project by myself last year and I had to do all the work in the last minute and I stayed up till 5am. I was actually really upset at myself and I felt really depressed. I personally don't like staying up when everyone else is sleeping because I feel lonely. I always like it when people are around me when I'm doing my homework and that's probably why I take a long time to finish my work. I like to talk to my sister when I'm doing my homework usually to be honest. Even though I know it's really bad for myself to procrastinate everyday, I can't stop. It's like an addiction. I'm already used to it and it's hard to get out of. This is a really important goal for myself personally. I probably could earn lots of other benefits then just sleeping on time. My work would be probably better because I wouldn't have to rush at all and I wouldn't be scared or worried that I won't be able to finish it. The best of all, I'd get at least 8 hours of sleep everyday which is a success for me! :) My goal for the 30 day challenge is to not procrastinate and get the habit of doing my homework as my first priority!
     I know it's going to be hard for me to reach my goal but some of the things that I could do to prevent myself from proscrastinating are, I could try to do my homework as soon as I get home from school in the afternoon. I already know it's going to be a big challenge for me because I like to sleep for like 30 minutes at around 4. I seem to be very exausted afterschool and fall asleep, which is not good! I can try my hardest not to fall asleep though! The next thing I can do is to try to finish most of my homework BEFORE dinner. What's better than having free time after dinner? :) One of my most challenging thing to do would be spending less time on facebook. I'm pretty sure most of my friends already know this but I'm almost addicted to facebook. I've gotten a little better now but I go on it for at least an hour every single day. I even leave it on when I'm doing homework on the computer. Thank God that I don't have an Iphone or an Ipod touch. I can imagine myself go on facebook every single minute to check notifications. Well, I AM getting an Iphone soon for my birthday so it might be even more challenging! I might try to spend less time on facebook because I think it'll help with the non-procrasting goal a lot!
     I'm actually very excited and nervous at the same time to start this 30 day challenge because I know it's going to be REALLY challenging for me and I hope I succeed. I bet that I'll regret choosing this for my "goal" but I'll always remember to try and never give up even if I fail! :)

Hello everyone! Some of you may notice that my blog post is a lot shorter than usual, but I explain why in the "connections/reflections" section.

What We Did

Once we were all seated and settled, Ms.Lees had a quick discussion with us about future seating arrangements. She explained thatsome of us will soon be changing seats. Some of the groups have been having issues with talking or paying attention during class. Ms.Lees has not quite finished the seating arrangement because or class only has 8 girls, and twice the boys. Some of the girls may feel uncomfortable being surrounded by boys, so the arrangements are not quite complete yet. Then Ms.Lees explained that there was going to be a change of plans and she thought that we should go over our blogs again.

We moved on to doing a class discussion/review of our learning blogs. A lot of the last few weeks have been really focused on our learning blogs. We have done self-evaluations, peer evaluations, group evaluations, teacher evaluations, goal setting and many more. **** you can find several reasons for why we have done so much of this in the "Why We Did It" section****

Ms.Lees explained that several people haven't been very consistent with posting their comments, and she showed us some examples of good quality comments. They need to be well thought out and specific. You can't just say "Good job, but make it longer." You need to explain more so they know exactly where they can improve. Use the criteria sheet we copied as a resource and compare them. You should also make sure to include some constructive critism. This should include a kind of complimented sugggestion. Such as: "I can see that you have improved the detail and length immensley, but you still have consistent spelling errors. It may be helpful for you to use spell check."

Our class also looked at several of the blogs together. We read through around 7 different blog posts, and pointed out the mistakes and good parts of them. There are many different types of formats that writers may write their post in. Some common ones are "casual," "formal" and "humorous." Our blogs are mainly supposed to be formal, but should have some humorous or casual parts to them so that they are not boring.

After we had read each blog post, we decided on a rating out of 5 together for the blog. We also thought of good comments that were both constructive and helpful. It was very apparent that almost everyone in the class has improved.

Near the end of class, Ms.Lees shared a video with us called "Ted Talks". It was of a man (I presume his name is Ted) that had a pretty boring life, so he decided to try a challenge. This challenge is called the THIRTY DAY CHALLENGE. It is basically where you choose anything that you want to change about yourself or imrprove and do it for 30 days. I know that may be confusing, so I will give you a few examples. You may have a bad habit of drinking lots of pop, and you have realised it's so sugary that your teeth are starting to weaken. Your challenge would be to not drink pop for 30 days. Another examples is that you LOVE writing songs, but never find the time to. This means that your challenge may be to try to work on a new song each day, or week.

Why We Did It

The main reason are changing seats are because some of us just can't seem to focus! We often just sit wherever we want. For some people that doesn't work because they are just having too much fun with their friends and can't pay attention. By now Ms.Lees is probably fed up with some of us because when we don't pay attention, we mess up and she often needs to repeat herself.

We went over the learning logs for the millionth time because no matter what Ms.Lees does, not all of us are at a satisfactory level. She has tried many different ways to help us perfect our blogs, but nothing seems to quite work. A lot of the times we go over our own and peer's blogs, but we never really know what we are doing. Part of the reason that some of us still aren't at satisfactory level is that blogging is a foreign concept for most of us. Our teachers in Elementary school weren't as strict about writing. They didn't make us focus us much on paragraph structure, sentence structure, spelling, detail, etc. Ms.Lees decided it was time for her to take the iniative, so she gave LOTS of detail on how we can improve our blogs. She didn't look over EVERYONE'S posts, and if she didn't critque any of yours; that doesn't mean you can't improve. There is a good chance that you are having similar problems as at least one of the people's blogs she critqued. It is your job to find most of the weak spots in your blogs... and FIX THEM! Ms.Lees and the class gave many suggestions on how to fix common problems blogs may contain, so hopefully you listened and are now able to use those tips. A lot of the reason some people's blogs aren't up to Ms.Lees standards is because they aren't putting the time and effort into them.

The reason that it is so important for us to do well on our blogs is because we need to get at least a 4 to move on. We are soon going to start a new type of blogging--- probably to do with our novels, but we can't do that until EVERY single person feels comfortable with the process of blogging. Not only will this benefit us in grade 8, but it will benefit us in all of our future education. If we just skip learning all of the writing process, then we will be screwed for grade 9. Sure, none of our writing will ever be perfect, but we need to have a really good understanding of how to make a well written blog. When it comes to writing, blogging isn't much different than writing on paper. All of the criteria is the same, it is just a different way of displaying it.

Writing skills are one of the most important skills you need for most jobs. Some major jobs that feature writing--- or even blogging--- are journalists, authors, reporters, teachers and many more.

This is a link that includes some very specific and key jobs that you NEED to be good at writing to excel in: http://www.poewar.com/glossary-of-writing-careers/

Many may debate over the reason why we are doing the 30 day challenge. My personal thoughts are that Ms.Lees is trying to show Humantities isn't just writing, reading, geography and history, but it is also a class that helps us grow up. The teen years are a major part of our life and are full of many HUGE decisions. Right now is a great time to learn how to set goals for ourselves and try our best. By setting a personal goal, Ms.Lees can also learn more about us as a person. All of our goals represent us, and now Ms.Lees can learn a little more about us.

Connections/Reflections

I am pretty satisfied with where I sit right now. I can concentrate quite well, but I have to admit I won't mind a new seating arrangement. It's not that I don't love sitting beside Alice, but being given a certain spot by Ms.Lees will cause me to sit near people I normally wouldn't. Whenever we get to choose where we want to sit, I always sit beside one of my friends. This is a great oppertunity for me to get to know new people. Who knows, maybe I will find a new friend! Plus, it might be nice to not sit across from someone who I figure was put on earth just to annoy people.

I have commented on almost every single blog post, and I do not think that I have had too much of an issue with my comments. My main focus for improvement is not on them. One thing that I should point out is that I need to try to be a little more detailed when pointing out mistakes so that the author knows EXACTLY what I am talking about and can change it.

As I mentioned in the beginning of my blog, there is a reason that this blog is quite a lot shorter than my previous ones. It isn't because I have gotten lazy and don't feel like putting effort into them anymore. No, not at all! When Ms.Lees was reviewing the blogs, one of them was Fredrick's. His blog wasn't as long as mine, yet it covered everything it needed to cover with enough detail, and he got a 5. That was when I realized: Quantity over quality! I sometimes take almost 3 hours to do my blogs, but I need to reduce it down to two hours at the most. As long as I include all of the necessary information and detail, then I should be able to achieve a 5 without making it 2000 words long! It might actually be a challenge for me to write shorter blogs, but it is a challenge I am willing to attempt.

I feel that my blogs have improved, but were neve terrible. None of them are perfect and I can still improve them immensely, but I've got the basic idea. I would like to thank my grade 7 teacher (Mrs.Petzold) for that. She absolutely LOVED writing and reading, and we learned a lot about writing from her. Sometimes she could be a tiny bit strict, but it was all to help us in the long run. Mrs.Petzold really prepared us for high school, and all of the work we did to work up to it was definitely worth it!

Writing is one of my favourite hobbies, and my family has been convincing me that I should go into a career to do with writing. Even if I don't choose a writing career, I would LOVE to attempt to be an author in my free time. I feel that it is a great way to create a whole new world on paper.

I am actually really excited for the Thirty Day Challenge! When I know that I am being put under, I attend to achieve my goals faster. I have so many possible goals I could do, but I am only going to choose one. If it works out for me, then maybe I will consider setting five goals for each month. That way, I will accomplish the things that I normally wouldn't take the time to do.

Homework

The only homework for today was to post a blog about what you have chosen for the "Thirty Day Challenge". It needs to include why you chose it and how you plan to achieve it.

Also, read chapter 5 of There Will Be Wolves. It was for homework over the weekend.

If you have forgotten what the thirty day challenge is, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnfBXjWm7hc

Tips

- Really consider your options when choosing your challenge. You don't want to just choose something and then after you have commited to it, realize it's unreasonable.

- If you have spare time, start planning out some strategies on how you can achieve your challenge.

- Try not to read TOO far ahead in there will be wolves, or else when it comes to answering the questions, you may forget what the chapter was about.

-If you know that this week is going to be super busy for you, then I suggest you do your chapter 5 questions now so that you have time for other homework during the week.

- Make sure your parents are award of the fact that you have been doing school blogs, because they will soon need to view them.

-This may be our last week of blogging--- yay! Make sure to try extra hard on this week's blog, after all, this is your last chance to imrpove.

- Make sure when blogging to include EVERY single section, or you could lose many points when marking your blog

- Always use grammar and spelling check before publishing your blog. It may seem like you have no mistakes, but you never know!

- Don't forget to buy a ticket for the Valentine's Day dance, it sounds like lots of fun :)

- If you ever miss a day or forget what is for homrwork, make sure to check the blogs because they are very useful and that's what they are there for!

-You should have atleast two people in your classes numbers in case you need help. They are your study buddies after all!

-I suggest you check the school website every once in a while because it has information on all of the school's upcoming events

-Many clubs are active right now. Environment club has put out compost bins around the school and Thursday is Sweater Day!

-Ms.Lees blog always has reminders, so try to check it daily

ALICE WILL BE POSTING TOMORROW!

February 1st Learning Log

What we did


Today, after coming to class, we handed in our blog post reviews. One person from our group stapled them all and handed them in. But sadly, only two groups were able to meet the deadline, which was today. Because so many people were unable to meet the due date, Ms Lees gave us a talk about how we have to be able to hand things in on time and also post on our blogs at the right time. After the talk, one of the students recommended that we have a silent detention at flex, where we finish our work, for those who do not meet the mandatory deadline.


After that, all the novel groups got together and we presented our webs that we worked together on. Most groups did the presentation, but due to insufficient time, we decided we'd do the presentations that we were unable to do on Friday.


For the second block of our double block, we watched the ABC Nightline IDEO Shopping Cart video again and took more notes on how we could use what the group in the video did as a kind of model for us. After taking notes, we were given chapter questions for 'There Will Be Wolves.'


Learning Intentions


I think the reason we did the group web was in order to develop our group working skills in order to be able to work with peers in the future, along with developing our socializing skills. By working in a group, we had to talk and communicate with each other, and communication is very important when working with others.


As for the IDEO video, I believe that the reason we watched it and talked about it during class was so that we could relate to the video and also to learn about how the group in the video worked very well and we should do similar things such as them.


Reflections/Connections


I thought this was a very fun experience, because we got to create a huge project with our groups, which was something new. It was also a very good learning experience because we got to learn about groupwork and also about the middle ages by doing this project.


In my opinion, social skills and communication are essential in the modern world. Today, almost everything you do requires communication or is involved with it. Many jobs require good social skills, especially jobs in the media.


Homework


-Finish chapter questions for THERE WILL BE WOLVES
-If you miss a blog post or don't do your homework, you MUST go to Flex.