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 don't know why, but my font type keeps varying in the middle. I tried to fix it but it didn't work. Sorry!
ReplyDelete