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!