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! )
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