daw.com - October 30

Congratulations to Eric, Elgin, Haewon and Akari - the 5HD Jedi Jugglers, also to Eric - our first Dragon Award recipient and to Stephanie, Haewon, Andrew and Akari - for performing during the LES assembly.

Here are the coming weeks current events  students;

Tuesday - Arianna
Wednesday - Haewon
Thursday - Sveva

More information about this later in the blog post.

Once again I find that the week has flown by with some really neat things happening in 5HD.  We started the week off with a visit to Ken Nesbitt, the visiting poet laureate from the USA.  He regaled us with our own unique poem involving sports and foods - two very unmatched groups.  By the time we were done we had a start to a real neat poem;

Soccer with sushi
Basketball with Berries
Skiing with Sundaes
Cheering with Cherries
Dancing with Donuts
This is awesome, dude!
Nothing is better than
Playing with food.

Since poetry is an year long unit, this was a great addition to our work with creation and reading of poetry.  Then on Tuesday morning we got to take part in the UES assembly where he gave us examples of what he has done in both writing poetry and re-writing songs in poetic form.  The students really enjoyed him.

This week we also finished off our first lab in which we looked at how to construct the best parachute.  On Monday we will write up and reflect on this lab.  Including the testing of the parachutes, students designed the lab, set up the testing schedules, recorded the results and drew conclusions about what makes the best parachutes.

We have also started our Biography unit by looking at what kinds of leaders there are in the various aspects of our society - religion, government, entertainment, education etc.  Next we will continue to look at the leaders and what makes them worth having a biography written about them.  As the week progresses, students will select someone to do a biographical sketch about.  They will write it as a script since they will be creating a video about their selected person.  Lessons in biography will include more on what makes a biography, how to read a biography properly and how to take notes as you are reading.

We have finished our second Literature Circle book and will move on to book number 3 next week.  Added to this is our new novel study - Sign of the Beaver.  With all these lessons and practice sessions, students are getting a lot reading done in class.  I hope it is spilling over to the nightly home reading as well.

Please remember that next week is only a four day week with Friday a Professional Development day for teachers.  We will be working on the accreditation report as well as having a Teachers Teaching Teachers time.  Should be a great day for me to learn more as my students do every day.

Next week starts our current events. I alluded to this last week and here are the particulars.  It is a program that supersedes homework for the student in charge.  At the top of very blog post for the rest of the year will be the students who are responsible and what day they are in charge of.

 There is a booklet that I will send home with the students in charge where they have to fill out a who, what, where, when and why and write up a summary report.  They will then present this to the class the next morning first thing as part of morning meeting. Everyone has a NEWSELA account where they can find great articles that show an impact on society.  They have also learned how to use the system to get the most out of it.

We have also completed the first draft of our memoirs booklet. I hope to complete this early next week.  If students can find pictures of themselves to add in, it really adds to this neat project.  I also know this may not be possible.

Thats all for this week.  If you have any concerns or questions please contact me to set up a time to meet.

Harold Daw