Learning Log ~ February 17, 2012

Learning Log ~ February 17, 2012

What We Did

Today (yesterday since it’s Saturday) we started off finding out that all those notes that we had taken on Wednesday’s double block were all for no apparent reason. Our substitute Ms. Harris had some photocopies that she was supposed to hand out but forgot about them. So for all our hard work and our patience over the duration of a not very interesting double block we got a bit of a break from Ms. Lees because she was quite proud that we didn’t complain. It was great practice for our notemaking skills, though.

Then we went over a criteria of the Do’s and Don’ts of notemaking which we organized in a T-chart.

After making sure we were all clear what we needed to do and what we shouldn’t do, Ms. Lees asked for samples of our notes to look at. After collecting about 4 samples we discussed the strong things about everybody’s work and what could be improved upon the next time we had the opportunity to make notes. Everybody had something that they did very strongly on their notes! Sharing the notes also helped everybody see where they are at because the samples were of all different levels.

Nearing the end of the class we had a bit of rest and relaxation as we sat watching and listening to some Horrible Histories on YouTube. Some of them were kind of funny and some of them were... quirky?? But it was nice to have something to laugh at in a, normally, serious class.

Why We Did It

We made a notemaking criteria so that it is clear to everybody what we need to do next time to improve. We all know the things we did well and the things we need to improve on and this cuts out the possibility of anyone saying, “What? I didn’t know we needed to/couldn’t do that! ” which I’m sure teachers get tired of hearing.

Looking at the samples on the document camera showed everybody what we were aiming for and what we needed to improve on. It also showed us that everybody has their own style of notemaking and just because you may have a different style than someone else doesn’t mean that you are wrong. Do whatever works for you as long as you understand your notes when you come back to look at them.

The Horrible Histories were for entertainment but they were also related to the content we are studying from the Middle Ages (like what we are reading from There Will Be Wolves). I thought it was nice to have a little bit of non-serious time.

Connections/Reflections

As we get into higher grades we are going to need to use our notemaking skills more and more. We can use them now to study for tests, too. The Cornell is a very useful tool to help you study and if you’re like me it’s easier to retain information if I write it down with my own hand. I don’t know why but it just sticks better.

Editing and looking over work can really help. If you’re looking to become the next sensational author, guess what you have to do to your manuscripts! You have to edit them before you send them off to publishers because you’re not going to make a great impression if you’ve got grammar and spelling mistakes in every other sentence. There are lots, and I mean lots of jobs that need people who can spot small errors in writing.

I’ve always thought I wanted to be an author but it’s discouraging sometimes when you think you’ve created something fantastic and you just get criticized (I know this from experience). Frankly, it hurts more than you would expect. Your feelings and everything are poured out into that story and there are so many people who can point out at least 2 things that you should do better. And then you feel crushed and never want to write again.

I think my favourite Horrible History was the Plague/Weather Report because I found it funny. The one I didn’t like was the song “I’m a Knight”. It was over repetitive and somewhat annoying after a while! I was so aggravated to find out that once I stepped out the doors of the Humanities class I found myself humming that song all the way to Science class!

Homework

This weekend Ms. Lees didn’t actually assign any homework because of our exemplary behaviour on Wednesday but if you want to you can finnish Chapter 9 There Will Be Wolves question because they will be due on Wednesday. We all need to catch up on our posting and we only have one more week!

Tips

Just a heads-up for all of you who might have forgotten. Humanities is in the library on Monday and Tuesday.

Have a nice weekend everybody!