30 Day Challenge Update

•     I really didn't know that  we were supposed to write thIs (I HAD TO HOLD DOWN THE CAPS LOCK BUTTON TO WRITE THAT!)...  I'M GOING TO WRITE THIS IN ALL CAPITALS BECAUSE MY PHONE GLITCHES WHEN I POST ON BLOGGER.     MY 30 DAY CHALLENGE WAS TO PRACTICE PIANO EVERY DAY FOR AN HOUR.  IT HAS BEEN WORKING BUT WHEN BASKETBALL STARTED TO GET BUSIER AND MORE TIME CONSUMING I GAVE IT UP AND MY PIANO SAT AND CRIED AS IT GOT DUSTY IN ITS OWN DARK LITTLE CORNER.  WHEN I DO PRACTICE IT'S USUALLY FOR ABOUT 45 MINUTES TO AN HOUR, SO I GUESS I DIDN'T PLAY FAIR.  I ONLY LIKE TO PRACTICE MY PIECES (SONGS) BUT I ABSOLUTELY DETEST THE TECHNIQUE!! IT'S SO ANNOYING!                                        MY GOAL WAS REACHED AT ONE POINT BUT I DIDN'T KEEP IT LONG ENOUGH TO MAKE IT A HABIT.  I GUESS I'LL HAVE TO RESET THE DATES AND START AGAIN WHILE I HAVE NO SPORTS TO COMPETE FOR MY TIME... BUT BADMINTON, HERE I COME :)                                                                      Y'ALL HAVE A GREAT SPRING BREAK!  I HOPE TO SEE YOU AROUND
  

Learning Log ~ February 24, 2012

Learning Log ~ February 24, 2012

What We Did It

Today (Friday) we started off making sure that everybody was on the right track and that we had our novel questions finished all the way up to Chapter 10. Ms. Lees walked around the room and looked over our answers and asked if we had any trouble with any of the questions. She initialed all of our papers.

We then reviewed our questions from chapters 6-10 for our quiz that we had after this review.

The quiz had generally the same sort of questions. We had to order events in the book, and do some true and false questions.

After Ms. Lees had checked everybody’s answers and we had our quiz, we had a little bit of quiet work time where we work on anything we saw the need for. Some people worked on extra note taking on their Middle Ages role, some people worked on their diary entries, and some people worked on Chapter 11 novel questions.

We got a sheet of how to make a bibliography. We learned how to cite different sources like websites, and books.

At the end of what felt like 20 minutes, our Humanities block was over and we had to clean up all our things and head off to our last classes of the day.

Why We Did It/Connections and Reflections

Ms. Lees wanted to check and make sure that we were keeping up with our work because we are almost finished and she doesn’t want anyone to be way behind when everyone else finishes There Will Be Wolves.

Reviewing the questions was really useful because I had a few that I was a bit confused on. I found the opinion questions very easy because I feel very strongly about some of the topics that they are discussing. It was pretty hard to write down my opinions. You can probably understand what I mean. When I know what I’m thinking but I can’t explain it.

We have to be able to put our thought s into words and be able to communicate and collaborate with other people all our lives so why not start now. It’s easier when you’re younger because everybody’s more open to talking to other people that are around.

For the quiz, I found that I am always confused when I have to order major events. I guess I just have a really bad memory for these types of things.

The work time really helped me out because I knew I was going to have a really busy weekend with basketball. I got started on my chapter 11 questions.

I never knew that making a bibliography was so confusing! I always just thought that you put some random information into any kind of order... or the order that you found it! I was really surprised at how many details you need to remember while you make one bibliography.

Homework and Tips

We had to finish our diary entries for Monday, along with our bibliography. If you get your diary done, you’ll have more time to work with your group, just a tip...

Make sure all you research is done, too. If your research is not done, you can’t get placed into a group either.

One last thing is that if you know that you’re going to be busy, work ahead on the novel chapter questions.

Have a nice evening! I hope to see you all in class on Monday!

Sara Posting A Little Late

Hi there!  I just wanted to say that I'll probably be posting late again.  I'm really busy this weekend because of a basketball tournament!  I'll for sure post this weekend.  Shanese have you heard any reasons why Fredrick and Trevor haven't been posting?  Last I heard, they both hadn't reached ten posts yet.      Thanks!

Learning Log ~ Februrary 22, 2012

Learning Log ~ February 22, 2012

Good evening! I hope I’m not posting too late...

What We Did Today

Today was one of those joyous occasions. I think you can probably guess what it was. If you guessed “A Humanities Double Block” then my hat’s off to you! This beautiful sunny afternoon in our Humanities portable we talked quite a bit and laughed a little, too. At the beginning of class we had to rearrange a few tables so that our backs were not facing the whiteboard after a quick shove to move the tables we were all set to start learning.

We started to talk about the plan for our time in Humanities up until Spring Break (which is only about 2 weeks away and I can’t wait). We talked about the due dates of things that were coming up. It was good to have an overview of what we are going to do in the near future so that there aren’t any surprises. Ms. Lees thought this was only fair because she had been absent for a few days last week and Tuesday’s class, too. We are going to have to share our portfolios and our blogs with our parents in about a week so impress them with the astounding writing of your blog posts!

We talked about an article from Fortune magazine that said what employers are really looking for in an employee. They wanted people who had good collaboration skills, were good at problem solving, and had critical thinking. The least preferred skill was to be tech savvy, incidentally what new employees are specialists in.

After talking about the master plan and the magazine article we transitioned into talking about the questions we had answered for the novel There Will Be Wolves. We were going to have a quiz later on Chapter 1-5 so it was a refresher for all of us. We went over some key questions that called on making inferences from the text. Some of them were also about making a judgement and articulating why you thought the way you did on one issue or another.

At the end of the discussion on our questions, it was time for break and we all went to wander the halls and find our friends.

We’re back! After a little struggle with the keys (we couldn’t figure out which key was the right one) we went inside and waited for our teacher to come and instruct us on what to do next.

Remember how I said we were going to have a quiz on There Will Be Wolves Chapter 1-5? Well, as soon as Ms. Lees walked in we were told to get out the dividers and obscure ourselves and our answers from our neighbours at close proximity. We received the test and were allowed to start once we got them. It was a ten question test with multiple choice and a question where you had to put events into sequence in which they happened.

After finishing the quiz we were generously given the rest of the class time to work on anything we wanted to. We had notes to finish up on our Middle Ages character, our Chapter 10 There Will Be Wolves questions, and the “A Day In The Life Of.....” diary entry for our Middle Ages character.

Before we knew it, it was time to pack our bags and vacate the vicinity.

Why We Did It and Connections/Reflections

We talked about the plan for our days up until Spring Break because Ms. Lees thought it would be a good idea for us to know just in case there were any unexpected times where she wouldn’t be able to make it to class or something.

I liked knowing just what was going to happen and when because then I can plan ahead and know if I need to work a bit faster if I know I’m going to be busy a lot at some point in time. Being swamped in homework is just not something I find fun!

I was surprised and kind of nervous upon finding out that we would have to show and tell our parents about our portfolios and our blogs. I guess it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me but it did. Obviously it was for some reason that we worked so hard to put together all our portfolios. I honestly don’t think I’ve shown very much “growth” over these last few months...

Going over the There Will Be Wolves questions before the quiz really helped me because I had no idea whatsoever about how to study for this quiz. Thankfully it was a short quiz. I thought that number 7 was kind of a trickily worded question. I got that one wrong. It was the one where you had to tell why people thought that Ursula was a witch. I circled the one that said it was because she worked with her father and was training to become an apothecary, but the correct answer was that she had cursed Mistress Elke’s baby! Ursula never really cursed Mistress Elke’s baby. People only thought so because of its deformities and the fact that it was born dead. If Ursula had not “cursed” the child it would still have been born deformed and dead.

The Fortune magazine article I found very interesting because apparently the new grads all fall short of this high and lofty standard. It’s good for us to know what people want and need in the real world so that we can start nurturing these skills and have them as close to perfect as we can. Technically savvy people were said to not be the best at communicating because when you communicate on social media websites it tends to be more of a one-way conversation than an actual back and forth communication. We need these skills to be independent and trustworthy when we start to apply for jobs. If you have good people skills and can process information and use it to your advantage, you’ll go far in life.

Homework and Tips

Today we had Chapter 10 questions assigned to us along with the diary entry starring our character in the Middle Ages. It might be easier to write the diary entry in the first person point of view to show all the thoughts of your character.

There’s going to be a Chapter 6-10 quiz on Friday so get ready for that by reading over the chapters and your chapter questions answers.

Our notes on our characters are due on Friday and have them in class if you want to be put into a skit group! Make sure you keep track of all you rsources because we need to make a bibliography soon!

Learning Log ~ February 20, 2012

Learning Log ~ February 20, 2012

What We Did

Today we had our Humanities class in the library. It was a relaxed day where you worked at your own pace.

First, we all got some reminders about homework that was due (which I’ll list closer to the end of the post). After that we got an outline for what our newest project was going to be about. It was a role-playing/research project. In order to do the role-playing part you have to have the research done and that’s exactly what we did today.

Before we hit the books and ogled at computer screens we had to learn how to make an bibliography. On a bibliography (for a book) you had to have the title, the author(s) and/or editor(s), publishing company, most recent copyright date, and publishing city. To choose the publishing city you choose Canadian and U.S. cities over international cities, and the closest city to Vancouver. For a website you needed to have the title (page), author(s), and date accessed. A useful tip is to look for a link on the site that says “How to Cite This Page”.

After all that was finished we got to pick our roles out of a tin Ritz cracker box and we all had fun gasping and laughing at peoples’ reactions as they looked at their slip of paper! I got to be the son of a lord, but there were other jobs like blacksmiths, stonemasons, bailiffs, and priests.

After all the commotion we all settled down and got to work. Lots of people worked on the computers and some people looked at books. We all needed to have at least one physical book to source some of our information. A little while of this research time and then it was time to go to our fourth block classes.

Why We Did It/Connections and Reflections (mushed together)

The whole point of this project was to learn more about a specific type of person (peasant, nobility, religious, etc.) at a specific time period (the Middle Ages). We also got to learn about the bibliography which we will need for a long time yet! In university we’ll need to know this and before that we have another 4 years before we all graduate and disperse into the big, big world.

We also only have 2 blocks to get as much research done as we can. This means that we have to work really fast to get our tasks done. If we don’t finish our research then we can’t get placed in a group to do our skits!

I liked the role that I picked out of the box because I always thought that it would be nice to know what it was like to be a rich noble in the Middle Ages. And have the perks of being a boy that had more rights than a rich noble girl in the Middle Ages.

I think the project is going to turn out really great. We get a lot of freedom to use our creativity in this project and that’s something I really enjoy doing! I’m pretty enthusiastic about the skit part of the project but I’m not such a great actress. As long as I’m willing to make a fool out of myself and not care about it, then I’ll be okay.

Homework

Today we got reminded of our Chapter 9 There Will Be Wolves questions (they’re due on Wednesday). On Wednesday we also have a Chapter 1-8 quiz (There Will Be Wolves, what else?!). One more thing that we all have to do is POST!!! We need to have at least 10 Learning Log posts each! This is very, very urgent so do this as soon as possible.

Tips

Everybody should review Chapters 1-8 of There Will Be Wolves for the quiz on Wednesday. Tomorrow Humanities is in the library again!

Thirty Day Challenge Progress Report

Thirty Day Challenge Progress Report

If you don’t all remember, my thirty day challenge was to practice piano for an hour everyday between 6 o’clock and 9 o’clock.

I’d say that I’ve been pretty successful at fulfilling this promise to myself because I do practice every day for an hour... for the most part (did I trick you?) Anyways there have been days when I’ve practiced for 45 minutes and said to myself, “Close enough!”, leave the piano, and call it a day which is cheating. Sometimes there isn’t even an actual valid reason why I stop practicing before my goal of 1 hour! Mostly, though, I’ve been a pretty good kid and I think Santa will be able to overlook these flaws in my behaviour and visit my house for Christmas this year.

In the pursuit of making my thirty day challenge an everyday thing even after the challenge is over I have enlisted the help of my mother, the most reliable human being on Earth! I told her to force me to practice every day even if I made up lame excuses.

The rest of my motivation has been from myself. This is because at the time my family was looking for a piano we were very serious about one piano from a man named Norman. We almost bought it before we found another cheaper one that worked just as well (and looked better, too). We went back and told Norman that we didn’t want his piano anymore and he just had a tantrum on the spot! He said, “You know what? Your kids are not even going to make it far in their piano studies so you don’t need a good piano like this one anyways!” and so we just walked out. That made me want to finish my piano studies to prove to him that at least one kid from my family would finish and finish well! Even if I never see him again to prove it to him.

I don’t think there is anything about my thirty day challenge that I need to change because I know that it’s doable. I just need Spartan discipline!

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!