Spring Fever?

Some students just returned to class from a VERY long weekend.  This is a reminder that we still have more than a month of academic learning time.  We will complete just as much in the next month as we would complete in March or November or any other month.  And by the way, congrats to those who advanced in Track and Field.  Keep up the good work.  

A lot of students are getting to class late, especially in the grade 8 and 9 classes.  I know admin. is dealing with this through suspensions, but I say just get to class!  For a class like Social that we only have 3 times a cycle being 10 minutes late really kills our time to accomplish anything.  

I have good news that most students have been getting the hang of turning in work.  I still have quite a few assignments floating out there in the ether, but I am still signing you up for Homework Club until I receive it completed.  

Grade 7

Math 7 - circles exam next Thursday.  Students will have started the review this Friday so they can spend time reviewing at home as well.  This unit has been hit and miss.  I think everyone has a basic understanding, but it is key to really know the difference between the different formulas and how to draw a circle graph for the exam.  Practice will be needed before Thursday.

Soc. 7 - some students need to hand in their Timeline/Family Tree still.  This was due the first week I was here.  Also there is the Social Justice club posters out there too.  When we have three days off from Social we need to make sure that we don't forget about the assignments.  We will be having a current events quiz next week (Wednesday) and a Personal and Social Identity Exam on around June 2nd.  

Sci. 7 - we are near wrapping up electricity.  There will be a chapter quiz soon and then as promised a larger exam on all three energy chapters.  Those are Light, Sound, and Electrical Energy.  

ELA 7 -things are going well.  We are going to do an Advertising Campaign project over the next few days.  

Grade 8/9

Most assignments are turned in.  Good work!  

Social 8/9 - current events quiz will be June 1st.  Otherwise we are just plugging along in the citizenship unit.  We just looked at the different types of governments around the world.  We will be looking a bit into politics and learning quite a bit about our democracy.  The goal of the unit is to guide students to becoming informed and active citizens.

Science 8/9 - We will be looking at adaptations in animals and plants.  We will then lead into sybiotic relationships between animals.  These are relationships like those between a parasite and a host.  Not all relationships are bad, though.  I think some of them are pretty cool.  We will watch a few videos throughout this to make it a bit more exciting.

Math 9

I have been having a blast using the Algebra Tiles.  The students seem to find them fun too.  There will a hand-in assignment next week which should give us all a gauge as to how well the students are picking up the skills.  With so many absences it is hard to say right now how well we are doing.

Another note is that the students who took the opportunity to rewrite their last exam should be done now.  The good news is that everybody improved his/her mark, but unfortunately many of them are not a drastic improvement.  I am a bit frustrated by this process as I had a student ask me minutes before the rewrite, "Can we do it tomorrow instead because like nobody is ready or had time to study."  First of all, the exam was 8 days earlier, I would hope in that time frame you had time to study and if not you probably don't deserve the chance to rewrite the exam.  It creates much more work for the teacher to administer the tutorial and create the new exam, and if you don't take it seriously you will lose the opportunity.  

Thanks for checking in.  I hope you have a great week or weekend (whenever you check this).