Frequent "low-stakes" quizzes give students opportunities to reflect on what they know and what they need to practise to improve.
Understanding circumference and area of circles is the foundation of our next learning challenge: determining how to calculate volume of 3D shapes (e.g., cylinders).
Here is the quiz students wrote today. Please take time to discuss the answers to these questions.
In this pic, Matthew shows confidence in his explanations and the accuracy of his calculations.
Report cards provide an opportunity to reflect on what is going well, decide what needs to change and make plans for the steps needed to make those changes.
Today, students carefully reviewed their report cards.
We discussed the importance of the class "median" and they analyzed their own marks in relation to the median.
We reviewed each of the learning skills and students had the opportunity to identify up to 3 learning skills that they felt needed improvement. Improving learning skills is probably the single most important factor in academic success.
Finally, students read the comment section and focused on statements that mentioned areas that need improvement. Students reflected that most of them had read similar comments written by previous teachers. That is a sure sign that something needs to change!
Each student set specific goals to improve and shared those with me. Please set aside time to read the letter I included in the report card envelope (on gold paper) and discuss the report card with a focus on making a specific plan to improve.
It's never too late to make changes!
As part of our commitment to Random Act of Kindness Week, we used our understanding of how to write a personal letter to write letters to senior resident at Portal Village. We are working on our editing skills (sentences, punctuation and spelling) to make sure we correct all convention errors before turning in work. Here you can see part of Jersey's letter.
The receptionist at Portal Village was so appreciative when the envelopes were dropped off on Valentine's Day! Maybe some of the recipients will decide to write back.
In an assignment that combines understanding of measurement concepts and real-life communication skills (including logo design), students will create a presentation to explain whether the same amount of fencing can create different-sized dog runs.
Today we discussed the scientific meanings of epidemic, pandemic and endemic. In preparation for an exciting assignment on diseases, we are also investigating the connection between cell biology, scientific research and diseases. Because of our personal experiences with Covid 19, we reflected that no other group of students in history has known so much about infectious diseases.
Our next step will be to use the feedback and experience we gained during the organ systems presentations to create and teach a lesson on a specific disease. The difference this time, is that because each student will be researching a specific disease, the rest of the class will be learning about that disease during the presentation. Hence, the added writing assignment to make sure students in the class understand the key points about the disease.
We had a class discussion about the importance of learning from our mistakes and the gift of getting a second chance to show what you've learned.