Minor Details - September 19

September 19 - 23, 2022

Dance

You can see in this video (click here) that we have improved a lot since we started practising Alexis' and Macy's choreography for the dance. Only 1 more week to the flash mob performance at the assembly!

Assigned Work Update

From experience with my own teenager, asking how school was going was largely a waste of time because I got very little information.

If you have similar experiences, our Google classroom and this blog may be very helpful. Checking the Google classroom will give you all the information you need about class assignments. If you want to join our Google classroom, please send me an email at stephanie.minor@dsbn.org and I will send you an email invitation.

As a quick summary, here are the following assignments that students have completed for evaluation so far this year:

3 attentive listening quizzes
6 reflection journal entries (reflection questions are posted in the "General Information" section of the Google classroom)
3 procedural instruction tasks (peanut butter sandwich instructions, dance instructions & food separator instructions)
3 scale drawings (school hallway, classroom & bedroom)

Spending some time with your child now to review this work is a great support strategy to make sure he or she has completed all assigned work.

Learning Progress Reflection

Reflection is a key part of learning. (If you would like to know more about reflection, please read the article I wrote here). Grade 8 students who were in my class last year have noticed many changes in what we do (i.e. binder organization, desk mentors, etc.) based on my reflections of what did not work well last year. "Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is insanity" according to Einstein. We need to reflect on what is working and what is not and then make purposeful changes.

Students took time on Wednesday to write a reflection on their academic progress, share evidence of their progress and to think about what they need to do to continue to be "always better". Here is an example of Macy's reflection.

Please make time to have a thoughtful discussion at home about the progress your child has made and help set realistic goals for improvement.

Marigold Plants

We have transplanted our marigold seedlings into pots and will continue to make observations on their growth.

As we learn about the needs of living things, we will be designing our own experiments to determine the effects of contaminants on plant growth.

Scientists must have the results of their experiments verified by other scientists in order to be considered valid. Ms. Boyer's grade 3 class will be collaborating with us, replicating our scientific procedures and discussing their results.

Daily Learning Goals

Each day I post a summary of we need need to achieve that day. In addition to the specific learning tasks (identified by subject subheading), there is a list of what is due (on the right side in red).

The Google classroom is the home of all the digital resources we create in class. This includes class notes, research links and assignment descriptions and criteria. It also includes all the daily learning goals in the "Daily Learning Goals" section.

At this age, students want the privileges of being adults, but they frequently lack the independence and responsibility that are required to manage those privileges.

The purpose of posting the summary of learning each day is to:

encourage students to focus on the specific learning goals for the day
manage their time to complete assigned tasks
build independence and problem-solving skills (i.e. to rely less on one-on-one teacher direction to know "what to do next")
determine when they need support
take responsibility for their own learning

Ecosystems Field Trip

We had beautiful weather for our ecosystems field trip today. The purpose of the trip was to observe, gather data and develop questions about the biodiversity of a variety of ecosystems including native gardens and grass lawns.

Students toured Port Colborne to observe 20 different residential properties, recording the diversity of plants and the variety of ground cover.

At one house we were absolutely shocked at the number of monarch butterflies, bees and other pollinators! And no, it was not a conventional lawn.

Over the next month we will research our questions and dig deeper into the culture and environmental impact of grass lawns.

We encourage you to ask yourself why we have a culture that encourages conformity around grass lawns, especially when we are experiencing a crisis with decreasing pollinator species. Paraphrasing Albert Einstein, we can't keep doing the same things and expecting a different result.

Integrated Design Project - Financial Literacy Basics

Today we are learning how to use formulae in Google Sheets to set up a budget for the bedroom design project. We will continue to use this application throughout the year to manage data.

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