Hello Families,
Yesterday the report cards were sent home. We have had several problems with the new reporting program. I apologize if your child's report card had whiteout all over it. The report card program was down yesterday and reprinting the report cards with the typos fixed just did not happen. If you notice that your child's report card is drastically different than you anticipated, please let me know as there have definitely been a few problems reported already. I appreciate your understanding as the division works out the kinks.
Today a note was sent home about our Christmas lunch. Our class is responsible for bringing tossed salad. The grade 7 students were asked to bring tossed salad with no dressing. The grade 6 students (in our class) have been asked to bring salad dressing. If the grade sixes could bring 1 large bottle or 2 small bottles that would be great. As for flavors, please ask your child what they'd like to bring, and just make sure it does not contain nuts or nut oils. We are completely open to using whatever shows up. :) The grade 7 students should bring about the equivalent of a head of lettuce. If you chose to buy a head of lettuce, please was and cut it up for that day. Prepackaged tossed salad is also fine.
Math - Grade 7 students have page 81 and 82 questions 1-12 for homework.
Language Arts - persuasive writing planning sheet - the brainstorming and RAFTS are due for tomorrow.
Drama storyboards are due on Monday. These will likely be finished in class tomorrow. The students worked in groups, and most groups are very close to completing the task.
Have a great night!
- Ms. Gallays
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Homework and stuff
Hello parents and guardians,
The grade 7 class has math homework today. They were assigned pages 79 and 80 - questions 1-12 today. They were given some time for the assignment, by will need to spend time working on it at home. We are currently working on fractions of a number. For example 1/2 of 6 is 3.
Tomorrow is the Idle Audit. I just want to remind you that we will be auditing cars idling in front of the school between 2:45 to about 3:30 -3:45 at the latest. Make sure your child is dressed properly for the weather. If they need to take the bus home, that's fine.
We may start filming our Idle Free infomercials tomorrow. Some students want to bring costumes for their roles, and they asked that I put a reminder on the blog. (So this is the reminder. :)
We watched a video today from the Story of Stuff. This video is called The Story of Solutions.
Here's the video if you're interested:
The grade 7 class has math homework today. They were assigned pages 79 and 80 - questions 1-12 today. They were given some time for the assignment, by will need to spend time working on it at home. We are currently working on fractions of a number. For example 1/2 of 6 is 3.
Tomorrow is the Idle Audit. I just want to remind you that we will be auditing cars idling in front of the school between 2:45 to about 3:30 -3:45 at the latest. Make sure your child is dressed properly for the weather. If they need to take the bus home, that's fine.
We may start filming our Idle Free infomercials tomorrow. Some students want to bring costumes for their roles, and they asked that I put a reminder on the blog. (So this is the reminder. :)
We watched a video today from the Story of Stuff. This video is called The Story of Solutions.
Here's the video if you're interested:
Monday, November 25, 2013
Some stuff about today and Wednesday
Hi everyone,
This is a reminder that today we will be walking to BJM to watch Anne of Green Gables. We will leave the school at 12:45 and return around 3:00. Please make sure that your child is dressed for the weather.
I also sent a note home last week about our Idle Free Campaign. This Wednesday we will be performing our pre-audit of cars idling in front of the school. Basically with the help of Megan from the SES we will count the cars idling in front of the school on Wednesday. This will take place between 2:45 and 3:45. I can't imagine that we will need to go beyond 3:30, but we will just play it by ear. If you child needs to take the bus, and you cannot make other arrangements, that's okay. We will fill your child in the next day at school.
Here is the note again in case you missed it. I know many kids did not get their note home because there were many found in the classroom after they were handed out. Please contact me if you have any questions.
This is a reminder that today we will be walking to BJM to watch Anne of Green Gables. We will leave the school at 12:45 and return around 3:00. Please make sure that your child is dressed for the weather.
I also sent a note home last week about our Idle Free Campaign. This Wednesday we will be performing our pre-audit of cars idling in front of the school. Basically with the help of Megan from the SES we will count the cars idling in front of the school on Wednesday. This will take place between 2:45 and 3:45. I can't imagine that we will need to go beyond 3:30, but we will just play it by ear. If you child needs to take the bus, and you cannot make other arrangements, that's okay. We will fill your child in the next day at school.
Here is the note again in case you missed it. I know many kids did not get their note home because there were many found in the classroom after they were handed out. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Information on upcoming events
Hello parents and guardians,
We put some more work into our portfolios today. Tomorrow we will add some pictures, and students will be able to bring the portfolios home again. I asked the students if they thought we should leave them at school for the conferences, and many of them thought that was a good idea because they were worried they would forget them at home. I will give them a choice tomorrow and they can decide.
We have a major project we are working on with the Saskachewan Environmental Society. Here is a note that will be sent home tomorrow. Pay close attention to all of the dates and times on the note as there are 3 days when students will be asked to stay after school to perform audits. I will let you know about the upcoming assembly as we get closer to December 11th. The video projects that we will be working on will be pretty cool. Of course, all parents will be invited to join us.
Homework for tonight for both grades: math (grade 6 1-8) (grade 7 - entire worksheet which most had completed)
We put some more work into our portfolios today. Tomorrow we will add some pictures, and students will be able to bring the portfolios home again. I asked the students if they thought we should leave them at school for the conferences, and many of them thought that was a good idea because they were worried they would forget them at home. I will give them a choice tomorrow and they can decide.
We have a major project we are working on with the Saskachewan Environmental Society. Here is a note that will be sent home tomorrow. Pay close attention to all of the dates and times on the note as there are 3 days when students will be asked to stay after school to perform audits. I will let you know about the upcoming assembly as we get closer to December 11th. The video projects that we will be working on will be pretty cool. Of course, all parents will be invited to join us.
Homework for tonight for both grades: math (grade 6 1-8) (grade 7 - entire worksheet which most had completed)
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
homework
Students have a short story that is due for tomorrow. They have been working on it in class. The good copy needs to be finished and turned in tomorrow with all of the rough copy.
Grade 7 students have a math test on Friday.
Classroom dojo letters were sent home today.
Have a good night!
-Ms. G
Grade 7 students have a math test on Friday.
Classroom dojo letters were sent home today.
Have a good night!
-Ms. G
Digging my way out...
Hello parents and guardians,
I want to start by apologizing for not posting more often in the past month. I was out of the classroom way more than I wanted to be, and as a result fell fairly far behind in almost everything. I spent the last few weekends catching up, and I think I'm almost caught up.
October had me fairly busy with in-services and cool opportunities, and I want to share a few of those opportunities with you. I was selected to participate in a joint partnership project on sustainability. This project is a joint partnership between the Public and Catholic school divisions, the University of Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Environmental Society, Saskatoon Light and Power, and the City of Saskatoon. The project involves a handful of classrooms from around the city and will culminate with an event sometime in March or April. I will have the opportunity to meet and plan with grade alike teachers, have access to some incredible human resources, and be given a tiny budget to work with. (Any money is better than no money! :) What does this mean for our class? Well the students have to chose a measurable project that they would like to undertake, and then they will have help to design a campaign that is aimed at making change. We will learn how to audit this change and will have to report back to our partners later in the year. What kind of changes? It could be reducing the amount of idling in front of the school, reducing the amount of lights the school uses on empty rooms and classrooms, reducing our use of Styrofoam.
As a result of this project, I have slightly changed the direction our current unit has taken. We were going to write persuasive letters right now, but I think we will hold off and do that as part of our action a little later in the year.
I had another in-service I attended on technology. Since I've never learned how to teach practical arts, and grade 7 students need to do some practical arts, I signed up to learn how to make movies. I spend a day learning by doing. We had to storyboard our idea, film it, and use iMovie to create a 5 minute movie. It was great fun, and I almost can't wait to do this project with the class. (Now that we have 31 kids in our class, I'm a little nervous about how we'll share the technology and how I'll be able to work with each group.)
I've also been working on another grant. Last year I pursued a TreatySmarts grant through the Saskatchewan Arts Board. That grant paid for the our treaty/spoken word project last year. This year I have applied for an ArtsSmarts grant. I wrote the grant around dance, music/beat boxing, and spoken word/rap. This year our focus will be on the globalization of culture and how technology fuels that globalization. We will have an emphasis on hip-hop and look at its origins and cultural influence and impact. The grade 8 class will participate in the project with us. I have partnered with some very accomplished, and very cool artists, as well as The Mendel Art Gallery, and the AKA Paved Arts Gallery. I won't know for about approximately 40 more days if we were successful in securing the grant, but I am hopeful. Writing an Arts grant is very time consuming, it was another thing that kept me busy in October. I believe firmly in the power of the arts to transform learning from something that is bland and abstract into something that is concrete and has a lasting impact.
On Friday portfolios will be sent home. As a staff, we decided to move our portfolio in a new direction. This year we will create growth portfolios. The goal of a growth portfolio is to show growth. This might look different from last year in that last year portfolios may have had more polished showy work, and not as much of the messy "beginning" work. This term, we will select pieces that show where we started. (And, some of them aren't that great.) Keep in mind that to see growth, we have to show you where we started. Some of that growth may be evident already, some of it might not be evident until later in the year. We have also started to do some new kinds of learning with art journaling, mind mapping, and our inquiry journals. These are all new forms of work for me, so I am also growing as I try to figure out how to push students to show their deep thinking and reflect on their thoughts.
Today I will send home a parent access code for classroom dojo. This is a new-to-me online tool for classrooms. Your child has his or her own avatar, and when they are on task or off task I can give them points. As a parent, you can check on your child's classroom behaviour by signing in daily or weekly. I've selected 3 ways for students to earn or lose points: being on task, being prepared, and being on task. I'm not very good at using the program, yet. I hope that it becomes much easier to use as I get accustomed to it. I've decided that if as a class we can have a weekly positive rate of 90% or higher, the kids will get a treat. (Maybe an extra phys. ed. period?)
Have a great week everyone. I hope to be on here a lot more regularly now that I'm back on track.
-Ms. Gallays
I want to start by apologizing for not posting more often in the past month. I was out of the classroom way more than I wanted to be, and as a result fell fairly far behind in almost everything. I spent the last few weekends catching up, and I think I'm almost caught up.
October had me fairly busy with in-services and cool opportunities, and I want to share a few of those opportunities with you. I was selected to participate in a joint partnership project on sustainability. This project is a joint partnership between the Public and Catholic school divisions, the University of Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Environmental Society, Saskatoon Light and Power, and the City of Saskatoon. The project involves a handful of classrooms from around the city and will culminate with an event sometime in March or April. I will have the opportunity to meet and plan with grade alike teachers, have access to some incredible human resources, and be given a tiny budget to work with. (Any money is better than no money! :) What does this mean for our class? Well the students have to chose a measurable project that they would like to undertake, and then they will have help to design a campaign that is aimed at making change. We will learn how to audit this change and will have to report back to our partners later in the year. What kind of changes? It could be reducing the amount of idling in front of the school, reducing the amount of lights the school uses on empty rooms and classrooms, reducing our use of Styrofoam.
As a result of this project, I have slightly changed the direction our current unit has taken. We were going to write persuasive letters right now, but I think we will hold off and do that as part of our action a little later in the year.
I had another in-service I attended on technology. Since I've never learned how to teach practical arts, and grade 7 students need to do some practical arts, I signed up to learn how to make movies. I spend a day learning by doing. We had to storyboard our idea, film it, and use iMovie to create a 5 minute movie. It was great fun, and I almost can't wait to do this project with the class. (Now that we have 31 kids in our class, I'm a little nervous about how we'll share the technology and how I'll be able to work with each group.)
I've also been working on another grant. Last year I pursued a TreatySmarts grant through the Saskatchewan Arts Board. That grant paid for the our treaty/spoken word project last year. This year I have applied for an ArtsSmarts grant. I wrote the grant around dance, music/beat boxing, and spoken word/rap. This year our focus will be on the globalization of culture and how technology fuels that globalization. We will have an emphasis on hip-hop and look at its origins and cultural influence and impact. The grade 8 class will participate in the project with us. I have partnered with some very accomplished, and very cool artists, as well as The Mendel Art Gallery, and the AKA Paved Arts Gallery. I won't know for about approximately 40 more days if we were successful in securing the grant, but I am hopeful. Writing an Arts grant is very time consuming, it was another thing that kept me busy in October. I believe firmly in the power of the arts to transform learning from something that is bland and abstract into something that is concrete and has a lasting impact.
On Friday portfolios will be sent home. As a staff, we decided to move our portfolio in a new direction. This year we will create growth portfolios. The goal of a growth portfolio is to show growth. This might look different from last year in that last year portfolios may have had more polished showy work, and not as much of the messy "beginning" work. This term, we will select pieces that show where we started. (And, some of them aren't that great.) Keep in mind that to see growth, we have to show you where we started. Some of that growth may be evident already, some of it might not be evident until later in the year. We have also started to do some new kinds of learning with art journaling, mind mapping, and our inquiry journals. These are all new forms of work for me, so I am also growing as I try to figure out how to push students to show their deep thinking and reflect on their thoughts.
Today I will send home a parent access code for classroom dojo. This is a new-to-me online tool for classrooms. Your child has his or her own avatar, and when they are on task or off task I can give them points. As a parent, you can check on your child's classroom behaviour by signing in daily or weekly. I've selected 3 ways for students to earn or lose points: being on task, being prepared, and being on task. I'm not very good at using the program, yet. I hope that it becomes much easier to use as I get accustomed to it. I've decided that if as a class we can have a weekly positive rate of 90% or higher, the kids will get a treat. (Maybe an extra phys. ed. period?)
Have a great week everyone. I hope to be on here a lot more regularly now that I'm back on track.
-Ms. Gallays
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