Friday, April 24 was a day when we went to see the On-Act plays at the high school done by the 9th and 10th grade students and directed by Seniors. They were very well-acted and hilarious ! The plays were "The Seven Wives of Dracula" and "Check Please". The first play gave a twisted view of what happened to Count Dracula when he became involved in life at a sanitorium for the insane - hijinks ensued ! "Check Please" had short excerpts from the worst dating disasters anyone could imagine and the humor involved in dealing with those. Many of the former TAG students were involved in the plays in both acting and directing.
One of our 8th grade Students has been very successful with a History Day project and will be traveling to Boston as a result of the project ! Emma J. and her partner, Katie S. did an extensive project about Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and have been invited to visit an awards ceremony for Ms. Gbowee in Boston in May where she will receive the JFK Profile in Courage Award.Ms. Downing, their Social Studies instructor, will also accompany them to Boston. It should be a great trip as they will get to spend a couple of days seeing historic sites as well as attend the awards. What a great experience that will be for all of them and congratulations to all three for a job well done !
Purple comet math contest this week. Sixth and seventh grade students have teams competing in an hout long math contest this week. It should be a challenge and will help us see where we need more work.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
April 22, 2009
It's Earth Day and all the students were consciously thinking about ways to help conserve and preserve our environment. They asked about recycling and if we should shut the lights off and many of the older students helped with the Hurley Creek clean-up yesterday.
Second graders and one first grader worked on solving the "Mystery of the Missing Medal" today. Work on mysteries involves the solving of logic puzzles and some deductive thinking that is beneficial for mathematical reasoning and just creating new paths of thinking. We also started working on Amphibians, which is a unit the second grade classes are all studying , so I have tried to find challenging information to add to what they are already doing. Part of our discussion today included listening to various frog sounds, such as the American Bullfrog, the Pigfrog, the Carpenterfrog and others.
Seventh grade Math students are finishing a unit on using percentages, but today did a short study on their understanding of the concept of "mean" or average. This is a part of the Math Strategies class I will attend tomorrow to work on deepening Math understanding for students. As a class,we do focus a lot on discussing our Math concepts and working cooperatively on our Math assignments. The students are great at accepting challenges and also challenging themselves. If you are in the classroom you would see students constantly discussing , comparing and quite often disagreeing about the "how" and "why" of a problem.
A report on Reading will be coming up soon.
Some of the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders have been corresponding with students in other countries through an educational site called E-pals. Teachers from around the world post topics they are interested in having students discuss and , if we have common goals, we start a correspondence. We have heard often from students in Great Britain and Italy, and a few times from those in Norway. It is interesting to see how the students share many of the same interests in books, movies and music. Also, I corresponded with a Norwegian teacher that had many of the exact same concerns about education that you will hear in the U.S.
Off to a Math meeting tomorrow, but I'm sure we'll have something new to post by Friday !
Second graders and one first grader worked on solving the "Mystery of the Missing Medal" today. Work on mysteries involves the solving of logic puzzles and some deductive thinking that is beneficial for mathematical reasoning and just creating new paths of thinking. We also started working on Amphibians, which is a unit the second grade classes are all studying , so I have tried to find challenging information to add to what they are already doing. Part of our discussion today included listening to various frog sounds, such as the American Bullfrog, the Pigfrog, the Carpenterfrog and others.
Seventh grade Math students are finishing a unit on using percentages, but today did a short study on their understanding of the concept of "mean" or average. This is a part of the Math Strategies class I will attend tomorrow to work on deepening Math understanding for students. As a class,we do focus a lot on discussing our Math concepts and working cooperatively on our Math assignments. The students are great at accepting challenges and also challenging themselves. If you are in the classroom you would see students constantly discussing , comparing and quite often disagreeing about the "how" and "why" of a problem.
A report on Reading will be coming up soon.
Some of the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders have been corresponding with students in other countries through an educational site called E-pals. Teachers from around the world post topics they are interested in having students discuss and , if we have common goals, we start a correspondence. We have heard often from students in Great Britain and Italy, and a few times from those in Norway. It is interesting to see how the students share many of the same interests in books, movies and music. Also, I corresponded with a Norwegian teacher that had many of the exact same concerns about education that you will hear in the U.S.
Off to a Math meeting tomorrow, but I'm sure we'll have something new to post by Friday !
Monday, April 20, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
4th grade students on Monday always have a lively discussion about what happened over the weekend......Who played soccer, who stayed at a friend's house, who has a frog at their house that doesn't even move unless you hit it on the head, etc.... The discussion can take quite a bit of time, but it is a good way to get the week started and get everyone caught up. Students don't all come in at the same time, and we discuss until everyone is here. There were also a couple of notable events in history to discuss - the Oklahoma City bombing anniversary was on the 19th, and also it was the anniversary of the Eleanor Roosevelt taking the first plane ride as a first lady with Amelia Earhart - in 1939. That was considered a really risky thing to do in 1939, though Eleanor Roosevelt did have a student pilot's license as well. We then progressed to working on Reading skills including a vocabulary assignment. We talked a lot about books and several were checked out befor students left. The classroom is really getting to be a great little "library" and students are in constantly looking for aand checking out books. I order many books myself as Amazon will verify, but it is fun to get books that the students really want to read.
One of our 8th grade students won the Optimist's Club oratorical contest on Saturday including a savings bond and will advance to the next contest where even bigger prizes await !!
7th Grade Math students are finishing a unit on using percentages and will be preparing for the Algebra Placement test. Still going strong on First In Math - 3rd place statewide and 13th nationally.
6th Grade Math students are finishing a unit on percentages and are starting on Geometry so are becoming familiar with the protractor, measuring angles and terms like congruent and perpendicular
One of our 8th grade students won the Optimist's Club oratorical contest on Saturday including a savings bond and will advance to the next contest where even bigger prizes await !!
7th Grade Math students are finishing a unit on using percentages and will be preparing for the Algebra Placement test. Still going strong on First In Math - 3rd place statewide and 13th nationally.
6th Grade Math students are finishing a unit on percentages and are starting on Geometry so are becoming familiar with the protractor, measuring angles and terms like congruent and perpendicular
Friday, April 17, 2009
April 17, 2009
The Math students have moved up to 3rd place in the First in Math competition ! They have passed two other teams and are doing great ! Congratulations on working so hard and we will continue to strive until the end of the game on April 30th to see how much we can achieve.
Good luck to those competing in the Optimists Club oratorical contest tomorrow ! Students are able to win scholarship money if they place in this competition. The topic is ; "What does optimism mean to me ?"
Younger classes will be working on Amphibians and Earth Day next week in TAG.
Eighth graders are continuing to "enjoy" poetry in Reading class. They are actually learning about some different poets: Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, e.e. cummings, etc. I am anxious to see what classic poems they discover and what original poem they have written for next week.
Sixth graders were preparing for a story called "Dragon,Dragon" and our connection in preparation included a discussion about who has the most influence on the student's decisions. I would say that the whole class expressed that their parents really had the biggest influence on what they thought and did, followed by teachers. We had a lively discussion about the role of siblings, including many entertaining stories about the sometimes painful and unconventional way they interact. It was encouraging to hear that most students respect their parents' decisions and realize that parents and teachers have their best interests at heart.
Good luck to those competing in the Optimists Club oratorical contest tomorrow ! Students are able to win scholarship money if they place in this competition. The topic is ; "What does optimism mean to me ?"
Younger classes will be working on Amphibians and Earth Day next week in TAG.
Eighth graders are continuing to "enjoy" poetry in Reading class. They are actually learning about some different poets: Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, e.e. cummings, etc. I am anxious to see what classic poems they discover and what original poem they have written for next week.
Sixth graders were preparing for a story called "Dragon,Dragon" and our connection in preparation included a discussion about who has the most influence on the student's decisions. I would say that the whole class expressed that their parents really had the biggest influence on what they thought and did, followed by teachers. We had a lively discussion about the role of siblings, including many entertaining stories about the sometimes painful and unconventional way they interact. It was encouraging to hear that most students respect their parents' decisions and realize that parents and teachers have their best interests at heart.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
April15, 2009
In the first and second grade classes today we talked about the fact that Jackie Robinson first appeared in major league baseball on this day and how he was a great role model for others in how he conducted himself during difficult times. Also, this is the anniversary of when the Titanic finally went down. Oddly enough, it went down at 2:27 AM and there were originally 2227 passengers on the ship. We watched some video clips about the Titanic, talked about the St. Judes' Mathathon to raise money for children with cancer, and will work more next week on " The Mystery of the Missing Medal" - a good chance for students to expand their thinking skills.
Our class is gaining in the First in Math" competition. We are in fifth place statewide among the 7th grade teams and are only ten points behind the 4th place team, which hopefully, we will pass today and then we will work on third place. We are ninth, working on 8th among the top 100 teams in the state. Yea !!! the students are working hard and we are reaching our goals !
In reading:
The 8th grade is starting a poetry unit and they are working on classic poets and will be discovering their favorites as well as trying their hand at writing some poems.
7th graders are doing some informational reading using the "Up Front" magazine and studying current issues.The 6th grade will be taking a test on Thursday over "The View From Saturday" and then we will read in the textbook for a few days.
Remember tea is always at 4;00 on Saturdays and "please, no presents, just your prescence". - from " A View From Saturday"
It is 65 degrees today and beautiful.
Our class is gaining in the First in Math" competition. We are in fifth place statewide among the 7th grade teams and are only ten points behind the 4th place team, which hopefully, we will pass today and then we will work on third place. We are ninth, working on 8th among the top 100 teams in the state. Yea !!! the students are working hard and we are reaching our goals !
In reading:
The 8th grade is starting a poetry unit and they are working on classic poets and will be discovering their favorites as well as trying their hand at writing some poems.
7th graders are doing some informational reading using the "Up Front" magazine and studying current issues.The 6th grade will be taking a test on Thursday over "The View From Saturday" and then we will read in the textbook for a few days.
Remember tea is always at 4;00 on Saturdays and "please, no presents, just your prescence". - from " A View From Saturday"
It is 65 degrees today and beautiful.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
April 14, 2009
The musical was a success on the first night ! Everyone is tired , but we are mainly working on the First in Math competition today to try and improve our score and also to improve Math skills. The 7th grade students are working and eating snacks. It's Maxx's 14th birthday, so we are celebrating his golden birthday of being 14 on the 14th. We had cookies, muffins and crackers while we worked. Students are happy with the class today because we are eating and working at the same time. Tomorrow we will start on the rest of the poetry unit in Reading which should be fun as well.
It's a beautiful sunny day.
Funny quote from a first grade TAG class last year: Joey: "My aunt lives in Marshalltown:
Tommy: "Oh, I thought you were going to say "Funkytown"
You just never know what you will hear .
It's a beautiful sunny day.
Funny quote from a first grade TAG class last year: Joey: "My aunt lives in Marshalltown:
Tommy: "Oh, I thought you were going to say "Funkytown"
You just never know what you will hear .
Monday, April 13, 2009
More Monday, April 13, 2009
The 7th grade Math TAG students are working on the First in Math competition this week. They are also finishing a chapter on Consumer Math with work on loan interest, check writing, and pie graphs. While doing this, they are hoping to improve their standing in the First in Math competition and move up statewide. They will be working during study halls as well. This is our big push to the end so we're hoping to really show what we can do !
Week of April 13th
Creston TAG 8th graders are preparing a play for May called "Conversation Therapy" for the spring. it's an entertaining story about a classroom full "troubled" kids and their teacher who try to receive help through talking to one another, but there are some very "odd" characters in the classroom , including the teacher.
The 8th grade just finished the play and an extensive unit about the drama"Twelve Angry Men"
Comments:
Bryce - It was a compelling play that made us think about a trial from all perspectives.
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