Monday and Tuesday Dec 19

Monday and Tuesday we did some writing and this great idea came up:

Rules are not important.

As a teacher, I couldn't let that slide. To help my side of the arguement, we started watching this:




As we worked on this film, I got two or three students caught up on their second opinion piece writing assignment.

Friday Dec 14

I made sure everyone that was here was finished the first Opinion Piece.

We are awesome.

Some started the second one - we chose the one about Student Stress.



via GIPHY

Thursday Dec 13

We also did some fun stuff in class today

We moved forward today.

Not literally, of course. Today we moved into writing opinion pieces together.

It was pretty gosh darned epic.

Tuesday and Wednesday Dec 12

On Tuesday we developed this list together of topics to write about for the next few days.

The countdown is on ... we are at six days left

Let me translate that:

"Teens should be paid better"
"The internet causes people to have low self-esteem"
Sports-Leafs /Raptors
School stress
recycling at school
Life as a teen is hard
Apps cost too much
Meat is murder

Monday Dec 10

Today was the Grade Nine House meeting day - so half of our class was not in the room and were working on getting ready for exams.

Stuff like:

Study ... talk to the teachers ... get a good night's sleep ... things like that ...

stay safe and see you tomorrow!

Thurs Dec 6 .... and Friday, too

Here is today's pic:

Just remember the formula for a good article we worked on in class:

Lead

Two or three sentences with the other W5H details

One quote from a person in charge

One quote from a person in the picture

Anddddd....you are done!


Edit for Friday: Yeah, the comments. W/e.

Wed Dec 5

Here is the image for today's W5H and News Report attempt.

We are going to use this

Tuesday Dec 4

This is the pic for which we will try and write a story

Monday Dec 3

Here is the pic we are going to write an article about today.

Fish.

Be the fish.

Friday Nov 30

here is the pic of the day for the News Article that we will write.

Wednesday and Thursday Nov 29

We did some cool stuff in class on Wednesday

Thursday we will be doing the W5H analysis on this story. (Its the Leaf's story from last night)

I'm doing Listeracy training today - I'm in the building, but you should be good to go.

Tuesday Nov 27

Here is what we came up with; I'm hoping no one ever steals my ideas ... actually OUR ideas for this article ..... ;)

Grade Eleven students at Jefferson High School were outside yesterday digging up the lawn. They didn’t get in trouble because they were doing a good deed by planting trees and other plant material. They planted ferns and maple trees in the front lawn and petunias in the back area.

“Teamwork makes the dream work,” said Principal Holly Whatttshername. She was happy to see the students took ownership to make their school look green friendly.

When asked, student Gwendolyn Sears said that she “Learned a lot outside today. Being out of the classroom and just working for the school was a great thing to do.”

Monday Nov 26

We continued working on our W5H forms when looking at newspaper articles.

We were going to go and read an opinion piece today, but everyone was low.

We will work on that stuff tomorrow!

Thursday and Friday Nov 23

Man ... Thursday was a football game that most of the school attended and Friday was the PD or PA Day ... I had to go to Corpus and learn about teaching stuff.

It was pretty cool.

In any case, we'll get back at it on Monday.

Wed Nov 21

Here is the pic for the W5H for today:

Tuesday Nov 20

Well, we did a fair amount of

BBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNKKKK!

...sigh.

reading today in class. We did have most of the class leave at 9:15 to go on the

BBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNKKKK!

.... sigh

Google trip.

But we all got some writing in to the teacher before the class ended.

Monday Nov 19

I usually don't put pictures of myself on here, but here is one from class today

This is going to be a wild week. Belt yourself in.

Today we read a story and the W5H chart for it. I think my students are getting the hang of doing that in class.

The next thing we did was to take this pic and make up the W5H items for it.

We are awesome!

Thursday and Friday Nov 15

We did an article on the snow that is coming

The snow came ... there was no snow day.

All good.

Have an awesome weekend - next week is a three day week!

Wed Nov 14

So ... it was Take Your Kids To Work Day.

This period was pretty laid back - we read the Toronto Star and commented on the news that we read to each other.

Tuesday Nov 13

We were supposed to read about the Raptors, but we read about the TTC today.

Just as we started, there was an assembly in the gym about the drive for Christmas.

So ... we got our stuff done and then I got a chance to show everyone their mark for midterm

It was squishy, but we got it done.

Mon Nov 12

So ... today I got a chance to interview everyone about Tuesdays with Morrie and finally finsh that unit.

I did ask everyone to hand in their Journal for that unit, too.

I will be showing marks to students tomorrow.

We also read about how well the Raptors did over the weekend and starting working our way through getting more literate!

Friday Nov 9

Yup, it was a rather odd day. 

In any case, we continued to read news articles from the Toronto Star together as a class.

It was a slow news day, and so we read about how well the Leafs are going to do tonight against the New Jersey Devils.

Wed and Thurs Nov 8

It's been a tough walk through this week, but we are almost at Saturday.

Wednesday we finished the book and Monday was set as the due date for Part 2 of TWM to be handed in.

On Thursday we looked at a Newspaper Article and read a few of them from the Toronto Star ... we nned to be able to do one for the OSSLT ... I thought it would be cool to read an article together and talk about the content of it.

On to Friday!

Monday and Tuesday Nov 6

So ... today will be another odd day.

In Period 2 the Grade Nines will be meeting with their Houses.

In any case, we read to page 51 ... almost done... almost.

We also mentioned this video in class, too

Fri Nov 2

Today we read for a bit, but then we went to a presentation by the Halton Regional Police Service.

It was ... wow.

Thurs Nov 1

Well, I'm doing this one late - on Friday morning at about 8:20 am.

Ah well. Last night was Parent Teacher Night.

Yesterday we read to page 47 and got some of Morrie's sayings up on the wall in Room 203.

Looks awesome!

Wed Oct 31

Well, we got to page 44 in the text.

We talked about the Book of Job, as it was mentioned in the text. I've done some work with this particular Book in the past, so I gave a bit of a short version of the text to the class, too.

We also watched this, we chuckled as he said "crayon" a lot, but it was mentioned in the class:

Tues Oct 30

We read to page 41. We got 17 and 18 for homework.

We also watched this, as Morrie mentioned that he listened to an acapella group one day.

Monday Oct 29

The video above is to let my students know about what a gazelle looks like when running. Morrie suggested he would come back as a gazelle if he was to reincarnate.

We read to page 35 and got 14, 15 and 16 for homework.

We are going to get through this Monday together.

Friday Oct 26

We did some reading, we got to page 31 in the novel.

We are doing awesome. I'm hoping you are enjoying the novel ...

In any case, we also got question 14 from the list of questions.

And we watched a bit of this interview with the real Morrie:

Thursday Oct 25

We got to page 26 today in the text - and Lou Gehrig was mentioned ... and the speech in Yankee's Stadium way back in 1937. The video above is from a series called "Baseball" by Ken Burns.

In any case, we worked on 11, 12 and 13 today after we finished reading.

It's cruising into Friday.

Wed Oct 24

We read a bit of the book, getting to page 24 in the text. My mom would say that we are "getting right along".

We did also get questions 12 and 13 for homework for later.

It's also Pink Day - a special schedule too.

Tuesday Oct 23

Hey everyone - Today we handed stuff in, worked on stuff to hand in and had our interviews with the teacher about Tuesdays with Morrie...

It was all good.

Monday Oct 22

So ... it's Monday.

We read to page 20 of the text and got question 11 for homework ...that is being handed in tomorrow.

Here is the list you need:

Thursday and Friday Oct 19

Thursday was our Grade Nine retreat

It worked as well as it could, and I got feedback that most students used their time wisely.

Friday we continued with Tuesdays with Morrie, reading to page 14 or 15 and got questions 7, 8 and 10 from the Unit Outline.

See you later!

Just a quick edit - Parent - Teacher night is Nov 1. Sign ups will begin on Monday Oct 22!

Wed Oct 17

Today we read to page 13 or so and got question number 4 and 6 for homework.

We also finished the movie. We are going to keep reading the book, though...

See you Friday!

Tuesday Oct 16

We had the Yellow Bench presentation today during our class together.

I think we got like five minutes of the film watched.

All good, all good. We are back at it tomorrow!

Monday Oct 15

Today we read the novel and watched a good chunk of the film, too.

We also saw Morrie and Ted Koppel interview each other:




But I'll be honest with my audience here and say that they were much more interested in the actual film version of the novel than the interviews with the real Morrie.

We also saw a bit of this video about the actor playing Mitch in the novel. Hank Azzaria is just an incredible actor:

Friday Oct 12

We read to page 7.

Then we watched the film, gave out some of the class pictures and then the progress reports.

All good, all good.

Thursday Oct 12

Today was pretty awesome. We read to page 6 in the text and then we also got the questions for the unit.

I will post the questions on the right hand side of this blog so you can have an electronic copy. Today we got question one and two for homework

We also watched the film to minute 48.

On to tomorrow!

Wed Oct 10

We are working our way through Tuesdays with Morrie.

Today we read and got to the end of page 4.

We also watched a good bit of the film, too.

Tuesday Oct 9

I started off today with a bit of housecleaning, so to speak.

I had a few students who needed an update of their work and needed to chat with the teacher.

I did also chat with my students about how hard the next part of the school year is for students and staff. It's from now until Christmas. It's a long hard grind of a section of the school year and I felt as though my students needed a few insights about how to avoid getting sick.

It's going to be ok, though.

After we chatted, we started reading the novel Tuesdays with Morrie. We will be reading as a class with lots of support. It's a wonderful book.

We read to page three today and got no homework on it.

Thursday Oct 4

So ... we have two books we might read:

Tuesdays with Morrie

and

Of Mice and Men

Wed Oct 3

That is the list of poems we studied in this unit. 

They are due tomorrow.

We also did some Poet Interviews, too

Tuesday Oct 2

Corinthians 12:17

Indeed the body consists not of one member but of many.¹⁵ If the foot were to say, 'I am not a hand and so I do not belong to the body,' it does not belong to the body any the less for that. Or if the ear were to say, 'I am not an eye, and so I do not belong to the body,' that would not stop its belonging to the body. If the whole body were just an eye, how would there be any hearing? If the whole body were hearing, how would there be any smelling? As it is, God has put all the separate parts into the body as he chose. If they were all the same part, how could it be a body? As it is, the parts are many but the body is one. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' and nor can the head say to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' What is more, it is precisely the parts of the body that seem to be the weakest which are the indispensable ones.

That is the poem that we did today in class.

Monday Oct 1

Here is the poem for the day:

Song of Songs 4:1-7

How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are doves, behind your veil; your hair is like a flock of goats surging down Mount Gilead.

² Your teeth, a flock of sheep to be shorn when they come up from the washing. Each one has its twin, not one unpaired with another.

³ Your lips are a scarlet thread and your words enchanting. Your cheeks, behind your veil, are halves of pomegranate.

⁴ Your neck is the Tower of David built on layers, hung round with a thousand bucklers, and each the shield of a hero.

⁵ Your two breasts are two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that feed among the lilies.

⁶ Before the day-breeze rises, before the shadows flee, I shall go to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of frankincense.

⁷ You are wholly beautiful, my beloved, and without a blemish.

And the pic that I drew:

Friday Sept 28

Mother to Son

BY LANGSTON HUGHES

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

But all the time

I’se been a-climbin’ on,

And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

Where there ain’t been no light.

So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now—

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.


We also read this poem for fun, not for an assignment/homework, "My teacher took my iPod"

Over the weekend, you can work on your Chapbook, get ready for reading your own poems and get ready for our Poet Interview!