What We Learned Today...February 4th

Dr. Couros speaking to the senior students today!

This morning we had a quick assembly in the gym before heading back to the class for a half hour of AR time.  After AR we continued our "Daily Five" stations in ELA and spent some extra time creating Acrostic Poems about Edgar Allan Poe's, The Tell-Tale Heart.  Students used the Acrostic Poem Tool from the Read, Write and Think website to help them create their poems. 
In Grade 8 Math students worked through their Unit 5 Math quiz.  If students finished early they worked on their Unit Review from their textbook or studied for their Test on IXL. 

After lunch the students had Arts. Ed with Ms. Norris and continued to work on their Social Justice Drawing Assignments.  From 1:15 - 2:15 we had French and continued to work on some basic French questions and responses associated with music.  We are quite near the end of our music unit and will begin to work on the Unit End Project very soon. For this project the students will create a Music Critique Podcast using Gagageband on the Macbooks.  (We have been fortunate enough to have access to the system Macbooks for the next month)  While I haven't assigned this project yet, you can take a look at the assignment here, or on the French page of this blog. 
During the last hour of the day the students went to the gym for a very special Digital Citizenship presentation from Dr. Alec Couros.  Dr. Couros is a professor of educational technology and media at the University of Regina and is one of the most knowledgeable people in his field.  He is also a former professor of mine and one of my biggest influences in educating through technology.  We were very fortunate to have him visit us today as he is a very busy man traveling from country to country educating others in Technology Education.  If you are on twitter you can follow him at @courosa!

Due Dates & Homework:

Math:
Grade 8
Handout 5.4 is due tomorrow, Feb 5th

Science: Optics and Vision Unit test is tomorrow, Feb 5th.

Overdue Assignments:

1) French Poster Assignment
2) "What's in a Name?" Blog Post
3) Social Group Drawings

Reminders:-

- Hot Lunch forms will be due tomorrow

-Downhill Ski forms need to be handed in asap!