Science timeline

The Grade 6 class is putting together an online timeline about the history of the development of electricity.  We are experimenting with a few different tools, including XTimeline and Time Toast.  We have talked about some of the important scientists and advances that led us to our understanding of modern uses of electricity.  It is the job of the students to put these points in order and present brief (2-3 sentences) summaries of each event.  They will also be adding 1-3 events of their own to our findings.  More info can be found here.  They will be meeting the following learning goals:

- evaluate the importance of events that led to the modern electrical system
- communicate their findings appropriately and clearly using on online timeline

Early Explorers Glog

We are hard at work this week preparing a Glog, which is like an online bristol board project, about one of the early European explorers that came to North America (see the background of the explorers on Google docs or here).  We will be examining a brief history of their lives, a look at the country they were representing, where they went and what we feel was their most important achievement.  We put together a checklist outlining what we felt was the most effective way to communicate this information on a Glog.  The checklist can be found here.
We will be working on the following learning goals:

- explain why Europeans came to North America and New France to establish colonies
- clearly communicate information using a presentation tool (Glog)

New France History unit

We are getting ready for a brand new Social Studies unit, where we will be studying the arrival of the French at Quebec and the establishment of the colony of New France, from 1600 until the Battle of the Plains of Abraham and the fall of Quebec in 1759.  We will be exploring the people involved in this story, and some of the issues raised by the interactions between the First Nations and the Europeans.  One of the skills we will work on is the ability to look at the same issue from different points of view, and contrast the views to try to find the middle ground.  Another difference with this unit is the attempt to make this more of an on-line and paperless experience.  Much of the information will be passed on through Google docs and via internet sources and web 2.0 tools like online timelines, presentation tools and surveys.  This should be an exciting!

Posted here are our Learning Goals for the unit (what we will have achieved by the end of the unit):

Learning Goals

- to identify the main events that happened in the colony of New France
- to identify the important places in New France
- to identify the important groups and individuals, and what made them important
- to examine the interactions between groups of people like the First Nations allies and enemies, the French and the English by looking at issues from both sides
- to communicate my findings clearly using the appropriate tool

Remembrance Day poetry

In the next few days we will be working on our Remembrance Day poetry.  The Grade 6/7 class is responsible for the Remembrance Day assembly every year, and part of our contribution is a collection of Remembrance Day poems.  We have been talking over the last few weeks about different features in poems that make them special, like using the five senses, including comparative images like similes and metaphors, using descriptive, strong verbs and adjectives to create vivid pictures in the reader's mind, and various techniques like alliteration, repetition, rhyming and personification. Today we talked about big ideas, moods and symbols related to Remembrance Day, as well as watching some film clips from World War 1.  Students are to brainstorm ideas for their poem tonight, and start work on a rough draft.  On Thursday we will be sharing our rough drafts and deciding what features we could add to make the poem more descriptive and vivid, and then we will be submitting our good copies on Monday.  The ideas and word walls we looked at today, as well as a checklist and rubric and some sample poems from last year that students agreed to share are all available here: https://husky67.pbworks.com/w/page/Poetry.Get writing!

Term 1 Progress Reports

The Term 1 progress reports went home today, as well as the times for conferences this week.  As you will notice, the format of the reports have changed, providing more information and feedback on learning skills, and no specific grades.  A flyer giving more information about the new reports also went home.  One of the main changes for this term is the lack of a page 3.  Instead, each student in the class is working on a Learning Skills goal in the same format we used at the end of September.  We also decided to choose one subject-related goal to work on.  For each goal the student will choose 2-3 steps that will help them succeed with their goal, as well as identifying a few things that we learned this term, something the student could still use some help with, and some things that the student is very proud of over the last two months.  Copies of the sheets we are using can be found here: https://husky67.pbworks.com/Reports-and-Goals  We are keeping the actual goals and sheets at school, and each student will use them as a basis for the student-led conferences we run on Thursday and Friday.  One last reminder that all students are expected to take part in those conferences.  If you have any further questions, we can discuss them during the conference or you can contact me at the school.