Technical Troubleshooting

Our experience from last year led us to troubleshoot some problems we had with home computers and accessing the information on the blog and wiki, especially with not being able to see some files.  A few things that might help are:
1.    Downloading the latest version of Adobe Reader at http://get.adobe.com/reader/
2.    Trying a browser that is not Internet Explorer
          Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html)
          Google Chrome (http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/landing_chrome.html?hl=en)
          Apple Safari (http://www.apple.com/safari/download/)

If you can't get it to work on one, try another. Last year we had four different browsers that people were using at home, although usually Internet Explorer was least successful.  We also had a couple of people who had to change some settings on their computer, as they were getting pop-up windows that said the wiki site was blocked.

Try some of these options if you have difficulty, and if it still doesn't work, you can contact me and I will try to find another solution.

Welcome back!

Welcome back to a new school year!  We have an exciting year ahead of us in Grade 5/6, and I am looking forward to getting to know all of you better and working on some of the exciting projects we have ahead of us.  The beginning of the school year is always a big time of change and renewal, and a time to create and maintain good learning habits that will set everyone up for their senior years at HPS.

The first day of school is always very busy, and we covered a lot of expectations and handed out a lot of sheets.  First, we reviewed our classroom and school expectations, none of which should come as any real surprise to the students.  We settled into our new desks and talked a little about the year to come. Just a reminder that all students will need outdoor running shoes that have closed toes and can be laced up, as we will be starting soccer and cross country right away.  For our soccer unit and intramurals, cleats are certainly allowed, but not at all required.  I have a small selection of cleats here at the school as well, that can be borrowed by students.  There were also a large number of sheets handed out.  The Emergency Contact Form needs to be filled out for every student, and must be returned to the school this week.  A classroom newsletter went home, as well as a permission form to sign the students up for Google accounts for use in the classroom.  We also received our school planners, which are partly funded by the school council.  The remainder of the fee is $5, which can be sent into the schol this week.  Homework is reviewed daily, is always posted on the side board in the classroom, and will be written in agendas at the end of every day.

Over the last couple of years, this classroom has been working on expanding our learning on to the computers and to the internet, using a variety of different tools like Prezi, Glogster and Google docs.  We are also working on more of an online presence with our blog, wiki and twitter feeds.  Basically, the wiki (you can see the link to your right at the top of the blog) has more permanent information like what is expected in a certain style of writing, or samples of work we have done here in class, or mark sheets that you can rely on when completing your work.  The blog (where you are right now), will have periodic posts  updating students and parents about events in the classroom, or new units we are starting, or advice about places to go for extra help, and so on.  You can poke around at some of last year's posts to get an idea of what to expect.  Finally, we have the twitter feed on your right, which is more likely to echo items that were on the homework board.  I am hoping that this will all work together to keep parents more in the loop about what is happening in class and around the school.  It should also allow students to be more independent with their learning this year.  It also follows the board and school goals of becoming increasingly paperless and reducing our school's environmental impact.

Finally, not all students have regular access to the computer, or their internet is slow, or other problems arise.  If that is the case, I can absolutely give these students paper copies of what is posted on the blog and wiki, as long as they don't wait until 3:15 to tell me they need it!

This is going to be a busy week, with a lot of information and sheets of paper to get organized and processed.  I am looking forward to getting to now all of the students and their families even better in the weeks and months ahead.

Let's have a great year!

Persuasive Writing

We have been getting opinionated over the last few weeks, taking stands and making strong points.  It is time again for persuasive writing!

We have reviewed the proper format and a number of persuasive techniques that are used to make people agree with our point of view.  We also reviewed the difference between a letter (Grade 6 task) and an essay (Grade 7 task).  The students came up with 20 different prompts that we could write about, and we worked our way through some graphic organizers that helped us get everything in the right order and not leave any parts out.  We have done modeled and guided writing (together and with feedback), and we are about to embark on our independent writing task.  With that in mind, here is a link to the wiki with copies of the main tools we used in class, including the organizers, checklists and the Grade 7 counter-argument anchor.

https://husky67.pbworks.com/w/page/25896205/Persuasive-Writing

Patterns of Physical Geography

Our Geography unit will look at the patterns of physical geography.  This covers the three main types of landforms - plains, plateaus and mountains.  We will also explore climate patterns around the world, and work with climate graphs.  We will complete some maps that locate the major river systems of the world.  Finally, we will be identifying different types of agricultural systems and describing some of the factors that affect them.

Air and Flight

As we move into our next Science unit, we will be looking at the properties of air and flight.  We will be doing a number of experiments that explore the properties of air and aerodynamics, and then applying our findings to the way that airplanes work in relation to the four forces of flight.  The first part of the unit will also concentrate on the way that we write up lab reports, using the scientific method.  A copy of the checklist we use to guide our lab report format can be found here:
https://files.pbworks.com/download/vYTWqsJGkP/husky67/25751252/Lab%20Report%20Checklist-feedback.pdf

The second half of the unit will deal with how airplanes operate, and with the construction of different types of paper airplanes to accomplish various tasks, based on what we have learned about air and the four forces of flight.  We will focus on trials and improvements, using an experimental model.

Additional information and practice can be found here:
http://www.gsc.amdsb.ca/grade6/grade6_science.htm

Multiplying and Dividing

We will be working on our division unit in the next few weeks, but first need to brush up on our multiplying skills.  We have been reviewing the strategies for working out the times tables, and students are expected to practice their times tables to avoid making simple calculation errors.  One way to do it is to use the following website http://www.multiplication.com/interactive_games.htm, which makes practicing a little more interesting.

We will work through a few different techniques to work on our dividing before we get to long division.  This is intended to provide a better understanding of the concepts involved in dividing, as well as a way to double check work when we do it the old-fashioned way.

Some examples you can check out as we progress can be found here:
https://files.pbworks.com/download/nLlPZL3XE5/husky67/26285656/Dividing%20models.pdf

2-D Geometry and Measurement

We are starting a new math unit that deals with 2 dimensional geometry and measurement.  We will be covering angles and shapes, perimeter and area over the next couple of weeks.  Helpful summaries can be found on the wiki here: https://husky67.pbworks.com/w/page/26368963/2D-Geometry-and-Measurement.

Extra practice and review questions for some of the topics we will be covering can be found here: http://www.nelsonk8math.com/math6/studentcentre/studsurf.html#ch7 and here: http://www.nelsonk8math.com/math6/studentcentre/studsurf.html#ch5.  You can also try out the Chapters 5 and 7 activities here: http://www.nelsonk8math.com/math6/studentcentre/studtryout.html.

Reading Response

We are also working on our reading responses to "making connections" questions, and are seeking to show deeper understanding in our answers. We have been putting together some steps that will help guide our paragraphs for this purpose. A full list of the steps and some extra information have been provided on the wiki at: https://husky67.pbworks.com/w/page/25998659/Reading-Response.

Reading Response Guide

Step 1: Snap the question - what information does it give you, and what information is required to answer it? Brainstorm possible answers to what is required.
Step 2: What is the "Big Idea" from the story (what message is the author trying to get the readers to think about)? How does the "Big Idea" relate to the question? Which of your possible answers do you think works best with the "Big Idea"?
Step 3: Brainstorm possible support from the text that will back up your own thinking and the "Big Idea". Make sure your text support relates directly to the question asked.
Step 4: Brainstorm ways to compare (show it's the same) or contrast (show it's different) the message to something in your life. Make sure your ideas relate directly to the question!
Step 5: Organize your response according to the Reading Response anchor.

Learning Goal

• We will learn how to deepen our understanding of the “Big Idea” of a text by comparing or contrasting and making connections to our own knowledge, experience, world or other texts.

Speeches

One of our major projects for January will be our class speeches.  These speeches will be 3-5 minutes on a topic of the student’s choosing, and will be delivered to the class at the end of the month.  We will be going through the writing and delivery process throughout the month, but a lot of the writing and practicing will have to be done at home.  A link to the information we will be going through in class, as well as rubrics and timelines, can be found here: https://husky67.pbworks.com/w/page/34367723/Speeches.

Learning Goals
Oral Communication
- use vocal skills such as tone, pace, pitch and volume, as well as non-verbal cues including facial expressions, gestures and eye contact to appropriately communicate with a specific audience
- reflect on and identify their strengths as speakers and areas for improvement

Writing
- generate, gather and organize ideas and information to write for an intended audience
- revise their writing to create an appropriate voice and point of view

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.

Data Management Math unit

We are starting a new math unit this week, which deals with reading and creating graphs and other ways of organizing data.  There are models of how to create different types of graphs here: https://husky67.pbworks.com/Data+Management+-+Graphing+-+Probability.  Extra practice can be found here: http://www.nelsonk8math.com/math6/studentcentre/studsurf.html#ch3 or here: http://www.nelsonk8math.com/math6/studentcentre/studtryout.html#ch3.  For parents who want to help their student out with the math homework, there are some helpful tips and answers here: http://www.nelsonk8math.com/math6/parentcentre/parentcentre.html.  Don't forget to make use of the glossary at the back of your text book.  We already discovered some useful information about describing trends in a graph.  Finally, we will be making use of an online graph creator that you may find helpful.  You can create most types of graphs here: http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx.  Just make sure you remember to print when you complete the graph, because it is sometimes hard to save with this program.

More info on Mountville

Just an update on the Mountville project.  This weekend, you should be working on the volcano section.  In the project guidelines, a number of options were given for how the volcano is being monitored, things to look out for, and possible effects the volcano might have on Mountville and the surrounding area.  Not all of these options necessarily apply - you need to choose some of them, and for each thing you choose you should include a sentence or point about why you think it fits in this circumstance.  For example, you might say that you need GPS plugs to monitor ground swelling that indicates that the volcano is getting ready to explode.  On the other hand, lava might not be an issue to the town because there are other mountains in the way that would block the lava flow.Finally, you might choose flooding from the dam because the force of the volcano could destroy the dam and cause the reservoir's water to go flooding into the valley.

On Monday, you will have a double period in the computer lab to work on the evacuation plan.  You should use the guiding questions provided, the layout of the land around Mountville, and your common sense to answer each of the sections.

Happy consulting!

More info on Mountville

Just an update on the Mountville project.  This weekend, you should be working on the volcano section.  In the project guidelines, a number of options were given for how the volcano is being monitored, things to look out for, and possible effects the volcano might have on Mountville and the surrounding area.  Not all of these options necessarily apply - you need to choose some of them, and for each thing you choose you should include a sentence or point about why you think it fits in this circumstance.  For example, you might say that you need GPS plugs to monitor ground swelling that indicates that the volcano is getting ready to explode.  On the other hand, lava might not be an issue to the town because there are other mountains in the way that would block the lava flow.Finally, you might choose flooding from the dam because the force of the volcano could destroy the dam and cause the reservoir's water to go flooding into the valley.

On Monday, you will have a double period in the computer lab to work on the evacuation plan.  You should use the guiding questions provided, the layout of the land around Mountville, and your common sense to answer each of the sections.

Happy consulting!

Mountville Consultant Project

As our culminating activity for the Themes of Geographic Inquiry unit, we will be creating an Emergency Plan for the town of Mountville, which is threatened by a rumbling volcano .  Students will receive a map of the area, and then they will put together a 3 part plan to help the town deal with a potential volcanic eruption. This will involve:


Part 1:   Coloured and coded map
              PRIME Analysis of Mountville
              Report on the volcano
Part 2:   Evacuation plan
Part 3:   Plan for the return of the citizens of the area


A detailed outline of the expectations, a copy of the map, and a sample student copy of a PRIME analysis of Benmiller are all available here, as well as the notes from our unit: https://husky67.pbworks.com/w/page/Themes-of-Geographic-Inquiry.  So make sure you use the samples and questions as a guide to what you are to put in your project!  Attached to the end of the project guidelines you will find some resources to use as a starting point.


Reminders:

• You are consultants! So your report should look neat and professional, and you need to use geographic terms and formal language, not the way you would talk to your friends.
• You can use point form where it would be appropriate.
• This is the outline provided for everyone.  We will be discussing each of these sections in class as we go along and doing some brainstorming as to possible things you could write, so make sure you pay attention in class and write down ideas you think you could use, as this will make the whole process easier.  If you don’t, this will seem like a very big task!  We will also be discussing a series of recommended timelines to get things done in smaller steps (like the Gr 6 students did with the leaf project).  This will also make the project more manageable.  If you don’t meet these deadlines, you will have an awful lot of work to do at the last minute.

As of October 26th, the recommended schedule of due dates is:
PRIME Analysis and map - Oct 29
Volcano section - Nov 1
Evacuation section - Nov 3
Return section and hand in of project - Nov 4

We will be discussing possible ways to present your findings in class.  The easiest way would be to write it out, then print it and put it into a duotang or something similar (duotangs can be provided).  If you have another way to present it that would be appropriate, we can discuss that option.

Good luck, this should look great when we're done!

Technical Difficulties Part 2

After talking to one of the helpful tech people who help keep all wikis, blogs, etc. on track, the first recommendation is not to use Internet Explorer to view our pages.  Sometimes there is a glitch that happens that doesn't seem to happen with Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.  So try one of those two browsers to see if that helps.  If not, keep me updated and I will continue to follow up on the situation.

To sum up:

1. Make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Reader by checking at http://get.adobe.com/reader/.  See if this works.
2. If not, then try downloading Mozilla Firefox as your browser at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html, and then using that to look at the .pdf files.
3. If it still doesn't work, the last option is to download Google Chrome as your browser at http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/landing_chrome.html?hl=en, and then use that to look at the .pdf files.

Technical difficulties

Some people have been having trouble seeing some of the content we keep posted here and on the wiki.  Some possible things to try to get around it might be downloading the latest version of Adobe Reader at http://get.adobe.com/reader/.  You could also try using different browsers.  Most people use either Internet Explorer (http://www.microsoft.com/canada/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx), Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html), Google Chrome (http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/landing_chrome.html?hl=en) or Apple's Safari (http://www.apple.com/safari/download/).  If you can't see the work on one browser, try using another one as an experiment.  Finally, check to see if there are messages about blocking the website, etc.  You might need to adjust your security settings for our wiki. Good luck!