Sunday, October 28, 2012

Week 9, 10/29 to 11/2


(This may change from day to day depending on how much we actually get done in class so check back often to make sure something wasn't changed at the last minute.) 
 Last updated on Thursday, Nov 1, 2012, 5:30pm 

 Daily Schedule 
1st per - 7:45am to 8:37am 
2nd per - 8:41am to 9:33am 
3rd per - 9:37am to 10:29am 
Eagle Time - 10:33am to 11:00am 
Lunch - 11:00am to 11:32am 
4th per - 11:36am to 12:28pm 
5th per - 12:32pm to 1:24pm 
6th per - 1:28pm to 2:20pm
6th grade Science

Monday - Today we will take time to finish any last blog posts. More importantly, because students can make up missing blog posts at home, at the library, or after school by making an appointment with me, we will be working on giving feedback by having students read each other's work and leaving comments.

We will also go over the lab safety contract.

HW - None

Tuesday - Today students will be updating their goal planning sheets to write what they learned about energy and what they want to learn about forces. 

Then we are going to start EMM Lesson 5 on Forces. We are going to start with elastic force.

HW - None

Wednesday - Today we will continue working on EMM Lesson 5 as we investigate the elastic force of a rubber band.

HW - None

Thursday - Today student teams will start the actual lab and collect data on the elastic force of a rubber band.

HW - None

Friday - Today teams will finish their elastic force lab by graphing their data and answering some questions.

Then we will start part 2 of Lesson 5 by learning about mass vs weight.

HW - None
8th grade Science

Monday - Today we will continue to work on our microscope lessons on pages 11 and 12. Students will then complete the microscopes blog.

Then we will work a minipond safari.

HW - None

Tuesday - Today we are going to try the minipond safari. (My 5th period class spent the whole period doing this because we were finding so many cool little critters in there!)

Then students who aren't done with their microscopes blog can work on that while others work on getting their biome badges (they will check their biome project notes and compare them to the standards we targeted to see which standards they learned best and that will be the badge or badges they get!).

My 2nd period class went down to the creek to set fish traps today.

HW - None

Wednesday - Today students who aren't done with their microscopes blog can still work on that while others work on getting their biome badges (they will check their biome project notes and compare them to the standards we targeted to see which standards they learned best and that will be the badge or badges they get!). 

Then we will watch an ocean acidification video and discuss the implications (this is another example of human impact, this time on the marine biome).

My 2nd period class will be visiting the creek again today to see if we caught any fish, identify them, then return them to the creek as we add the counts to a spreadsheet for the Jefferson Conservation District.

HW - None

Thursday - Today we are going to finish discussing ocean acidification. Then we will work on a Food Miles Activity where 8th graders will calculate how many miles an average lunch travels. The miles will be converted to carbon dioxide to see the carbon footprint of our lunches.

HW - None

Friday - Today student teams will finish their Food Miles activity. Then they will reflect on what they learned by completing their Food Miles blog assignment.

HW - None
Email me with any questions.


Saturday, October 20, 2012

Week 8, 10/22 to 10/26


(This may change from day to day depending on how much we actually get done in class so check back often to make sure something wasn't changed at the last minute.) 
 Last updated on Tuesday, Oct 23, 2012, 4:00pm 

 Daily Schedule 
1st per - 7:45am to 8:37am 
2nd per - 8:41am to 9:33am 
3rd per - 9:37am to 10:29am 
Eagle Time - 10:33am to 11:00am 
Lunch - 11:00am to 11:32am 
4th per - 11:36am to 12:28pm 
5th per - 12:32pm to 1:24pm 
6th per - 1:28pm to 2:20pm
6th grade Science

Monday - Today 6th graders will be working on an energy activity to learn about the different types of energy. 

HW - Progress Reports are online if you want a preview of what we'll be talking about at the conferences this Thursday or Friday.

Tuesday - Today students will have time to complete their Lesson 2Lesson 3 and Lesson 4 blog assignments.

Those who have time can work on the Week 6 blogging challenge as well.

HW - None

Wednesday - Today we're going to finish what we started yesterday with an emphasis on commenting. Students need to read and comment on each other's work today.

HW - None

Thursday and Friday - No school Thursday or Friday.

Please plan on attending conferences this Thursday, Oct 25, or Friday, Oct 26! There are no regular classes on those days. All teachers will be set up “arena style” in the middle school commons. Stop by, pick up your child’s midterm progress report, and visit with any or all of the teachers. We do ask that you limit your conversations to five minutes per class.

Here’s the schedule:
Thursday, October 25: 8-11:30am, 1-4pm, and 5:30-7:30pm

Friday, October 26: 8-11:30am only

8th grade Science

Monday - Today we are going to start learning about our microscopes so that we can start investigating the microscopic world! 

We will be using our compound microscopes with 40, 100, and 400 times magnification (if anyone knows someone who can fix our broken microscopes for us please email me!).

Students will practice looking at some prepared slides.

HW - Progress Reports are online if you want a preview of what we'll be talking about at the conferences this Thursday or Friday.

Tuesday - Learning about microscopes continued!

We will be using the Diversity of Life Notebook on the iPads. We will start with page 9 then work on pages 11 and 12.

HW - None

Wednesday - Today we are going to continue working on the microscope lessons, specifically pages 11 and 12.

Then students can reflect on what they've learned about the microscopes.

HW - None

Thursday and Friday - No school Thursday or Friday.

Please plan on attending conferences this Thursday, Oct 25, or Friday, Oct 26! There are no regular classes on those days. All teachers will be set up “arena style” in the middle school commons. Stop by, pick up your child’s midterm progress report, and visit with any or all of the teachers. We do ask that you limit your conversations to five minutes per class.

Here’s the schedule:
Thursday, October 25: 8-11:30am, 1-4pm, and 5:30-7:30pm

Friday, October 26: 8-11:30am only


Email me with any questions.


Monday, October 15, 2012

Week 7, 10/15 to 10/19


(This may change from day to day depending on how much we actually get done in class so check back often to make sure something wasn't changed at the last minute.) 
 Last updated on Thursday, Oct 18, 2012, 2:06pm 

 Daily Schedule 
1st per - 7:45am to 8:37am 
2nd per - 8:41am to 9:33am 
3rd per - 9:37am to 10:29am 
Eagle Time - 10:33am to 11:00am 
Lunch - 11:00am to 11:32am 
4th per - 11:36am to 12:28pm 
5th per - 12:32pm to 1:24pm 
6th per - 1:28pm to 2:20pm
6th grade Science

Monday - Today 6th graders will complete a Healthy Youth Survey.

HW - For those who want a letter grade on the midterm progress report please get me the information on the Midterm Grade Negotiation Sheet. You can email me or submit the filled out form on paper.

Please have the sheet turned in to Mr. G by Thursday at the latest. After that and you'll probably only see the P on the progress report. 

Tuesday - Today 6th graders will be answering the reflection questions for the Energy, Machines, and Motion lab we did last Friday. We will go over their answers in class.

HW - Here's an EMM website for enrichment ideas in case you want to learn more!

Wednesday - Today we are going to start Lesson 3 on Rechargeable Batteries.

HW - None

Thursday - Today teams will finish yesterday's lab by testing out their motors. Then they will answer the reflection questions.

HW - None

Friday - Today we will go over the reflection questions. Students also learned about energy transfers and they diagrammed a few energy transfers.

HW - None
8th grade Science

Monday - Today students will work together in small teams to complete an assessment on what is living.

Then students will finish their Biome Reflection blog assignment as well as their What is Living blog and their Is it Living Lab blog (if they have not done so already).

Those who are done can work on commenting on kids from other schools to connect with other kids.

HW - For those who want a letter grade on the midterm progress report please get me the information on the Midterm Grade Negotiation Sheet. You can email me or submit the filled out form on paper.

Please have the sheet turned in to Mr. G by Thursday at the latest. After that and you'll probably only see the P on the progress report. 

Tuesday - Today student teams will see how well they did on yesterday's assessment.

Then we will watch some videos on the flow of energy in food webs.

HW - None

Wednesday - Today we are going to follow up on what we learned yesterday from the videos to practice drawing energy transfer diagrams.

I will also show teams how to start putting achievement badges on their blogs.

HW - None

Thursday - Today we continued to work on energy transfers. Students also had more time to get their achievement badges on their blogs.

HW - None

Friday - Today students will complete two blog assignments, the Energy Transfer assignment and the Human Battery assignment.

Then we will take some time to visit our creek to collect some water for class miniponds today as well.

HW - None
Email me with any questions.


Friday, October 5, 2012

Week 6, 10/8 to 10/12

(This may change from day to day depending on how much we actually get done in class so check back often to make sure something wasn't changed at the last minute.) 
 Last updated on Thursday, Oct 11, 2012, 3:41pm 

 Daily Schedule 
1st per - 7:45am to 8:37am 
2nd per - 8:41am to 9:33am 
3rd per - 9:37am to 10:29am 
Eagle Time - 10:33am to 11:00am 
Lunch - 11:00am to 11:32am 
4th per - 11:36am to 12:28pm 
5th per - 12:32pm to 1:24pm 
6th per - 1:28pm to 2:20pm
6th grade Science

Monday - Today students will have some time to work on their Week 3 and Week 4 blogging challenges and the Mt Saint Helens blog.

The Week 5 blogging challenge is also available for students to work on.

HW - None, unless you are falling behind and want to catch up.


Tuesday - Today students will finish what they were working on yesterday. I will show students how to put achievement badges on their blogs so they can start putting the badges they've earned so far.

Then we will focus on commenting on each other's work as a form of peer assessment.


HW - None, unless you are falling behind and want to catch up.


Wednesday - Today students will write new goals on their goal sheet for our upcoming work on Energy! We will start by seeing what kids already know about batteries.

This is officially lesson 2 in the new book we will be using (we are skipping lesson 1).

If students have time they can work on any work they have to finish from earlier this week.


HW - None


Thursday - Today we are going to start a new unit on Energy, Machines, and Motion. We will begin by learning about energy. Students will discus their answers to the lesson 2 battery blog as well as prepare for tomorrow's lab.


HW - Here's an EMM website for enrichment ideas in case you want to learn more!


Friday - Today students will complete the first lab where student teams make a battery from copper and zinc strips with copper sulfate solution.


HW - None
8th grade Science

Monday - Today we are going to watch more of the student biome movies and give those teams feedback. 


HW - None


Tuesday - Today we are going to watch more movies in period 2 (period 5 still has teams who need more time today to complete their movies).

Students need to upload their movies to share them on their biome blogs.

If we have time students can work on their their Week 3 and Week 4 blogging challenges. Week 5 is also available for students to work on.


HW - None 


Wednesday - Today the teams that are still working on finishing up their movies worked the whole period in both 2nd and 3rd period.

The rest of the students worked on uploading their movies to share them on their biome blogs. Students can also work on their Week 3Week 4Week 5 blogging challenges.


HW - None


Thursday - Today we will finish watching the rest of the biome movies. Then students will finish their biomeWeek 3Week 4Week 5 blogs. Those who are done will continue to practice commenting on each other's blog posts as a form of peer feedback and assessment.


HW - None


Friday - Today students will work on a Biome Reflection blog assignment as well as finishing their What is Living blog and their Is it Living Lab blog (many have not completed these blog assignments).

Those who are done can work on commenting on kids from other schools to connect with other kids.

Then we will take a what is living review quiz to see what students know.


HW - None
Email me with any questions.