We opened the day listening to a few of the remaining socials talks. There are three students who have not done theirs and they will receive an I (incomplete) on their report card in socials. Next, I was asked if it was disrespectful to wear a poppy before Remembrance Day; this led to a discussion about a variety of things relating to Remembrance Day, but also about the wars of the twentieth century. I mentioned that the ceremony on Friday at 10:45 is not a traditional assembly, and should be thought of more as a memorial service. I noted that I will be wearing a blazer and tie, and the class was able to correctly explain that I would do so as a sign of respect to honour those we are remembering. I encouraged them to think about what they plan to wear on Friday. Most said that they had been to a funeral or memorial service before and knew what type of clothing would be suitable. I was very clear in stating that I did not want them to feel that they needed to go out and buy clothes to wear, but that they should go through their closet and just pick out their "good" clothes. For example, I said that if they normally wear shorts and a t-shirt, pants, or at least dress shorts and a shirt with some sort of a collar would be good. I said that sweaters or pullovers (without big logos) also look dressy. I expressed that as the senior students in the school they set the tone in these sorts of things. The feeling that I got was that after all of the work they have done in learning about the poem In Flanders Fields and after the work they did on their research, they wanted to step things up at this gathering.
After recess the students recited their poems and I was blown away! Almost all of them managed to memorize those fifteen lines and to breathe life into the words they were speaking. Once you know how this poem is intended to be read, it is painful to hear it misread, and this class not only knows how to say it, but how to say it powerfully. In a vote by her classmates, Sadie was elected to represent Division 2 on Friday and recite the poem for the school. In a very close run-off between Mackenzie and Emily, Mackenzie will be the back-up in case Sadie is unable to speak. One student noted that in the past they had read the poem, but now that she understood what it was really about it has more meaning for her. Eureka. Way to go you guys; you've made be proud.
After lunch we started to listen to the PowerPoint presentations. Conclusions are still a challenge, but the slides and research we saw were quite strong. We'll continue with those tomorrow.
Tomorrow we're doing a science quiz (on the vocab words on the crossword puzzle - see blog; the nested circles showing i) species ii) population and iii) community; and separating things from the living and non-living worlds).
We're also doing a short oral quiz in French to assess the following: i) numbers 1-10, ii) nouns, masculine and feminine, iii) simple phases ex. what is it? and iv) salutations.
Today I sent home the skating permission form - please ask to see it.
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