Monday, 28 January

We began the day with an introduction to the parts of a story - what we call the elements of fiction.  The class also read Scroll XI in the Ostia novel with a visiting teacher while I met briefly with staff from Elphinstone who were inquiring about how they might better plan for this year's grade 7s with their course offerings for next year.  We will be using the elements to help us discuss the novel as we move on.  At 9:40 the class moved to band.

Solutions to the quiz

After recess we wrapped up our discussion of the ways to examine "character" and then transitioned to math.  The 7s did a pre-test and will write their mid-unit test on Wednesday (we have a presentation during math tomorrow or else we would be doing it then).  There is no math homework other than to review for Wednesday's test (some of you found weak spots today).

Inquiry Groupings

After lunch I selected the groups for the socials inquiry projects.  I know that not everyone is perfectly happy with the way I created the groups, but I wanted to ensure that people worked a little outside their normal peer groupings.  Where possible I tried to ensure everyone had at least one "friend," but there were other dynamics that I needed to manage and so that didn't always work.  I hope everyone "can live with it;" this is a short-term collaborative project - please celebrate the autonomy you do have and let go of any disappointment. Students had the tough job of coming together to try to decide on a central inquiry question that their groups could use in this project.  This is even difficult for adults to do, so I was expecting that some of the students would experience tension during this process.  Things actually went smoother than I expected.  In fact, I thought the class showed remarkable resilience and flexibility.  I was able to help some of the groups with the wording of their questions, others didn't did any.  We'll have to continue tomorrow to tune up the exact wording and split up the work.

We ended the day with p.e.  We tried some basketball today.  I'm no basketball coach, so we settled for some basic ball handling development.  Thanks everyone, for holding the balls when asked; you all did well.  There is no homework other than to consider your inquiry project.

Tomorrow morning is our class's turn for the PrideSpeak presentation.  As was explained in the notice home, the grade 6/7 presentation will consider bullying, homophobia and transphobia in schools.  Please remember that there will be a questions/answers session for parents in the library tomorrow from 3:00 - 4:30 p.m.