Thursday, 17 January

Is it a paradox to practice cursive
writing in a 21st century classroom?

We started the day by having the grade 7s write ideas for their year-end celebration.  These will be collated by the parent volunteers and presented to the weekly grade 7 planning committee tomorrow at lunch.  Next we did a cursive writing practice that acted as a brief class discussion about collaboration and teamwork.  I talked about how important collaborative work will be in the 21st century and how I think it is key for school to prepare our students to be competent contributors is such an environment.  It  takes work to learn to work effectively in a team, but I think it will be a very useful skill in what has come to be called "the information age."  It's not easy for us teachers because on one hand the government is promoting a new vision for learning while at the same time holding on to "industrial school models" such as standardized tests.  Most of the provincial exams have been scrapped at the grade 12 level, but others persist and we still have the FSA tests in elementary school.  It is a hot debate and I encourage you to inform yourself so you can join in.  A good starting point would be to listen to one of the most widely recognized voices on the subject, Sir Ken Robinson.  Here is a link and it includes a good example of the type of visual information that I'm investigating in my practice:

Changing the Education Paradigm

And here is another (I just couldn't resist):

Do Schools Kill Creativity?



After our discussion on teamwork, the class had band.  Following recess, we read from The Thieves of Ostia and then transitioned to math.  I reviewed the order of operations, first showing what it isn't, then showing what it is.  We saw how using decimal numbers makes the calculations a bit messier, but not more difficult (especially if you can use a calculator to solve some of the math facts).  Please complete page 109, #1-4 for homework.

We can't just do the operations in
order from left to right

Ah, the first example done properly

Using decimal numbers does not make it
more difficult

1) all brackets are done first
2) then multiplication or division (in order from left to right)
3) finally, addition or subtraction (in order from left to right)

Finally, the example on page 108 solved

Here is the first line of a summary; you
complete it.

After lunch we read a bit more of The Thieves of Ostia and then wrote a summary using cursive writing.  Next, we completed the questions on p.57 of the science text.  You need not 8, 10, 11, and 13.  Those should be done for homework - due Monday. There was much cooperative work in science.  In fact, I was ABSOLUTELY pleased with the way people collaborated - it was an example of what I would call the perfect class. Thank you for that.  We ended the day with 30 minutes of p.e. in the gym.

Have a good afternoon.