Wednesday, 20 February

First I'd like to thank all of the parents who were able to attend last night's information session.  You have all been very supportive of our class initiatives this year.  I know that some parents were unable to come for a variety of reasons, so, thanks to Hannah's mum, Aideen, here is a summary of what we talked about: Google Docs Meeting Summary 

Thanks, Aideen, for doing that.  If you have any questions, please contact me.  I was informed that I didn't specifically say that I would provide snowshoes, but rest assured all equipment other than personal clothing and food WILL be supplied by me.  I forgot to give the forms out for students whose parents were not at the meeting, so I'll do that tomorrow.  Also, I'm working on getting a copy of the medical info form and hope to have it soon.  Please work to get the forms back to me at your earliest convenience.

We started the day with a brief review of the parent meeting and I discussed the dates and how, because of the boys' basketball tournament, some students will be tied to a the March 27-28 trip dates.  We also discussed the Jesse Miller presentation and touched on the idea of thinking about one's Internet footprint.  Next, we started art.

It was nice to have had the opportunity to publicly thank Joanna last night for all of the time and effort she has committed to teaching our kids art this year.  Today she brought another accomplished guest to the class, this time to discuss screenwriting.  We welcomed PJ Reece who introduced the students to the process of developing a story that can be developed into a treatment that can then be developed into a screenplay.  The students worked in groups to see if they could develop protagonists who could start out with a selfish goal only to eventually progress to a higher, often altruistic, goal.  Thank you, Mr. Reece.  This will help the students when they come to develop the screenplays for their films that will be aired in the school's "Academy Awards" festival, later in the year.

FYI: 
PJ Reece will be hosting a writing course sponsored by the Gibsons Public Art Gallery.  The course will examine "story structure" and discuss both story writing and screenplays.  It is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. on Feb 27 and run for six Wednesdays.  If you are interested, or have any questions, please call 604-886-3908 or contact PJ via E-mail at pjreece@shaw.ca 

After recess we did math.  The 7s worked to complete the cumulative review on pp. 126-27 and anyone who was unable to finish in class should do so for homework.  Tomorrow, we shall start Unit 5.

After lunch we moved straight into the Egypt inquiry sharing presentations.  I can't say how important I think it is that students have the opportunity to share their learning with an audience beyond their teacher.  We all benefit from the process.  I thought that the class was a good audience today.  Some students were unprepared to present today, so please be ready tomorrow.

We ended the day with some basketball skills development in p.e.: good practice for those on the b-ball teams.  We also completed our p.e. self-assessment rubrics for the upcoming report card cycle.  I think that the class consistently shows honest reflection when they do their self-assessments and this is a rewarding display of maturity.

Check out this link for some of the things I examine when considering what we do in class and how we do it: What to look for in a classroom

Please remember your instruments for tomorrow's band class.