We spent the pre-recess block working on our films. I started by speaking about the nature of our work in class this year, in general. I tried to explain that as learners, our goals are not always focused on successfully "producing work." Our number one job is to learn. Yesterday, we discussed how mistakes and failure are an important part of that process, especially during creative pursuits. The film unit was a brand new experience for me. I learned that organizing students (who have busy after-school lives) to meet outside of class to complete film work is very difficult. I remember some of you saying that past teachers gave a full day of time (supported by parent drivers/supervisors) to complete the filming. I wanted to do it differently, but after watching the difficulty some groups had trying to arrange collaboration schedules this year, I can see I was wrong. If I do this again, I will take that into consideration: lesson learned! In spite of the normal expectation that students leave the building during breaks, I informed students that they would be encouraged to work during recess and lunch and even after school to complete their film editing. I also helped one of the groups hone their collaboration techniques in order to be able to continue to move their work forward.
After recess we read for ten minutes and then started math. In Math 7 we began a new unit centred around equations. This will be great prep for the algebra they will use next year. We discussed the difference between an expression and an equation and then looked at two methods to solve basic equations that we created.
I asked that students try to complete pp. 122-23, #1-5 for homework if they didn't get finished in class. The area and circles re-test is available any time (to be completed at lunch and after the review study package is complete).
After lunch we prepared to read the short story "Knife" by Sarah Ellis. Rather than starting with a study guide, we discussed the sorts of things that had been on previous study guides and thus might be important things to consider when reading any story. We noted that some things were probably more important than others. After reading the story, I asked the students to write a paragraph to discuss what they thought made this story memorable, or special or worthy of our time. I was very pleased with the focus that the class had during the writing phase of this lesson. I'll give time tomorrow morning for anyone who needs to finish and/or edit his or her work.
We ended the day with a new forest game called posse. It was fun but I think we need to fine tune some of the rules to ensure the tempo of the game stays in the "intense" range.
Tomorrow, Martin will be giving a tandem bike safety briefing (time to be confirmed).
Please remember that tomorrow is also band, so bring your instruments.
Finally, PLEASE REMEMBER TO RETURN THE JESSE MILLER CONSENT FORMS AND SEE IF PARENTS CAN DRIVE.
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