In Language Arts, students are finishing a novel study on “The Midwife’s Apprentice.” We have been hard at work on standards such as analyzing characterization and setting, events that advance the plot, recognizing cause-and-effect relationships, determining internal/external conflict and identifying figurative language. The students have been listening to the story read by a skilled storyteller and they have been thoroughly engaged. Ask them what they have enjoyed about the novel and how the character has changed and developed over the course of the story.

In addition to the novel study, students are working towards their next Accelerated Reader points goal. I have met with each student who has not made progress and am encouraging them towards reading at their own pace. This includes the 30 minutes of nightly reading homework. If your student has not been completing this requirement, please check in with them and encourage them to makeup time on the weekend. Another bonus – any points beyond their reading goal becomes extra credit! The next due date for AR points is next Friday, November 6th.

Tomorrow will be our third College Friday for the year. There are more students on the list this time than there were last. We are hoping that the trend will continue to improve. Many students have been falling short of their college units by only a few points due to missing homework. Please feel free to send me an email if there is something I can do to help you at home. I am available at lunchtime four out of the five days during the week (Monday through Thursday) if your student needs more support on homework completion. Most of the work is done in class but there are students who need more time. I am trying my best to support them and provide them with a place to study. Furthermore, the progress reports will be out in another two weeks. If you have any questions, please feel free to email or call me.

Have a safe and thrilling Halloween!

Students have completed research on their careers and will be creating their final product this coming week. It has been fun reading about what they hope to become. One thing is for sure, San Jose Middle School will have an abundance of alumni who will be professionals in all areas.
Seventh grade students have just finished Unit 4 in History about Imperial China. They will be taking a unit test next week (study guides will go out this week) and will begin the next unit of study about Medieval Japan. I anticipate the student will enjoy learning about the warrior class.

In Language Arts, students will begin a novel study based on James Howe’s novel, The Misfits. This novel is about a group of seventh grade students who are not a part of the mainstream. They decide to come up with a new “political party” for the student council elections with an agenda that includes a zero tolerance policy for name-calling. As a culminating activity for this unit of study, my students will create public service announcements, short movies, for anti-bullying.

On another note, there are about seven remaining weeks left of school. Spring fever is running rampant; however, there is still work to be done. Student Accelerated Reader goals have been increased, once again, and the new due date is May 29th. For those students who have fallen behind on their reading goals, it is imperative that they increase their reading time from 30 minutes a night, five days a week, to an hour and include the weekends. Remind them, there is extra credit for any student who can read beyond their independent reading level goal.

I hope you are enjoying our beautiful weather. You may be seeing me riding around Novato with my family. The spring weather makes us anxious to get out and exercise. Perhaps we will see you today at the School Fuel bike ride at San Marin.

If you have any questions, feel free to call or email me. In addition, if you would like to see your student’s PSA on anti-bullying, please send me a note. If all goes well, I am hoping to upload them onto the wikispace page for viewing purposes.

Along with writing, students have been focusing on a Fiction unit of study for reading. The following short stories have been read: Seventh Grade by Gary Soto, Thank You M’am by Langston Hughes, and Zebra by Chaim Potak. The literary skills learned during this unit include analyzing setting, internal and external conflict, cause and effect, plot and theme. Students are currently finishing this unit by reviewing vocabulary from each story and creating vocabulary posters to share with other students. GATE students are currently analyzing a piece of text by Shakespeare, from The Tempest, in order to learn how to self-select vocabulary for their own vocabulary collections. Students will then select words to put on a word-wall within the classroom.

In addition to the above, I would like to point out that all students should have been reading a minimum of thirty minutes per night since the second week of school. Students have also been notified of their goals for Accelerated Reader points. This goal is based on a formula using their reading levels and reading time over the nine-week period. If students are reading independently and completing their novels, they can take tests on Accelerated Reader in the back of the classroom several times throughout the week. If you have any further questions, feel free to email me.

In Social Studies, students started with the Fall of Rome to learn about the rise of Christianity and have continued with Feudalism, the rise of the Church and daily life in Medieval Europe. Students were able to participate in a simulation on feudal systems where our guest attacker, no other than Viking “Ms. Rav”, came in to raid the manors. The unit on the rise of the church provided an opportunity for students to learn in depth about each chapter at different stations where they completed activities such as sculpting gargoyles, creating stained glass windows, learning different instruments and about the seven holy sacraments. As we complete the last sections of daily life, students in the GATE class are presenting short skits to support the topics they have learned in each section.

In closing, I would like to extend an invitation for you to peruse our class blog (see the Blogmeister link) in order to read and respond to student writing by GATE students. I would also like to share a poem written by one of the students as a conclusion activity during our unit on the rise of the church. The students were to come up with a kind of acrostic poem using “the church” and terms learned in the unit. They were to start with an illuminated letter and finish by illustrating it. Although I cannot re-create the drawings here, the writing was exemplary and I was compelled to share it with a larger audience. I hope you enjoy it.

hrown out of his position as a pope,
Gregory excommunicated Henry IV
Henry could no longer gain salvation,
So to Italy he fled to escape damnation

Holy days in a cathedral of Christ
Music and dancing just doesn’t suffice
Bonfires and jugglers, acrobatics and plays
The mummers’ act will stay with you for days

Education used to take place in a church
But rarer is a book for universities to search
Thomas Aquinas, a scholar of theology and philosophy
Bridged the gap of faith and reason with great logicality

Crusades to recover the holy land
Striving to conquer with a sword in hand
Pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome
Traveling on foot until they get home

Holy Orders to become a priest
The blessing of bread and wine, a Eucharist
Sacraments, or sacred rites
Give us peace of mind at night.

Usually formed in the shapes of hideous beasts
Gargoyles, used for rainspouts, at the very least
Gothic cathedrals, naves, and stained glass
Flying buttresses and crosses of brass

Ranks of the church, the pope at the head
Then the cardinals and archbishops instead
Then the bishops come in a mass
The lowly priests come in dead last

Convents and monasteries are a religious order
With nuns and monks whose life revolves around a cloister
They care for the poor; they care for the sick
And the eight church services a day are laid on thick

Hence my travels end,
And my blessing to you my friend
I have learnt the ways
Of the great church of today

-By A.L.

I have learned about some great new technology tools which I hope to be able to use with students this year. One of the sites I learned about, called Wordle, uses a “tag cloud” technology where the words that are used most often are displayed in a larger, bolder font than others. Based on my blog I created the following Wordle image. You can take any block of text and paste it in, or use a blog or website address which has an RSS feed to create an image. What an interesting use of technology to investigate what are the most prolific words used on a site or in a block of text.

Another piece of technology I have been researching is a type of clicker which uses radio frequencies to send data to a computer in order for the teacher to get instant feedback on student assessments. Imagine asking students a question during a lesson and instead of calling on one student to answer, each student is able to give their input. Although the tool is cheaper than using laptop computers, there is still a fairly large sum to incorporate this technology into the classroom. I hope, down the road, we will be able to find the monetary funds to support these new interactive technologies.

Overall, I have to say I had a very productive summer. I took two online courses, attended one three-day conference, and read numerous books from the YALSA 2008 Best Books for Young Adults List. I have also had the opportunity to meet a couple of times with my colleagues to plan for the coming school year.

In addition to my professional development and reading for enjoyment, I also found time to spend with my family. You probably saw me with my family biking and walking around town. We even made it to North Shore, Lake Tahoe for a few days where we biked even more and went rafting down the Truckee river (I highly recommended this for a family trip). Needless to say, all these activities have kept us busy and the summer has flown by.

As I begin this new year I am excited about the possibilities that lie ahead. I am particularly excited about returning to a core where I can incorporate the Social Studies curriculum with Language Arts. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me (my preferred mode of contact) or contact me at school via voice mail. In addition, I encourage you to sign up for my blogsite through a news aggregator service (see my parent resources page) in order to stay abreast of news in the classroom. I try to post at least once a month. You can also subscribe to my wikispace pages for each of my courses in order to stay current with content covered in class and homework. In closing, I would like to say thank you for your support and I look forward to a productive and enriching school year.

While we spend the next two and a half weeks testing we ask that you help out your students in the following ways. First of all, please make sure they have a good night’s rest. Most teachers are cognizant of the fact that students are consumed by testing and will cut down on homework expectations for these two weeks. I only ask that students continue reading for 30 minutes each night. In addition to plenty of rest, a good breakfast provides good fuel for the brain and will help sustain them throughout the morning of testing. Lastly, please make sure that your student is at school on time. Tardies can be especially disruptive during this time of high stakes testing. Thank you for your support.

The days are passing quickly now. There are only about thirty-four days left of the semester and only thirty days until the Accelerated Reader points are due. Encourage your student to read more as this will count as extra credit. You could even read a book together, as a family. I just listened to a story on CD from the library titled 47, by Walter Mosley. It was part historical fiction and part science fiction. The story was about a fourteen year old boy who was the slave of a brutal master. He meets another boy, Tall John, whom he believes is a slave. Through their brief friendship, he learns to believe in himself and how to be free. I highly recommend it.

In closing, I would like to say I have been sharing books that I have purchased and read with the students. They have been quickly grabbing them up. If you have purchased novels for your students and they are finished reading them, we would love to have them share and contribute those books to the class library. Students are much more likely to pick up a book if it has been recommended by someone else. I have posted in the class the Best Books for Young Adults 2008 list from the American Library Association. I hope to get through the list myself but have only just begun. If your student needs to be inspired by a good book, check out that list. Another good website, which Ms. Collins just reminded us about today is Teen Reads. This is a website where teens give the book reviews. You may even want to have your student frequent that website over the summer. It never hurts to plan ahead for next year!

Best regards.

On another note, students are gearing up to memorize a two-minute speech to present to their classmates. The speeches were chosen from a variety of topics: book excerpts, persuasive speeches, short story, monologues, etc. (Students were also informed of links on my resources page to book experts) They are required to memorize their speech with, at most, an index card to serve as a prompt. If you are interested in coming in to observe your child present, please feel free to email me and I will do my best to accommodate the schedule for you. Those students who do an outstanding job may be asked to participate in the SJMS speech contest on March 18th and possibly move on to the San Domenico Speech contest later next month.

In addition to further test preparation practice, students will begin reading a short novel, The Pearl by John Steinbeck. In this unit of study we will be analyzing the many themes (good vs. evil, the poor oppressed by the rich, things aren’t always what they seem, etc.) and exploring the symbolism, while enjoying the rich language and descriptive characters.

In conclusion, I would like to encourage you and your children to read together in the evenings. Students are required to read for thirty minutes every night. What a better way to end the night by reading as a family and then sharing what you have read. Share with your child the process – what you think about, what you predict will happen, questions you have about why the author chose to portray the character in a certain light or write in a certain way. The more you can model your reading process the more experience they will gain. Ask them the same questions about their reading. I read to my children every night. As we read together, I will stop and ask them questions about what they think might happen next. Too often, students think they have to answer a right or wrong question that they can’t appreciate anticipation and the joy that reading can bring. They are used to reading and answering questions from a textbook and are unsure or hesitant about thinking for themselves. It is amazing how much modeling can help free them up in order to show them they are capable of critical thinking. This will also help them in their Reader’s Journal responses. You could even have them write their journal response letter to you. Wouldn’t it be fun to write a letter back to them?

I understand how life can keep us busy, but there is no greater gift you can give your child than modeling for them how a reader reads, responds and interacts with text. It can be reading the newspaper, a poem, novel or other informational text. The objective is to show the importance of reading and how we make sense of it. You are your child’s first teacher. With your support, we can work together to guide your student towards becoming a life-long learner.

Technology/Exploratory students have finished creating their iMovies and have moved on to exploring the elements of photography. So far, students have looked at light and shadows, camera angle, frame and scale, composition and story sequence. We have several other projects we hope to complete before moving on to the next unit of study which will be art.

In the art unit of study, we will be looking at several artists from different eras and with different styles. This will include artists from the Renaissance, to Post-renaissance, Cubists, Surrealists, to more current artists and styles (pop art, comics, etc.). If you have any experience or expertise with a certain style or artist and would like to come talk to the students – or even present a lesson – let me know. We would love to learn from you.

The seventh grade students have had several mini-lessons based on writing memoirs. Last week, I shared some of my own personal memoirs and we looked at what made them effective or ineffective. The students were very responsive to the writing and they had much to say about what made a memoir effective. Next week we will have mini-lessons on “The Rule of SO WHAT?” and “Thoughts and Feelings.” Please ask your student what the rule means and what thoughts and feelings they have added into their memoir. Some students may find that their first draft of writing may have no meaning and they will need to abandon it and find a more meaningful event to write about. This is where they might need to return to their brainstorming on “Questions for Memoirists.”

When the seventh grade is not writing, we are reading short stories from our Readers or student chosen novels for Reader’s Workshop. Some stories we have read include Seventh Grade, by Gary Soto, and “Thank You, M’am,” by Langston Hughes. Again, please ask your student to share their Reader’s Journal with you. Encourage them to write you a letter about what they are reading and then write back to them. It is fun to hear what they have to say. Who knows, they might get you interested in reading some great fiction!

The technology students have been finishing up their first project on the computers in the mini-lab. They have been hard at work on creating posters with their images on it. It is fun to see what the students put on their posters to tell others what they want to be when they ‘grow-up.’ Some of the students are very creative! Next week they will begin a favorite project of mine, creating Kindness Cards. Everyone knows we can all use a little more kindness in our world! I collect a sample from each student in order to display on a bulletin board on the campus. Please, ask your student to share one thing they have learned about creating a Word document that they haven’t learned before. You might be surprised with their answer!

Progress reports will be out towards the end of next week. Please feel free to call or email me if you have any questions.

I have been working closely with fellow colleague Ms. Meyers throughout the summer in order to come up with a comprehensive and thoughtful curriculum for the seventh grade. We will continue to work together, whenever possible, throughout the year with the hope that we will provide the most engaging curriculum and best education possible for your students.

While seventh grade can be a difficult year socially, emotionally, and academically, I hope it holds for your student the beginning of a successful educational path. Our goal is not only to help them find their strengths in reading and writing but also to enjoy the learning process.

It is hard for me to believe there are only a few days left as I begin to write my last post of the year. It is amazing to think of how much time has passed since the beginning of the year and how much we have all grown. Although I have been teaching for ten years now, I feel I have learned so much more about myself as an educator within this past year. I enjoy being a part of this warm, vibrant community. Your children are a blessing and it has been a privilege working with each and every one.

As the summer months pass, I hope you will find the time to read along with your children. Don’t be afraid to share your thoughts and feelings about what you are reading. I remember the evenings when I was a child where we would all sit around the table and read. To this day, my favorite part of the day is reading to my children before bedtime.

Please know there are summer reading programs at the local library. Have your students read the Teen Blog and then post a book review. They can earn raffle tickets each time they post to be eligible for a weekly drawing or the grand prize drawing. In addition, I have recently heard about a summer movie program at the theater at Rowland where students can attend kid-friendly movies on Tuesday mornings at 9:30 am during the summer months for $1.00 or purchase a booklet of 10 tickets in advance for $5.00. Summertime is also a time for a plethora of festivals. Check out the Marin events calendar to find out what happens when in Marin.

I look forward to seeing your students in the fall when they return. In the meantime, I hope you have a safe, relaxing summer filled with enjoyment!

In recognition of T.V. turn-off week, I have challenged the students to turn-off the television set in order to read a book and exercise. If the students are able to read at least 10 pages per day, write a reflection or summary each day, and have the log signed off by a parent/guardian; they can turn it in next Monday, April 30th, and be eligible for an ice cream sundae party. This party will take place at lunch on a Tuesday or Thursday after S.T.A.R. testing.

I challenge the parents/guardians to help support their student(s) during this week. Turn off the T.V. and go for a walk, play a game, cook dinner together, or just talk. I have shared with the students my own experiences with my family and how my children have decided to participate. It is hard giving up what is easy and convenient, but it is so rewarding when adults take some time to enjoy and play with their children. It makes for a happier home when they have had fun, quality time with their family. All of the children are so special, go and talk with them and enjoy the family time you have with these young adults!