In The Know

Did you know the average American household has 2.53 people and an average of 2.73 televisions? The Center for Screen Time Awareness challenges people to “take control of technology and not let technology take control of them so they can live healthier lives.” Obesity is a growing problem in our nation. The California Obesity Prevention Initiative recommends that children age 2 and older spend only 2 hours max daily watching T.V. and strongly discourage television sets in children’s bedrooms. In addition to obesity issues, T.V. has been linked to several studies showing negative effects such as aggressive behavior, and limiting achivement and cognitive development.

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!

Poetry is our current unit of study in the seventh grade. We have been reading a novel called “Love That Dog” by Sharon Creech. The novel is written in the style of a journal and the narrator is a boy named Jack. Jack writes about the poems he has been reading in class with his teacher and how he feels about them while creating his own poems.

After reading Jack’s responses and his poems, the students also read and write poems. Some of the poems we read in this unit of study are “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “The Pasture” by Robert Frost, “The Tyger” by Robert Blake, “Street Music” by Arnold Adoff, and “Love That Boy” by Walter Dean Meyers.

Please ask your students about their favorite poems and what writing strategies they are using in their own poetry. Question them about their rhyming patterns, metaphors, similes, imagery, alliteration, and their use of personification and stanza. Feel free to offer suggestions on their choice of words and topics.

Stay tuned for the final project. It is my hope to be able to share some of the student’s work with you in the end using either a podcast or wikispace linked to this site.

We have been spending a great deal of time writing over these past weeks in the seventh grade. All of this hard work, from writing the persuasive essays to research papers, has paid off as the students are beginning to understand the elements that make a successful paper.

That being said, the students have been spending the week preparing for the 7th grade writing portion of the Standardized Testing and Reporting test (STAR test) by looking at some examples from different genres and writing a few essays. The official writing test will take place next Tuesday, March 6th, during an extended first period. Please make sure your student is well rested and on-time in order to provide them with the best conditions prior to this important test.

To learn more about what the STAR test is, please click here to link to the California Department of Education site.

The seventh graders are hard at work on their persuasive essays. The topics they had to choose from were children and cell phones, school uniforms, junk food in schools, music influence on children, year-round schooling, and children online. We spent the last week and a half brainstorming and researching sources in groups. Now, the students are beginning to write their essays on an individual basis. Please check in with your student and ask them their position on their chosen topic and what examples they came up with through their research to support their position.

The Technology Elective class has finished their unit on Internet safety by creating a podcast which highlights what they have learned. Please listen and comment. They are now beginning work on learning about the different parts of a computer where they will teach a lesson to the other students on what they have learned. I look forward to the final projects as the students have been working hard.

It is hard to believe the holidays are here and the New Year is just around the corner. In another three weeks the semester will be over.

We have begun reading “The Pearl” by John Steinbeck. It is a classic tale about a fisherman who found a priceless pearl and how his life changed as a result of it. Please ask your student to share their thoughts and feelings about the novel with you.

As an introduction to the unit, the students completed a webquest in the computer lab to learn about pearl diving and the author. They also had a chance to try out a new site, Yacapaca, which will allow the students to take tests online and receive immediate feedback. They seem to be enjoying the look and feel of it.

Technology students are learning all about the web 2.0 technologies. They created their own online bookmarks and have begun looking at news aggregators. This week we hope to be looking at photosharing and using the images to create iMovies based on a Robert Frost poem. In addition, we will be creating websites at Learnerblogs.org.

All of the students had a fun and energetic Halloween day!

After posing for the camera, the students completed a Halloween cryptogram and answered some trivia. Did your student share with you the meaning of samhainophobia? How about nyctophobia?

The remainder of the class period was spent viewing a documentary about the Titanic titled “Ghosts of the Abyss.” The film showed actual underwater video of the wreckage and overlayed it with imaging of what it might have looked like in the final hours before the boat sunk to its watery grave at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean.

I hope you all had an energetic and safe Halloween evening! 

We had a fun afternoon of activities for team today! Every team had six different games to compete in. Here are some pictures from the Hoppity race.

I enjoyed reading the beginnings of your “Friend” essays. I am learning so much about each of you. Some of you are very thoughtful and some of you have a great sense of humor. I could see some of you provide many details with ease and others were struggling to get them down on paper. You all know a great deal more than you give yourselves credit for. We need to learn to how to let those ideas flow! Once I started asking questions, you all had more to write about.

Technology students have been working hard to teach about the inside and outside of the computer with the help of the website Kidsdomain.com. Each student was assigned to a group to cover different topics about the computer including: Outer Hardware, Hardware on the Inside, Bits & Bytes, Storage, Programs, Operating Systems, Files & Folders, The Mac & Windows Desktop, Knowing Your System, Computer Care & Safety. Groups were responsible for creating slides to show their topic and covering the worksheets provided for each lesson. They are all great teachers! Keep checking the technology page to view links to the slides for each topic.

Technorati Tags: 7th, Technology

We completed our Internet Safety podcast today! Click here to listen.

What a day! Back from a three day weekend and they throw a switch day on us…yikes! You all seemed to fare just fine. Everybody was a bit energized, more than usual, but I hope things will be back to normal soon.

Today was our first Tuesday vocabulary test. I do not want you to stress out if you feel you did poorly. There will be plenty of opportunities to make it up. Sometimes, it just takes a while to learn the ropes and what is expected out of each teacher. Keep studying and applying yourself in order to succeed! New vocabulary will be introduced tomorrow with the next test on Tuesday, September 12th. Review a little each night and you will cruise through the next test!

Technology has completed their scripts for the “Internet Safety” podcast. They will begin recording it tomorrow. Stay tuned for the broadcast. It should be posted here within the next week.

Technorati Tags: 7th, 8th, Internet Safety, Technology