Summary

            Today, we had a substitude because Ms Lees wasn't here. Today was a very relaxing class for me because we watched a movie about The Crusades and The Middle Ages. We watched it for the whole block and all of us took notes on the movie, something interesting about it and about something we have never known before. But we didn't get to finish the movie. It was getting pretty exciting when we had to change blocks. Too bad so sad.

Learning Intentions

             We watched a movie, but it wasn't a normal movie, it was a movie about The Middle Ages which is related to our PATHWAYS history textbook. I think Ms Lees wanted us to watch that particular movie so we could find out more facts about the middle ages. But I think she wanted to give us a "resting block" at the same time. Also, the notes that we took had some very interesting facts in it about the middle ages. We could use the notes for further references as well.

Reflections

              From watching the movie, I learned bunch of things about the middle Ages. How there were Castles, Palaces, and even small villages in one empire. Also, since the movie had King Arthur in it, the round table with all the knights were interesting to me. Their different types of armors, shields, swords, helmets,... even their horses had armors, too!

Homework Reminders

              We need to work on our Genius Hours and we have to finish our peer review feedback. Read your novels if you haven't already. HACE must be finished today. Respond to our Australian blogging buddies and BRING 4 1 L MILK JUGS ON MONDAY. See Ms Lees Blog for details.

Homework Tips

              If you need help on any of your homeworks, you can always go to Ms Lees' Blog and comment on the posts there.

The Mak App

Kasey and Sapeeda

November 29, 2012 at 5:23 am

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Hi our names are kasey and sapeeda and we are creating a Mac and cheese app. About our app: Well basically we are creating an apple app filled with tons of different Mac and cheese recipes we have 99 different recipes and came up with cool funky names for each and everyone of them. What made us think of this app? to this idea when our lovely teacher ms Lees declined our first idea we had to resort to this idea. When my helpful partner kasey thought then maybe we should make a funny joke app but that sounded like to much work so we both spent days thinking up a new idea when all of a sudden kasey thought maybe we should do a Mac and cheese app and that’s how the idea was born. Why did this idea appeal to us? This idea apealed to us because we both wanted to make an app and we both love Mac and cheese so we both loved the idea. What are the skills we are using? Well the skills we are using are our developing our tech skills and by creating this app we are also developing our technology skills what is the content of the app? The content of this app is that it has about 99-101 recipes all with very original funky names. Where are we at now? Right now we are in the midst of creating our app in fact we have almost finished creating our app it is called the Mac app. We also have created a twitter account @makappgirls and an email address@themakappgirls@gmail.com and please email us for any suggestion or more feed. Thank you for your time we hope to have our app up soon

Reply

Genius Hour Projects

SHARING GENIUS HOUR PROJECTS:

Expanding and improving upon the drop-off/pick-up & parking area zone

Hi, Emily and Maya here, and our Genius hour project is about improving the school’s drop-off/pick-up area along with adding more parking space. The reason for this project is that in the mornings and afterschool, there is a least a 10 minute wait in front of the school to be dropped off or picked up (for the students) by the parents waiting in a line –up in their cars. There is also very little parking space, and this is due to the fact that our school is made for about 1000 students, and currently, we have 1500 students, increasing the school’s desired population by a quarter the amount, and decreasing the amount of space for cars and pedestrians (children) to be able to arrive at school.
Our intentions are to expand the front lanes at the front entrance of the drop-off area, and to add another section for parking, so that the drop-off/pick up area will be more organized, as well as allowing students to arrive to school on time.

This project appealed to us from our own experience of being late or at risk of being late to class, as well as our peers. This is a problem throughout all the grades in our school that cannot be tolerated anymore. Teachers have gone so far as to no longer blame the traffic for the students’ lateness, but have taken to saying that the traffic in front of the school is inevitable, and should always be taken into consideration when coming to school. Do you also have problems with your school’s drop-off area, for example, no parking for cars or traffic in the mornings or afterschool?    

For presenting our project we are going have a presentation on imovie  (a program similar to powerpoint for making slideshows but it revolves more around video and audio) as well as a small speech that we will give during the video to stress out our points and explain information during the slideshow. For the imovie presentation we have interviewed parents, teachers, and students and asked them a few questions on their opinion of the school’s current drop off/pick up area and parking situation. We have gathered information from the students, but not yet from the teachers and parents. However, we already have the imovie and speeches all planned out, and we still would like to add in a map of our to-be-improved school drop off/pick up area as well as where we would have added in additional parking space.
So, in short, we currently have all of our information and planning finished, now we must finalize our good copies that we will present.


Genius hour in general is a free-reigned project that students can come up with independently. It can be about anything that they have an interest in or about something they would like to find out whether the teacher will give them an option, a theme, a smaller topic that they can choose an idea from, or they can brainstorm the idea on their own. This project allows students that want to learn about something (topic)  that they have an interest in so they can learn about it through the process of completing the project.


After reading our intentions/motives/progress, is there anything that you’d like to comment about our presentation? Perhaps, things we should add in to improve and to pinpoint the details in our project all the more? Any feedback? Please let us know! :)

    Thank you!

Sincerely,
Emily & Maya
the Firehawk Gazette

Genious Hour

Hello, this is how far we are at our slideshow right now. Not finished yet so please give us some feedback.

The Truth about Chemotherapy

 

What is our project about?

Our project is about understanding chemotherapy, and figuring out how it works. As well as the process, how it benefits cancer, the side effects, what is cancer. We are hoping that our project will inform people about chemotherapy and how it works.

 

Why did it appeal to us?

This topic appealed to us because it fit with our criteria well. We had some trouble finding a topic that we both liked and that we meet the criteria. This topic was also interesting and a lot of people in our class were wondering about the same topic. However nobody else chose this topic.

 

Where are we right now?

Right now we are working on the PowerPoint that will explain chemotherapy. We are also about a couple days away for presenting to the class. But first we need to do peer feedback, and practice presenting it.

 

Feedback?

*Do you think our questions are explaining the topic well?

*Do you think our information is related to the topic/headings?

*Is presenting our information on a PowerPoint a good way to share our project?

*Is our information well organized, is it easy to understand?

Genius Hour Progress

Here is our progress so far on our Genius Hour projects. If possible could you please give feedback.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vdoBaN0zRIoUYdnHjUyvxvOgGzR9j1z1Q68hX8fYIA8/edit

Already improving!

I can see improvement already in the details of your learning blog posts - keep up the good work.  Some of you still need to work on avoiding the vague and general language.  One way to help with this is to provide clear examples after the general statements.  I am also seeing more hyperlinks - good job.  Keep it up Oompaloompas!

                                    WHAT WE  DID TODAY

SUMMARY

    During the double block session today, we got into our genius hour groups to work on our Genius Hour projects. For Genius hour projects, we looked over our plans, and started working on our PowerPoint, I-movies, or posters.

Learning Intentions

From doing Genius Hour projects, we can learn about whatever what you are researching on, improving our presentation skills by presenting our projects, improving our teamwork collaboration, and our planning skills.

Reflections

I think doing Genius Hour Projects are important to us by improving our presentation skills which is needed in the future for other presentations, plays, and skits. It can also improve our planning skill which is needed for our future projects. Team collaboration is needed for group projects.

Homework Reminders 

Our homework for today was to get further for our novels, and work on our genius hour projects, which are due in two weeks. Also you must finish your novel within less than two weeks

Homework tips

For our genius hour projects, you should let your friend or other peers to proofread it and let the Ms. Lees edit it too. Also you need to get feedback from 3 -5 peers.

Group Posting

Summary

 

             Today, Ms Lees put up her projector and she typed some helpful suggestions for our group posts on the big projector screen. As we discussed together, she explained to us how we should write our posts. She also explained to us that we can improve by checking other posts on different blogs. Then she also asked us what we think a good post is supposed to be and what bad posts are. To work on that, we all moved in the computer lab. Ms Lees handed us these worksheets with a general understanding of what our posts should contain. In the other side, she wrote ratings 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for posts and told us to go online, visit some group blogs which was found in Ms Lees Blog, and give criteria for each ratings. She allowed us to work with a partner from our group posting blog. Then after that, it was all work block and we left for lunch, after finishing the sheet.

 

Learning Intentions

 

             We learned so much about our posting. Ms Lees explained to us what a great post was, how it should be done and what bad posts are. Since we went to different  group blogs and rated how good or bad the 5,4,3,2,1 posts should be for ourselves, we have a way better understanding about how to make our own posts good. This was a lot of help for us now that we know how to post better and improve on certain parts. Now that we have the group posting criteria sheet, it is easier for us to post and also, to do a way better job on it!

 

Connections/Reflections

 

              I think what we learned today will help us write better, being specific and detailed in our paragraphs. Also, we can take a look at other people's writings and learn from them as well. As Ms Lees said, when we share our work with other people, we want to make it as best as possible and we are really excited for it, too. We want to make it as perfect as possible. Therefore, we look at other people's work, get suggestion from them, try to use a thesaurus and be lots more detailed!

 

Homework Reminders

 

               The worksheet about post ratings should have been finished today, so I guess for people who finished, they don't have to do that. We should check Ms Lees's Blog alot and look at all the new updates. AND YOU MUST FINISH READING YOUR NOVELS WITHIN 2 WEEKS.

 

 

Homework Tips

 

             If you want to improve on your writings, you can google certain parts of your writing and get more and more ideas. So the next time you write, your writings will be so much improved, detailed, and of course, creative! Also when you post, make sure there are no grammar or spelling errors. Try to be neat and perfect. When you read your novels, try ti stop each chapter or two and summarize it in your head to get a clear understanding of what's going on in the story. You are free to write them down in your notebooks too!

 

What We Did In Class Today

SUMMARY~

          At the beginning of class today, we took our seats in our novel groups as usual. We all resumed with reading our novels, and a few people acutally traded theirs for a different one once they were finished. We read our books in silence for quite a while, until Ms. Lees told us to put them away. Then, she showed us a video: http://eportfolio.uidaho.edu/ to help us transform our FH Learn blogs even further, into our ePortfolios.She explained very thoroughly on how to set this all up, and she even showed us how to do it. We were then allowed to pair up or get into a group of 3, and do so one by one. But, we were having quite a few problems. Since we all wanted to go on the same website at the same time, it didn't work properly. Once we did what we could, it was nearing the end of class, so we logged out of the laptops, and left for our next class.

LEARNING INTENTIONS~

          Today, we learned new skills on our FH Learn blogs, including how to set-up our headings and sub-headings. I think we did this so that our blogs would be more organized by the end of the year and nicely put into categories, since we will probably also be using our ePortfolios for other things as well. It would be much easier than having all our work mixed up into one giant category, and not being able to find any previous work with ease.

CONNECTIONS~

    I think the skills I learned today in Humanities will be useful in other classes too, because maybe they will require me to post something or keep track of something on my ePortfolio with ease because of the categories. I may also want to blog on my own time, and the skills i have learned would come in handy.

TODAY'S HOMEWORK~

     All that was for homework today (due tomorrow), was finishing making the headings and sub-headings for your FH Learn blog/ePortfolio. The labels for them can be found on the home page of Ms. Lee's blog: http://leeshum8.blogspot.ca/

HOMEWORK TIPS AND REMINDERS:

     To help you complete the homework with ease, please refer to Ms. Lee's blog (linked above^). She has put many links and tips for completing the homework that are very helpful and will allow you to finish sucessfully. Also, don't forget about the Pathways notes. Those need to be finished sooner than later...
Read your novels in your spare time as well!!!

That's all for today ;)

Wednesday, November 7, 2012 Learning Blog Post

What we did in class today

For the first about 15-20 minutes we began our class in our Novel Study book group, where we spent this time doing silent reading for our Novel Studies. After reading the books that we were previously assigned to, the laptops (MacBooks) were brought in and we partnered up in groups of 2-3, and we were to create e-portfolios using our Fhlearn blogs, and make a new page for Humanities and subcategories there. We watched a video that explained how to do so as well. This lasted until the end of the class. 

Purpose

The purpose of doing the e-portfolios today was to know where to keep our assignments if we believe that there was a chance of loosing them-we could post it on the blog. Also, this will keep us more organized for future projects and planning.

Reflection

I think the skills we learned today will possible benefit us in the future by, for instance, if we have another class that requires us to do the same skills we learned today, or if we make our own WordPress accounts. Also, the silent reading helped us get further in our books, so that we won't get too far behind (if we didn't read it in our own time) at the last minute.

Homework

Today's homework was to create pages and menus for our e-portfolios. If you forget how to do so, go onto Lees Hum 8 and follow this link. Also, we need to complete the note taking for Pathways as soon as we can, and we need to continue working on our Genius Hour projects. We also need to read our novels, and try to complete them in about 2 weeks.

Tips

If you need help with homework, I suggest asking Ms.Lees or another classmate or going on the blog for help, especially for technical issues. Also, I suggest reading the novel and doing Genius hour (and don't forget to log your progress!) as well, even though these do not have a due date. This will make sure that you don't have to push all your work to the last minute.

WHAT WE DID TODAY!!

Today in class we got into our novel study group to talk about what we think we are going to learn. For example, what the religion of the people in the book, how they live meaning what they eat, their typical day and why they did that. With the information our groups came up with we made a web and handed them in to Ms. Lees. Also after we finished with our webs we got into our groups for our group blogs. We worked on a work sheet that was about how our group thinks we are doing with our blog and decide as a group what we were good at and what we wanted to improve on. We were also told that if we have not finished our notes we had to come in at flex tomorrow to work on it. we were also givin the opertonity to sign out one of the Pathways text books.

WHY WE DID THIS

I think we got into our novel study groups to talk about thye book because it will help with the social study part of Humanaties. It also is cool because we by reading the book and discusing it together will help us learn about what it was like in that time and place. I think it was also to peak our intressed in the book so we have more fun reading it and by drawing the web it helped us develope  stratagies on working with others and web drawing. I think that we completed the work sheet in our blog groups because us deciding as a group what we need to improve on and what we are doing will help us with our blogging skills. Sometimes discusing with a group will help you notice mistakes that you did not see yourself.

HOMEWORK

Today our only homework is complete your notes that we were working on in class. In case you are not done yet you can sign out a Pathways text book or come into flex tomorrow.

TIPS

Flex tomorrow is at eleven twenty in Ms. Lees room if you need extra help. That's all for tonight :p

WHAT WE DID TODAY!!

Today in class we got into our novel study group to talk about what we think we are going to learn. For example, what the religion of the people in the book, how they live meaning what they eat, their typical day and why they did that. With the information our groups came up with we made a web and handed them in to Ms. Lees. Also after we finished with our webs we got into our groups for our group blogs. We worked on a work sheet that was about how our group thinks we are doing with our blog and decide as a group what we were good at and what we wanted to improve on. We were also told that if we have not finished our notes we had to come in at flex tomorrow to work on it. we were also givin the opertonity to sign out one of the Pathways text books.

WHY WE DID THIS

I think we got into our novel study groups to talk about thye book because it will help with the social study part of Humanaties. It also is cool because we by reading the book and discusing it together will help us learn about what it was like in that time and place. I think it was also to peak our intressed in the book so we have more fun reading it and by drawing the web it helped us develope  stratagies on working with others and web drawing. I think that we completed the work sheet in our blog groups because us deciding as a group what we need to improve on and what we are doing will help us with our blogging skills. Sometimes discusing with a group will help you notice mistakes that you did not see yourself.

HOMEWORK

Today our only homework is complete your notes that we were working on in class. In case you are not done yet you can sign out a Pathways text book or come into flex tomorrow.

TIPS

Flex tomorrow is at eleven twenty in Ms. Lees room if you need extra help. That's all for tonight :p