Hello! Well, with school in full swing I am so excited about the things that are going to be happening in the grade 9 humanities classrooms at CSS! My teaching partner and I are totally on the same wavelength, and have too many ideas to fit into one school year (as you may have seen in older posts...).
This week and next we will be introducing 3 web services to the kids.
1. Google +: the next thing in social networking sites. Students will be using Google+ to share their journal entries, Free Reading Challenge novel reviews, current event 'Sparks', Googledocs, and more. This site will be the main hub for all things humanities 9 this year.
2. Penzu: an online journal. Students will be able to write privately, and only share what they want to. Their entries will be everything from novel responses, current event responses, thoughts on topics in health and service learning, and more. The fact that they do not have to share everything is what has drawn us to this service.
3. Issuu: an online publication service. Students are able to publish their work in an interactive, online format that is available to anyone. This will really allow students to share their work with more people than just their classmates, and enable them to truly respond to each others work.
That's it for now! Stay posted for more details on how these services work out in class!
ttyl :)
Showing posts with label classroom activities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label classroom activities. Show all posts
Monday, August 22, 2011
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Oh September...
Everyone keeps telling me that it gets easier, that September is survival month and I will be okay! Thankfully, tomorrow is October the 1st, and I seem to have survived in one piece!
I wanted to share some of the latest happenings from around my classroom, let y'all know what we have been up to!
In English Language Arts 9 we have just completed our graphic novel unit and I could not be happier with the kids work. They are really putting their hearts into this stuff! I have just bought the third book in the Amulet series (Kazu Kibuishi), and am thrilled to see the kids passing it around the room - so they can all read it one at a time! Last week I came into the room after lunch, to what was supposed to be art, and they were all silently reading - in ART!!! I am extremely proud of them and their love of literature! We are now moving into our poetry unit, which is built around the book "Immersed in Verse" by Allan Wolf (2006). The kids are really enjoying it and I cannot wait for next week when they begin writing their own stuff!
It truly is proving to be a challenge teaching Social Studies 10 and 20 combined - but I am learning new tricks and methods and know it will be ok! I have mainly been switching back and forth between the two groups, getting one working and then meeting with the others. It definitely takes more time and I wish that I had longer with them - but at least it is a small class! My Social 20 group has just finished their French Revolution projects (highly differentiated - so I am expecting a lot of different products!), and I cannot wait to view the almost 45 minute video that one group has made. So Exciting!
Art is SO FUN! Today we started pen and ink and the kids were really excited to start something new. None of them had even seen a calligraphy pen before - let alone the old school version with the quill and jar of ink! I am really looking forward to seeing what they create. My Art 9 class is completing a Pointilism project - and while they are complaining of going blind staring at tiny dots, their work is looking fantastic and I cannot wait to show it off.
I love my life. I love my work. I love my world. Life is great and I am truly blessed.
I wanted to share some of the latest happenings from around my classroom, let y'all know what we have been up to!
In English Language Arts 9 we have just completed our graphic novel unit and I could not be happier with the kids work. They are really putting their hearts into this stuff! I have just bought the third book in the Amulet series (Kazu Kibuishi), and am thrilled to see the kids passing it around the room - so they can all read it one at a time! Last week I came into the room after lunch, to what was supposed to be art, and they were all silently reading - in ART!!! I am extremely proud of them and their love of literature! We are now moving into our poetry unit, which is built around the book "Immersed in Verse" by Allan Wolf (2006). The kids are really enjoying it and I cannot wait for next week when they begin writing their own stuff!
It truly is proving to be a challenge teaching Social Studies 10 and 20 combined - but I am learning new tricks and methods and know it will be ok! I have mainly been switching back and forth between the two groups, getting one working and then meeting with the others. It definitely takes more time and I wish that I had longer with them - but at least it is a small class! My Social 20 group has just finished their French Revolution projects (highly differentiated - so I am expecting a lot of different products!), and I cannot wait to view the almost 45 minute video that one group has made. So Exciting!
Art is SO FUN! Today we started pen and ink and the kids were really excited to start something new. None of them had even seen a calligraphy pen before - let alone the old school version with the quill and jar of ink! I am really looking forward to seeing what they create. My Art 9 class is completing a Pointilism project - and while they are complaining of going blind staring at tiny dots, their work is looking fantastic and I cannot wait to show it off.
I love my life. I love my work. I love my world. Life is great and I am truly blessed.
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