Hello All!
Today we finished up the presentations of the body systems. For the most part, they were pretty good. We still need to work on summarizing the information we gather before we put it in our wiki. The students kept copying and pasting things right from the internet. They are not allowed to do this. We talked about this so much before they got started because it is called plagiarism and will get them into serious trouble. We looked at the tool bar on the wiki and discovered that there is no spell check or grammar check button to hit, so they need to double and triple check their spelling and grammar, too. I think the next time we use the wikis, they will be so much more complete.
After these were completed, we began our look at the last system we need to cover. It is the reproductive system. This is a very touchy subject because some are afraid that it will end up being a sex education class, but let me assure you that it is not. The state of Ohio wants the 6th graders to look at this system as the reason why we continue to have all these different species on the planet. If there were no reproductive systems, then all life on this planet would stop. I am not the "how to" class, but the "why" class. We will go right into genetics from here. I feel that we had a very good class discussion today. I put on the board the things that the kids know. Some things were wrong, so I had the opportunity to make the information correct. My class makes next year's health class much easier.
I need to let all of you know that I will not be at school for conferences. I am having surgery on my arm Thursday and will be out until after Thanksgiving. I will be happy to meet with you after the holiday, if you would like to do so. My prep time is during 2nd period. The time of that period is 8:40-9:25. You can call me after we come back, during that time, and we can set up a day for you to come in. I can, also, talk to you through email. My email address is tphipps@minfordfalcons.net. I check it periodically throughout the day and try to reply that day, but may not get to until my prep the next day. I can do phone conferences, too, during that same 2nd period prep time. I am so sorry for this inconvenience, but I hope you understand. The students have watched me hold and rub my elbow for a long time now, and I have the chance to get it fixed permanently.
I hope everyone has a very wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!!! The students will be working on their big projects during class, while I am gone. They can bring in their backboards and get them all done, work on their reports, or work on their experiments and demonstrations. The computers will be there for them to use. Everything will be completed by Tuesday, November 30. Oral presentations will begin on Wednesday, December 1. Talk to you after the holiday. Try not to eat too much!!!! ha! ha!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Hello, Everyone!! Today was a busy day. We had our Veteran's Day assembly, so I did not get to see 6th or 7th periods. The students worked on their big projects today. These are due on Novembe 30th. We will be having the oral presentations over the body systems projects starting on Monday. I am reallly looking forward to those. Also today, we went over how to do the bibliography for their reports. I put the information on the Smart board, but I wanted to put it on here, too, so that you would have it and the students would have it at home. I am going to get them copies of it next week. Here is what I wrote for them. Pretty much all of their research came from the internet, so I showed them the reference for an interent article. They need to have these parts:
1. Author's name
2. Date of publication
3. Title of article
4. Retrieved month, day, year
5. URL address
I then wrote down an example for them, so they could see what one looked like. The example I gave them was this one:
Dove, R. (1998). Lady freedom among us. Retrieved June 19, 1998 from
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/.
I pointed out to them that they use the authors last name and first initial. The year of publication is put in parenthesis followed by a period. The letter of the first word in the title is the only one that is capitalized. The others are left in lower case. When they need to put the rest of the reference on a second or third line, then those lines are indented 5 spaces. I hope this helps you, if you decide to work on your bibliography this weekend. If you need anything else, please let me know. They will only have a few more days to work on their projects in school. They are allowed to bring backboards to school and work on them there, too. Oral presentations of these projects begin December 1. Have a great weekend, everyone!!!!
1. Author's name
2. Date of publication
3. Title of article
4. Retrieved month, day, year
5. URL address
I then wrote down an example for them, so they could see what one looked like. The example I gave them was this one:
Dove, R. (1998). Lady freedom among us. Retrieved June 19, 1998 from
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/.
I pointed out to them that they use the authors last name and first initial. The year of publication is put in parenthesis followed by a period. The letter of the first word in the title is the only one that is capitalized. The others are left in lower case. When they need to put the rest of the reference on a second or third line, then those lines are indented 5 spaces. I hope this helps you, if you decide to work on your bibliography this weekend. If you need anything else, please let me know. They will only have a few more days to work on their projects in school. They are allowed to bring backboards to school and work on them there, too. Oral presentations of these projects begin December 1. Have a great weekend, everyone!!!!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Update - November 9, 2010
Hello, Everyone!
We are about to finish up the body system projects. The wikis have been so much fun and I feel the students have learned from them. I am hoping to use them again for future assignments. We took down term #15 yesterday, so our quiz will be tomorrow over terms 11-15. You can see the whole list on the home page. Our big science projects are due on November 30. We have been working every Friday here at school. Anything else will have to be completed at home. Science fair entry forms are due on the 15th of November. That is this coming Monday. Oral presentations of these projects will begin December 1st and continue through the remainder of the week. I think I will allow the students to work on their projects in my room on Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week and the following Monday. That will give them time to work in here with me, in case they have any questions.
Don't forget that students do not have school this Thursday because there is a teacher inservice day. They will get to sleep in, while we work on things to make school a better place for learning. Well, I think that is about all for this posting. I am looking forward to talking with you on our class blog.
We are about to finish up the body system projects. The wikis have been so much fun and I feel the students have learned from them. I am hoping to use them again for future assignments. We took down term #15 yesterday, so our quiz will be tomorrow over terms 11-15. You can see the whole list on the home page. Our big science projects are due on November 30. We have been working every Friday here at school. Anything else will have to be completed at home. Science fair entry forms are due on the 15th of November. That is this coming Monday. Oral presentations of these projects will begin December 1st and continue through the remainder of the week. I think I will allow the students to work on their projects in my room on Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week and the following Monday. That will give them time to work in here with me, in case they have any questions.
Don't forget that students do not have school this Thursday because there is a teacher inservice day. They will get to sleep in, while we work on things to make school a better place for learning. Well, I think that is about all for this posting. I am looking forward to talking with you on our class blog.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Wednesday, November 3
Hello, everyone!
I am sorry that it has been so long since I have been on here. We have been very busy in our classroom and I have not had much time to take care of this blog. I wanted to bring you up to date on what we are doing. The students are putting their research into their class wiki. It took some doing, but I think we have everyone. They seem very excited to be using this new technology tool, instead of the old standard reports or drawing pictures or just printing off pictures. Now, here is some information that could be useful to those students who want to work at home. There is a problem, though. In order to get to the new information, you will have to go to the upper right-hand corner of the page and sign-in. I have created a few new pages, but they are not showing up like the two that are on the home page now. I don't know why, either. You can get to them if you sign-in and go to the Dashboard. I am really sorry about all of this. What I have created is a page with directions on how to put an image in their wiki page and a page with directions on how to put a video clip in their wiki page. There is another page with the directions for the body systems project, too. This is the project that they are putting in their wiki.
As of today, we have taken tests over terms 1-10 and taken down the definitions for 11-13. Tomorrow, the students will get #14, and on Monday, they will get #15, then they will take the quiz over those 5 a few days later. I will put on here when the quiz will be. We are still working on the big projects on Fridays. These projects are due on November 30th. What is not done at school will have to be done at home. Well, I think that is about it for now. If you have any questions about how to get to those new pages, just comment on here or email me. I look forward to talking to you!
I am sorry that it has been so long since I have been on here. We have been very busy in our classroom and I have not had much time to take care of this blog. I wanted to bring you up to date on what we are doing. The students are putting their research into their class wiki. It took some doing, but I think we have everyone. They seem very excited to be using this new technology tool, instead of the old standard reports or drawing pictures or just printing off pictures. Now, here is some information that could be useful to those students who want to work at home. There is a problem, though. In order to get to the new information, you will have to go to the upper right-hand corner of the page and sign-in. I have created a few new pages, but they are not showing up like the two that are on the home page now. I don't know why, either. You can get to them if you sign-in and go to the Dashboard. I am really sorry about all of this. What I have created is a page with directions on how to put an image in their wiki page and a page with directions on how to put a video clip in their wiki page. There is another page with the directions for the body systems project, too. This is the project that they are putting in their wiki.
As of today, we have taken tests over terms 1-10 and taken down the definitions for 11-13. Tomorrow, the students will get #14, and on Monday, they will get #15, then they will take the quiz over those 5 a few days later. I will put on here when the quiz will be. We are still working on the big projects on Fridays. These projects are due on November 30th. What is not done at school will have to be done at home. Well, I think that is about it for now. If you have any questions about how to get to those new pages, just comment on here or email me. I look forward to talking to you!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Thursday, October 28
Wow! We have been busy the past couple of days. I set up a class wiki for each of my six classes. They will be starting a new project on body systems next week and all their information will be put on the wiki. It is a totally new piece of technology for these students. They have never worked with anything like this before. I want them to have fun with it and learn something at the same time. I will give you the address for the wikis, so that you can see what your kids are doing. You will have to find out what class period your child is in, so that you know which address to type in the address bar. You will also need his/her login name and password to get into the wiki.
First period students go to www.mmsfirstperiod.wikispaces.com/
Third period students go to www.mmsthirdperiod.wikispaces.com/
Fourth period students go to www.mmsfourthperiod.wikispaces.com/
Fifth period students go to www.mmsfifthperiod.wikispaces.com/
Sixth period students go to www.mmssixthperiod.wikispaces.com/
Seventh period students go to www.mmsseventhperiod.wikispaces.com/
I hope you enjoy the sites. The students should start putting information on the pages sometime next week, after they start researching. You can check out the directions by going to the page labeled "Body Systems" or "Beginning of Body Systems". It will be found in a box on the right side of the screen.
We now have terms 6-10 from the list. We will be having a quiz over those five on Tuesday. Well, I guess that brings us to the end of this posting. It has been a trip to get everyone on the wiki. I am so excited about using, though, and really hope it works!
First period students go to www.mmsfirstperiod.wikispaces.com/
Third period students go to www.mmsthirdperiod.wikispaces.com/
Fourth period students go to www.mmsfourthperiod.wikispaces.com/
Fifth period students go to www.mmsfifthperiod.wikispaces.com/
Sixth period students go to www.mmssixthperiod.wikispaces.com/
Seventh period students go to www.mmsseventhperiod.wikispaces.com/
I hope you enjoy the sites. The students should start putting information on the pages sometime next week, after they start researching. You can check out the directions by going to the page labeled "Body Systems" or "Beginning of Body Systems". It will be found in a box on the right side of the screen.
We now have terms 6-10 from the list. We will be having a quiz over those five on Tuesday. Well, I guess that brings us to the end of this posting. It has been a trip to get everyone on the wiki. I am so excited about using, though, and really hope it works!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday - October 25, 2010
Hello! It is the first day of the second nine weeks. Today we started looking at the next step in our study of life science. We looked last week at cells, so today we took a look at what it takes to make up a human body. The students took some notes from the Smart board that I want to put on here. If they loose their notes or was absent, they can come here and get them. I tried to copy the notes here, but they would not copy and paste, so I will just have to type them in. We started of by writing down the word cell, then we discussed how a group of cells that work together to do a certain job create tissue. We put an arrow pointing toward the word tissue. Next, we discussed how a group of tissues all working together to do a certain job create an organ. So, we put down an arrow facing the word organ. After that, we talked about how there are organs that work together to create an organ system. We put an arrow facing the words organ system. I hate that I can't demonstrate that to you here.
We, also, discussed two terms. They are multicellular and unicellular. Humans and most organisms are multicellular which means many, more than one cell. Bacteria, viruses, and protozoa are examples of unicellular which means one cell. The students wrote down these terms and the definitions. They will be starting body sytem projects in a day or so. I will put on here when they do and what will be expected of them.
They got term #8 today from the list. I will not give them one tomorrow (Tuesday) because I have two videos on body systems to show them. Yesterday was a busy day, but we accomplished so much! Have a great day and I will talk to you soon!
We, also, discussed two terms. They are multicellular and unicellular. Humans and most organisms are multicellular which means many, more than one cell. Bacteria, viruses, and protozoa are examples of unicellular which means one cell. The students wrote down these terms and the definitions. They will be starting body sytem projects in a day or so. I will put on here when they do and what will be expected of them.
They got term #8 today from the list. I will not give them one tomorrow (Tuesday) because I have two videos on body systems to show them. Yesterday was a busy day, but we accomplished so much! Have a great day and I will talk to you soon!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Wednesday, Oct. 20
Hello!
The students are finishing up their research and drawings of the plant and animal cells. They have found out that animal cells do not have cell walls or chloroplasts. It was funny to listen to them yell at me from across the room that they could not find these parts in the animal cell. I would ask them what that told them and they would reply that the animal cell doesn't have them. I love it when the light bulb comes on! :-) We started on the next set of terms today. They got #6 from the list. Remember the list is on the home page for you to look at.
Tomorrow is the nine weeks test. It should not take very long. We are going to be starting body systems next. I will let you know, when we do. Have a great day and I will talk to you soon!
The students are finishing up their research and drawings of the plant and animal cells. They have found out that animal cells do not have cell walls or chloroplasts. It was funny to listen to them yell at me from across the room that they could not find these parts in the animal cell. I would ask them what that told them and they would reply that the animal cell doesn't have them. I love it when the light bulb comes on! :-) We started on the next set of terms today. They got #6 from the list. Remember the list is on the home page for you to look at.
Tomorrow is the nine weeks test. It should not take very long. We are going to be starting body systems next. I will let you know, when we do. Have a great day and I will talk to you soon!
Friday, October 15, 2010
Newest update
Hello to everyone!
It is Friday. The kids all love Friday. We spent today working on their big projects that are due on November 30. The requirement sheet for these can be found at the top of the home page.
We will be having our nine weeks test on Thursday, October 21. Students can study from the observation/inference, lab safety, and scientific method tests. Plus, there will be the first five terms we have taken down in class. That list is also on the home page. I will be giving the students back their scientific method test on Tuesday and going over it with them. It has taken me a lot longer to grade it than I thought. There were several questions that they had written answers on and that takes longer to grade. I have three classes left to grade and I brought them home with me to do over the weekend.
I will be sending home a letter with the address to this blog in it so that everyone will be able to get on here and read what is going on in our class. Have a great weekend and I will talk to you next week!
It is Friday. The kids all love Friday. We spent today working on their big projects that are due on November 30. The requirement sheet for these can be found at the top of the home page.
We will be having our nine weeks test on Thursday, October 21. Students can study from the observation/inference, lab safety, and scientific method tests. Plus, there will be the first five terms we have taken down in class. That list is also on the home page. I will be giving the students back their scientific method test on Tuesday and going over it with them. It has taken me a lot longer to grade it than I thought. There were several questions that they had written answers on and that takes longer to grade. I have three classes left to grade and I brought them home with me to do over the weekend.
I will be sending home a letter with the address to this blog in it so that everyone will be able to get on here and read what is going on in our class. Have a great weekend and I will talk to you next week!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
First posting to blog.
Hello, and welcome everyone! I am going to try out this blog and see if everyone likes using it. I am hoping it is a way for you keep up with what is going on in our classroom. I will not be using personal information about anyone at all, but just telling what we are doing. This is new to me, so bear with me. I am hoping to find a way to post notes that the students take in class on here, so that the parents have a copy of them, too.
What needs to be told first is about our nine weeks test. It will be on Thursday, October 21. The test will cover observation/inference, lab safety, the scientific method, and the five terms that have been given so far. I am going to see if I can attach those terms to this blog. If I can't, then I will simply type them in here.
The students are currently working on a project about plant and animal cells. They are researching the differences between the two and discovering the functions of the parts of the cells. They will be drawing pictures of the two cells, when their research is complete. They also have their big science projects that they are working on at home. I will be using one day a week to work on them here at school, but they should be working at home, too. They have chosen either the science fair experiment, a demonstration, or a report.
Please feel free to respond to this blog posting. I look forward to talking to you.
What needs to be told first is about our nine weeks test. It will be on Thursday, October 21. The test will cover observation/inference, lab safety, the scientific method, and the five terms that have been given so far. I am going to see if I can attach those terms to this blog. If I can't, then I will simply type them in here.
The students are currently working on a project about plant and animal cells. They are researching the differences between the two and discovering the functions of the parts of the cells. They will be drawing pictures of the two cells, when their research is complete. They also have their big science projects that they are working on at home. I will be using one day a week to work on them here at school, but they should be working at home, too. They have chosen either the science fair experiment, a demonstration, or a report.
Please feel free to respond to this blog posting. I look forward to talking to you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)