Friday, December 14

Hello!

I know it has been a long time since I have been on here, but we have had some issues going on here at school.  My student teacher, Miss McFarland, had some family issues come up, so she had to leave and go home.  She will not be finishing her student teaching with us at this time.  I picked up where she left off, so there would not be any interruption to the students' plans, but I had to come up with lesson plans for this week in a hurry.  I decided to go ahead and finish up the Photo Story project on energy that the students were working on when Miss McFarland had to take over the class.  We were going to finish it after Christmas, but the opportunity presented itself for us to do it now and I took it.  With all the computer troubles we had, it has taken a week to get the test over atoms completed.  The computers kept crashing on us and not letting us get to the site we needed to be on, so I had to extend the time needed to finish the test.  The kids loved the site, when it was working, though, and asked if they could use it again!  It really is a great site and I do hope we can use it again.  Today, I am showing many of those Photo Story presentations and allowing students to finish up the ones that need completed.  I will show those on Monday.  I have been reviewing rocks, too.  It was a little surprising how many students had forgotten the information on rocks.  On Tuesday of next week, I am going to review the rock cycle with them and have them write a story about the life of a rock.  It will be like they are that rock and they will be telling their life stories.  I know there will be several out caroling with the chorus, but this will be used for review and I will do review again at a later date.  They will get it again.  When we come back from Christmas break, we will begin working on the states of matter and the changes that take place to those states.

Oh, don't forget that next Wednesday is our pizza party.  Your child only needs to bring something to drink.  We are providing the pizzas.  I hope you have a great Christmas!!!  I will talk to you again after the break!

Friday, November 30

Hello, All!!!

Well, we made it to the weekend!  The students took the vocabulary quiz over atoms today.  Included in the quiz was an atom they had to label.  I put some extra credit at the end where they had to build an atom that was given to them from the periodic table.  Many students did very well with that.  I wanted to give you a heads up for next week.....

The kids are going to use their atom vocabulary terms to write a song on Monday.  Then, on Tuesday, they will be performing those songs.  My student teacher had let them hear the atom song that uses the Addams Family tune and the kids loved it!!!  I had let the kids hear a few other songs about atoms, too, using up-beat and peppy songs.  I thought the kids would get a kick out of doing that.

On Wednesday, they will reviewing for their test over atoms.  The test will be on Thursday and Friday.  The test is going to take two days because I am going to be using a different format than they are used to.  I was telling Mr. Lloyd about this computer tool I found that was so cool and so much fun to use!  I wanted to use it for a test, instead of typical paper and pencil test.  It is called glogster.  This is a program that lets students create posters.  My student teacher will have written up everything that she would have asked the students on a test and we will just have them put all that information into a poster.  The first day will be showing the kids how to use the program and getting started.  The second day will be more where the putting of the information will take place.  If we need to, I will let them use Monday to finish up.  Mr. Lloyd was very excited about it and wants to come up and take a look, when we get started with it next week.  I am very excited about it, too, and hope that the students enjoy taking a 'test' this way.

Have a super great weekend and I will talk to you again next week.

Wednesday, November 28

Hello!

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.  The kids came back and said that the break went by way too fast! ha! ha!  Of course I reminded them that Christmas break was coming up in three weeks and three days.  Sorry about that.  We are still working with atoms this week.  My student teacher is having them review the parts of the atom and how to build the elements from the periodic table.  On Friday, there will be a quiz over the 12 vocabulary words and the parts of the atom.  There will also be an extra credit part, where the students will be given an element from the periodic table and put into a model the correct number of protons, neutrons, and electrons.  They will use the information given from the periodic table to figure out these numbers.  I worked on this with them yesterday, because Miss McFarland was ill and left early.

Next week, we will be wrapping up atoms.  The students will be writing a song with the vocabulary words and the test will be at the end of the week.  Miss McFarland will be reviewing with them everything they need for the test.  She will tell them, next week, what they need to study from, so they can study at home.  I will give you more on that next week.  Well, that is about it for this week.  Until next week.........

Tuesday, November 20

Hello, Everyone!!!

It is Thanksgiving week and the kids are really wired!  It is hard to keep them focused, but I think we have found a way to do it. Ms. McFarland, my student teacher, had them creating a model of the atom yesterday and today, we are in the computer lab.  The students have vocabulary terms on atoms and notes they have taken on atoms that they need to be going over every evening.  This is not information they can cram for in one evening and understand it for the test.  They have handouts with information, too, that they need to be reviewing.  They have looked at the orbits around the nucleus of the atom, what is in the nucleus, how to find how many protons and neutrons are in the nucleus and how many electrons are on each orbit around the nucleus.  The formula to find that number of electrons on each orbit is 2 (n - squared), where n represents the number of the orbit you are working with.  The students have worked with the atomic number and atomic mass, too.  These numbers help in finding the number of protons, neutrons, and electrons are in the elements.  They will be picking up with the computer activity from today on Monday, when we return from Thanksgiving break.  I will let you know next week what my student teacher has planned.  I hope everyone has a great and safe Thanksgiving!

Friday, November 9

Wow!  What a week we have had!!!  We were not sure if our student teacher was going to be able to start on Monday or not, so our lesson plans were questionable.  Well, we found out that she had some family issues going on and would not be starting until next Monday, so I had to come up with something for the students to work on for the week.  I decided to have them complete a project on different forms of energy.  I gave each group a different energy form and had them complete 4 parts.  They had to tell me what their energy form is, how it is created (where it comes from), give me 3 examples, and then go through the energy transformations (changes) of those examples.  We put the information on photo story.  It is a computer tool that uses images and allows students to record their information, instead of standing in front of the class and telling them.  There is music that can be put to the images as well, if the students choose to put it in.

I was hoping to have these projects completed by the end of the week, so that we could show them, but we have had some computer issues and will not have them all finished.  Here is what I am going to do.  I have saved as many as I can to my flash drive.  The rest of them are saved to the student's name.  I am going to wait until my student teacher has completed her time here and then show the stories.  I don't think it will be a problem.  I really hated it that the computers have been such a pain this week for the kids.  They kept freezing up and not letting them get onto sites and this keeps them from completing the assignment.  When this happens, I have to make adjusts to my time schedule.  Things happen and we have to work with them.

My student teacher will be starting next week and she will be teaching them about atoms.  She will be going over the vocabulary with them and giving them the basic notes they will need first, just like I do.  We have found some activities for the kids to complete, as well.  I will let you know next week more about what we are doing.  Have a great weekend!!!!

Monday, October 29

Good morning, all!

Today we started potential and kinetic energy.  We are taking notes from the board and will look at some examples over the next few days.  There are three (3) vocabulary words that go with this topic.  They are energy, potential energy, and kinetic energy.  We wrote them down today and their definitions.  We, also, discussed what they mean.  We are not going to be using the word 'stored' when talking about potential energy anymore because the state does not want us to.  They say it is misleading.  We will be referring to an objects position as potential energy.  I have a short quiz scheduled for Friday, since we are going to be working on energy projects.  The projects will be interrupted on Monday, however; for my student teacher to begin her part.  She is going to teach them about atoms.  Atoms are part of our standards, too, so we are not getting away from what the state wants us to know.  I will be picking up with the energy projects, when her time with us is complete.  We will review the information before we continue with the projects.  The quiz Friday will have the vocabulary words and questions from the notes we take in class.  If you have any questions, please let me know.  Have a super week!!!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Hello!

This week we are looking at soils.  I put some notes on the board for the students to copy and we discussed them as they were copying them.  They were, also, given a packet of information on soil formation, soil types, and living soil.  We discussed soil formation and they highlighted or underlined the parts that were needed, then we discussed the living soil and underlined and highlighted parts of it, too.  I still have one more packet to give them.  This packet is basically the same information, just written in another way.  We will go over and discuss it, too.  I have two activities for the students to complete.  The first one will be turned in to me and the second one will be LAB #1 and kept in their folders.  I have a test over soil scheduled for Friday, but if we need more time, we will take it on Monday.  The students will need to study their notes, and both packets of information I give them for the test.  The state standards for soil are soil formation, the horizons and characteristics of those horizons, so that is what they will be tested over.  If you have any questions, please let me know.  Have a great week!

Wednesday, October 17

Hello, Everyone!!!

Well, we survived our trip to Bob Evans Farm Festival and did not loose one student!  The kids talked about what a great time they had there.  This is always an awesome trip for them.  I know I have a good time hearing about all the activities they participated in and all the food they ate!!!  I finally got all the tests from last week graded and in the computer, but I am still working on the projects.  I will have to take those home in order to get those finished.  Each student was graded on their part only, so I am grading 110+ individual projects.

Oh, we have a student teacher in our room for the next eight (8) weeks.  Her name is Kelsey McFarland.  She is very excited to be here after spending her first eight (8) weeks at Northwest in 8th grade language arts.  She will start taking over the during next week.

We are going to begin our look at soil tomorrow - Thursday.  There is nothing in our one textbook and only one page in the other, and it does not say very much.  So, I had to go to the internet to find everything I needed for the students.  I got the standard from the state and found the information I needed.  Some things I will be able to give the students copies of and the rest they will have to copy from the board.  I found one activity that they can do, as well.  We will be working on soil the rest of this week and into next week.

Grade cards will be out next Thurday with conferences next Thursday evening from 4-7 pm.  It is so hard to believe that our first quarter is already over!  Well, have a great weekend and I will talk to you next week!!

Thursday, October, 11

Hello, to all!!!

Today is test day!  We are testing over rocks and minerals.  We have spent the week going over things to prepare for the test.  I hope everyone studied!!!  :)  Tomorrow is our big field trip to Bob Evans Farm Festival.  I am reminding everyone today to dress for the weather!!!  We are not going to the beach, so I should not see flip-flops and tank tops.  It is going to be cool, so they will need a jacket.  They can tie it around them, if they get warm.  The entire festival is outside and we need to make sure we are ready for it.  The students will get their $3 coupon towards food, when they get there.  I am looking for a very good day!!!  The kids always have such a good time and learn so many cool things about our Appalachian heritage.  We will be getting a student teacher on Monday.  She will be here for eight (8) weeks.  Her name is Kelsey McFarland.  She will take over after about a week.  There is still one more part of rocks and minerals that I need to cover, so she may have to finish that and then she will look at the standards and decide what she wants to cover with them.  I am looking for a very good experience with her and the students.  She loves using technology as much as I do!!!  I am still working on grading the presentations from last week.  Please be patient with me on this.  It takes so much longer to grade those than a normal assignment.  Since I am grading each student on just their part, it is like I am grading over 100 individual projects.  The ones I do have completed are in the computer.  I am putting the extra credit they earned on the project in with their grade, so it is already figured in for you.  Well, I have projects and tests to grade, so I need to go.  Have a great weekend.  Talk to you then!!!

Friday, October 5

Hello to Friday!

Just an update on our test next Thursday.  We have been going over the LABs we completed and the Study Island questions.  I have, also, included the questions the students answered from the textbook.  We will be going over those today and Monday.  I wanted to make sure that I let you know about those, so that you could make sure your child used those to study with, too.  Make sure your child reviews their notes on minerals, too, because I want to include questions on minerals.  The test I gave on minerals ended up not being very good, so the students will have another chance.

The students completed their oral presentations on the rocks/minerals projects.  Overall, the projects were pretty good.  Most of the students followed the directions that were given to them.  The biggest problem we had was not answering the questions and following the directions.  For example, the students were told to put their initials or name at the end of what they typed.  I told them they could put their initials or name at the beginning, if they wanted.  I just wanted their name or initials by what they typed on the wiki page.  I had several students who didn't put anything by what they typed in and I had to wait until the presentation to see who typed what.  I did have some very good images and video clips put on the pages, though.  The students received extra credit for putting these on there.  For the next project, we will be using Photo story.  This program allows students to record their voices, instead of typing their information.  It is a very cool tool!!  Have a great weekend!!!

Tuesday, October 2

Wow!  Can you believe it is October already?  Time is flying by so fast.  This week we are going to finish up our rocks and minerals projects and the worksheets we started last week.  I have an internet rock scavenger hunt that the students will be finishing up, as well.  Some of my interim reports will be late because I am getting these papers completed and in the computer.  Please, bear with me on this.  I only have so many computers and we are working on two computer assignments.  Most of the projects are complete, so oral presentations will take place Thursday and Friday of this week.  This way, we can do any last minute tweaking today and tomorrow.  We have some activity sheets to discuss tomorrow, too.  I have given the students a packet of questions from Study Island that I want to go over with them and discuss.  These would be really good for them to use, when they study for the test over rocks and minerals.  This test will be next week.  I do not like giving my tests or quizzes on Friday, because math and language arts always have tests on that day, so my test over rocks and minerals will be on Thursday.  Students can start studying now by using the notes we have already taken.  After we go over and discuss the LAB activity sheets they have been working on, they can use those, too, to study from.  Don't forget the Study Island packet of questions.  Next week, we are going to be looking at more Smart board lessons, so we may have more notes to add to what we already have and can study those, too.  I can't wait to see the rocks and minerals projects!  I know the students were very excited to use a new computer tool and put their information on there.  I hope you have had the opportunity to get on the wiki and take a look.  If you need anything, please let me know.  Have a great week!

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Hello!

 I am home sick today, but I wanted to let everyone know what we have been doing this week and what we are going to be doing next week.  We have been working on our rocks/minerals projects this week and working on lab activity papers to help with our understanding of rocks and minerals.  Some of the papers the students complete will be turned in to me and some they will keep in their folders to be turned in at the end of the grading period for extra credit.  We have more notes to take before we will be ready for the next test.  I will put on here next week, when that test will take place.  I do know that there will be questions on that test that cover minerals again, because many students did not do very well on that first test.  I have some lessons on my Smart board that I want to use with the students, before we take the test.  They will be taking notes from those lessons, too.  I am hoping that our projects will be completed by Monday or Tuesday of next week, so we can begin the oral presentations.  I will be on here next week to let you know on what day the oral presentations will start.  Have a good weekend!

Week of Sept. 17, 2012

Hello, Everyone!

This week we are still working on our study of rocks.  We will be starting our rocks and minerals project.  The students have been given the directions for the project and we discussed what they will need to have in order to complete it thoroughly.  Each student will have their own part in the project.  Their information will be put on their class wiki.  The wiki can be looked at by going to the internet.  The students have the address for their particular class wiki.  I hope you get the chance to see it.  If your child looses his/her directions, then another copy can be printed off from the wiki.  They will always have access to a copy of the directions this way.  We will be working on these projects through next week and I will have other assignments for them to complete during this time, too.  We will be working on Smart board lessons and activity sheets.

Don't forget that picture day in next Tuesday, the 25th, and interims will be out next Friday, the 28th.  I hope that you enjoy reading the blog and finding out what we are doing in science class.  Please feel free to comment.  I look forward to hearing from you.  I will be on here again next week with an update.  Talk to you then!

Week of Sept. 10

Hello to all!!

I didn't get to post anything last week and I am sorry about that.  It was a busy week with our study on minerals.  The students have been taking notes and will use those to study for their test.  The test over minerals will be tomorrow, Wednesday.  I told them about it on Monday.  I have two classes, 6th and 7th periods, that will not take the test until Thursday because I did not tell them about the test till today.  I want to make sure that everyone gets two days to study for the test.  We will start rocks next.  There will be a computer project to go along with rocks that will have minerals in it, too.  For this project, we will use the class wiki.  Most students are already in the wiki.  There are only a few that still need to get in.  We have been doing a vocabulary word everyday as bellwork.  After the first 10, I had the students write me a story using those 10 words.  They will do a different activity after the next 10 words.  I like to do something different to keep things interesting and fun.  I guess that is about it for this week.  I will be on here next week to let you know how things are going.  I still need to get the paper to you for this address, too.  Until next week.......

New School year 2012-2013

Welcome new students and parents/guardians!!

This is my class blog.  It is where I post the things we are doing in class and what we will be doing in class in the near future.  I put on here any tests or quizzes that are coming up and projects the kids are working on.  I am even able to put some directions on here.  There is one computer tool that has the directions for the project in it.  That tool is called a wiki.  All the tools have web addresses, so they can be seen and worked on from home.  This is the good thing about using them.  You will always have access to what your child is doing in here.  If you have a Google email account, you can reply to this posting, but if not, then you can send me an email at school.  I hope that you will reply to the posting because it gets fun and interesting to see what other parents write on here.  I would love to get a dialogue started that way!!  Next week is our first full week of school.  I am going to be showing the students all the computer tools we will be using and even setting one of them up.  By the end of the week, we should be working on our first unit - rocks, minerals, and soil.  We have vocabulary everyday, so be looking for that, too.  Well, I am really looking forward to a great year with your children.  I hope to talk - type with you soon!!! :-)   See you on the web!!!!!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Hello! It has been a long time, since I talked to everyone. I hope all of you had a good Easter. Right now, we are working on our scientist project. We should be finished with these on Friday by doing our presentations. Some students are using the class wiki for their projects, while others are using Photo story or voice thread. This is the last project for the year. Next week, we will be working on OAA math to get ready for the test coming up on the 24th of the month. I use Study Island lessons to help them prepare for the test. They get to go up to the Smart board and work out any problems that they have. It works out so very well for them. Well, it is time for me to switch kids out on the computers. Have a good rest of your week.

Wednesday, March 22

Howdy!

Wow, is time flying by us! The school year is very quickly coming to an end. This week is the second week of our last grading period. The students have finished their energy unit and are now working on mass, volume, and density. This will lead them to physical/chemical properties and changes. From there, we will work on the individual project on a famous scientist or inventor. I am hoping we can do that next week and do the presentations the week of spring break. If we need to do the presentations after break, then that is okay, too. Don't forget that I will be reviewing for the math OAA the two weeks after we come back from break. This review really seemed to help the students, when I did this last year. I guess this is all I have for right now. Have a good rest of your week. Only two days till the weekend. We are downhill from here. ha! ha! Talk to you next week.

Thursday, March 15

Hello to all!!!

Well, we have finished our energy unit and are moving on to physical science. The test over energy was yesterday. I still have some students who need to take it because they were out for OMUN or were absent that day. Some students surprised me by doing very well on the test and others by not doing as well as expected. Students should be able to get the tests back on Monday, after everyone has taken it. I have some activities planned for volume, mass, and density. This is what we are looking at first. We are looking inertia, too, today and I am using my rolling chair and putting students in it to show this. It is really funny and the kids get a better understanding of what inertia means. Once we finish with these topics, we will be moving on to physical and chemical properties and changes. It gets really fun in here then!!! I set things on fire and blow things up!!! The students love that! I am hoping to get started on the last project before we leave for spring break. It will be an individual one, so many students will like that. It will not take long to complete and students can pick which computer tool they want to use: wiki, photo story, or voice thread. Well, I guess that is all that is going on right now. I can't believe how fast this year has gone. We are already in our last quarter. Talk to you next week. Have a great weekend!

Monday, March 5

Today is InView testing day. Tuesday thru Thursday will be Terra Nova testing. We will be doing work with Study Island after the testing is over, except for Thursday. There will be a dance on the afternoon for those students who are allowed to go because they have all their assignments completed for the nine weeks. Friday, we will be presenting the voicethreads on the energy projects. The last day of the 3rd nine weeks is this Friday. Monday will be the 1st day of our last nine weeks. This year has flown by! I will let you know on Friday what is going on next week. Talk to you then.

Friday, March 2

Hello, Everyone!

What a week we have had! The students have been working on their energy project voicethreads and I do believe they have gone very well. We are finishing those up today and will be presenting them next Friday. Monday starts the InView and Terra Nova testing, so we have to wait till Friday to start presentations of the voicethreads. The voicethreads can still be worked on at home, though, by going to www.voicethread.com. Your child should have the login name and password needed to sign in to their account. Your child will, also, need a headset to record with. I will let you know next week where we are going to go from here. Presentations may take more than one day. I don't know for sure. We will just have to wait and see. Have a great weekend! Talk to you next week.

Friday, Feb. 24

Hello,

I have been out yesterday and today because of an illness, but will be back on Monday. The students have started their new project on energy this week. They were in the computer lab on Wednesday and today. The groups set up their voicethreads accounts and will be ready to start putting images on it and recording their information on Monday. I wanted them to get a really good start on their research before they got started on the voicethread. This is a new computer tool for them, but is similar to Photo Story that they used for the last project. It is very user friendly and can still be accessed from home, so if someone is absent or needs more time, they can work from home. Voicethreads use images that the students find about their topic and then they record what they want to tell us about those images. The difference between this and Photo Story is that students can doodle on their images to point out specific areas, if needed, and there is no background music available. It is a very fun way to do a project, too. I hope that they like it as much as they did the Photo Story. Well, that is about it for this week. I wanted to get on here and let everyone know what was going on, even though I could not be at school. I will talk to you next week! Have a good weekend!

Monday, February 13

Good Monday morning!

Well, we have finished up the rocks/minerals projects and are viewing the last of them today. I have a few activities I want the students to complete using rocks and minerals and then we will be completely done with this topic. Once those are done, we are going to start our energy project. We will use a new computer tool called a voice thread for this project. It is a tool that can be accessed from home, so students can work from home, if they need to. The only part of a voice thread that needs to be addressed, if a student is going to use it at home, is that they need a headset with a microphone attached. They will be recording their voices again and putting in images to show their part of the project. I will give the directions, when we get to that point. There are four weeks left in this grading period. The last week of the grading period is when I will collect all the labs for extra credit. I will give them the list on Monday and they will be due on Wednesday. I always give the students two days to put them all together. After that, we have one more nine weeks grading period left to this school year. I can't believe how time is flying by us. Even the students have mentioned that this school year is going by so fast. Have a great week and I will talk to you soon.

Thursday, February 2

Today will be the second day for being in the computer lab and working on the rocks/minerals wiki projects. According to the note from my sub yesterday, the students had some trouble getting on the wiki yesterday, but we got it all straightened out today. They will be typing on their wiki pages today. We will be working on these projects Monday and Tuesday of next week, too, then start the presentations on Wednesday. That is our goal, anyway. I may have to adjust it, depending on how the research goes. I have a hands-on lab planned for the students, too, after their presentations, that should be interesting for them. They will have all the background information they need for the lab from the projects.

I still have some of the vocabulary words to cover with them, so we will be picking up those tomorrow and every Friday until they are all completed. If you remember, there was a 6th grade Science terms list that I was to cover with the students throughout the entire year.

Have a good weekend. Talk to you next week.

Tuesday, January 31

Hello!

We are starting our new project today - Tuesday. This one is over rocks/minerals. The students are working in their groups for the project and using the class wiki page to post their information. There is some confusion over the link for putting images on their pages, but I showed them how to do it a couple of other ways. The people at wikispaces have worked on the wikis and it looks a little different than it did last time we were on there. I had to play around with it before I found out what works with the images.

We will be in the computer lab tomorrow and Thursday, so that the students can get a good start on their research. They can look at home, too. It will be okay, however, I do want them to do most of it in the classroom, so they are not just sitting in here with nothing to do.

I still need to put the grades in the computer for their Photo story projects. It just takes time to go through all of them, since I am grading each students' part of the project. This next project will be graded the same way. I have told the students that I will need a copy of who is responsible for which part of the project. They are using today, after the video, to decide those parts. They will be ready to go tomorrow, when we go to the lab.

Well, this gets us caught up on what we are doing for the next couple of weeks. There will be an oral presentation at the end of this project, so the students can go over what they have found with the rest of the class. Have a great rest of your day. Email me, if you have any questions.

Monday, January 23

Hello to all!!

It has been several weeks, since I have been on here and what a wild several weeks it has been!!!! The students have been working on their photo story over the biome their group was assigned. It took some time to get the research completed and then more time to get their information recorded to the pictures they found. Some decided that they did not like the sound of their voices, and elected to be in front of the class to present orally. I gave them a checklist to make sure that they had ever part of the story in their's. There was one part about the biome that they were supposed to put first in the story and then the rest could go in whatever order they chose. Once the stories were completed, I put them on my flash drive and showed them to the class. I wanted the groups to email me their stories, but the program wouldn't let them. The computers were not set up for it. This worked out okay, though. Once we finish everything with these stories and this topic, we are going to review cells for a couple of days because their 2nd quarterly assessment did not turn out very well. After that, we are going to start on rocks and minerals. We have a wiki project set up for that. I am sorry that I have not been on here sooner, but it has been very hectic here and we have been busy learning a new program and learning about organisms. My goal is to be back on here once a week. So, I am going to be positive and optimistic and say I will talk to you next week! :-)