For the last three weeks the title of my blogs have all been about how fast the week went by...and I was ready to do it again this week! I guess it's true what they say about time flying when you're having fun!
This past week was a blast! I know for a fact that I freaked out quite a few people on Wednesday and Friday when we launched into Romeo and Juliet! And on Monday and Thursday, we got serious about our word counts. It was an adventurous week to say the least.
I saw groups A and B in on Monday and Wednesday, which is how it usually plays out. However, Tuesday and Thursday weren't quite so straight forward. Tuesday we had a guest speaker come to discuss endangered species, so we had a rotation in the morning. My part of the rotation was beginning the film version of The Odyssey.
The film was originally a television mini-series back in the 90's. The kids really got into it. They would beg to finish a scene before we switched. We watched more of it on Thursday before we headed up to the Fall Festival. Then we finished it on Friday afternoon.
We were in four rooms watching the end on Friday and each room was slightly off from each other. It was really kind of neat for me since it allowed me to stop by the different rooms to add something or draw their attention to something. Then right near the end of the film a "bad guy", one of the suitors, is killed. The cheers came in a round on the hall, and when the film ended, the applauds came in a round as well. It was really cool!
Finishing up The Odyssey was just a small highlight of the week. The first day we met, we talked a bit more about turning off our internal editors and getting ready for NaNoWriMo. We finished peer editing our essays and set our word count goals. We talked about how they will have homework everyday for the entire month of November.
The only way they'll reach their word count goal, or that I'll reach mine, is by setting aside time everyday to write. The lowest word count goal I allowed was 20,000 words. That breaks down to 667 words per day or about one typed page. This month should be fun and challenging. I know some of them are super excited about getting started and the others are coming around to the idea.
The second day we met, I carried a sword and spoke in a terrible British accent. I stood on the table pretty much the entire class, (the cause of much of the freakout). We talked about love and teenagers and then went into The Prologue from Act I of Romeo and Juliet. We took the 14 line sonnet to pieces looking at every detail of it. We added motions to it and talked about ways to memorize it.
They will write and recite the sonnet for two separate grades on Tuesday or Wednesday of this upcoming week. We'll also be getting ready for NaNoWriMo, setting up our accounts, and mapping out our stories and starting to think about our Shakespeare Banquet. It'll be a bit of a busy month, but rewarding in the end.
I'm preparing a bit of a send off for Friday since Saturday will be the first official day of writing for NaNoWriMo!!
Chances are good this week will disappear without much effort like the last several...
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Whoosh
This past week shot by like it was launched from a potato gun! And it was just as much fun! I started the week by listening to my student's advice from their journals. I put the breaks on a little and let them and me breathe a little. We spent our time at the beginning of the week wrapping up the Cyclops episode of The Odyssey.
Thursday, we went to The Renaissance Festival. We had a blast. The students had the opportunity to check out all the sites and shows and food. We came back together as a group to watch the final joust of the day. We then had a little more time to check everything out before we got back on the buses. I personally ate a sausage on a stick, chocolate covered strawberries, Italian ice, and a root beer float.
Friday, we had our museum. And I have to say that our students rocked! Their exhibits were awesome and the 3rd graders had a blast. We everything from exploding volcanoes to a labyrinth complete with a minotaur. I have a lot of great video that I need to post soon!
This week is setting up to be another epic adventure that I cannot wait to see unfold!
Thursday, we went to The Renaissance Festival. We had a blast. The students had the opportunity to check out all the sites and shows and food. We came back together as a group to watch the final joust of the day. We then had a little more time to check everything out before we got back on the buses. I personally ate a sausage on a stick, chocolate covered strawberries, Italian ice, and a root beer float.
Friday, we had our museum. And I have to say that our students rocked! Their exhibits were awesome and the 3rd graders had a blast. We everything from exploding volcanoes to a labyrinth complete with a minotaur. I have a lot of great video that I need to post soon!
This week is setting up to be another epic adventure that I cannot wait to see unfold!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Have You Seen Last Week?
Another week zoomed by and with it the end of the nine week grading period. That sort of snuck up on me. Nevertheless, it's been a great first nine weeks and another great week.
We started the week by going over our Parts of Speech Quiz. The scores were pretty bad across the board. I thought that perhaps some of the errors were simple mistakes. I had planned to review and then retest, but when we talked about it, it seemed that simple mistakes were only part of it. A lot of them admitted to still being confused about the basics, so we're going to do some extra review before we retest.
After we went over our quiz, we got back to work on The Odyssey. We're still working with our reciprocal teaching circles. It's been going well from my vantage point. The students are discussing and helping each other make sense of the poem. Some of them aren't so crazy about the poem, but that's mostly because they have to work so hard to make sense of it all.
Later in the week we continued working on The Odyssey. We nearly finished the cyclops episode. I assigned the rest of their five jobs for homework. We'll be splitting the remainder of the poem up between the groups. Each group will read their section/sections and present the information back to the rest of the class.
We started our Parts of Speech review by playing MadLibs. It was a lot of fun and educational. We got to review what the parts of speech were and have fun using them. My plan is to move from playing MadLibs to creating our own. This way the students will have to know what part of speech they remove. We'll go full circle.
Friday we went to Grandfather Mountain. It was a lot of fun even if we could hardly see anything. The mist or fog was thick. We couldn't even see off the bridge or the rocks on the far side. It was like being on an island. Before we went to the bridge, we did get a chance to see the animals and the museum. All in all, it was a good day and another good week!
We started the week by going over our Parts of Speech Quiz. The scores were pretty bad across the board. I thought that perhaps some of the errors were simple mistakes. I had planned to review and then retest, but when we talked about it, it seemed that simple mistakes were only part of it. A lot of them admitted to still being confused about the basics, so we're going to do some extra review before we retest.
After we went over our quiz, we got back to work on The Odyssey. We're still working with our reciprocal teaching circles. It's been going well from my vantage point. The students are discussing and helping each other make sense of the poem. Some of them aren't so crazy about the poem, but that's mostly because they have to work so hard to make sense of it all.
Later in the week we continued working on The Odyssey. We nearly finished the cyclops episode. I assigned the rest of their five jobs for homework. We'll be splitting the remainder of the poem up between the groups. Each group will read their section/sections and present the information back to the rest of the class.
We started our Parts of Speech review by playing MadLibs. It was a lot of fun and educational. We got to review what the parts of speech were and have fun using them. My plan is to move from playing MadLibs to creating our own. This way the students will have to know what part of speech they remove. We'll go full circle.
Friday we went to Grandfather Mountain. It was a lot of fun even if we could hardly see anything. The mist or fog was thick. We couldn't even see off the bridge or the rocks on the far side. It was like being on an island. Before we went to the bridge, we did get a chance to see the animals and the museum. All in all, it was a good day and another good week!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Where did it go?
This week just sort of slipped right by without me even noticing. We've set sail with Odysseus, took a grammar quiz, worked more on peer editing our change papers(A and B only), and learned about Hugh Morton.
Groups A & B got to spend a little time editing their papers in their peer editing groups. We focused on body paragraphs this time. We'll do a little more work on them in our peer groups before I set a resubmit date.
Groups C & D had a shortened class on Tuesday, so we postponed the editing. We had a chance to see a special performance from storyteller Donna Washington. It was well worth the crunch on our schedule! She put on a show especially for us and the Middle College. It was a lot of fun and very entertaining.
We launched into The Odyssey in reciprocal teaching circles. So far they seem to be working rather well. I'm hoping to put a pretty good dent into the poem this week. Not sure how well that will work. Pacing is still an issue. We have RenFest looming on the horizon!
We took our first grammar quiz. It was just on identifying the 9 parts of speech. Some did well; however, most didn't. We're going to go over it this week and retest soon. It's an issue I seem to face every year. My students can always tell the definitions of the parts of speech, but they tend to have trouble applying those definitions. It's a work in progress!
We've also started to think about our novel ideas for NaNoWriMo. Some seem freaked out, but generally the rumbling has been more of excitement. I'm really looking forward to it! November is going to be a good time getting our novels knocked out! Before we start, we'll talk more about word count goals and what this insane challenge is all about!
Friday we focused on Grandfather Mountain. I've never actually been to Grandfather Mountain, so I've been looking forward to the trip this Friday. And after the research I did for my part of Grandfather prep, I'm even more excited. The kids should be well informed that's for sure!
I spent some time reading personal odyssey blogs this weekend, and it was epic! I laughed so many times while reading them. I can't tell you how many times I got transformed into a TROLL!
Well, I hope this week goes well!
Groups A & B got to spend a little time editing their papers in their peer editing groups. We focused on body paragraphs this time. We'll do a little more work on them in our peer groups before I set a resubmit date.
Groups C & D had a shortened class on Tuesday, so we postponed the editing. We had a chance to see a special performance from storyteller Donna Washington. It was well worth the crunch on our schedule! She put on a show especially for us and the Middle College. It was a lot of fun and very entertaining.
We launched into The Odyssey in reciprocal teaching circles. So far they seem to be working rather well. I'm hoping to put a pretty good dent into the poem this week. Not sure how well that will work. Pacing is still an issue. We have RenFest looming on the horizon!
We took our first grammar quiz. It was just on identifying the 9 parts of speech. Some did well; however, most didn't. We're going to go over it this week and retest soon. It's an issue I seem to face every year. My students can always tell the definitions of the parts of speech, but they tend to have trouble applying those definitions. It's a work in progress!
We've also started to think about our novel ideas for NaNoWriMo. Some seem freaked out, but generally the rumbling has been more of excitement. I'm really looking forward to it! November is going to be a good time getting our novels knocked out! Before we start, we'll talk more about word count goals and what this insane challenge is all about!
Friday we focused on Grandfather Mountain. I've never actually been to Grandfather Mountain, so I've been looking forward to the trip this Friday. And after the research I did for my part of Grandfather prep, I'm even more excited. The kids should be well informed that's for sure!
I spent some time reading personal odyssey blogs this weekend, and it was epic! I laughed so many times while reading them. I can't tell you how many times I got transformed into a TROLL!
Well, I hope this week goes well!
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