Hello Spiegel Core Families!
Wow! The last week of the quarter went by crazy fast! As you can imagine, I will be spending a good chunk of time grading and entering grades into Synergy this weekend. Final grades will be made official by the district on Monday.
As we wrapped up our pyramids and short stories this week (and turned in late work!), we also finished our preliminary discussion about the U.S. president's cabinet, read a few interesting articles, and practiced crafting various levels of questions about the readings. We spent a good amount of time making "Theme Zines" - miniature, personalized books that creatively explore themes from the novels we read in our Sci-Fi/Fantasy unit. Students had to think outside the box about how these themes manifest themselves in the world outside their novels. It has been a really fun project to work on in class, but our class time for it is over - Theme Zines are due on Thursday, February 5th. Students are encouraged to turn them in earlier if they are complete. (Assignment requirements are attached)
Next week, we will look at campaign posters from political campaigns throughout history and discuss what jobs would work best for our wonderful Egyptian gods and goddesses! We will figure out how to make unique campaign posters that sell our gods and goddesses to the voting public.
For the new quarter, students will be introduced to my new plan for a more comprehensive exploration of current events in the classroom. We will also be doing an Independent Book Project (IBP) this quarter. Expect these assignments and expectations attached to the next blog post. Both of these will be a quarter long, ongoing process that will require students to speak briefly in front of the class (1 or 2 minutes) in addition to producing written and artistic work.
We will start a novel together as a class (more info to come - I just need to double check that we have enough copies and all the logistics are taken care of before I announce the book!)
For next week: please make sure your student has a Gmail/Google Docs account!! Everyone will need to be able to log in and share a document with me this week in order to help us prepare for our next research project.
More info to come very soon!
Right now we could use some of the following supplies in the classroom:
-Sharpies - black - fine and ultra fine; all varieties of colors in fine or ultra fine
-Printer paper of various colors
-Glue sticks
-Rulers
-Regular pens (black/blue)
-White-out
-Highlighters
Thanks for anything you can do to help!
Also, let me know if you can donate any of the following "most wanted" books for our classroom library! I fear I have already spent quite a lot of my own money on books and supplies, which is apparently something new teachers tend to do - other core teachers have encouraged me to reach out!
Here are the books on our class wish list:
-Shatter Me (and all books by this author) by Tahereh Mafi
-Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
-Horde and Outpost (Books 2 and 3 in the RazorLand Trilogy) by Ann Aguirre
-Sisters by Raina Telgmeier
-Any and all Hardy Boys books
-I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
-The Selection (and the other two books in the series) by Kiera Cass
-The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (might be a series)
-Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth E. Wein
If you want to help out by donating any of these books (or other books, of course!) to the class library, let me know. Please tell me before you donate so I can confirm that the book or books you want to supply have not already been provided by someone else.
Thank you so much in advance for anything you can do to help!!
Look for another blog post this week with more specific information about what will happen in third quarter!
Have a great weekend!!!
Wow! The last week of the quarter went by crazy fast! As you can imagine, I will be spending a good chunk of time grading and entering grades into Synergy this weekend. Final grades will be made official by the district on Monday.
As we wrapped up our pyramids and short stories this week (and turned in late work!), we also finished our preliminary discussion about the U.S. president's cabinet, read a few interesting articles, and practiced crafting various levels of questions about the readings. We spent a good amount of time making "Theme Zines" - miniature, personalized books that creatively explore themes from the novels we read in our Sci-Fi/Fantasy unit. Students had to think outside the box about how these themes manifest themselves in the world outside their novels. It has been a really fun project to work on in class, but our class time for it is over - Theme Zines are due on Thursday, February 5th. Students are encouraged to turn them in earlier if they are complete. (Assignment requirements are attached)
Next week, we will look at campaign posters from political campaigns throughout history and discuss what jobs would work best for our wonderful Egyptian gods and goddesses! We will figure out how to make unique campaign posters that sell our gods and goddesses to the voting public.
For the new quarter, students will be introduced to my new plan for a more comprehensive exploration of current events in the classroom. We will also be doing an Independent Book Project (IBP) this quarter. Expect these assignments and expectations attached to the next blog post. Both of these will be a quarter long, ongoing process that will require students to speak briefly in front of the class (1 or 2 minutes) in addition to producing written and artistic work.
We will start a novel together as a class (more info to come - I just need to double check that we have enough copies and all the logistics are taken care of before I announce the book!)
For next week: please make sure your student has a Gmail/Google Docs account!! Everyone will need to be able to log in and share a document with me this week in order to help us prepare for our next research project.
More info to come very soon!
Right now we could use some of the following supplies in the classroom:
-Sharpies - black - fine and ultra fine; all varieties of colors in fine or ultra fine
-Printer paper of various colors
-Glue sticks
-Rulers
-Regular pens (black/blue)
-White-out
-Highlighters
Thanks for anything you can do to help!
Also, let me know if you can donate any of the following "most wanted" books for our classroom library! I fear I have already spent quite a lot of my own money on books and supplies, which is apparently something new teachers tend to do - other core teachers have encouraged me to reach out!
Here are the books on our class wish list:
-Shatter Me (and all books by this author) by Tahereh Mafi
-Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
-Horde and Outpost (Books 2 and 3 in the RazorLand Trilogy) by Ann Aguirre
-Sisters by Raina Telgmeier
-Any and all Hardy Boys books
-I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
-The Selection (and the other two books in the series) by Kiera Cass
-The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (might be a series)
-Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth E. Wein
If you want to help out by donating any of these books (or other books, of course!) to the class library, let me know. Please tell me before you donate so I can confirm that the book or books you want to supply have not already been provided by someone else.
Thank you so much in advance for anything you can do to help!!
Look for another blog post this week with more specific information about what will happen in third quarter!
Have a great weekend!!!
theme_zines.docx |