Last Post this Week

Hello,

Want to get you caught up on some information before I am out for two days.

1. This is the first year I am without internet at home and it is keeping me just a touch behind on entering grades-- we have a web based program. I asked about how to do them off line but have not had time to follow up that info. I will continue to work on it, but please be patient if I take a bit to get the grades up.

2. I will be gone the rest of the week. The kids will have Pam Albinson as a substitute, which I am really excited about. She retired from teaching here just 2 years ago and is looking forward to discussing "TSB" with the kids, it's one of her favorite books!

3. The vocab quiz will be on Friday!! Study, study, study!!

4. Kids may finish part 1 of "TSB" but should stop there until I get back. I am so bummed to be missing such an exciting part!!

Wellness Assessment

Classes will be applying their new knowledge of the Total Person Concept to further deepen our understanding of the book. Today some classes will take a brief clicker quiz to see where they are in terms of understanding this concept. Classes will take this after reading chapter 5, so not all will be ready for that today and some will take it tomorrow. Remember, studying the vocab words will improve vocab scores on FRIDAY'S QUIZ!!

TSB Quoted Text

Today we worked on identifying a quote of interest from the book and explaining its meaning. The kids will be keeping a chart with these in their notebook. Using textual evidence to support their own ideas is a key concept in this class; this activity is one way to work on that skill.

Kids To Do: Vocab Lesson 2 due tomorrow

Adults To Do: Help kids study for their vocab quiz on Friday!

Friday

Today we began a deeper analysis of the main character of TSB, Cole Mathews. Kids used the "Total Person Concept" from health to take a wellness assessment on behalf of Cole. It helped us learn a great deal about Cole as a person as well as about how to support our ideas with information from the text.

There is no homework over the weekend, except for to be sure that we are all done with our vocab and ready to hand it in on Tuesday.

Enjoy the days of freedom!!!

Total Person Concept

In 7th grade Health class students study the Total Person Concept. This looks at 5 areas that make up a person. We are going to apply that same concept to our study of Cole Mathews in "Touching Spirit Bear".

SL- Kids began by identifying some of the character traits of Cole. They began writing these traits on a venn diagram.

HL- Filled out the first assessment of Cole. To do this they used the Wellness Assessment from Health class and applied it to Cole. We will be looking to see how Cole changes as a person throughout the story.

The Joy and Pain of Technology

Today we attempted to complete our reading assessments. Classes had various degrees of success, depending on how the technology was cooperating. We did make some headway with "Touching Spirit Bear" however, completing at least the first chapter in each class and with a few classes moving on to chapter 2. Tomorrow we should be moving on in this direction, beginning our analysis of the book in earnest. Yay!!

Today kids wrote a brief response to the first chapter. These should have been handed in today. If they did not hand them in today, they can get the question again here: "TSB Reflective Question, Chapter 1"

Monday, a day late

The week started out with a whimper when my technology hit a blip and plans were re-written. Such is life! But, it also ate up some of my blog time, so I am sorry for the day-skip.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week will be spent on two tasks:

1. Taking two reading assessments. These will be used to find any struggling readers and to determine the nature of their needs. For my accelerated kids it will be used as baseline data or a different nature than the NWEA scores.

2. Reading and reflecting on the first chapter of "Touching Spirit Bear". Students will read and then complete a short written response.

Students have been given their next vocab assignment, Lesson 2, which is due 9/28. The quiz will be on 10/1. SL students can access their assignment by clicking on this word. HL students can find their work sheet by clicking here.

Kids To Do: Vocab Lesson 2, due Tuesday 9/28

Adults To Do: Come to Open House tonight!!! Hope to see you all there :)

End of the week!!

We have made it through our first full week of the year!! Whoo hoo!!!

Kids took their vocab quiz for lesson 1 today. We will grade these next week to see how we all did. In order to encourage getting their lessons done and to build some class community, I have the kids compete with the other classes on their vocab assignments and quizzes. For the 1st vocab assignment, most hours only had 1 or 2 missing assignments and 4th hour had the best overall average. Congratulations 4th hour students!! I know that we can continue to improve our averages in all the classes!!! The best key to a great class average is to be sure that EVERYONE hands in their work!! We will do the same thing with the quizzes once we have graded them.

We will get a new vocab assignment next week, and begin to read "Touching Spirit Bear" in earnest.

I hope everyone has a great weekend :)

VOCAB QUIZ FRIDAY

Please remind your student to study for their vocab quiz tomorrow!!! It is important that they have success on this first quiz in order to get themselves off to an excellent start in 7th grade language arts! Please let me know if you have questions or concerns.

Today we finished our word splashes from Tuesday.

Kids To Do: Study, study, study!!!

Vocab Correction

Vocab correction took place today. This is a bit of a process as I have the kids figure out the class average and keep it in their notebooks as a means of working in some math. We will get faster as time goes on, but for today it took most of class. Please remember to study with your student for Friday's quiz!!

Kids To Do: Quiz Friday!!!

TSB Word Splash

Word Splash is a pre-reading activity that activates prior knowledge, helps students make predictions and allows them to make inferences and connections within the book before even reading it. We worked on one today for TSB. Kids are working with an assigned partner and putting the words into their own groups. Once they have identified the groups they will create a mobile to display their groupings to others. Below you will find some of the words on the list. I encourage you to choose a few to discuss with your student at home.

Word Splash for TSB: Circle of Justice, Tlingit, skiff, banishment, punish, patience, probation, detention center, depositions, survival, anger, soul, convicted, innocent, healing contract, Spirit Bear, sincere.

Kids to do: Remember, vocab quiz Friday!!!

Touching Spirit Bear Pre-Reading

Hello!

I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy the beautiful weather we had this weekend!

Today all classes did a pre-reading activity for the novel we are going to begin this week, "Touching Spirit Bear" (TSB). This is one of my favorite units to teach and it is a great way to start the year. In tandem with reading the novel we will also be looking at ourselves as individuals. We will work with some of the same curriculum used in health class this year to complete this unit.

Kids to do: VOCAB 1 IS DUE TOMORROW, TUESDAY 9/14!!!

Poem

Students typed up their "I Am" poems today. Some students were unable to finish in class. This was a fresh reminder of the convenience of having a flash drive that allows them to bring the work home if they need to complete it. Some kids know their email and were able to send it home. The assignment was due at the end of class today, but I will accept it by email over the weekend. They can send it to either zumberge.lillian@slpschools.org or ms.zumberge@gmail.com. If they do not have the poem form at home they can find it by clicking here: "I Am" Poem.

Hopefully everyone has an excellent weekend!!

Vocabulary and Poem

Whew! Yesterday was such a whirlwind I didn't sit down to write about the day. My apologies! Yesterday the kids were introduced to their vocab activities for the year.

SL: Received vocab packet 1, called "Lesson 1". Students complete the homework in the packet and then tear off the first page, to study with, and hand in the rest.
HL: Received their vocab book for the year, "1000 Words You Need to Know". Students complete this assignment on a separate sheet. These are provided in my room, but should they need to print one at home they can find it in the "Classroom Resources" button of my school web site, or by clicking here.

Each class had the lesson explained to them and the process for doing homework. The cycle for doing vocab will typically be that it is due every other Tuesday and the quizzes are on Friday of that same week. In this case, the assignment is due Tuesday 9/14 and the quiz will be Friday 9/17.

Today we are beginning to work on our theme for 1st quarter: Character/ Self. Throughout the year we will be focusing on one theme per quarter: Character, Setting, Conflict, Theme. As you can see, these themes are very general and are the major elements of all types of writing. We are creating a poem about ourselves as a first step in the exploration of characters, the "I Am" poem. This is an in class assignment, but if you want to see the format you can click here. They will be writing the drafts today and given a chance to make a more formal presentation of the poem later in the week.

Kids to do: Vocab is due 9/14. Try to start it tonight so that you have a few days to check with me if you have questions.

Adults to do: If you have not filled out the short question sheet that was sent home with your child, please ask them for it.

LMC

All classes got the orientation for the Library Media Center with Mr. Holmbeck. I didn't collect the sheet they brought home for you to fill out, so they have another night to complete that assignment. 7th and 8th hour will get the sheet today.

Day 3

We finally got to experience a more normal schedule this morning. The afternoon is another matter. We have some fabulous activities planned to strengthen our school community, but I won't see my 7th and 8th hour classes. I have seen them for longer time over the last couple days, so we are pretty close together. Tuesday will be our first really normal day! The morning classes (1-6) got a sheet to fill out about themselves and the back side is for you to fill out. These are due Tuesday. 7th and 8th hour will get them on Tuesday and have them due Wednesday.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Kids To Do:
Finish filling out question sheet and give to your adult to do their side, due Tuesday.

Getting to Know You

Today has been much of a continuation of yesterday's activities. We still had short classes in the morning, which meant we were barely able to finish up with what we started yesterday. The afternoon classes will have a chance to move on to our next activity which will help us to learn more about ourselves and our personalities. Either today or tomorrow you can expect to get a sheet home from my class with some general questions for you to fill out regarding your student. We are all looking forward to the Day 3 event taking place tomorrow, which will be a building wide community event! It is sure to be a great day!!

First Day of School!!

Wow! This day is here already! Fortunately, it went smoothly for all, as far as I could tell. OT was extended, so we had time to talk to each other and get to know something new about our classmates. Tomorrow I would like OT kids to bring magazines and/or pictures to share with the class as we decorate our Hopes and Dreams. These magazines will be cut up and not returned. Thank you!!

Other classes all played games to get to know each other as well. The shortened schedule to make room for the extended OT means that we can't dive too deep into the classroom procedures. We will work on this more in the upcoming days. I did let kids know that they are expected to have a notebook exclusively for Language Arts and that this can be either a composition or spiral notebook, but that they are NEVER to tear paper out of it.

In general, this blog will comment on the SL and HL classes that happen before 5th hour. It is during 5th hour that I will be writing here, so if your child is in the afternoon class, they may have a slightly different experience, but not by much.

I look forward to working with you this year. Please contact me if you have any questions. You may use either the school email or my work gmail account: ms.zumberge@gmail.com

Thank you!!

Kids to do:

OT- bring magazines to share/ cut up for decorating our Hopes and Dreams.