Monday, December 10, 2007

Diamond Mining



The National Geographic video Diamonds of War: Africa's Blood Diamonds is very informative and compelling. What was your opinion of this informational documentary? Did it give you a better idea of Ayize's life and his story that we read in the rBook? What does the word compelling mean? (look it up at www.dictionary.com) Tell me in 3 complete sentences the answers to the 3 questions listed above.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

South Africa Information

Check out this cool website just for kids. It has all kinds of information about South Africa!
www.peacecorps.gov/kids/world/africa/southafrica.html

Monday, December 3, 2007

Workshop 3: Long Journey To Justice













Welcome to Workshop 3! I can hardly believe that we have already completed 2 workshops this year. Congratulations! (you deserve it) Every single one of you has worked hard to accomplish the goal of finishing 2 workshops. Now, on to the next subject...Long Journey To Justice will teach us about South Africa. South Africa is a country on the African Continent, it is all the way across the Atlantic Ocean from the United States. I look forward to learning about the rich history of this country with you. Our big focus with this unit will be on 'Story Elements'. Good Luck!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Workshop 2: Wrap-up


As we finish this workshop we will be writing our second essay of the year. What is something you did for someone? Tell me in one complete sentence what your essay will be about.

Monday, November 26, 2007

REMINDER!!


LOVE all of the comments! Remember that I am your English teacher and expect you to use COMPLETE sentences, correct capitalization and punctuation. I know that you all are in the VERY bad habit of abbreviating. I.M.ing is fine when you are chatting or texting with your friends, but make sure you practice your school skills when writing on our school blog. THANKS!

Welcome Back!


I hope that everyone is relaxed after our long holiday weekend. I also hope that you are ready to wrap our current workshop and then kick-off our next unit. Workshop #3 will be even more sad than the Tsunami workshop (if you can believe that!). Check out my frost webpage [starting tomorrow] for my reading of Workshop #3. Answer this question for me: What do you think is the hardest part of recovering from a tsunami?

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Thanksgiving!



Happy Turkey Day! I wish each of you a happy Thanksgiving, and I hope that you enjoy the long holiday weekend. I look forward to finishing up Workshop #2 this last week of November. Stay tuned into our blog for new information about what our next workshop will cover. I'll post a podcast soon...

Monday, November 19, 2007

Hatchet

Yeah! We finished our first novel of the year, Hatchet. Now I'd like you to test yourself to see how well you paid attention and remember the book. I have attached links to two different websites that have online quizzes for the book. Leave our blog and go back to the page where the blog link is and you'll see the links for the quizzes. Use these as practice for the final exam on Wednesday. Good luck!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Tsunami: Story #3



Relief & Recovery: The tsunami took just hours to cross the Indian Ocean. Rebuilding in its wake will take years. The tsunami took place almost 3 years ago. Has the region fully recovered? What can we do here in California to honor those who died in and those who survived the destruction? Tell me in FULL, COMPLETE sentences.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Workshop 2: Latha's Story


How would you have handled Latha's situation? What must that be like to lose your mother and all of your belongings in just a few hours? Answer the two previous questions in two full complete sentences. Have a fantastic day!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Class



Students: Thank you very much for your kind words. You made me so happy and proud to be your teacher! Now, let's get down to business. From now on whenever you post a comment it needs to have something to do with Workshop #2, with the book that you are silent reading, or the topic you are working with on the computer. Again, the blog is fun but I want it to be EDUCATIONAL!

Talking about school

So here's the deal...I want to hear from you, but I want to talk to you about educational stuff. Look at my first post on Tuesday, October 30th. I want you to respond to what I asked you in that post. Also, click on the tsunami link and check out that website.
If you'd like to post a comment, simply click on the title of the blog that you want to comment on (on the right side of the page). A new window will open, type what you want to say. Next, you'll have to type the funny shaped letters into the blank and click on 'other'. The screen will then want you to type your name (just your first name) and your 'webpage' (just put in www.frostmiddleschool.org). Finally, click 'post comment'. You're done!

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Welcome to our blog! This is a chance for you (my fabulous students) to communicate with each other (and with me, your teacher) about what is going on in our Read 180 classroom. I want to encourage all of you to get involved and write to each other no matter which class of mine you are in. First, check out this link that I have put in here. http://www.tsunami.org/students.html Let me know what you think about it. Also, let me know how you think our latest workshop (2) is going. Love you all!