It’s Wednesday, but really it’s only Tuesday.
That’s a reminder that we have school on Saturday! Buses will run as normal during the morning, and class will start at 8:30am as they usually would. This Saturday is only a half day, so there is no breakfast or lunch served.
This morning in Math we got off on a tangent (pun intended!) and spent the entire morning talking about graphing equations, and positive and negative integers. This was in NO WAY what I planned to do this morning, but the students were interested in it, and I feel we actually learned a lot. As such, our day was a bit wonky, and we didn’t quite get to a lot of things, but that’s not exactly so far from how things normally work out!
Tonight students have a new set of 4 ANSWERS, and they must give me 4 equations, and then 4 word problems, that would go with these answers. The set that we turned in today was alright, but students weren’t doing too well with creating their own division problems. As such, we did some examples in class, and they are attached below with their 4 answers.
In Language Arts we talked more about points of view, and how they influence things. We discussed how reading lots of fiction lets us experience things from other people’s points of view, and how there has been research done that shows people who read more, actually exhibit more empathy and understanding as a result of this. Yet another reason to read everybody!!
While some students had experienced things that let them really connect to the “I still have everything you gave me” poem, some students had never experienced a loss that allowed them to make a connection. We talked about this, and about how our experiences and our personality often influence how we interpret what we read.
Tonight students are to do an exercise in stepping outside of their own shoes and writing from another’s point of view. They should pick someone from their own family, and write a short poem as if they were that person. This can be a simple poem from their chosen person’s point of view.
If they are feeling adventurous, they should write a poem about themselves, from the other person’s point of view.
This should be minimum two stanzas, and this time let’s make it rhyme!
Here was mine:
Daddy Daddy
pick me up!
I want coke
please fill my cup
Why are you angry?
I just bit Sai
I think he likes it
Now I cry
A literary masterpiece, if I do say so myself.
In addition to this, students received a short passage about the US trip to the moon that focuses on examining figurative language. They should read and answer the questions associated with this passage tonight (and yep, I want reasoning!)
Also, students should write a sentence for the next 4 ‘graph’ words on their vocab list.
Finally, we spent some more time playing with the neat simulations over here.
It was very hard for some students to understand that applying a net unbalanced force to an object will continue to increase the object’s speed. On a flat surface this might seem un-intuitive, but if you think about something being dropped from a plane, the only force being applied to the object is the force of gravity, which is a constant force. However the object continues to accelerate as it falls. (this ignores terminal velocity, but in a perfect system without air resistance that wouldn’t exist so……let’s just go with it)
It will take a lot of time to really shake some of these misconceptions, and LOTS of proof to the contrary. Unfortunately we are pretty stubborn creatures when it comes to changing our habits/beliefs.
so, tl;dr
Here are some answers. Write me an equation and a word problem to go with them!
write a minimum two stanza poem from one of your family member’s point of view. Make it rhyme!
Read this passage. Answer these questions. Remember Figurative Language!
Write a sentence for your next four ‘graph’ words
And as always, read!