Monday: We spent the entire hour doing test corrections to our Unit 8.1 Post Test. Students should have brought home a small note to get a parent signature. If students do not submit their signed note to me by Friday, their test correction points will not be added to their test and their test score will be final. Tuesday: I was absent this day. Students present at school were expected to complete text summaries from Science World Magazine and submit them at the end of the hour to the sub. Wednesday: Students finished Lesson 1 by going over the Unit Challenge Scenario with their new unit buddies (small groups). Being able to collaborate with a variety of other people is an important life skill that group work in school helps to establish and sharpen in our students. They will spend the rest of their life working with people of different backgrounds or even students who will choose to focus on family at home will have to collaborate in their household to be successful. Please encourage your child to work with their partners effectively. Partners will not be changed unless there are serious disciplinary issues and students involved in that will be given office referrals! Thank you for your support 🙂 Finally – students collaborated to come up with “bubble map questions” that will guide our unit coming back from break. Thursday: Students will copy down their class’s bubble map to place in their binders and start on a Close and Critical Reading assignment while I do binder checks. Binder checks are summative grades like tests or quizzes and students are expected to bring their binders EVERY SINGLE DAY to stay updated and in order!!!! Ask your child about his or her binder and check the grade they received. Your child may need a new one if theirs is damaged or missing. Please help support them by providing the materials they need to be successful! Thank you 🙂 Friday: We will finish our CCR to tie things up for the week before break. Sixth hour students will be at Donuts and Phones PBIS day so I won’t really have a chance to send them off for the break… I will try to find them all during the PBIS activity. Have a great break everyone!
Today all students presented their proposal to Terry. We will wrap up the project at the beginning of the hour tomorrow and grades will be posted over the weekend.
The Unit Post-Assessment is coming up next week on Wednesday the 11h. Students will have most of the hour tomorrow (Friday) to work on this study guide. Students will not receive a grade on the study guide but they will get a participation grade tomorrow for working on it while in class.
I am still processing a large amount of late work since giving missing assignment reports before Thanksgiving Break. Thank you for your patience! Late work is usually not my highest priority, but I have been working on it a little bit every day to get grades updated. Grade snapshots will be submitted on Sunday for printing progress reports.
The last day to retake the 8.3 quiz on Pocket Mice is Thursday Dec. 12. I will be available after school next week Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. After this time, grades on this quiz will be final.
We are starting Unit 8.6 Natural Hazards on Monday. 🙂
Today we discussed a summative project we will work on throughout the week. Students reviewed what evidence we collected throughout the unit to support the claim they will make on their project. This document guides their review.
Today (11/26) students were passed back most of the work added to Q2 grades in addition to a snapshot progress report (not official) that listed their missing work. We spent the entire hour working to complete missing assignments.
If students did not have their original copy of the assignment, they were asked to work on the assignment on lined paper. Class copies were available to look at if students needed the reading excerpt or graph from the original worksheet. However, students are taking advantage of me providing extra copies when they have lost their original. EVERY student should have a binder for Science class where they keep every item that gets passed out. I make a few extras for accidental losses or major mistakes but lately I’ve had to make 30-40 extra copies for each assignment because students request a second, third, or fourth copy. Unfortunately I am not able to make unlimited copies of assignments for irresponsible students. If the student lost their original they should use this document to get the questions needed to complete their assignment:
Students who had no missing assignments were offered an extension project called Building Beasts. A copy of the directions / assignment can be requested by e-mail. (The files are copyright and I cannot post them publicly. Thank you for understanding!)
Assignment #27 – Darwin Close & Critical Reading was assigned on 11/18 and was due 11/22
Assignment #28 – Drought was assigned on 11/20 and was due 11/22
Assignment #29 – Bottomless Pit was read and annotated on 11/21 and was kept in students’ binders
Assignment #30 – Heat Graph was assigned 11/22 and is due 11/26 (Students read the article and then on the back answered the question “Can bed bugs adapt to the heat treatments? Why or why not?”)
Assignment #31 – Predicted Changes Graph was assigned 11/25 and is due 11/26
November 26th students will be given a list of missing assignments and/or quizzes and will be expected to work towards completing missing work throughout the class period. Any remaining missing work can be done over Thanksgiving break. All Unit 8.1 – Natural Selection assignments must be turned in by December 13 for full credit.
Hello! The quiz was rescheduled due to a snow day Tuesday and me having a meeting for half of the day today. We will do the quiz tomorrow during class.
Use the resources posted before to help study. I have also provided these photographs to consider for students:
Definitions to remember: Distribution: the way in which traits are shared out among a population Predominant: When nearly all individuals in a population have a certain trait Natural selection: The process that causes traits in a population to become more or less common due to some traits making it more likely for individuals to survive and reproduce. Adaptation: The changes in a species over generations, due to changes in the environment through natural selection. Heritable – when a trait is able to be passed from parent to offspring
November 4: Students had a field trip with their ELA teachers. Have fun!
November 5: No School – Election Day. Parents, please remember to go out and vote! Dearborn Public Schools has prepared a source of information for you to take into consideration when deciding how to vote on the BRICS Bond. Please see the link for more information. Thank you 🙂
November 6: Vocabulary Matching & Frayer Models for Lesson 3 Vocabulary Words: Distribution, Predominant, Natural Selection, Adaptation, and Heritable. All classes will leave my classroom caught up with each other today. LAB WRITEUPS ARE DUE BEFORE I LEAVE THE BUILDING! Thank you 🙂
November 7&8: We spent these days reviewing Lesson 3 and its important vocabulary. We also connected these ideas back to our unit challenge about Bed Bugs. Students did not have an assignment going in to the weekend.
