Semester Retrospective(s)

As we finish First Semester, each class is doing a "retrospective" look at our learning since August.

• "retro" means back
• "spect" has to do with looking

So, we are "looking back" (in our memories, in our portfolios, in our notebooks/handbooks, at our Word Wall, at our displays) and thinking about all the learning we did.

Each class has a "Padlet" (https://padlet.com) where we can post our thinking. At the end of the semester, we will make our Padlets public so you can see too!

For now, though, they are private so we need the password to get in and add our thoughts. Students can click on their Padlet and enter the password to put their thoughts into it. 

We will use the Padlets to help us reflect on our First Semester as we get ready for our Student-Led Conferences.

Learning 4Life Success: Morning Class

Math- 7th Hour

Learning 4Life Success: Afternoon Class

What do you get when you add GEOMETRY plus ART?

Anamorphic art!

We are studying geometry in math, in all three sections of the Learning 4Life Success program. Today, we took a look at one very unique way artists use geometry. 

Watch the slide show we saw in our class.

(Click start > then the slide show will auto-advance every 5 sec.)

Why not try it yourself? 

Here are the links from the last few slides.

https://youtu.be/KnZQYXPJnXU

https://youtu.be/bocJP2rEEKg

https://youtu.be/h6pE1wOs1pA

https://youtu.be/xTexvb7WYGU

Or go to YouTube and search for:

anamorphic art

or

anamorphic drawing

(But be sure you spell it right!)

Have fun- and please send us some pics so we can post your works of art on this website.

"I think I lost my tetrahedron..."

Geometry has a lot of rules.

One of them should be "do not lose your tetrahedron."

What's a tetrahedron, you ask?

It is one of the many three dimensional shapes we are studying in our geometry unit. We need to know their names and be able to explain how they are alike and different from other similar shapes. 

In our opinion, the drawing of the tetrahedron in this chart is not accurate. The tetrahedron has all faces the same size. So, it would look like this instead:

The one above, on the chart, is probably more of a triangular pyramid, don't you think?

The shape you see above is a picture of a "net" of a tetrahedron. 

A net is when you take the 3 d shape and open it out into a 2 d shape. We are working on a project right now where we are taking nets of different polyhedrons and creating 3 d shapes. 

Would you like to try our most recent Quizlet activity? Quizlet is a free, online program you can use to study almost anything! This one, Sister Patrice made. We will be making our own during second semester. 

Give it a try! LINK  

The two activities called "Gravity" and "Match" are games and they are the hardest! "Quizlet Live" is a class game we play together.

What are all those RODENTS doing in our classroom?

At the doorway... on the whiteboard ledge... 

On our work tables!

Even on our laps!

 Hey! Waaaaait a minute!!!

Those cavies are not real!

Wall posters: "SIP" and "CAVIES"

They're part of our reading strategies unit, "Reading Strategies for Work and College." This "mini-course" is designed for high school students who want to add new "tools" to their "toolbox" for understanding the challenging texts they will need to read on the job or in a college class.

The orange poster summarizes what good readers do BEFORE they begin reading. They "take a SIP" by Skimming, Identifying vocabulary, and Predicting or asking questions.

Then, they grab a pencil or pen and read. But, it's not just putting the words before our eyeballs.

That's where the acronym "CAVIES" come in. 

(Cavies are actually a family of rodents that include the familiar Guinea pig. What better way to have a memorable acronym than to have an cavy infestation?)

An acronym is a word that is also an abbreviation... like "FBI" or "NBA." Our acronym, CAVIES helps us to remember the six reading strategies to use while we work through the text.

C= Connections (What do I connect with here? What do I already know about?)

A= Ask questions (I wonder...? I'm curious about... What about  this?)

V= Visualize (make a movie in your mind)

I= Infer (make predictions as you go)

E= Evaluate (Is this true? Is this valuable information? And, of course, "Is this gonna be on the test?")

S= Summarize and Synthesize (Put it in your own words).

So far, we've practiced with C, A and V, as well as SIP, on three different non-fiction articles. It is amazing how much more we can remember from what we read when we bring the CAVIES into the act.

And then, there's this:

Of all the cavies in our classroom, Sister Patrice says the one above offers us some important wisdom as young adults. He was on our class's agenda on Friday. Can you see what he is saying?

Hour of Code

Do you like "Flappy Birds?" It is a computer game that many people have on their phone.

This week, our classroom is hosting "Hour of Code" activities. We are joining over 350 million people around the world in learning a bit about writing computer code.

Hour of Code is all over! We are on this map!

What is computer code?

It is a computer program written in a computer language. Today, building our own version of "Flappy Birds," we used a computer language called "Scratch." 

Other Hour of Code activities use languages like Python, C++, or even Java! 

You can do Hour of Code even if you never wrote computer code before. The activities teach you by doing them. You can come to our classroom this week at 9:00-9:20 (First Hour). Or you can do them on your own on a computer or Chromebook.

Give it a try. It is fun! https://hourofcode.com/us/learn