Mrs. Stubbs's English Blog: Research...and Then a Break!

It sometimes feel like life is a marathon. I run and run and run...and it just goes on and on forever. Yet I can see the finish line coming at me now, and it's Friday. I don't think I've had a break since before Thanksgiving. Don't get me wrong, it's been mostly great: Thanksgiving; Romeo and Juliet; Christmas parties with family every weekend in December; soccer games; music concerts; Rome (ah, I miss Rome); semester exams both for me and my own children; Solo & Ensemble; my son's play. But it has run me ragged and I'm really looking forward to the break coming up at the end of the week! The past two weekends have been taken up by two things: Solo & Ensemble and my son's play, The Little Mermaid, Jr. For Solo & Ensemble, both of my kids participated (pictures below), plus my older son's school hosted it, so I volunteered in the food court both weekends. I have to say, it was a lot of fun to be a part of something so big, and I enjoyed watching my children, and running into other people I knew from all over the Detroit area. It was a fun experience:

Clarinet

Bassoon

In addition to this, my youngest has been working for months on his roles in The Little Mermaid, Jr. He was a sailor, a seagull, a chef, and a crocodile. Even though he didn't have a lead, he was onstage most of the time, with 10 costume changes. It was a great production, and lots of fun to watch:

So anyway, I'm ready to head into this week with my 150 other children. We've turned a corner of sorts in the Research Module of our curriculum. Last week we completed the end-of-unit assessment for Unit 1. It was a 5-paragraph essay. We've slowly worked our way from 1 paragraph, to 3 paragraphs, to 5 paragraphs. Then we turned our attention to writing their own research paper. On Wednesday the Media Specialist, Mrs. Brakel, came in to share with them the research help that is available on the school's website. Then on Thursday they took time to explore with a topic to see if it would work for this project. They will be writing a minimum of 3-5 pages for this paper, so they need a topic with enough information out there to work. On Friday, we were finally able to go on Khan Academy and start working with their test prep in order to prepare for April's PSAT.

Here are some pictures of my 5th Hour working on the Chrome Books in my classroom this past week:

So here is what is coming up this next week:

Monday - They have all picked a topic, so over the weekend they needed to formulate questions. I'll check them in and then they'll spend the hour taking notes on the note-sheets provided.
Tuesday - They'll take notes.
Wednesday - They'll take notes; 50 facts are due to be checked in with me by the end of the hour.
Thursday - We'll create a Works Cited Sheet with their sources they have so far and turn it in. Over the long weekend, they need to create their Thesis Statement.
Friday - Winter Break - we're off Friday, 2/12 through Monday, 2/15.