Allergy Season Corresponds with Senior Season

This is a season of contrasts:  warm sunny days, cool sweatshirt nights; beautiful flowers, allergies gone wild; joyful seniors saying goodbye, tearful seniors saying goodbye.  I love this season, but it comes with a lot of emotional baggage.

I have to keep my freshmen going while we watch the Class of 2016 take their final exit.  Their energy is contagious, making it hard, but it's also an awful lot of fun.  Last week the Agricultural Science program brought in animals to showcase their program to the elementary students, but since it was on the high school property, many of us were able to go out and visit the animals while listening to our students give presentations on something they love.  It was great to see them in a different role:

This week the seniors will finish their projects and tests and tractor day will be Friday.  I'm in the senior hallway and they've already started to come by with hugs, invites to parties, and a few tears.  Then I step back into my classroom and reality hits:  we've still got 3+ weeks of school!  Last week we started Of Mice and Men.  They've read two chapters by now and they have work to go with it.  For the next two weeks you should see them with their books and packets.  There will be quizzes with each section, so they need to keep up, even if they're out for a field trip.  I'll try not to give homework over Memorial Day Weekend, but no promises.

This week we have the following schedule:

• Monday - we'll finish the chapter 1 packet and turn it in; quiz over chapter 1; chapter 2 should be read and we'll finish the vocabulary for chapter 2.
• Tuesday - we'll work on indirect objects; we'll finish the chapter 2 packet and turn it in; homework will be to read chapter 3 and do the vocabulary section of the packet.
• Wednesday - we'll finish the verb packet and turn it in; quiz over chapter 2; we'll work on the chapter 3 packet.
• Thursday - we'll start the verb review - test Tuesday 5/31; we'll finish and turn in the chapter 3 packet; quiz over chapter 3; homework will be to read chapter 4 and do the vocabulary section of the packet.
• Friday - we'll finish the verb review - test Tuesday 5/31; we'll finish and turn in the chapter 4 packet; quiz over chapter 4.

That covers it for this week.  If we need to slow down, I will, but I think we can do it. I hope everyone has a blessed week and survives the sneezing season as the cotton starts to fly!


Allergy Season Corresponds with Senior Season by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at laurastubbs.blogspot.com.

Will It Ever Warm Up?

Happy Spring...I think.  Isn't this weather miserable?  I was supposed to work a carwash today for my son's band, but the cold temperatures and sputtering rain have cancelled it.  We'll see if the baseball double header still goes on...with this cold temperature, I'm actually hoping it won't, but we'll see.

In the meantime, life goes on and the school year keeps marching forward.  We are finishing The Crucible unit with a culminating project and heading for our final literature unit of the year.  The students can see the end of the year on the horizon, so I have to keep reminding them that we still have four weeks left!  At the same time, I have mapped out through the end of the year, so I can give a heads-up for the exam date.

Last week we spent the week building project papers and presentations.  They are in teams and so the papers are a team effort, though the grades are individual.  I asked them to attach their names with all of the work that they did so that they get credit for their own efforts.  However, the winning team in each class will get a pizza lunch on me, so that raises the stakes a bit.

Here's what's coming up this week:

• Monday - project presentations.  They'll submit the written work and present their ideas to the class as a team.  If they aren't there, they need to have a written note to excuse them, otherwise they'll lose half credit for the presentation portion of the grade.
• Tuesday - we'll finish any presentations still left...hopefully there won't be any, but I built time in, just in case.  Then we'll turn to working on background information for Of Mice and Men. They have a packet to do which contains in-class and homework activities.
• Wednesday - we'll work on the final verb packet.  Review and assessment will happen in the next couple of weeks.  Then we'll finish the background and go get the books.
• Thursday - verbs; we'll read Chapter 1 of Of Mice and Men and work on the study guide packet which contains vocabulary and focus activities for character and setting.
• Friday - verbs; we'll finish discussion for Chapter 1; homework - Chapter 2.

At this point I'm working on transitioning them to 10th grade.  Expect homework every night.  They'll be doing most of the reading on their own.  We'll talk less about plot line, more about concepts.  The test will be the primary element of the Semester Exam which I have scheduled for Monday, 6/13.  This is our last full day of school for the year.  Exams are always in the final week of school.

That about covers it.  Hopefully everyone has a chance to relax, even if the weather isn't cooperating for outdoor activities. Ciao!


Will It Ever Warm Up? by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at laurastubbs.blogspot.com

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!  Your kids are amazing, which means you must be doing an amazing job!  I hope your day is filled with happiness and love.

Speaking of happiness and love, I'm done with all of the research papers that are in my possession at this moment!  I have some that are being revised; I'll grab those as they come in, and if your student wants to come investigate this possibility for his or her own paper, just have them come talk to me.

I now have just one last batch of essays in my hands, and then I'm completely caught up on grading!  I graded and entered the tests from The Crucible last week.  If your student wants to come do test corrections for 1/2 credit back, they can come during Tuesdays with Teachers or Academic Advisory.  This week we're continuing to work on the culminating group project; presentations are scheduled for Monday, 5/16.

So here's the schedule for this week:

• Monday - we'll continue with progressive verbs; then we'll spend the day doing research for the project.
• Tuesday - we'll finish working with verb tenses.  After that we'll start pulling the research paper together into an MLA format using Google Docs.
• Wednesday - we'll continue pulling things together into the paper form.
• Thursday - we'll finish the paper, then we'll start on the presentation using Google Slides.  This is also the day of the A.P. World History test, which affects many of my students, so flexibility will be the name of the game.
• Friday - we'll finish creating the presentations and print the papers.  Presentations will happen on Monday, 5/16.

I hope everyone enjoys this beautiful weekend and gets some time with family.  Ciao!


Happy Mother's Day! by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at laurastubbs.blogspot.com.

April Showers Bring May Flowers, Or So They Say...

Rain, rain, go away.  And take the cold with you.  I've been freezing for a week now, so I'm ready for it all to be gone.  In the meantime, however, the yucky weather has been conducive to getting papers graded, since my own kids activities have been narrowed down to where I spend some extra time in the car: watching, warming up, and grading papers.  I feel like I've spent every waking moment grading papers lately.  The good news is that I've got all the research papers that were turned in on time completed and entered.  The bad news is that I haven't gotten to the tests, yet.  That's next.  I'm working as quickly and efficiently as I can.

In the meantime, we've accomplished quite a bit in class.  We're done reading The Crucible.  Here are a couple of pictures from our last moments of reading aloud in groups:

And My Favorite...

After watching the movie, 4th Hour even had enough time to play Kahoot.It!  They're so much fun to do this with...they get so into it!

Then we took the test.  As noted, I'll grade those early this week.

Coming up this week for my classes:

• We will begin a two-week group project - a culminating project for The Crucible.  It is meant to do two things: help them analyze mass hysteria in our modern society and methods for combatting it; allow them to use a real-world situation of a business proposal to present their ideas.  This week will be for looking at the topic, finding examples of the topic, choosing a specific example, and researching the example.
• Tuesday we have an assembly 2nd Hour, 9:00 A.M., so that hour will be a bit behind.  I got it in my head that it was last week, but it's this coming Tuesday instead.
• Wednesday we have an Academic Advisory for anyone who needs it.
• Thursday we have an Assembly Schedule, so that means shortened hours.
• A.P. tests are running this week, but for the most part it shouldn't affect my classes because the World History A.P. test doesn't appear to be until the following week.

So that's what's going on.  I hope the weather gets nicer (it's supposed to) and everybody has a good week.  Ciao!

April Showers Bring May Flowers, Or So They Say by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at laurastubbs.blogspot.com

Final Week of April; Final Week of Testing

What beautiful weather we're having!  You just can't beat it.  I even love it when the thunderstorms come through, as they're supposed to Monday evening.  I'm not spending much time out in it, but I can see it from my window.  The good news for my students is that due to fact that we're reading a play in class, they haven't had a whole lot of homework from me, so hopefully they've been able to spend some time outside.

Which leads me to what we accomplished last week.  We finished off another verb packet, so we're firmly enmeshed in the verb tenses.  We also finished Act III and we've begun Act IV of The Crucible.  Testing for the state is just about done, so after this week, we should be completely back on a regular schedule.

So here's what's happening this week:

• Monday - we'll just about finish reading The Crucible.
• Tuesday - we'll finish the text of The Crucible and begin reviewing by watching the movie.  The movie is very close to the text, so it's a way to bring it all back to them.  Second Hour we have an assembly mid-way through the hour, so they'll be a touch behind.
• Wednesday - no advisory due to testing - we'll continue the movie.
• Thursday - no advisory due to testing - we'll finish the movie; after the movie we'll do final review and they'll have time to work on their notes.
• Friday - the objective test for The Crucible.  This is open note, so whatever they have written in their notes is eligible to be used on the test.

I will be available for Tuesdays with Teachers for anyone who needs to come get help or make something up.  Because they cancelled advisory this week, I'll also have quizzes available for make up during the movie.

I hope everyone has a great week! Ciao!

Final Week of April; Final Week of Testing by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at laurastubbs.blogspot.com.

Beautiful!

How great is Michigan when the weather cooperates like it has this weekend?  I hope everyone has had a chance to get outside and enjoy it.  I had the luck of having to sit outside for four hours during my son's double header.  It was a big sacrifice, I know, but someone has to sit in the sunshine and cheer him on. Luckily for my students, they didn't really have homework from me over the weekend, so I'm hoping they all had a chance to get some Vitamin D - the natural way.

We have a busy week coming up, but not nearly as busy as the last couple, so maybe we can settle back into routine again.  Last week they tested with the PSAT9 and most of them finished. Only a couple of people need to finish testing and I'll work with them to catch them up on what they will miss.

This coming week, we have the following:

• Monday - 2nd Hour needs to finish verb packet #6 for homework (the rest of the hours finished it last week); then we'll continue on with Act III of The Crucible and see if we can finish reading it. 
• Tuesday - they'll have a new verb packet that tackles past, present, and future verb tenses to do; then they'll work on their Act III study guide.
• Wednesday - we'll go over and turn in verb packet #7 and turn it in; then we'll finish off Act III, take a quiz, and turn in the study guide.
• Thursday - they'll get verb packet #8 and work on perfect tense verbs; we'll start Act IV (the final act of The Crucible) and get a new study guide
• Friday - we'll continue the perfect tense in verb packet #8; we'll continue Act IV of The Crucible.

By the following week, we'll be testing over The Crucible and start working on a project to synthesize the central ideas of the play.

Also, for anyone who chose to take me up on The Scarlet Letter extra credit, I'm going to meet with anyone who wants to go over the first three chapters on Wednesday during advisory day.

I hope everyone has a great week.  Ciao!


Beautiful! by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at laurastubbs.blogspot.com

PSAT Week is Here!

Good afternoon!  I'm running late today, but I've actually been up and moving all weekend.  I graded a bunch of stuff yesterday and put it into the computer, leaving only the essays and big papers to grade.  Only...ha!  Nothing like leaving the difficult stuff for last.  I'm as bad as the kids!  Anyway, I left the house at 7:00 AM this morning and didn't make it back until noon, followed by a pizza dough-making session.  It's an easy dough, and delicious, but it has to sit for at least 4-5 hours, so I guess we're eating it for dinner.  That leaves me lots of time to grade some papers and work on this blog.  So here goes the latter:

This week, we have our weird testing schedule, as follows:

• Monday - regular day
• Tuesday - no school in the high school, except Juniors for SAT testing
• Wednesday - PSAT9, PSAT10, MME11 in the morning; regular schedule picks up starting at 10:30 A.M.
• Thursday - regular day
• Friday - regular day

So here's the plan for my classes academically:

• Monday - we got behind last week, so they'll take the quiz for Act II and finish the Act II packet, turning it in by Wednesday or Thursday, depending on when it is that I see them next.
• Tuesday - no class
• Wednesday - no 1st or 2nd Hour; no advisory; 4th through 6th hours I don't have a plan yet, but I'm going to try to keep it light since they're testing all morning.
• Thursday - no advisory; first - verbs; we'll start Act III and they'll get a new study guide and continue notes
• Friday - first we'll finish verb packet #6 and turn it in; we'll continue reading Act III with study guide and notes

As a side note, I've offered extra credit toward Term 4 in the form of an extra credit book project.  They have a packet full of project ideas, they just need to pick a book that they would like to read (and that is appropriate in age and level) and do a project for it; it's not due to me until June 10, 2016, so they have lots of time.

Finally, we had a good time reading Act II last week.  They were in small groups which allowed for more people to participate.  Here are some pictures I took of the groups working together:

I loved listening to them work, and then 4th Hour had a group that decided not only to read it aloud, but act it out.  They were hilarious.  I tried to take a video, which isn't very good since you can hear another group in the background, but here it is anyway:

 

 

Have a great week! Ciao!

 
PSAT Week is Here! by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at laurastubbs.blogspot.com.