Deep Thinking Friday: 9/28

Watch the following TED talk.  Think how the towns this speaker visited are similar to where you live and different from where you live.  Jot down a few things you'd like to discuss as a whole group when finished.  If you're done before everyone else, you can work on your Letter About Literature, read, or go to any site on Idleness Prevention Society.

Comma Review!

Check out the following links to quiz yourself about commas!

https://www.grammarbook.com/grammar_quiz/commas_1.asp

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/punctuation-the-comma-and-the-apostrophe/introduction-to-commas/e/meet-the-comma

https://www.ixl.com/ela/grade-7/commas-review

https://www2.ivcc.edu/rambo/eng1001/practice_comma_quiz.htm

https://www.quia.com/rr/82028.html

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/comma-quiz/

https://www.rd.com/culture/comma-quiz/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/en29punc-game-going-to-work-with-commas

Deep Thinking Friday 9/21

What worries you?  Constant worry can lead to stress.

We'll see what stress does to the brain in this TedEd video:

Stress can cause insomnia:

So, what can you do about worries and stress?

Letters About Literature

As you craft your letters, you might need some examples of previous letters.

Click here for past national winners. 

Click here for contest rules, etc.

Deep Thinking Friday 9/14

Commas in Compound Sentences and Those Crazy FANBOYS!

Our Own Ways of Learning

Take the following personality/learning tests.  Record your results for each activity in one new blog post.

Jung Typology Test (Analyze your results here)
Multiple Intelligences Test
The VARK Questionnaire:  How Do I Learn Best?

Then, in your blog post, reflect on your results.  Answer the following:

• What do these tests tell you about yourself?
• How can this information help you in class?
• How can this information help you outside of class?
• How can this information help you advocate for your own learning?

After writing your own blog post, read the blog posts of others.  See all the different ways your classmates learn!  Comment on at least 3 posts.  When done, you may read and/or go to any site on the Idleness Prevention Society section of this blog.



Mrs. Edlin's results:
Jung: ENFP (Extroverted, Intuition, Feeling, Perceiving)
Top 3 Intelligence: Language, Musical, Social
VARK Questionnaire: Visual: 1, Aural: 2, Read/Write: 11, Kinesthetic: 2

These tests tell me that I am a reader and a writer.  I need to read the directions to understand something best.  I communicate through words.  I'm an idea person, but I'm a procrastinator too, especially if I get bored.  Knowing this can help me in school by making sure there are written directions to follow.  I also need to keep a calendar for long-term assignments so I don't wait until the last minute.  Outside of class, I think this information confirms my favorite hobbies: reading and musical theatre.  I can advocate for my own learning by knowing how I learn because I can create situations that go best with how I learn: I can work in groups, I can focus on reading & writing, and I can ask teachers to help me break long-term assignments into manageable smaller goals and deadlines.

Welcome Back!

It's going to be a great year in room 201... here's your first assignment:

1. Reading Survey:  Please complete the reading survey found at this link.

2.  Blogs:  Make sure you can get into your blog, and write your first post!  If you don't have a blog, we'll get one set up for you first thing.  Call your first post "New School Year: 2018-2019." Your first post for the year should include the following:

• What you're looking forward to this school year
• What skills you have that will make you successful this school year
• What challenges you have that might hinder your success this school year
• What your goals are for this school year... How do you want to improve yourself and change for the better?

3.  Check the right-hand margin of Mrs. Edlin's blog.  If you don't see yours there, please e-mail the url (web address) of your blog to her at tena.edlin@fairfieldsfuture.org.

4.  Goodreads Accounts:

If you DO NOT have a Goodreads account yet, we'll get you set up with one.

If you DO have a Goodreads account, you need to edit your bookshelves.

• You will need the following shelves to keep track of your books for this year:
• Science Fiction
• Realistic Fiction
• Poetry/Novels in Verse
• Mystery
• Historical Fiction
• Graphic Novels
• Fantasy
• Classics
• Action/Adventure
• Biography/Autobiography/Memoir
• Informational Nonfiction
• Add a shelf for "2018-2019 School Year."
• Make sure you're a part of the FMS GOAL group, and if you're not, request to join.
• Add friends from the FMS GOAL group, if you'd like to (the more friends you have, the more informative/helpful/interesting your news feed will be).
• Accept all friend requests from GOAL students in any grade.
• Adjust your notification preferences to whatever works best for you.
• Read through your updates, looking for books you might want to add to your "Want to read" shelf.

5.  UNIT INTRODUCTION

When your Goodreads account is ready to go and you've finished your blog post watch the following film to give you an introduction to our new unit to start the year.  This unit will be on Differences in Learning.  This unit is to give you an awareness of all the ways people learn.  You will develop understanding for people who learn differently from you, and you will better understand your own ways of learning.  When you know how you learn best, you can begin to advocate for yourself and take charge of your own learning and academic success.

Start by watching this video: Temple Grandin TED Talk: The World Needs All Kinds of Minds

Then, write a blog post describing what you saw, what you learned, and what it made you think about and/or wonder about.

6.  TIME TO COMMENT!

Read and respond to the blog posts of others.  But first, you need to know HOW to write good comments.  Yes, this seems obvious.  But with student blogging, it's the area which always disappoints me the most.  Even first graders seem to know how to do this better than middle school students.  Case in point: Watch the first grade video on commenting, and PAY ATTENTION to what these kids are talking about.  I know this is geared for elementary kids, but have fun with the Panda and learn from the younger generation about how to write a good blog post.

YES, I KNOW THIS MOVIE IS LAME, BUT THERE ARE NO BETTER ONES.  REALLY!  Let's MAKE a better one.  Comment to this post with at least one suggestion about how we can update this in a way that's useful and more relevant to middle schoolers than a 2-dimensional panda!

7.  Now actually read and respond to other blog posts.  Look at the righthand margin of this blog to find all the GOAL student blogs.  Read and respond to at least 3 posts about goals for the new year and at least 3 posts about the Temple Grandin video.  Try to find blogs that don't have any comments yet.  Read and edit before you post to avoid silly errors.  You may comment on GOAL blogs from any grade.

8.  Go back to your blog and see what others have said.  Respond to their comments if/when necessary.

9.  Think you're done with everything?  Make sure by submitting the checklist found here.

10.  If there are any design modifications you'd like to make to your blog (background colors, margin widths, etc.), you may do it now.

11.  When you're done with everything, you may check out books from my library and read and/or go to any of the sites on my blog along the lefthand margin under the category: Idleness Prevention Society.