Stock Market Introductions

Give yourself some background knowledge in the Stock Market.  Watch the following videos, and jot down any questions they lead you to have. 

 

This Warren Buffett video is a long one... you won't have time to see it all, but it's great stuff to think about if you want to watch the rest on your own sometime...

The Stock Market Game

7th grade GOAL students:

Have one person create a Google Doc for your Stock Market Game team.  Share it with each member and with Mrs. Edlin.  Make a list of stocks of interest.  Look for companies and parent companies of products you already know, use, buy, value, and respect.  Compare their prices and their histories.  Explore all the outside links on The Stock Market Game site, and use the other resources below.  We'll start trading next week!

More Resource Links for The Stock Market Game:
http://money.cnn.com/data/us_markets/
http://www.marketwatch.com/
http://markets.wsj.com/
http://eoddata.com/symbols.aspx

The Ultimate Vacation

6th grade GOAL students:

Now that your Ultimate Vacation planning is done, write a new blog post.

Embed your YouTube video in the post, and answer the following questions:

1.  Which locations did you choose, and why did you choose them?

2.  What are a couple of interesting facts about the locations you chose?

3.  What challenges did you encounter during this project, and how did you overcome them?

4.  By doing this assignment, what did you learn about planning a trip?

5.  What part of your assignment makes you the most proud, and why?

6.  If you could improve your final product, how would you do it?

After you publish your blog post, copy its link and paste it along with the link to your itinerary into Canvas.  GOOD WORK!!!

One Word

What is your word?

Watch the three videos above.  

1. Brainstorm YOUR word.
2. Make and decorate a physical copy of your word that will be posted in the classroom.  Use markers, stencils, stickers, crayons, ribbon... whatever you need to make it uniquely yours.
3. Once you have designed your word, write a blog post explaining why you chose it.
4. Find or create a digital image of your word (or take a digital photo of the physical word you made), and include it at the top of your blog post.
5. Comment on the blog posts of at least 5 other students.  Use good commenting skills.

Iowa State OPPTAG Experience Reflection

7th grade GOAL:

Reflect on your day in Ames.  Answer the following questions in a thoughtful paragraph.  Back up your opinions with evidence and/or explanation.

Here's a link to the official track titles, if you need them.

• Describe your first class.  What did you learn?  What did you do?  
• Describe your second class.  What did you learn?  What did you do?
• What was the most educational part of your day?  Explain.
• What was something you learned about Iowa State University?
• What was the most fun part of the day?
• If you could give one piece of advice on how to improve the experience, what would you say?  Explain.
• What is your biggest "takeaway?"  In other words, why did we do this?  What did you get out of the experience?

Hannibal Reflections

Please write a blog post to respond to the following questions.  You may include any appropriate pictures of your own from the day.

1.  Give a summary of the field trip for anyone who might not know about our Mark Twain unit or might not have ever been to Hannibal, Missouri.

2.  What was the most educational part of the trip and why?  What did you learn?

3.  What was the most fun part of the trip and why?

4.  What part of the trip would you improve for next year's class if you could?  Explain.

5.  How did your Mark Twain research help prepare you for your trip to Hannibal?  Explain.

When you finish, comment on the blogs of at least 5 classmates (use this website for tips on good commenting, if needed), and then you may go to any site on the lefthand side of this blog under Idleness Prevention Society, or you may read for your independent reading contracts.

Deep Thinking Friday

When you get done with your posttest AND with looking at everyone else's comics projects AND commenting on at least 5 of them from all grade levels, choose one of the following videos to watch.  Leave any thoughts or impressions in the comments.  Be sure to specify which video you watched!

The Great Math Mystery
How We Can Make the World a Better Place by 2030
Everyone Around You Has a Story the World Needs to Hear

After your Comics Project Posting & Posttest...

Watch the following video... these kids are little, but their information about commenting is SPOT ON!



Now it's your turn.  Look at all the comics projects from all the other classes in all the other grades, and leave productive, positive comments.  Follow all the guidelines in the video.

Comics, Cartoons, & Graphic Novels Project

Here are the directions and choices for your project for this unit.  This project will show what you have learned during the GOAL unit on Comics, Cartoons, and Graphic Novels.

• Choose one of the following Options.
• Write with images.
• Fill enough paper with your assignment to equal 2 sheets (front sides only) of 8 1/2" x 11" printer paper.
• Use at least 2 of the following: color, pencil, and/or ink (felt tip will probably be easiest).
• Have fun.  Be creative.  If you can think of an original or more interesting way to complete the assignment, GO FOR IT!

Option 1: The Characters

• Divide your 2 papers into 16 sections each, for a total of 32 panels.
• Write the names/titles/characteristics of each character at the top of the frame.
• Create your characters.
• Use the Lynda Barry examples for inspiration, if needed, but do not copy.

Option 2:  The Questions

• Organize your paper any way you'd like, but use images to answer the questions shown from Lynda Barry's Syllabus.

Option 3:  The Compilation

• Using the graphic novel examples provided in class, find examples of the following Comics Terms, as shown in Jessica Abel's and Matt Madden's book Drawing Words and Writing Pictures.  Include: motion lines, inset panels, tiers, narrative boxes/captions, speech balloons/bubbles, gutters, medium shots, long shots, close-ups, panels/frames, thought balloons/bubbles, emanata, borders, and anything else you notice that you'd like to show.
• Use any combination of your own drawing, copying images, clip art, printed images, and/or photos. 
• Label your images with the title & author of any comic or graphic novel that you used for inspiration.
  

Option 4:  The Comic

• Create your own comic.  Use what you've learned.

Projects Due: Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Works Cited

Abel, Jessica, and Matt Madden. Drawing Words & Writing Pictures: Making Comics : Manga, Graphic Novels, and beyond. New York: First Second, 2008. Print.

Barry, Lynda. Syllabus. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 2014. Print.

9/28-10/2, 2015

It's Homecoming Week!  Things are going to be a little crazy as we Demolish the Warriors, so here's how it will all shake down in Mrs. E's class this week:

5th GOAL:  5th graders are learning the basics of cricket this week through articles and videos.

6th-8th GOAL:  6th-8th graders are starting their read aloud books (Okay For Now for 6th, The Cardturner for 7th, and To Kill a Mockingbird for 8th).  They will also be continuing their unit on Comics, Cartoons, and Graphic Novels.  We'll assess their reflections from last week's field trip using the expectations for elaborated communication, we'll finish up our eyebrow & texture pages, and we'll start exploring all kinds of graphic novels from both our library and the AEA.

Mrs. E's homeroom will have teambuilding and door decorating for homecoming on Wednesday afternoon, and on Friday afternoon, everyone will have our big Homecoming pep assembly!

8th Grade GOAL: Documentary Self-Evaluation & Trip Reflection

Compose two different blog posts.

For Post #1, answer the following questions in a blog post about our overnight Images of Greatness trip.  We made the following stops:  Des Moines Art Center, Pappajohn Sculpture Park, Drake University, State Historical Museum, Iowa Hall of Pride, IMAX: Journey to Space movie.

1.  What was your favorite part of the trip, and why?
2.  At the art museum, you had to find 4 things: favorite, best example of "art," Why is it ART?, and celebrity award.  Write about them and include pictures if you'd like.
3.  What was the most educational part of the trip, and why?  What is something specific that you learned?
4.  What was the most fun part of the trip, and why?
5.  If you could improve the trip in any way for the group next year, what would you change?  Explain.

For Post #2, embed your documentary into your blog post.  Then, answer the following questions:

• Describe the process you went through to make your documentary.
• What are some specific interesting facts you learned about your topic?
• What are some specific things you learned about filmmaking?
• Which parts of your documentary make you proud?  Why?
• Which parts of your documentary would you improve if you had more time?  Explain.
• What is your advice for the group next year on how to successfully complete this unit and to make stellar documentaries?

7th GOAL: Stop Motion Reflection

Now that you've finished making your stop-motion animated movies, write a reflection on the process.  First, embed your stop-motion movie into a blog post.  Then, in paragraph form, answer the following:

• Describe your movie
• Describe the process of making the movie
• What was the hardest part, and why?
• What are you most proud of, and why?
• During this unit, what did you learn about the process and/or skill of animation?

6th Grade Westward Expansion Projects

You will be creating a VoiceThread project to share your facts.  If you don't have an account already, use your school username and password to create an account for yourself.

For this project, you will need to find AT LEAST 5 pictures relating to your topic.  The pictures will be what the audience looks at while they listen to your comments.  Then, they'll be able to comment on your project and talk about connections they can make between their topic and yours.

Over the course of showing your pictures, your comments need to include the following information:

1. Introduce yourself and the topic you researched.
2. Give at least 5 interesting facts you learned.
3. Explain why your topic was important to the idea of Westward Expansion. 
4. Share at least two questions that you didn't find the answers for or that your research made you wonder.
5. After doing your specific research, do you think Westward Expansion in the United States was a good idea?  Why or why not?  What were the pros and cons?  Explain.

When your Voice Thread is done, click the menu icon for your project on the VoiceThread dashboard page.  Create a post on your blog and share the link.  

As your classmates finish, go into their projects and listen to their comments.  Make comments of your own, at least one comment on each person's project (it's not necessary to comment on each individual slide unless you want to).  Use the following sentence starters to make connections with your own project and to add to the information provided:

• This reminds me of...
• This is similar to...
• I wonder...
• This made me realize...
• I noticed...
• You can relate this to...
• I'd like to know...
• I'm surprised that...
• If _____, then _____...
• If I were..., I would _____...

An example of a VoiceThread project:

WELCOME BACK, PART III

For today, please complete the following:

1.  Fill out this quick survey regarding your blog: GOAL Blogs Survey.

2.  Make sure the reading survey from September 4 is complete.

3.  Make sure your first blog post is published (about the goals for the new school year).  Check it and fix for errors and incomplete sentences.

4.  Finish working on your Goodreads account.  Update your reading, accept/request friends, rate and label more books.

5.  If you haven't done so, view the video at the bottom of the post from September 5 which is the introduction for our first unit.

6.  Complete the blog entry on the video (instructions found on September 5 below the video link).

7.  Read and respond to the blog posts of others.  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.

 

8.  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.

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

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 go to any of the sites on my blog along the lefthand margin under the category: Idleness Prevention Society.

WELCOME BACK, PART II

Here's what we'll work on today:

1.  GOODREADS

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.

• Instead of "Poetry," rename the shelf "Poetry & Novels Written in Verse."
• Add a shelf for "Action/Adventure."
• Add a shelf for "Graphic Novels."
• Add a shelf for "2014-2015 School Year."
• Add any books you read over the summer, and tag them with the appropriate shelves (NOT your new school year shelf).
• Add any books you started since school began, and tag them with the appropriate shelves, making sure to include your new "2014-2015 School Year" shelf.  You'll need to include this label for every book you read for this year's contract.
• Add friends from the FMS GOAL group, if you'd like to.
• Read through your updates, looking for books you might want to add to your "Want to read" shelf.

2.  UNIT INTRODUCTION

When your Goodreads account is ready to go and you've finished your blog post from yesterday, 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.

Weekly Preview: 9/3-9/6, 2013

I hope everyone had a nice long Labor Day weekend.  Now it's time to get back to work, and we're actually on a regular schedule this week!  Here's what's happening this week in room 101:

5th GOAL:  Students are gathering their words of wisdom which are due at the end of the week.  We're also getting to know each other by playing some games that get us talking and thinking.

6th GOAL, 7th GOAL, 8th GOAL:  Words of Wisdom projects are due at the beginning of class on Wednesday.  We'll spend Wednesday in the computer lab embedding those projects in our blogs so we can share the wisdom with the world.  We'll be back in the classroom for the rest of the week, presenting the projects so the rest of the class and I can view the work each student has completed.

English 8:  This week, we're beginning our short story unit.

Welcome Back!

It's the first day back to school!  I'm so excited with how things are changed up in room 101 this year.  First of all, I'll be having 5th graders in GOAL this year for the first time.  I think we're all going to have a blast together.  Additionally, I'm co-teaching English 8 with Mrs. Kaska for one period, and I think we're going to be a total dynamic duo.  I've missed teaching reading and language arts so much... I'm glad to be back in the game!

Here's the scoop for the opening week in room 101:

5th GOAL:  I actually won't start seeing these kids until next Monday.  Just an FYI:  Mrs. Lyon's & Mrs. Eeling's classes will come on Mondays and Thursdays.  Mrs. Copeland's, Ms. DeMoss's, & Mr. Philips's classes will come on Tuesdays and Fridays.  We might add Wednesdays with everyone together later on in the year.

6th GOAL, 7th GOAL, & 8th GOAL:  We're starting with a project called Words of Wisdom based off a book called Live and Learn and Pass It On by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.  Students will be interviewing relatives, friends, teachers, and community members to develop their own compilation of words of wisdom.  Next week, we'll be making sure everyone has a Goodreads account to document their independent reading, and we'll be blogging for the first time this year.  Words of Wisdom projects will be uploaded to their blogs.

English 8:  We'll be starting with a short story unit... stay tuned for details.  Hope everyone had a great first day... I know I did!

Weekly Preview 4/29-5/3, 2013

I can't believe it's finally May.  6 weeks left of school.  5 more Mondays!

Here's what is happening in room 101 this week:

6th GOAL:  Students are having their last literature circle discussion and working on their final projects this week.  We'll start presenting next Wednesday.

7th GOAL:  Students are frantically working on their animated movies.  2 weeks until premiere!

8th GOAL:  Students are frantically working on their documentary films (and battling our flawed technology... cross your fingers that the technology gods smile down on them this week!).  2 weeks until premiere!

8th Critical Concepts:  Students will be working on an individualized digital citizenship unit this week in the computer lab. 

7th Grade GOAL Blog Assignment 4/23/13

1.  Update your reading log on Goodreads.  Review and rate books as necessary and document your progress in the book you're currently reading.

2.  Write a journal letter on your blog about the book you're currently reading.

3.  Choose one of the following questions to answer on your blog after your journal letter:

*  Discuss your progress, excitement, frustrations, questions, etc. about the stop-motion animated movies.

*  Discuss your personal goals for the rest of the school year.  How are you going to make the last 6 weeks really count?

*  Discuss a recent news event.  Give your thoughts, opinions, comments, and/or questions.

DUE: 4/26/13

Weekly Preview: 4/22-4/25, 2013

As we reach the end of April, we're really heading into the final stretch of the school year.  Hang on to your hats, everyone!  Here's what's happening in room 101 this week:

6th GOAL:  Students are finishing literature circle discussions this week with the last discussion on Friday.  Next week, they'll be working on the projects they'll present to the class to show what they've learned.

7th GOAL:  Students have begun the painstaking, fun process of filming their stop-motion animated movies.  It's a labor of love!

8th GOAL:  All the interviews have been filmed, all the facts have been researched.  Now it's time for the process of documentary filmmaking to really begin as students edit film clips, write and record scripts, and insert still photographs into their iMovies.

8th Critical Concepts:  Students are beginning the week talking about tolerance.  We're tying this into the Holocaust unit they just finished in English 8, and we'll branch off from there.

Have a super week!