As mentioned in our assembly last week, I am organising a regular visit to a local school for kids with special needs. The idea is to give up our time and skills to help out for 30 minutes at a time.
Here is the link to the school if you want to see what they achieve already.
The other project we have is to help out another similar school in Jaipur, Rajasthan in India. The kids are very creative, artistic and competitive. The local school sends students in to help them but it would be great to send in some experiments you particularly enjoyed and can explain clearly. Please bear in mind that the teachers live in a poor area but have the means to adapt materials/resources, if necessary. Throughout this exercise, you will get a better understanding of your topics and will help out a lesson to be more fun. Here is the first school interested with a link with you. I have emailed and asked for specific topics in English and Science but feel free to send in your favourite tasks! Please ask your teacher to have a look at it first and then contact me.
Please go to this site and do some basic research on the person who were assigned in class. Write a paragraph in which you answer the following questions
1. Get a basic understanding of persons life, and share what you find.
2. Why were they important to history?
3. How were they portrayed as powerful?
Post your work on your blog (categorize it as history and homework) and print it out for next class.
Do some very basic research on the Domesday Book and share what you find in the comments below. Try not repeat what someone else has already said. If you find any useful websites, please cut and paste the URL into your response.
Share your ideas of what you think peasant life was like during this period.
As our blogging initiative really starts to gain speed, I am noticing that a few of you are really starting to get the hang of what it means to be a good blogger. We have decided in order to encourage and support your work, each week we will have a Blogger of the Week. This person will receive a star or mark, which will identify them as the most effective blogger of that week. There will be three, one from each year group, assigned. The people with the most marks will receive a prize at the end of term.
Here are some features of what good bloggers do:
Write a nice catchy title and categorize all of their posts
Write to the point using clear and effective language
Beware of grammatical mistakes. No lower case i and incomprehensible sentences
Be regular and write posts that are not just Homework assignments. They share their world with their readers
Using Creative Commons pictures wherever possible and site their sources. Or better yet take their own photos to use
Take risks and figure out how to do things on their own
Share links and other information through their blogs.
This first month has been a learning experience for us all and yet there have still been several blogs that have stood out in each year group. It was hard to narrow it down to just three. Please take the time to look at the following exemplar blogs; take a look
at some of their post, leave them comments and ask yourself, what are they doing that makes their blogs so effective.
Hello everyone! Riccardo, a year seven student wants some help finding good books to read. Can you help him out? Please click here, to go to his blog and leave him a nice list of books to read in the comment section.
In English we have been reading The Egypt Game and looking at rituals. While the children in the story have been playing a game, and we have had some fun with drama and rituals, we want to take a closer look at the role rituals play in our daily lives. This is a short clip of some skits we worked on in class.
Now we want you think about some rituals or ceremonies from your life and your culture. What do you? Why are they important to you? Please share them here in the comments, or if you need more room feel free to write a blog post about it. You can also share this clip with your friends and family and let them comment as well.
If you would like to embed this video onto your blog, follow these instructions:
1. Find the Embed code on the lower right hand corner of the Youtube player.Copy or Cut it.
2. Go to your Blog editor and type any text you want to write answering the questions for your homework..
3. Find the words Visual and HTML in the upper right hand corner of the editor.
4. Click on HTML, then paste the Embed code from Youtube. The one you had cut earlier.
5. Click back to Visual and you will see a big pink box, once you publish this will be a Youtube player!
There you go. Feel free to embed the clip to help talk about your experience and answer the questions for homework. Feel free to leave any comments about the video below or directly on Youtube!
Hey Year Eights! You guys did a great job today. I have been working tirelessly to get this video posted to help you as you do your homework tonight! So take a look and try to gather your thoughts, so you can answer these questions:
How did you feel about this kind of work before you started? How have your feelings changed?
What did you learn about yourself while doing this kind of work? Was it easy? Was it difficult?
How did you feel while doing this work? Did you enjoy it? Were you proud? Were you embarrassed? Why?
If you would like to embed this video onto your blog, follow these instructions:
1. Find the Embed code on the lower right hand corner of the Youtube player.Copy or Cut it.
2. Go to your Blog editor and type any text you want to write answering the questions for your homework..
3. Find the words Visual and HTML in the upper right hand corner of the editor.
4. Click on HTML, then paste the Embed code from Youtube. The one you had cut earlier.
5. Click back to Visual and you will see a big pink box, once you publish this will be a Youtube player!
There you go. Feel free to embed the clip to help talk about your experience and answer the questions for homework. Feel free to leave any comments about the video below or directly on Youtube!
Esperanza went to the washtub and hesitated, staring in to the water. Bits of onionskins floated on the surface of the soapy water. She held a corner of the diaper, lightly dipping it in and out of the water, her hand never getting wet. After a few seconds, she gingerly lifted the diaper from the water. “Now what?” She said. “Esperanza! You must scrub them! Like this.” Isabel walked over, took the diapers, and plunged them into the water up to her elbows. The water quickly became murky. She rubbed the diapers with soap, vigorously scrubbed them back and forth on the washboard, and wrung them out. Then she transferred them to the next tub, rinsing and wringing again. Isabel shook out the clean diapers and hung them on the line stretched between the chinaberry and mulberry trees.
In her entire life, Esperanza had never held a broom in her hand. But she had seen Hortensia sweep and she tried to visualize the memory. It couldn’t possibly be that hard. She put both hands near the middle of the broomstick and moved it back and forth. It swung wildly. The motion seemed awkward and the fine dirt on the wooden planks lifted into a cloud. Onion jackets flew in to the air instead of gathering together in a neat pile like Hortensia’s. Esperanza’s elbows did not know what to do. Neither did her arms. She felt streams of perspiration sliding down her neck. She stopped for a moment and stared at the broom, as if willing it to behave. Determined, she tried again. She hadn’t noticed that several trucks were already unloading workers nearby. Then she heard it. First tittering then louder. She turned around. A group of women were laughing at her.
Now in a well thought out, emotional, personal blog post please answer the following questions:
How did you feel about this kind of work before you started? How have your feelings changed?
What did you learn about yourself while doing this kind of work? Was it easy? Was it difficult?
How did you feel while doing this work? Did you enjoy it? Were you proud? Were you embarrassed? Why?
Thanks to Mrs. Todd for finding this great interactive site for Esperanza Rising. Click here or on the picture to take a look around. Share what you find and leave a comment here about things you find interesting.
1. After reading The Prisoners of Fear, please write a paragraph or two on your blog answering this question:
Imagine you were a character from the book and you weren’t allowed to play outside anymore, how does it feel to be stuck inside? Discuss you feelings of being stuck inside. What are somethings you would do? Please do not just write a few sentences saying you would be bored. Really think about it and give us details.
