Today we were put into groups but for the people who didn't finish their diary, bibliography and notes for their researched character (Which was most f us) had to finish it. The people who did not finish everything had to finish their work but the people assigned to groups already talked about what their skit would be about.

We did this because most of us were behind and had to catch up. And the people in their groups talked about their skit so they could plan a a script and how the play would go. The people still working have to get everything done by tomorrow so they can start planning their skit so they don't have to plan on their own time.

Planning for future work is good because you can decide what you want to do before hand and be able to figure everything out so you don't have to on the spot. Finishing work is really good because it saves you time for doing other things but if you do not do the work it results in decreased marks because of the work being late.

Today the homework was for the people who did not finish their homework to finish their homework. And for the people who are already in their groups, they have to plan out their skits and start working on the script for their skit.

February 24, 2012

What We Did Today

Today, we started the block by talking about the “There Will Be Wolves” questions. Ms. Lees took a look at our responses and answers for the previous chapter questions that was due the week before and she wasn’t really impressed on the quality of our work. After talking about the chapter questions, we reviewed the questions from chapter 6-10 and the main events. Then we had the quiz which wasn’t long so it only took a couple of minutes to finish. The quiz only had 10 questions. First 5 questions were ordering the main events and the other 5 were true or false. Then we went over the criteria for a bibliography.

Why We Did It

We talked about the novel questions because some people weren’t done the chapter questions and we had to make sure that everyone would do it next time. We reviewed the chapters 6-10 novel questions because Ms. Lees wanted us to get a good mark on the quiz. We went over the criteria for a bibliography because some people didn’t know what we needed for a bibliography or some people didn’t know what order we had to put the bibliography in.

Connections/ Reflections

It is always nice to review for a test or a quiz and the skill for reviewing could be handy for other subjects and jobs. By learning how to make a bibliography could help in the future for other subjects and maybe future jobs.

Homework and Tips

For homework, the diary is due on Monday and I suggest you start on the chapter 11 questions for our novel.

February 22, 2012

What we did today

Today, we had a double block of humanities so we started by talking about what we were going to do within 2 weeks before spring break. For example we talked about finishing There Will Be Wolves questions, the novel, and quizzes that we would have before spring break. We also talked about other up-coming things like the diary and the skit that comes with it and portfolio preparation. We also talked about sharing our blogs and portfolios to our parents. After talking about what’s coming up, we reviewed the questions from There Will Be Wolves since we had a quiz about the main topics from chapters 1 to 5 today. We had a break after reviewing chapters 1 to 5 but after we had the quiz. The There Will Be Wolves quiz wasn’t too bad because it was only 10 questions. Five questions were multiple choice and the other half was list the events in order. After the quiz, we had a choice of doing 3 things, work on chapter 10 questions of There Will Be Wolves, notes for our diary entry, or get started on the diary entry. We worked on those 3 things until the double block was over.

Why we did it

We talked about what we were doing within 2 weeks before spring break because Ms. Lees didn’t know when she will be absent again. When we talked about the things that were coming up within 2 weeks it helped everyone since we wanted to know when we were doing and it is always nice to know what is coming up. We reviewed the novel questions because we didn’t know what could be on the test so we thought of maybe the worst and reviewed or refreshed the things that happened in the book. We did the novel quiz because Ms. Lees wanted to know how much we knew about the book. Ms. Lees gave us a choice because she knew that we had different things to do so she gave us an opportunity to work on these pieces of work.

Connections/ reflections

This skill of knowing what’s coming up can help us in the future for planning different things in the future for example for There Will Be Wolves questions. Reviewing what happened in the novel can help for the future for different kinds of up-coming tests. This way of studying could maybe help us in the future for tests that is better to study in this way.

Homework and Tips

For homework there was the Middle Ages notes all finished with bibliography and chapter 10 of There Will Be Wolves questions which is due Friday. There also will be a chapter 6 to 10 quiz on Friday so make sure to study for that. For tips I suggest you to study for the quiz.

30 day challenge progress report

Unfortunately I was sick yesterday and so I couldn't write my progress report so I am going to do my progress report today. Yes, I have been successful on my 30 day challenge because I usually remind myself like for example I usually remind myself every time I am outside so I can start running and usually everyday I remind myself to think a head of time about running at a good time in my day which is always good. I am feeling good about my progress because it is improving a little bit on my beep test score. I would like to keep this up because it is good for my body and it helps me improve.

02/21/2012

What We Did Today:

Today, we took some more notes in the library. Since there was a substitute, we should've been very responsible and well... more mature since we had pretty much free roaming in the library, but I think that some of us were just listening to our iPods, watching youtube videos on the computers, talking, browsing the internet, and just socializing with their peers. SOME of us.

Anyway, we were supposed to try and finish off the notes for our research project, but most of us didn't really finish it, so now we have to finish our notes on our own times (at home/after school/library). But make sure that you remember what websites you go on or which books you use. Because we are going to need to write out a bibliography. You can see the criteria for the bibliography on my other post.

Why we Did This:

We wrote these notes because we need them... for our diary entries and our role-play.

20/02/2012

What We did Today:

Today, we started taking notes for our research project. This was all done at the library. First, we learned how to write out a bibliography.

How to write a bibliography:

Book - Author or editors (last name, first name), title, publishing company, copyright date (most recent), publishing city (Canadian city, closest to Vancouver)

Encyclopedia - title, year/edition, article (what you're looking up in the encyclopedia), copyright date

Online - web address/URL, title-page, author(s), look for "How to Cite this Page," date accessed.

Then, we picked some medieval jobs out of a bucket, researching, and taking notes on who we were! (I got the daughter of the lord :) )

Why we did This:

We learned how to do the bibliography because most of us didn't know how to write out a bibliography.

We picked the names out of the bucket and took notes on them because... that was our project. We were going to need to know those facts for later, when we do our role-playing... yes.

Connections/Reflections

You may have to use the bibliography in any other subject when you do some sort of researching, or a project. And as I always say, it can be used in future careers (;. Role playing can be used in drama class... and also if you want to be some sort of shifty man, you'll need a double-life, and be able to think on the fly... nah, I'm just kidding. Be safe :)

As I said on my last post, I really dislike note-taking... but I LOVE acting and role-playing, so I'm really looking forward to that. So excited! :D

Homework and Tips

If you wrote very little on your notes, you may want to take it home and work on it a bit then, because it'll be good to have a lot of information for the role-playing part. Also, you have to finish chapter nine questions for Tuesday.

You should make sure to write down every source you use to take the notes! And if you have any questions about... the questions, you should post it on the blog so that everyone can help you out. Flex will be tomorrow, see yah guys! (sorry about the short post, it was late after math homework, and I was rushing... also, I couldn't really think of much to write about...

30 Day Challenge Review

Yes, I was quite successful in my challenge... except I'm not posting my haikus on blogger because... I'm somewhat self conscious when sharing written work ;). I've motivated myself to write these things because... it's for the good of my writing skills... and my mark. Also, some people have been pressuring me on facebook so.... -_-

I'm feeling that that I'm doing well on this challenge! And I also think that this is really helping my writing skills because... the

My 30 day challenge is going smoothly. I have been writing at the times I've planned, and have done all the necessary steps to create my story. Writing for the first time has been some what difficult due to my frequent "writer's block" Which takes place only a little while after starting to write. Because of this i have been struggling to write for long periods of time before my creativity flow stops.

February 20, 2012

What We Did Today

Today, we went to the library to get started on our research project for our middle ages characters. We started off with talking about our research/role-play project. We talked about where everyone gets a job at random and we had to research, for example what the job did, and how the person in the middle ages lived. For example the job I had to research was a Page (a boy training to be a knight) so I decided to research the clothing, duties, food, and house/ living. After talking about what we had to do for this, we had to copy the information about how to make a bibliography including citing a website and how to make a bibliography using a book, encyclopaedia, or a website. For more information about bibliographies, look on the “Lees Hum 8 @ FH” under web links “bibliography information” or click on the link bibliography information. After drawing a job from the box we sat in groups then started our research and I worked on it until the end of the block.

Why We Did It

We talked about what to do on the project because we hadn’t gone over what to do on the project. We talked about how to make a bibliography because most of us didn’t know how to make one properly. To make a bibliography of a book, first you need to have the title of the book and then the author or authors and the editor or the editors of the book. Then you need to have the publishing company, then the copyright date of the most recent edition. Then you need to have the publishing city ideally choosing a Canadian city over international/the US and choose a city closest to Vancouver. We had to start on the research part of the project because we only had two days to research everything and we had to finish taking notes because the notes are due Friday.

Connections/ Reflections

Talking about making a bibliography could help us in the future for some kind of job and other research projects for classes like math, science, French and other subjects. For making bibliographies in the future, it will help when you write the bibliography in the right way so you don’t have to fix mistakes later. You should always check if you wrote a bibliography in the right
way before handing it into the teacher.

Homework and Tips

For homework you should finish the notes of your character if you haven’t finished it yet because it is due Friday. Also “There Will Be Wolves” chapter 9 questions are due Wednesday. For tips I suggest you study for the “There Will Be Wolves” chapter 1-5 quiz which is on Wednesday. Good luck on the research project and the quiz.

Febuary 17th, 2012

What We Did Today

Today, we talked about what we did on Wednesday since there was a substitute on that day. We weren't supposed to do what we did (which was taking notes), but Ms. Lees didn't really complain because I suppose it was more or less what she wanted us to do. Also, note-taking was something that we were going to do soon anyway (future research/role-playing project). Then, Ms. Lees took some people's notes and critiqued them. We drew a T chart with the "do's" and "don't's" for note taking.

Some important things to remember when making notes:

• when taking notes, use outlining or concept mapping. Decide what method to use first.
• take BRIEF, non-full sentence notes
• you may want to read/listen to the whole section, THEN divide them into categories.
• only write main ideas, avoid useless words/details
• USE YOUR OWN WORDS!

I suppose we worked well, and did our homework, the review from the substitute teacher was good, etc... because Ms. Lees decided to give us a break (yay!). There was no homework for the weekend, and we were going to spend the rest of the day watching funny videos and songs about the middle ages called, "Horrible Histories" . (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fadCAHjN-s). They were humorous, but I understand that there were also facts in the humor, and that seemed like a very interesting way to learn. I actually learned some stuff from it!

Why We Did It

We confirmed what we did on Wednesday because we had a substitute teacher filling in, and Ms. Lees had to check if what we did was correct... apparently not. But it was okay :). We reviewed note-taking because we are going to have a research project that requires note-taking. We wanted to critique the students' note-taking because we wanted to learn what people do wrong in note-taking, and what people do right. The do's and don'ts. Also, some people didn't follow the criterea and made pretty bad notes, so that has to be fixed. We watched those videos to learn about some major events and people from the middle ages. It was a funny way to learn some pretty interesting stuff.

Connections/ reflections

The note-taking can always help us if we want to take notes in... other classes... say, science or math. Maybe even in future careers you need to take some notes (eg. notes of ideas for a company). The youtube videos can help... somehow... it'll help to have that knowledge... maybe in a job?

I really don't enjoy note-taking. I realize that it's an important thing to do for knowledge, reviews, things like that, but I guess I'm too lazy. I hate when I have to take notes because... I have to read.. gather info... write... BLECH. NOT a big fan of note-taking.

Homework and Tips

We don't have any homework for the weekends, but I suggest you start reading chapter nine of "There Will be Wolves," since that will probably be due on Tuesday or Wednesday. Flex is on Tuesday (I think), and that's all! Pce.

February 17, 2012

What We Did Today

Today, we started off by talking about the work that we did on Wednesday which was taking notes from chapter 2 and 5 in the Pathways textbook about the manor, ordinary people, village homes, the manor house, the privileges, the obligations, women in the late middle ages, and women and social level. Ms. Lees was impressed about the note taking because we didn’t complain about the note taking and we took notes for two chapters in the textbook so Ms. Lees thought that we should get a break and so we didn’t get homework for the weekend. After the talk about Wednesday we talked about what to do and don’t do for the note taking process which included phrases and key words and don’t use full sentences. We used a T chart to organize the criteria of do and not to do. Then we looked at couple of examples of the note taking and we discussed what needs improvement and what we did wrong and some things that were good about the way of the note taking that the person did. After that we watched some short videos about the middle ages on YouTube. Some of the videos on YouTube were funny and some were kind of odd. It was interesting to see what happened that were big in the middle ages.

Why We Did It

We started off by confirming what we did on Wednesday because Ms. Lees didn’t know what we actually did on Wednesday. We talked about the criteria of note taking because some people didn’t know what they should have done or what they can improve on next time. We looked at couple of examples of some people’s note taking because we wanted to know what was good about the note taking and the bad things about note taking. Now since we know the information about the note taking method, we can take notes properly. We watched the YouTube videos to get a better understanding of big events and what happened in the middle ages. These videos may help us know what people did in the middle ages for the up-coming project.

Connections/ reflections

The talk about the criteria of note taking could help us for taking notes in useful ways in other subjects and in different jobs in the future. For example we could be taking long notes about the up-coming project or a big test for humanities and other subjects. The information about the YouTube videos could help us maybe for the future but I don’t know particularly how it will help in the future.

Homework and Tips

This weekend we didn’t have any homework but for tips I suggest you to read chapter 9 of There Will Be Wolves and start on the chapter 9 questions because it will be due on Wednesday. Also we will be starting our research project for the middle ages on Monday and continue on Tuesday. We will be in the library on Monday and Tuesday to do our middle ages research project. Good luck on the research project!

14/02/2012

What we did today:

Today, we started by reading through chapter 2 in the Pathways textbook. In the chapter, we read about William (a king) and how he game land to his faithful knights.We read about how during the Middle Ages, economic life was centered on the manor. The manor lords received manors from kings and other lords in return for military service. A manor consisted of the lord's house; cottages for his tenants; at least one village filled with various buildings for jobs. They also had woodlands, fields, and pastures. Most of the tenants were serfs and freeholders whom worked for the manor. Then we copied a chart called, “Feudalism’s Influence On Medieval Society.” This showed what feudalism and feudal contract was. Feudalism is a social system based on land (fief), loyalty, and faith. Then, we copied down a social pyramid of those times. Then we drew out a chart showing the responsibilities and obligations of the different classes. Then we compared the oath to Canadian citizenship with the oath of the Feudal contract.

Why we did it:

We read chapter 2 because we had to learn about Feudalism, the Feudal contract, and the different social statuses. We need to learn this because we will be going more in depth about this and we'll need more knowledge about it. And if we read new books and watch movies, we can understand what they're saying. We copied the chart because we can always go back to it to review it for the test, or if we just need to review it when we forget about it. We drew out the social pyramid and the chart about the feudal contract because we needed to learn about the different peoples in the manor and check out their responsibilities and obligations. We compared the oaths to compare how the oaths changed from then to now, and also to see what kinds of things each oath made the peoples promise.

Connections/ Reflection:

The info learned today can be used in... anything. We aren't really going to use the Feudal contract, the Manor, etc. in any other subjects besides Humanities (English+Socials) unless you're planning on pursuing a job that'll require such knowledge. Such as... a historitian... is that a job? :P Anyywayy, by getting practice with charts, graphs, and these sorts of graphic organizers can be used in pretty much all other subjects in note-taking and project-doing.

I really enjoy learning about these things. I've always been fascinated with how people before us have lived. I couldn't imagine living without technology, being treated like an object... working fields every day... things like that. But it makes me feel like I have it easy. Especially since some kids my age in other countries live like that as well...

Homework and Tips

We didn't really have any homework for Wednesday, but if you can find an oath you have, just bring it on Friday.

As for the tips, I suggest you get started on your chapter 7 questions of your There Will be Wolves. It'll be due... I think on Friday.
Need help? Go to flex. Tuesdays at lunch. (USUALLY)

Dat'll be all folks, pce.

February 14, 2012

What we did today

Today, we started by getting the Pathways book and reading through chapter 2. We read a couple of paragraphs about William and his knights and Feudalism’s influence including the three Fs. Then we had to copy down a chart from the overhead called “Feudalism’s Influence On Medieval Society” which showed what feudalism and feudal contract is. Feudalism is a social system based on land, fief, loyalty, and faith (which is the three Fs). The feudal contract happened when land was given in exchange for loyalty, which was an oath that cemented this bond. After that we read more pages from the Pathways book, about 1 to 2 pages more about the feudal contract. Then we had to copy down a pyramid to show the levels of the people in the city or in the area. Then we had to copy a chart from the overhead about the responsibilities and the obligations for each level, for example king, greater, lesser, minor nobles, and freeholders and serfs. Then at the end of the block we had to compare oaths of allegiance but most people didn’t get much done for the comparison.

Why we did it

We had to review chapter 2 from Pathways because most of the people don’t remember about chapter 2 or the information about the levels of each person and the information about feudalism and the feudal contract. We copied the chart because this would be useful for reviewing feudalism and the feudal contract and it will be useful when we need to refer to the information. We read the Pathways book about the feudal contract because we needed to know what it is. We had to copy down the pyramid and the table of the feudal contract because we needed to know the levels of the people in a city or in an area and their responsibilities and their obligations.

Connections/ Reflection

All of this information that we learned today could be useful for the future because this could help us for other subjects and or future jobs that require this information. The charts, pyramids, and the table could also help for other subjects mainly like math and science and future jobs that require knowledge of charts, pyramids, and tables.

Homework and Tips

For homework, we didn’t have anything but to write down an oath that we had in the past and could be given to Ms. Lees.

For tips, I suggest you start on the “There Will Be Wolves chapter 7 questions”.

Jared's challenge

For my challenge I thought it would be a good idea to try something new. I decided for my challenge I will try to write a short story in thirty day's. For this I will have to take a couple day's to plan the stories setting, character's and well, the story! I think the best case scenario is if I actually get to start my story by Sunday this weekend and devoting at least a half, hour to planning and writing everyday.

My Challenge

My challenge for 30 days would be to get daily exercises for at least 45 minutes everyday. I chose this challenge because I want to get a higher score for my beep test so I could have my new record and maybe improve on my mark. I also want to do this because I want to extend my running time so I could keep on running without stopping for couple of kilometres. I could plan to reach my goal by keeping to walk to school everyday and maybe make some time for running around the block everyday. I hope this will help to reach my goal.

JIN'S CHALLENGE

My (Jin's) challenge is to write a haiku about how the day went for the next 30 days. I think that that will help me... sum up the day, and improve my writing skills. The haiku; seventeen syllable, three line poem. It'll be short, sweet, and pretty artistic. I think that it'd be a nice way to sum up a day, reflect upon it. I can post the haiku on the blog for the next thirty days so you guys can maybe give me some feedback and things like that. And that's that.

Wat we did.

Today in Ms. Lees class she told us to take out our 'There will be wolves' Chapter three and four questions. Ms. Lees then came around and checked everyone's questions. To her disappointment most of our questions were not grade eight/nine quality. Ms Lees then brought the missing critique's to attention, we then came up with possible punishments for the students who had not yet handed them in. Ms lees came to the conclusion that the students who had not yet handed in their critique's were to attend Monday's flex. We then switched to finishing presenting our group novel webs. All the while Ms Lees asked what we learned from our group novels and what it was like working in our group's.



Why we did this


We took out our 'There will be wolves" Questions so Ms. Lees could check them over and see if they were done properly (Which for most of us sadly they weren't). Ms. Lees talked about the missing critique's so we would remember to do them and hand them in. We came up with possible punishment's to pressure the student's to hand in their critique's. We presented our group webs to practice oral speaking. Ms Lees asked us what it was like to work in a group because she wanted us to learn what obstacles came with working in a group such as communication, absence etc... Ms Lees asked us we learned from the book to see if we learned anything from the book.


Connections/Reflections


Having our questions checked was useful because now we can get some constructive criticism and improve. It was also good to know what level our answer quality is at. Ms. Lees reminded us about the critiques so we could hand them in and remember for future reference to hand assignments in on time. Presenting our webs is a good way to practice oral speaking for future events. Ms. Lees asked what is was like to work in group so we could work better in a group for future projects. Ms. Lees asked us what we learned from our novels so we could practice gathering information and our reading skills.


Homework & tips


Today Ms. Lees assigned the 'Their will be wolves' Chapter five questions. For this i suggest you look back on the book if you get stuck. For the students still missing their critiques, hand them in on Monday flex.

Febuary,1,2012

What we did today?

Today,Some of us presented our webs that we had to make based on the book that you were reading.Most of us did it in groups other's did it individually because they didn't do enough work.
We also watched a video called ABC Nightlime IDEO Shopping Cart.It was a about a group of people communicating to make a shopping cart and everyone made a cart and used every one's idea's to make a final cart.We also talk about our novels that you read up to chapter five.

Why we did this?

We did this so we can learn that communicating with others is always good.


Connections/Reflections

The novel discussion was useful because now we know what chapter to read to so that we can do the other questions of There Will Be Wolves sheet that The teacher gave us to do.

Homework and Tips

The homework was to do Chapter 3-4 questions 1-7.
Read up to chapter 5 in There Will Be Wolves novel.

Do your homework and if you don't get something DON'T be afraid to ask anyone for help.