Relay for Life

My final posting for the day....!

With January upon us, it is time to begin thinking about Relay for Life.  Mrs. Cook and I will begin going over this information with you in January.  Check out the blog and edline to keep up with all of the great things that we will be doing.

At the bottom of this page I have a couple of links for you.  One is a link to our Venturer/Navigator page where you can officially join the team.  We will go over all of this information with you next month.  The second link includes some pictures from Relay for Life last year.  You can get an idea from these pictures that we had a lot of fun!

James River High School Relay for Life Website

Relay for Life May 2010 Pics

DC Trip

Though this posting is a bit late, I do have a few pictures from the DC trip.  Can you believe we actually went on a field trip during snow days?  I hope everyone had a great time, with lots of good memories.  I have posted a few pics here.  Check the link out below for a few more.....

I wasn't as industrious with the camera as I thought I'd be....

Mrs. Estes and Mrs. Utz Enjoying the DC Snow!

Getting Ready for the Theatre!

CLICK HERE FOR A FEW MORE DC PHOTOS

Venturer Holiday Bazaar

I hope that everyone has had a great holiday break.  I have been meaning to post these photos of the holiday bazaar but I have been busy with Winter Break activities.  I have enjoyed not thinking of school for a bit, and I bet you have all too.  Now with next Monday looming, I've started thinking about school again. 

Mrs. Cook and I are so proud of each and everyone of you for the work you put into the Bazaar.  We raised over $1000!  We are well on our way to reaching our fund raising goal.  Mrs. Cook and I stayed after school on Tuesday and counted the money and made sure we had it safely in the school's vault.  We will donate the money in January to the Relay for Life organization.

Below the last picture there is a link to a photo gallery that you can access of the many different booths.  Hopefully I was able to snap everyone's picture.

See you on Monday.

We even had live music!

CLICK HERE TO SEE SOME MORE PHOTOS OF OUR HOLIDAY BAZAAR

DC Is Just Around the Corner!!!

Check out the Ford's Theatre trailer for "A Christmas Carol"!



 Also check out this video from a Hotel Harrington visitor!  You can see what a room looks like....




Check out someone's video from the outside of the hotel.

Immigration Reenactment by the 7th Grade

A Russian Immigrant...so serious...

My 7th grade students created a reenactment of an immigrant's experience at Ellis Island in New York City.  We researched immigration experiences, received identities as processors or immigrants, then created costumes and "back stories" to make the experience seem more authentic.  I am so very proud of everyone for their time and effort in making this activity worthwhile.  

I have uploaded some video and pictures of this event.  The first pictures are of the immigrants outside of the classroom, as well as a few being processed.  If I did not get your picture...please forgive me!  Once Mrs. Cook's class came in for their observations of the event, it was incredibly difficult to move around from place to place.  There were 60 people in the classroom!  In a way, this makes for an authentic simulation, as the processing stations on Ellis Island were frequently overcrowded and confusing.

A Greek woman on her way to a potential deportation.

On the left you can see the doorway to the classroom.  This is where the newly arrived immigrants were processed.  Their first station was used to get some background information.  Students were speaking in accented English, or using phrases from their native tongue.

Immigrants frequently came with next to nothing, carrying babies and their possessions to begin a life in the USA.   The photos below show the immigrants getting ready to go to the first station.  Many look confident and happy to be in the USA!

I have also tried my hand at video camera work for this event.  Check out the videos below.  Mrs. Cook is an amazing actress who totally livened up our reenactment.  Thank you Mrs. Cook for adding drama and excitement to our activity!

New England Drama at its Finest!

Which video do you feel best captures the drama and the angst of the colonial settlers in New England?  As you watch the videos, please forgive the horrific camera work!  Vote for the video that you feel is best acted...but please make sure you are taking into consideration historical accuracy and factual information given!
When you vote, the top video is video #1, the second one is video #2, etc.  Make sure you vote for the correct one!

Also, please excuse the extreme mess in the classroom....DC, Holiday Bazaar...projects....  Enjoy!

Victory Is Sweet, Literally!

Wow!  What a great breakfast we had, thanks to Mrs. Utz's CREW class.  This was our reward for bringing in the most plastic recyclables. 

Check out all of the great pictures.  After students tasted the delectable goodies, many students uttered, "This tastes good, donut!"
Get it?  Donut = doesn't it...
Yes, a bad joke...I tried this bad joke out on a few students, and there weren't many smiles, just frowns....

Great times...waiting to eat...

Next week we will move full steam ahead in getting ready for our holiday bazaar!  We will also have our Positive Awards Assembly on Tuesday!

Have a great Thanksgiving.....

Speaking With Accents!

Here's a cool website where you can learn to speak English with a foreign accent!  TM from my 7th grade class passed along this website.  This is a great place to go for 7th graders to work on your immigration accents!  It's amazing how many different ways one word can be pronounced in the English language!

CLICK HERE to start exploring English accents!

Check out the youtube video below to listen to an English speaker say the same thing over and over in different English accents.  You will hear different types of British accents, Irish accents, Australian accents, New York accents, and accents from the American South.  TM passed along this website to me also.

Remember 6th graders that we will be dramatizing some New England colony happenings right after Thanksgiving.  See if you can pick up a good accent!

Venturer Explorer Treasure Chests

The Venturer Treasure Chests were fantastic!  I tried to get as many shots as I could while I was walking around the cafeteria.  In the pictures below, you can see student work samples as well as students evaluating treasure chests.  I am impressed with all of your hard work! 

Busy evaluating a treasure chest for authenticity

So deep in thought the eyes are affected

Cool Portrait

Hard at work! 

What is in that bottle?

See the birch bark on the right?  A French explorer must have been responsible!

Who could this be?  Ferdinand Coronado perhaps?

Made in Spain!  Authentic!

More evaluating taking place!

A Successful Treasure Chest....of English origin!

Observing

Ponce de Leon's signature...it really looked like this!

Good Times!

Portugal!

Another great chest!

Cabot?  Hudson?

Authentic Chest!

An actual life-sized flag!  Authentic!

An authentic portrait of an explorer's wife!  Very creative!

Working on our DC Itineraries!

Students were hard at work today putting finishing touches on DC itineraries.  We are all looking forward to the trip!  We will be sending more information home soon about our November 30th evening meeting....

What a Great End of the Day

Today was one of those days...nothing really bad...just a million things going on.  Do you ever have one of those days when you think you've been stretched so thin that you can't do anything well because you don't have time to focus on any one particular thing?  

After school today, I was picking up the remnants of my 7th grade lesson.  In class we discussed our upcoming immigration unit, and we began to assemble our file folders and get our immigrant identities when the clock seemingly starting ticking even faster, and I had to rush to get everyone to get their identities and folders together before the bell rang.  As I was picking up glue sticks and folders, I happened to walk back to the in-bin, and I noticed the four scrapbook pages that were turned in early today.  I was "wowed" with the quality of the pages.  I grabbed my camera and put them on desks, and I took some snapshots.  

If someone had walked by the classroom and observed me taking close-up photos of desks they would have thought it a bit strange I guess, but I was eager to put these examples of work on the blog.  Of course, the photo work is a bit blurry, but you get to see the general idea of what these four students had in mind for their scrapbook invention page.


I am so incredibly lucky to teach students who put care and effort in their work.  After having such a hectic day, it was so wonderful to look at them.   I try hard not to take you all for granted, and today reminded me just how fortunate I am to teach all of you.  I eagerly await the other pages.  We will put them in a scrapbook for all to see.  I showed Mrs. Cook after school, and she was helping me with ideas of how to bind them.  As your ex-English teacher, I must say that she was really impressed.

I just know that our immigration reenactment will be a smashing success.  I will film parts of it and put it on the blog..we will have fun!


More information will be coming in the next week concerning just how this reenactment will work...   

You got your identities today.  Begin looking at home for a cool costume to wear.  Do not go out and buy things.  I am sure you can find some really interesting things to wear at home to make your character seem real!