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| The Thomas Edisons...The "real" Edison was #3...Mr. Cartier |
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| A Soy-Sauced Poster |
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| Putting Final Touches on a Poster |
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| Teamwork |
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Thomas Edison and Industrialist Posters
My 7th grade class has been busy this week. We had a great time putting on a "To Tell the Truth" skit with Thomas Edison. Our three Edison's and our host were great! We also have been hard at work at our industrialist posters. Our next video moment will be our immigration reenactment! Stay tuned....
Monday, October 24, 2011
Venturer Election Today
The Venturer Election was held today. We used the Australian voting method to allow for more student second and third choices. The photo above shows the candidates for the Venturer Senate. We are very proud of them for taking a risk in running for this office. It is not always easy to write a speech and give it to your peers. Kudos to all of you!
The official results are now in. The results have been double checked by Earnst and Young the famous accounting firm. Mrs. Cook has nothing to do with the "young" part of it since she will turn 58 this week.
The election results were very close. Their term of office will expire sometime at the beginning of the second semester. Students may run again for a second term, or choose to retire from public office. Mrs. Cook and I are very proud of each and every one of you for your willingness to serve the Venturer Nation.
Our new Senators are:
Brian, Lillian, Jenny, Madison, and Mallory
These five senators need to see Mrs. Cook and me tomorrow during CREW so that we can plan our first meeting.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Venturer Senate & Biz World Trial
A lot has been happening in the Venturer Nation in the past week!
The Senate campaign is drawing to a close. The election will be held tomorrow after the 13 candidates give their speeches. Mrs. Cook and I have been impressed with the quality of each student's speech as well as the campaign posters, buttons, and slogans. The election results will be posted as soon as the officials can count the ballots. Good luck to all!
Biz World students were involved in a patent trial on Friday afternoon. Mrs. Cook's class helped serve as jurors and lawyers. Mrs. Cook was even the judge. My goal was not for you to get mad at each other, but to see how the court process works on our country. When I signed some of the patent applications in which the Biz World company ignored the ratio qualifications, I wondered if other teams would notice. I decided to sign them anyway to see what would happen. Every year there are a few companies who do not read the patent application thoroughly, but this is the first year that a company has taken others to task! We will talk about this in class on Monday.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
The Senate campaign is drawing to a close. The election will be held tomorrow after the 13 candidates give their speeches. Mrs. Cook and I have been impressed with the quality of each student's speech as well as the campaign posters, buttons, and slogans. The election results will be posted as soon as the officials can count the ballots. Good luck to all!
Biz World students were involved in a patent trial on Friday afternoon. Mrs. Cook's class helped serve as jurors and lawyers. Mrs. Cook was even the judge. My goal was not for you to get mad at each other, but to see how the court process works on our country. When I signed some of the patent applications in which the Biz World company ignored the ratio qualifications, I wondered if other teams would notice. I decided to sign them anyway to see what would happen. Every year there are a few companies who do not read the patent application thoroughly, but this is the first year that a company has taken others to task! We will talk about this in class on Monday.
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| The lawyer for the prosecution presenting his case |
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| Judge Cook examining official documents |
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| A witness being questioned |
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| A witness answering questions |
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| The defense team |
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
The 5th Annual Venturer Artifact Museum
The artifact museum was a success! Thanks for everyone being on task as we looked at the various exhibits. There were many impressive displays. I tried to get as many pictures as I could. I've put a few below. Our next product will involve treasure chests and explorers...stay tuned!
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| Kyle and Hisham With Their Inuit Harpoon |
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| Evaluating Projects |
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| Mary, Cozmy, and Sydney by Their Project |
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| Sophia and Grace With an Amazing Display |
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| Noor and Morgan With an Excellent Artifact |
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| Katie and Erin With Their Kachina Doll |
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| Gabby and Emily With an Iroquois Mask |
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| Graham and Tad With a Creative Display |
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| Noah's Authentic Display |
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| Nicoleta's and Anne's Inuit Display |
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| Katie Trying to Flee a Picture Taken With Boys |
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| Sophia and Grace's Project Up Close! |
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| Ashley and Zoe Hard at Work |
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| Carter and Bryce's Display |
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| Evaluating Displays |
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| Evaluating Displays |
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Venturer Senate
Students,
As the Venturer senate campaign gets underway, I want to point out to you a blog that has been started by one of the candidates. Mrs. Cook and I will remain impartial in the election. (If you don't know what impartial means, look it up!) However, I will highlight any candidate who asks me to do so! I think a blog is a clever way to show potential voters your ideas and thoughts. And the great thing is that the blog can be fluid, constantly changing every day.
To go to the blog, CLICK HERE.
As the Venturer senate campaign gets underway, I want to point out to you a blog that has been started by one of the candidates. Mrs. Cook and I will remain impartial in the election. (If you don't know what impartial means, look it up!) However, I will highlight any candidate who asks me to do so! I think a blog is a clever way to show potential voters your ideas and thoughts. And the great thing is that the blog can be fluid, constantly changing every day.
To go to the blog, CLICK HERE.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
The Venturer Senate Campaign Has Begun
Students!
The campaign for Venturer Senator has begun. We have 13 great candidates running for five seats on the Senate. Senators will be beginning their run for office starting tomorrow. Be on the lookout for campaign paraphernalia to adorn the halls of RMS! The speeches for Senator will be held during ASE on October 24th. The candidates have been advised not to make promises in their campaign speeches that they cannot keep! Their term of office will last until the beginning of February. When their term expires, they can chose to run again, or to step down. There will be another election held in February for the second term.
Below you will find a "spoof" on a campaign political campaign ad for a ficticious presidential election. From where does the humor come? Do you get what the joke is?
The campaign for Venturer Senator has begun. We have 13 great candidates running for five seats on the Senate. Senators will be beginning their run for office starting tomorrow. Be on the lookout for campaign paraphernalia to adorn the halls of RMS! The speeches for Senator will be held during ASE on October 24th. The candidates have been advised not to make promises in their campaign speeches that they cannot keep! Their term of office will last until the beginning of February. When their term expires, they can chose to run again, or to step down. There will be another election held in February for the second term.
Below you will find a "spoof" on a campaign political campaign ad for a ficticious presidential election. From where does the humor come? Do you get what the joke is?
Monday, October 10, 2011
Random BizWorld Videos
Take a look at the BizWorld Videos. Nothing planned, staged, or orchestrated...just a snippet from the daily grind of a company in producing a product for their savvy consumers!
Which company do you think seems ready to dominate the field of Venturer bracelets? Please excuse the amateur camera work.....
Which company do you think seems ready to dominate the field of Venturer bracelets? Please excuse the amateur camera work.....
Saturday, October 8, 2011
The 6th Grade Wiki
Venturers,
The sixth grade wiki will be getting underway this week. My ASE students will be using the wiki to showcase their friendship bracelets. They will be creating internet ads to spark interest in their designs as well as to showcase what will be on sale soon. We will keep you posted on updates made to the pages. The wiki address link is in the right hand column.
With the passing of Steve Jobs this week, it has made us all realize just how great he truly was. He is our modern day Albert Einstein or Thomas Edison. He has changed the way the world looks at things. He dared to think differently. I bet that as a sixth grade student, he would have qualified to be a CBG student. At least I'd like to think so! The world needs more people like him, people willing to go out on a limb and do something revolutionary and different....
Watch this short biography on youtube.
The sixth grade wiki will be getting underway this week. My ASE students will be using the wiki to showcase their friendship bracelets. They will be creating internet ads to spark interest in their designs as well as to showcase what will be on sale soon. We will keep you posted on updates made to the pages. The wiki address link is in the right hand column.
With the passing of Steve Jobs this week, it has made us all realize just how great he truly was. He is our modern day Albert Einstein or Thomas Edison. He has changed the way the world looks at things. He dared to think differently. I bet that as a sixth grade student, he would have qualified to be a CBG student. At least I'd like to think so! The world needs more people like him, people willing to go out on a limb and do something revolutionary and different....
Watch this short biography on youtube.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Back In The Swing of Things...Finally
It certainly has been an interesting couple of weeks! This probably has been one of the hardest school openings I've ever experienced, even harder than the year I went to a brand new school, and we weren't ready on Labor Day to open, though the students came anyway the next day!
Coming back on Wednesday and finding all of my things missing, at least the important stuff, was really hard to take. Luckily, I've retrieved most of my stuff. I've lost things of sentimental value, I've lost student work, I've lost a binder or two, but I've got most of my teaching "debris" back. Mrs. Cook and I spent a good portion of our first days back looking for stuff. I am so happy that she found her bronzed cowboy boot which is her pencil holder on her desk. The boot has sentimental value for her, and something like that just cannot be replaced.
Just look at the scene below. This is just one of the many places where we searched for our beloved stuff. Unbelievable and overwhelming!
Imagine searching through rooms like this with boxes. We found a lot of our stuff in boxes labeled "library" or "home ec". One day, all I found was a post-it note that I had written on the last week of school in June. It was in a random box. Weird.
Coming back on Wednesday and finding all of my things missing, at least the important stuff, was really hard to take. Luckily, I've retrieved most of my stuff. I've lost things of sentimental value, I've lost student work, I've lost a binder or two, but I've got most of my teaching "debris" back. Mrs. Cook and I spent a good portion of our first days back looking for stuff. I am so happy that she found her bronzed cowboy boot which is her pencil holder on her desk. The boot has sentimental value for her, and something like that just cannot be replaced.
Just look at the scene below. This is just one of the many places where we searched for our beloved stuff. Unbelievable and overwhelming!
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| The Old Clover Hill High School Gym |
Luckily, you all came back to school, and believe it or not, things seemed a bit more normal as we began our daily teaching. When my seventh graders arrived on the first day of school, it was great to see familiar faces from last year! Something that I knew! I look forward to a great year with both of my grades. Hopefully you will enjoy your year as a Venturer in 6th grade or a Navigator in 7th grade.
The picture below shows my 7th grade class working on tower structures of states. The towers were built according to geographic region. These students won the competition by having the tallest structure. They've earned bonus points on their states and capitals test coming up next week!!!
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| Cameron, Isabell, Patrick, Joey, and Zach are victorious! |
Sunday, September 4, 2011
First You Cry, Then You Laugh
What a week this has been. I would have never dreamed in a million years that my week would have gone like this. I have kept telling myself throughout this all that this could have been worse, and I've had great friends at Robious. We have helped each other through this process and I think we've all become closer!
1. School was closed on Monday and Tuesday because of the hurricane. That's okay..I said to myself..two extra days of relaxing before the storm began...The storm? Going through all of my stuff that had been "cleaned" from the fire in July. I was told that all of my stuff was boxed up and in my room....
2. I get to school on Wednesday, and I had zillions of boxes in my room, all labeled with McEwen, room 315....I opened box after box and found nothing of mine. Occasionally I would find a couple of items mixed in with other teachers' stuff...in one box there was foreign language stuff along with home ec stuff....it made no sense.
3. So after the boxes were sorted through, I went around the school looking. I did manage to find a few other things, but nothing IMPORTANT like my teaching binders.
4. In the afternoon, on Wednesday, I really had nothing to do...I couldn't run stuff off for this coming week, because those binders were missing...so I decided to go through the stuff that was mine to put into my big metallic black cabinet....well, the door to the cabinet fell off, I guess it was damaged when they removed it...so I decided to put the stuff in my one remaining filing cabinet...that was so jammed that I couldn't open the doors...I went to Mr. Siddiqi and told him I just didn't know what I could do and I guess he could tell I was upset...so...I got a new teacher's desk, a new black cabinet, and two filing cabinets..and new student desks! No new chairs...they are still circa 1970, but I got new desks...
5. On Thursday, I went to the old Clover Hill High School to look for my stuff...some of the teaching supplies were brought there after the fire. I managed to find amongst thousands of boxes my U.S. Constitution binder....
6. On Friday, Mrs. Cook and I went to a warehouse where other things were stored and we found quite a bit of our teaching materials...still not everything. Some of the stuff they wouldn't let us take....which was frustrating. Students, picture the scene...some guy is telling Mrs. Cook that she cannot take her stuff...imagine her eyes...are you smiling? I couldn't help but smile myself, and I needed to smile! She was not a happy camper, nor was I, but she really doesn't hide what she's thinking, does she?
7. Yesterday, Mrs. Cook and I managed to get our rooms set up as we hadn't had time during teacher workweek.
8. Today, we are going to Clover Hill again as some of the stuff from the warehouse has been brought there. Our last attempt to retrieve our "educational debris". Now, sadly, it really is debris.
Three things have gotten me through this....
A. Mrs. Cook and I working together to find our beloved stuff. I found pictures that were destroyed of my family, of friends, which upset me, but then I found random pictures of myself that I didn't even know I had. I found a picture of me with my class from decades ago, and it brought tears to my eyes.
B. I got my class rolls...of course, I have no clue about any of my sixth graders, but when I got my one seventh grade class, I actually looked on the list of students and smiled. The first time I had smiled in a long time. Why? I saw something familiar, something that would help me realize why I even became a teacher in the first place. For you seventh graders that have me again, I hope it is what you wanted...if not, I am sorry...
C. The kindness and generosity of everyone has been simply overwhelming. I cannot thank everyone enough for their offers of help. I have turned down many offers not because I don't want help, but I just needed time to process the loss, and time to look through my stuff for anything salvageable. That is something only I can do.
So, with the new year beginning, I realize a lot can happen that no one can predict. I am looking forward to a good school year....it has started off a bit shaky, but there's nowhere to go but up.
This afternoon I am off to Clover Hill High School to continue my quest for more of my "debris". Mrs. Cook will be along there with me... Wish us luck!
1. School was closed on Monday and Tuesday because of the hurricane. That's okay..I said to myself..two extra days of relaxing before the storm began...The storm? Going through all of my stuff that had been "cleaned" from the fire in July. I was told that all of my stuff was boxed up and in my room....
2. I get to school on Wednesday, and I had zillions of boxes in my room, all labeled with McEwen, room 315....I opened box after box and found nothing of mine. Occasionally I would find a couple of items mixed in with other teachers' stuff...in one box there was foreign language stuff along with home ec stuff....it made no sense.
3. So after the boxes were sorted through, I went around the school looking. I did manage to find a few other things, but nothing IMPORTANT like my teaching binders.
4. In the afternoon, on Wednesday, I really had nothing to do...I couldn't run stuff off for this coming week, because those binders were missing...so I decided to go through the stuff that was mine to put into my big metallic black cabinet....well, the door to the cabinet fell off, I guess it was damaged when they removed it...so I decided to put the stuff in my one remaining filing cabinet...that was so jammed that I couldn't open the doors...I went to Mr. Siddiqi and told him I just didn't know what I could do and I guess he could tell I was upset...so...I got a new teacher's desk, a new black cabinet, and two filing cabinets..and new student desks! No new chairs...they are still circa 1970, but I got new desks...
5. On Thursday, I went to the old Clover Hill High School to look for my stuff...some of the teaching supplies were brought there after the fire. I managed to find amongst thousands of boxes my U.S. Constitution binder....
6. On Friday, Mrs. Cook and I went to a warehouse where other things were stored and we found quite a bit of our teaching materials...still not everything. Some of the stuff they wouldn't let us take....which was frustrating. Students, picture the scene...some guy is telling Mrs. Cook that she cannot take her stuff...imagine her eyes...are you smiling? I couldn't help but smile myself, and I needed to smile! She was not a happy camper, nor was I, but she really doesn't hide what she's thinking, does she?
7. Yesterday, Mrs. Cook and I managed to get our rooms set up as we hadn't had time during teacher workweek.
8. Today, we are going to Clover Hill again as some of the stuff from the warehouse has been brought there. Our last attempt to retrieve our "educational debris". Now, sadly, it really is debris.
Three things have gotten me through this....
A. Mrs. Cook and I working together to find our beloved stuff. I found pictures that were destroyed of my family, of friends, which upset me, but then I found random pictures of myself that I didn't even know I had. I found a picture of me with my class from decades ago, and it brought tears to my eyes.
B. I got my class rolls...of course, I have no clue about any of my sixth graders, but when I got my one seventh grade class, I actually looked on the list of students and smiled. The first time I had smiled in a long time. Why? I saw something familiar, something that would help me realize why I even became a teacher in the first place. For you seventh graders that have me again, I hope it is what you wanted...if not, I am sorry...
C. The kindness and generosity of everyone has been simply overwhelming. I cannot thank everyone enough for their offers of help. I have turned down many offers not because I don't want help, but I just needed time to process the loss, and time to look through my stuff for anything salvageable. That is something only I can do.
So, with the new year beginning, I realize a lot can happen that no one can predict. I am looking forward to a good school year....it has started off a bit shaky, but there's nowhere to go but up.
This afternoon I am off to Clover Hill High School to continue my quest for more of my "debris". Mrs. Cook will be along there with me... Wish us luck!
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