KMO Results Are In!

Congratulations to my KMO students for doing very well last Tuesday in the competition.  We almost beat our competition from Northern Virginia, but just 5 points!

Below are the results from Virginia.  We beat Midlothian and Manchester!

The next KMO competition is in March.  Can my new class top my first semester class?  Time will tell.

Colony Commercials

Check out the two colonies commercials from my first-odd class.  We have some top-notch actors and actresses in our midst!   Two posts in two days!

I hope that you had as much fun making these videos as we did in watching them!!!!

It's Been a Long Time! Biz World and KMO News!

Students,
Sorry for not posting more.  I will make it a point to be more current as we work our way into the second semester.

The BizWorld bazaar was on Friday.  Students will spend time in class this week "breaking up" their companies and discovering which group made the most profit.

Thank you Mrs. Cook's and Mrs. Moore's ASE classes for helping to chose the best video (Candy Bandz) and the best mall display (Spark)

Here are some pics below of each company.....

Candy Bandz

Arm Candy

Spark

Fruity Bandz

Aqua Lights

Here are a few pics from DC and the Holiday Bazaar.  The Holiday Bazaar was a resounding success!

Riding on the train up to DC

Going up to DC!

A Great Idea!

Our KMO competition is on Tuesday!  Wish us luck!  I'll post the results on the blog.

The DC Trip is Almost HERE!

Venturers,
Our field trip is almost here!  I thought you'd might like to look at some videos of what the Hotel Harrington looks like, as well as the play, "A Christmas Carol".

The National Geography Bee!

Students,
On Monday and Tuesday of next week, we will hold the preliminary round of the geography bee from National Geographic.  There will be 10 finalists that will compete after the holidays for the title of Robious Middle School geo bee champion 2012.  Watch this youtube video to see how the finals in Washington DC work.  Enjoy your weekend!

7th Grade Ellis Island Reenactment

Below you will find some pics and videos of our immigration reenactment from last Friday.  I hope that you enjoyed the experience and have learned a bit more from this simulation about an immigrant's encounters on Ellis Island.  If I didn't get you in the shots I am sorry!  There was so much going on at once, and I found myself getting pulled into all of the mini-dramas happening.  Thanks for doing such a great job!  Your costumes were wonderful!

The final processing

A Character Check

An 88 year old lady from Italy

An Italian guy hiding a rash...

A priest, who in previous years has killed someone

A Scandinavian woman

A young Scandinavian woman...yes woman...making a grave mistake at the character station

A broken arm....from what?

Trying to pass the health inspection

The realities of deportation are setting in...

The loyalty oath for all but one....oh my...they need to work on their English!

Happy Thanksgiving, Treasure Chests, & Murphy

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  It has been nice to have a few days off from school.  I was going to send grades on Tuesday afternoon after school, but the construction crews cut the power on my side of the building...I'll send them early next week so that you can see your current progress.

The treasure chest event was great.  Thanks for putting forth great effort in creating your chests.  I got a lot of good pictures of each group.  I decided to just put two pictures up on the blog of two really great treasure chests.  I will show you each group shot later in the year.  I usually make a movie at the end of the year highlighting some of our events.  I will use the treasure chest pictures of each group for that.  You will see in June just how much you've grown!

I have always been pretty spontaneous about things, and this week illustrates that.  When my daughter was born 15 years ago, we purchased a Shetland Sheepdog.  He was the greatest dog ever.  He was huge for a sheltie, weighing about 50 lbs.  A sheltie resembles a collie in many ways.  Our dog looked more like a collie than a sheltie because he was so big.  We grew to love that dog as a member of our family.

When when my daughter entered sixth grade, a neighbor of ours had a sister who had a border collie who needed a home.  The family was moving to Colorado, and could not take the dog with them.  My daughter kept teasing me for the dog, and I kept saying no, as I didn't want two dogs.  Well, since I am a dog lover, I finally gave in, and Kali joined our family.  At first,  the two of us didn't get along as she really hadn't been trained properly.  As soon as she figured out how to do things, I grew to love her too.  I never dreamed that I would own two dogs at once.  I am a dog lover, but two of them?

The two dogs we had grew to love each other, and became inseparable.  Our sheltie died two years ago unexpectedly, and our family was very upset.  Even Kali, our border collie felt the loss.  I decided that we would go back to being a one dog family as it is easier, and cheaper.  Then....I started thinking about how great it is to have a companion for the dog we have now...and...I started looking at dogs on the internet that were for sale...and there was one for sale near Johnston-Willis Hospital...and...we went to see him on Thanksgiving morning....and now...we have a new member to our family.  His name is Murphy and he is a ball of fire.  He will get to be about 70 pounds, the biggest dog that I have ever owned.   My daughter, who is 15, has never really had a puppy, as she pointed out.  We got our dog when she was a baby, and our border collie, Kali, was an adult dog when we adopted her.

I have some pictures here of my new family member.  I made sure I included Kali in one of the shots as I don't want her to be jealous!

See you on Monday!

Mr. McEwen

The Venturer Bazaar Last Year

Students,
As I said to you this afternoon in your CREW classes, I will post a link to some pictures so that you can get an idea of what our holiday bazaar looked like last year.  Don't copy what they did...be unique.  My students last year didn't have the advantage that you do in looking at pictures from the previous year.  Their booths were phenomenal!

Also, don't forget to vote for your bizworld internet ad!  The poll closes next week!

CLICK HERE to go to holiday bazaar pics from last year.

The Assembly Line

The seventh grade last week studied Henry Ford's assembly line.  To illustrate how an assembly line works, we created our own bookmark assembly process.  Watch everyone diligently working on making bookmarks as quickly as possible while at the same time, focusing on quality.  Below the photos you will see a few movies that I took....

Also, don't forget to vote for the BizWorld ad you think is the best!  The poll is on the right column.  To view the ads, CLICK HERE!

The Team by the Door

The Center Team

The Team by the Windows

Below you will see some videos of the groups at work during the assembly process.  Students were not allowed to talk.  They had to come up with their assembly plan before the manufacturing process began.

The picture above shows a unique way to keep track of the number of bookmarks created

Ad Campaigns for Mr. McEwen's ASE Class

Dear Venturers,
My ASE students have created internet ads for their BizWorld companies.  Which one do you like the best?  Please vote for the company that you feel has the most persuasive ad.  This company would be most likely  the first company to get your business because of what you are seeing online.  Please don't vote because of friendships!

You will find the poll in the right hand margin of the blog, at the top.  You can only vote once.  The poll is not able to read multiple votes.  You can go back and change your vote at a future date, but you can still only vote for one company.

You can vote until November 20th!  Stay tuned to find out when our actual sale day will be.

~Mr. McEwen