September 27
Team Notes:
During our connections time this week, we took some time to discuss the 'Perils of Multi-tasking'. We read and discussed the following article. http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/homework-project-tips/perils-multitasking Students acknowledged and generally understood why multi-tasking is not good for their learning. But it's hard to break those habits and pull away from their devices. Hope you enjoy the article and perhaps you can take some time to talk with your child about how to ensure their learning environment at home is as productive as possible!
We are reminding students that missed assignments (formative or summative) and re-takes should be completed within a 2 week period from the original due date. We remind students often about those due dates as first quarter progresses. We tend to do less reminding as the year goes on and students take on more responsibility. Please check Infinite Campus with your child often and encourage your child to finish any missing work and to re-do anything that is less than a 3.
English (Totzke): We took our Unit 2 vocabulary quiz on Friday, so check IC to see if your student should retake it! This week we are reviewing pronouns and how to use them well in writing, and we'll be doing one last practice close read of a short story before we have our summative (NOT this week). Happy Reading!
English (Rigell): https://sites.google.com/a/oregonsd.net/oms-enriched-english/home/homework
FACE: We finished up our Bullying unit and Bullying Projects. The students surprised me by how creative all of them are. It was fun to hear their stories and see what they did with the brochures. We are now heading into our Family Culture Unit. We will be learning about different family structures, who does what in a family, and families all over the world. We are also very fortunate to have a guest speaker, Mr. Greg Granberg, he is coming in to talk about different options the students will have in high school with school-to-work, and other fun work related opportunities.
Geography (Stoller): Students finished learning about the 5 Themes earlier this week. Our culminating project is to write a children's book (or choose some other way) to teach someone else about the 5 themes. Students have detailed explanation, checklist and planning guides to help them. They had the option to work with a partner but we discussed, at some length, the pros and cons of such decisions. Students who work in pairs earn the same grade. Projects are due Monday at the start of class. We will have a quiz on the 5 themes next Wednesday and then move into our map skills unit.
Geography (Howe): The students have been working round the clock this week to finish their 5 Themes project. The project, which is creating a children's book that includes the themes of Location, Place, Human Environmental Interaction, Movement, and Region, is due next Monday, the 30th. Also on Monday, the kids will be taking a quiz on the 5 Themes, using the last two weeks of instruction and project time as practice. After the quiz, we'll begin our map unit by taking a look at the world and latitude and longitude.
Math (Stauss): During this week in math we focused on using number lines, plastic colored chips and algorithms (rules) to help solve addition problems involving rational numbers. Next week we will use the same methods to solve subtraction problems involving rational numbers, and we will also use what we have learned to solve problems using order of operations. Next week on Wednesday, October 2nd, all corrections for our Shapes and Designs test must be completed. Students need to make an appointment with me to review their test and make a list of what they need to study in order to complete the corrections. After studying, students may then come back and complete corrections on their test.
Math (Krueger): See separate IC email and blog post
Science (van Steenderen): Science retakes for the first quiz have begun. Students may come in before school, during study halls 2nd, 4th, or 6th hours, at lunch, or after school if they make an appointment first. Retakes for the first science quiz will be given through Oct. 7th. On a good day, I am able to meet with about 25 students. It's hard to believe ... but many students procrastinate and wait until the last second for a retake. Just so you know, the appointments are made on a first come first served basis. Please recommend that your student gets the retake done as soon as possible. This week we focused on experimental design. We made a practice claim about students wearing pajamas on Monday and verbally worked through the experimental design process without actually "doing" the process. For our second experience, we made a claim about the width of the crowns of trees in both open and crowded areas. Students collected data outside and were given the opportunity to work through the process in more detail in small groups. This was a more guided and involved process. Next week students will be given a statement and will need to design an experiment from the bottom up that fits the claim they make. Hopefully this week's practice events will make the task easy.
Science (Howe): As the Nature of Science unit comes to an end, we've started to wrap up our main pieces- observation and inference, data and evidence, and scientific models- into a neat package called Experimental Design. Exp. Design is the process by which the students will plan out a way to make a claim, and then either prove or disprove that claim using evidence they gather and reasoning. As practice, we've looked at the claim that trees that are in an open area have a larger crown. The kids have spent the last two days collecting and sharing data, and revising their plans. The goal is to have them design their own experiment start to finish by the end of the year.
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Andrew Dolejs (Special Education) - acdolejs@oregonsd.net
Kelly (Eickert) Manzeck (Special Education) – kjmanzeck@oregonsd.net
Alex Howe (Geo and Science) - abhowe@oregonsd.net
Bryan Krueger (Math) - bmkrueger@oregonsd.net
Katie Stauss (Math) – kmstauss@oregonsd.net
Amanda Rigell (English) - akrigell@oregonsd.net
Jeri Shumaker (Tech Tools) - jsh@oregonsd.net
Laura Stoller (Geography) – lms3@oregonsd.net
Caitlyn Duffy (FACE) - cmduffy@oregonsd.net
Tiffany Totzke (English) - tntotzke@oregonsd.net
Debe VanStenderen (Science) – ddv@oregonsd.net
Team Blog: http://oms7-osharks.blogspot.com/
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