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Killer Waves, Students Teach, and We Believe

This week was our first full, five day week...and oh boy, it was a full week! :)
Most of CHS at the Chris Herren assembly.  Really puts into perspective how small our school is!
We were swept up in the short story "Rogue Wave" by Theodore Taylor in 7th grade this week.  It was a challenging story, but it had a great plot that kept us on the edges of our seats. We practiced writing summaries together and did some activities to help us identify multiple themes. Before we started reading the story, the 7th graders made their own vocabulary lists by scanning the story for unknown words. Then they put their lists on Quizlet so they could practice their words in a variety of ways. On Friday, students wrote their  Genuis Hour project proposals on our blog.

One of my fantastic students posting evidence from the text to support a theme.
The summary my students helped write together.
Deciding what evidence is relevant.
Speech students led some interesting discussions about current events. We did fishbowl discussion, and the outer circle gave the group in the center feedback after their discussion. This week I introduced my favorite speech--the demonstration speech. I love seeing students teach! Next week, they will deliver their speeches, I will get to learn a variety of things from them. How to change the oil in my vehicle, how to bathe a cat, and how to read manga are just a few of the fascinating topics they picked. Did I mention how excited I am about this yet?
I cut up the parts of a speech outline to see if the students could put it back together.

Students in 12th grade finished up their "This I Believe" essays this week. They engaged in some peer editing and sat down with me one-on-one to talk about their writing. We listened to an example from last year's group of seniors, and the students this year used SoundCloud to record their essays. Students willingness to be open in their writing always surprises and inspires me. This essay is a great way to start our year of writing together. I hope at least some of them submit their essays to the This I Believe archives.  I've also been trying out two of Kelly Gallagher's strategies in English this year--sentence of the week and article of the week.  So far it has helped establish some effective routines for integrating grammar and non-fiction. We were so busy this week, that I apparently did not take any pictures. I'll get 'em next week.


My 5th hour students are quickly becoming Google experts.  They learned a few new features in Google Presentation they hadn't used before.  They also picked a second app to research and create with. Design Something, Planner 5D, Coloring Pages, Wedding Dress Creator, and Little Alchemy are some of the "apps" we looked at this week.  It hardly feels like work, but they are learning how to navigate new applications.  They also get to use their creativity to make something unique.  We also started planning our "Google Tip of the Week".  This is a weekly email created by students that will go out to the staff and students to teach them the things we are learning. 


Creating a masterpiece using a drawing application.
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