Thursday, September 27, 2007

Essential Skills

Read and Interpret at Lexile Level 1200+

Write: Technically, Imaginatively, & Persuasively

Speak and Present Publicly

Apply Mathematics Outside the Box

Live Globally-Aware & Community-Involved

Adapt and Innovate with Technology

Think Critically and Analytically
(Scientific Inquiry & Problem Solving)

Communicate and Collaborate Effectively

Other 21st Century Learning Videos

Here are some other options for quotes or ideas for your videos.

http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/Other+presentations



Saturday, September 22, 2007

Literary Elements PPT

Here is a link to download the boring version of the literary elements PowerPoint. Have fun dressing it up and adding a hyperlinked table of contents! (when you click once on the link, it will automatically download to your desktop as a .ppt file).

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Johnny the Bagger Assignment


Please watch the movie (link below) and write a 1/2 to 2 page story about a similar (fictional) inspiring story.

http://www.stservicemovie.com/

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The Brain on Basketball


Try clicking on these two mind-benders (and you can change the number at the end for other variations on the theme).

1. Please count the number of times the team in WHITE passes the basketball.
http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/grafs/demos/15.html

and

2. Something in this photo will CHANGE over the course of the video. Can you catch it?
http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/grafs/demos/5.html

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Group Blogspots

Your group blogspot is http://lpmschasegroup#.blogspot.com/

If you want to change the Template or add Authors, you'll need to see me.

Monday, September 3, 2007

Pink TESA Test

Here is the link to the pink test:

http://www.unitedstreaming.com/studentCenter/index.cfm?cdCode=CC63-3257


Go ahead and read the pink test first, then begin to take the test online. When you are asked for your login information, please give your "Firstname PeriodLastname" If my name is Joe Schmo and I am in 4th period, I would login like this:

Saturday, September 1, 2007

VIDEO Progressively Worse (or) Draw the Line

"I know some things are bad for me, but what's really the harm?"

I'd like to have student groups make a video--here's the sketchy skeleton of the idea for kids to flesh out and create:

Start with a clip of a student lying to his friend.  Look straight at the camera, shrug, and say "where's the harm?"

A clip of a student gossiping about another kid.  "Where's the harm?"

Bullying, pushing, harassing.  "It doesn't do any real harm."

Middle school romance. ""It won't hurt me."

Adding a little mercury to your drinking water.

Drinking pond water.  Eating chewing gum from under a desk.  Spraying chocolate with bugspray.  Etc.

"At some point during this movie, you "drew the line."  You said to yourself "Hey, no matter how much they like it . . . that's not good for them!"

Add music and classy transitions--I think this could be a powerful teaching tool and a point of reference for later discussions about WHY all these old-fogy adults keep telling kids not to smoke, drink, get sexually involved, etc.  The question about those topics is all-to-often "What's the harm--what's the big deal?"   




Reading Stations

I have good news and good news. Which do you want to hear first?
One good news is that the desks are going away, to be replaced by tables! It's a perfectly marvelous turn of events for the classroom, as it will allow for much more flexible groupings of students than last year.
The second is related to the first. We'll be implementing Stations into the reading classes this year. I'm not entirely sure yet of which stations you'll be seeing around the classroom, but here are some ideas running around in my head:
Progressively Worse / Drawing the Line Video
Ed Incentive Proposal
Vocab (plays, short stories, video vocab skit)
Silent Reading time
Word Roots
Literary Terms
TESA preparedness (videos, practice tests)
SRCs (identifying, item writing)
As a whole class we'll be working on Fluency (speed reading) and evaluating past performance on the Reading TESA.

Incentives?

There is praise and invective for Mike Bloomberg's policies on education. You'll be seeing more on this as the trimester progresses.
~T. Chase

The new school year!

Hey there!

Are you looking for blog-posts from the previous school year? Here's a LINK.

Welcome to the school year . . . let's get started in style!

~Mr. Chase