AWESOME MAVERICKS

Week of February 8-12 

Students completed their Titanic activities; examples are on our classroom bulletin board.  I loved the discussions we engaged in during this story! Students did a fantastic job creating KWL (know, want to learn, learned) charts during this unit.  Many of them are displayed in the 7th grade hallway or in our classroom.  If you get the chance to stop by and see their work, please do. I'm proud of the work that my students are accomplishing. Recently students were given "Titanic tickets" with real passenger names.  They then looked up their passengers on the encyclopedia Titanic website and discovered information about their passenger, such as if their passenger survived, what class their passenger traveled in, and so forth.  Students then created products on Pages to display their information. We are exploring different types of technology to use in class.  With today and the future world, the more familiar and comfortable that students can become with technology, the more advantages they will have both in school and in the workplace. 

We completed our persuasion projects about North Rowan Middle School this past week.  Students worked in collaborative groups to brainstorm ideas. We then went to the computer lab so that they could create persuasion products that proclaim what a great school North Rowan Middle School is.  Many of these are on the bulletin board across from the guidance office.  We will complete these this week.  Your children have worked very diligently on this project, and their creations are outstanding.

We will be working on our third writing task over the next couple of weeks.  Students will conduct research on the topic in their science class and will write their papers in my class.  We will be using the LCD projector, graphic organizers, and brainstorming to help students get started on their papers.  They will write their drafts and help each other with revision.  I will also be editing their papers and guiding them with their writing.  Please encourage your children to do their best work.  I really want to see each one of my students improve.

You should be proud of your children and their work.  I presented examples of their work from a project we did in the fall at a county Job Alike meeting.  Their work was a hit!  They made North Rowan Middle School shine. 

Please ask your children what they are doing in class and about their work. 

If anyone would like to make donations of kleenex, markers, notebook paper, or pencils for our classroom, it would be greatly appreciated.

Homework for the week:

Monday: Read one hour. Persuade others that they should read your book.  Due Friday.

Tuesday: Write a paragraph persuading others to read.

Wednesday: Work on your reading homework.

Thursday: If the class works hard on their writing tasks, then there will be no homework.  Otherwise, homework will be assigned.

Contact me if you have any questions. Thank you for your support.  I want each one of my students to be successful.

Congratulations to my Awesome Aristocrats of last week:  Tori Deaton, Chandler Dickson, Tameyia Nock, Natalya Little, Alex Duncan, and Shenelle Hudson.

Congratulations to my students who made the Battle of the Books team:  Shenelle Hudson, Indya Wiggins, Brian Reyes, and Iasiah Stamper. 

 Congratulations to our Wrestling Champions:  Gold Medalists Nnamdi Osakwe and Marc Gonzalez; Silver Medalists Michael Dyson and Shiheem  Saunders.                                   

 Related Language Arts links:

Language Arts Games: http://www.quia.com/pages/havefun.html

Writing games:  http://www.eduplace.com/tales

flashcards:  Battle of the Books

current news and games: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/scholasticNews