Gibson Blog Post for the week of 11/18/13-11/22/13

Monday-
On Monday in Mr. Sneddens 1-2 period class we started an assignment called DOI to AOC, this stands for Declaration of Independence to Articles of Confederation. You were to answer the questions given to you on the document for each Placard. There is the first one started out for you for you to see how it is done. We will also be working on this tomorrow. We then went into room 404 and meet with the seventh graders to talk about the Harrison Bergeron questions that were supposed to be done over the weekend. Although we never got around to it because of the questions asked by our classmates. Mr. Snedden went over a document posted on the website that everyone needs to fill out, it is for the field trip. We are supposed to fill it out for homework tonight. We ran out of time before we could go over our Harrison Bergeron questions and will be looking at them tomorrow.

Also this is what we wrote down in our planner for the upcoming week: Tuesday- Tour Pasta, we will be having a very short assembly to announce the Turkey Trot top lap runners and the winners of the Tablet and Sector 9 skateboard; Wednesday- It will be assembly schedule for a theater performance; Thursday- Is a Half-Day, we will be walking down to OB and if you are being picked up you will be picked up at tower 2 at 12:30, do not bring your backpack bring only what you need for the 2 hours of school and the walk to OB.; Friday- Is a Half-Day Your final copy of FRA is due you need two copies one for Snedden and one for the Judges, your entry form must be filled out (the address is given to you on the website, the BOB is due, and we will be having our Unit test that day.

Tuseday-
Today we had a couple of students go and take a test for Mr. Gregg (which included me) but the overall period went like this. We worked on our essays and anything that needed to get done. Mostly essays. Mr. Snedden gave us a new person to work with so more than one person could look at/ edit you essay. Then you were to read aloud you essay and tell your partner what you think should be changed or you make comments on their essay. Then you edit your essay to fix the problems.
We also had Tour Pasta and it was delicious!

Wednesday-
Today we started our day off with Battle of the Books. REMINDER BOB is due this Friday! We then started to focus on the field trip tomorrow. We discussed the routes and the schedule for tomorrow. Snedden handed out a salmon colored piece of paper that you are to bring to school tomorrow. It has the route we are taking and it has the different topics for C-SPAN. Tomorrow do not bring your whole backpack, unless you want to carry it around O.B. plus it might rain tomorrow so a paper bag to hold your lunch might not be the best idea.

Thursday-
Today we had our field trip and we went down to the beach and collected trash, we also took notes and pictures that are for the C-SPAN you are supposed to turn in your notes in your packet for tomorrow. Reminder 2 copies of your essay are due tomorrow along with a filled out entry form and a filled out envelope with a stamp attached to it. Also we have BOB that is due tomorrow you need notes for each time you read for 2 books you need the online responses completed for two books this narking period and the Unit Test is tomorrow also. Tomorrow is a half day and then we get a week of for break hope you have fun!

This week, we worked on our First draft of the FRA essay and took notes on various topics on the revolutionary war. All week long we brought in canned goods.

Monday
We took notes on multiple excerpts of the Declaration of Independence, and wrote a mock one of our own. It had to be on the topic of something you were giving, up that negatively affected yourself. The mock paper had to be in cursive and have a border on it.

Tuesday
We categorized the 27 grievances of the Declaration of Independence into 3 sections, the violation of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It was all opinion based, which means any answer could be argued right. It was up to you to decide which one was right. We took notes on two systems of government and compared and contrasted the types of government.

Wednesday
  We read battle of the books for a period and then discussed and researched the C-span student cam assignment. We then went over the OB beach cleanup.

Thursday
Thursday was a catch up day we read battle of the books and the had the choice to work on our FRA assignment.

8 Ekstrom Week In Review Blog Post

This week we worked on writing the first draft of our FRA project. This project is an essay competition with the topic of "The Bill of Rights and Me."

On Monday, we took notes on the Declaration of Independence and worked on writing our own Declaration of Independence. We wrote this based on something that could be annoying to others in class, or to our selves. This was for us to create a document similar to the actual Declaration of Independence, and to practice our cursive (not all of us knew how to write in it) . 

On Tuesday, we started the day by analyzing the list of 27 grievances off of the Declaration of Independence. We made a checklist with a grievance summary, and checking off if it was for life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness. There was no wrong answer on the checklist, because it was our own opinion. After that, we took notes on democracy for the rest of class, comparing monarchy with democracy. We did not get to finish the notes, but found the different components of the two, and found out how very different they are.

On Wednesday, we read our Battle of the Books book for an hour, taking notes on any challenging words or anything important in the story. After this, we went over the project coming up, the C-SPAN studentcam, where we create a video documentary on what the most important issue congress should focus on in 2014. We discussed having a field trip beach cleanup, where we will walk to Ocean Beach and pick up trash off of the beach. We will also be taking video footage of the surroundings that we walk by. this project will be beneficial for us because it will open our eyes to the world around us. 

Today, we read our Battle of the Books book for the first hour of class, and then had the option to work on our FRA essay or to keep reading. Both were great options, as the due dates for both are coming soon. This gave all of us a chance to catch up on anything we were behind on. It also gave some a chance to edit their partner's essay. It was a great chance for us to get work that we were far behind on done. 

Our homework this week was to write the first draft of our essay and give peer edits to our assigned partners. We also had to fix the peer revisions given to us. Another homework assignment we had was to finish our Declarations of Independence.  

By Charlie Ekstrom

8 Deak WIR Blog Post

This week, we worked on the final draft of the VFW Patriots Pen. On Monday, we went over our essays in class and read some of the students work. This helped people because when they read it out loud some of them made no sense.
On Tuesday, we started the day off with an "Analyze That" political cartoon. We analyzed the snake cartoon by Benjamin Franklin, which was the first political cartoon ever made. Then we analyzed the cartoon about the "Tax Man". We answered questions for each of them and used SOAP to analyze them as well.
On Wednesday I was not here, so look at Jack Caffo's blog for information.
On Thursday, we worked on another "Analyze that" cartoon, which was the Miss Ame-Stamp. We answered more questions and used SOAP as well. Them we worked on our VFW Patriots Pen essays, and then at the end of the class we made Turkeys out of paper.
On Friday we will put our VFW Patriots Pen letter and form into a letter and send them to the VFW.

8 Donlon WIR Blog Post

Last Friday, the 1:1 Movement came back to Correia to pick up the bags, get stats about all of the trash that we collected, and sort out all of our junk. We also took our second WIR Art of Communication quiz, focusing mainly on what we had learned about the different colonies in Colonial America. There were a couple of questions that had already been on previous quizzes that people were still getting incorrect. Our class also finished the travel brochure for the American Colonies, made using the 6 by 6 rule (six bullets consisting of six words max. each).

On Monday, the first thing we did was look at other people’s essays (okay, we roasted them). Some of them were funny to listen to, because they either did not make sense, or were very redundant. Mrs. Clark made sure that her point came across to the students by playing songs that corresponded to the content of their essays. Many people were frantically fixing little issues in their own essays to make sure that, if they got roasted, they would not be as bad as their previous peers.

On Tuesday, we came into class, and there was a warm-up waiting for us. It was two different political cartoons: “Unite or Die” and “Paying the Excise Man”. Our task was to analyze them by using SOAP, and then answered some separate questions. To use SOAP, you must identify the following: The Speaker, Occasion, Audience, and Purpose. After we were done with the warm-up, Mr. Snedden took us to an assembly where we were informed on the “Turkey Trot” and all of its details.

On Wednesday, our plastic bag assignment was due. Over the weekend, we were assigned to do interviews of two adults on their thoughts of plastic bags, two summaries of news articles on the City of San Diego and its thoughts on the banning of plastic bags, and annotating on two articles that were given to us on Friday. We discussed all of that at our tables in class. (We used the Socratic Seminar method). After this was completed, we were assigned to write a formal business letter to our district’s council member. For me, it was to “The Honorable Kevin Faulconer”. The letter contained our thoughts on the possible banning and how it would affect our day to day lives.

On Thursday, we had to go through seven steps of work before we could make hand turkeys to support the Turkey Trot. That was our bribe to get through the day. Unfortunately, as a class, we were very hectic and did not take the class time seriously, so we were not allowed to make the turkeys. If not all of the seven steps were finished, they were assigned as homework.

8 Carlson WIR Blog Post

     On Friday, the 18th, we were given some time to finish up our Colonial Travel Brochures before the representatives form the one to one movement came to collect our trash bags and go through our trash with us. We first separated our trash into recyclables and waste items. Then, we made a reusable pile, a recyclable pile, and a reducible pile. We were also asigned a quiz to take over the weekend. The quiz was about the facts we should have learned from our Travel Brochures.
     Over the weekend, most of us worked on our Patriotism essays and when we came back on monday, Mr. Snedden and Mrs. Clark "roasted" some of them. Roasting is when an essay is put up on the board in front of the class and read out loud. While the author is reading it, Mr. Snedden and Mrs. Clark are correcting it and commenting on it.  After they had gone through several essays and we had a good idea of what not to put in our own essays, we made a task checklist as a class. The checklist included all the things that needed to be done throughout the week for our Patriot's Pen Essay, and when we should have had them completed by.
     On Tuesday, we started class with a warm up called "Analyze That Political Cartoon". We analyzed the pictures, "Unite or Die" and "Paying the Excise Man". We figured out "SOAP" for each. SOAP stands for speaker, occasion, audience, and purpose. We also answered questions, reviewed our quiz that we had taken over the weekend, and went to an assembly discussing our 2013 "Turkey Trot".
     Yesterday, on Wednesday, we had a follow-up about plastic grocery bags. We discussed facts and pros/cons with our classmates and took notes. We then used those notes to write a formal business letter to our district Council Members. Since I live in Ocean Beach, I addressed my letter to Kevin Faulconer. The business letters included our opinions on the possible (and now definite) ban on plastic bags in Sand Diego.
     Today (thursday) we worked independently for the whole two hours. We had a checklist of things to get done, including our business letters, our patriots pen essays, and another political cartoon to analyze called "Stamp Act Repealed". After, we were supposed to make some turkey crafts, but we got in trouble for talking too much while we were supposed to be being productive, so we weren't allowed.
     The homework for the week was to complete our Patriot's Pen Task Checklist. We needed to have two printed copies of our essay, a printed entry form, an envelope and stamp, and our essay completed and free of errors.

8 Caffo J WIR Blog Post

     Last Friday, we finished our travel brochures, the 1:1 movement came back to our school, and took our second quiz on the Art of Communication over the weekend.  The travel brochure covered the similarities of all of the colonial regions, North, Middle, and South.  It could only be one slide, 6 bullet points and 6 words per bullet point. The 1:1 movement organization went through our bags with us to see what was recyclable, what was we could use less of, what was reusable, and what needed to go to the landfill.  The quiz focused primarily on the regions of the colonies.  Mr. Snedden said that he was going to keep putting a question about civic republicanism until every single person got it right.
     On Monday we started the day off by roasting our Patriots Pen essays.We helped each other with our essays by giving constructive criticism.  Many people realized when they were reading their essay out loud that it didn't even make sense. Others had bad content, and overall we decided that most of us needed to work harder on our essays.  After this we had time to work on them in class.
     On Tuesday, we did an Analyze That warm up.  We analyzed the political cartoons, "Unite or Die", and "Paying the Excise Man".  We analyzed them using SOAP, and additional questions aimed for the specific cartoon.  SOAP is identifying the Speaker, Occasion, Audience, and Purpose. This took up most of our day because an assembly took away our class time.
     On Wednesday, we went over our plastic bag assignment.  At our table, we discussed what our articles were about, without putting our opinions in the discussion.  As a class, we discussed the environmental, social, and economical impacts.  After this, we wrote a business letter to the council member of the district we live in. The letter was about our opinions on the idea of banning plastic bags in grocery and retail stores in San Diego, and why our opinion actually matters.
     On Thursday, we had a checklist of assignments to do.  Firstly, we analyzed another political cartoon, Miss Ame-Stamp.  Again we had to SOAP the cartoon.  Next, we worked on our Patriots Pen essay by putting some of the final touches on it.  Then we made turkeys to put all over the school to remind people to raise money for the Turkey Trot.  Finally, since Troy Fountas made a weird turkey noise, he had to get on the table and do a turkey dance he hadn't seen before, and Josh Ball made it rain.
     Our homework this week was to complete our final draft of the Patriots Pen essay.  this meant to complete this checklist:

Task	Yes/No	Day of the week
Complete final draft of essay		Right before printing
Essay is for a target audience		Monday
Thesis is at the end of the introduction and in the conclusion		Monday
There is supporting evidence		Monday
Concluding statement offers closure		Monday
Read essay out loud to make sure it makes sense		Monday
Knowledge of theme, theme development, clarity of ideas		Mon/Tue/Wed
2 people other than partner to proof read		Monday
Spelling and grammar		Right before printing
entry form printed and filled out		Monday
Confirm essay is 300-400 words		Right before printing
No name on essay		Monday
Print 2 copies of essay		Wednesday
Envelope and stamp		Monday

Week In Review Blog

Last Friday, our class turned in the second part of the License Plate Assignment, which consisted of the license plate that represented us, a formal letter of introduction (printed out) and a typed business letter that is meant to be sent to our state’s DMV, printed out on the Correia letterhead. During class we addressed the envelopes and realized that not many students knew how to address it. After turning in the License Plate Assignment, our class took the WIR Quiz: Skills 13.3 which many of us did poorly on. The quiz was based on the Enlightenment Thinkers and Persuasive Techniques warm-ups we did. To improve our test scores we should review our notes, look more closely to the question wording and remember to not put too much value to a word/answer.

On Monday, we read a new article and took notes on it. After taking notes we had a discussion about the new found information with our tablemates, then we had the opportunity to talk a bit with the whole class. We were assigned computers that we will have for the rest of year and we were told to write down which computer is ours because we will be held accountable if we take the wrong computer.

On Tuesday, we looked into the Foundations group project. With our tablemates we started the first part which consisted of researching the government, art/architecture, religion, social structure, education, technology and trade in a selection of older locations. Each table decided how they wanted to split up the research project At the end of class, Mr. Snedden asked who had completed the Book Talk part of our Battle of the Books assignment and no one had completed it. As a reminder, we are expected to have a discussion with at least one other person who has read our same book. We must record our meeting location, time, discussion and have our book partners sign the page with the notes we took. A Book Talk should be completed every six week grading period.

On Wednesday, our class started with a warm-up entitled, Analyze That- Map of Virginia. When we looked at the map we were supposed to take note of certain details like the terrain, the direction it was created and the territories marked. Then we wrote a one page narrative explaining what was depicted on the map according to how understood the map. Mr. Snedden reminded us that we each might look at the map differently and come up with a different idea of what was being depicted. After the warm-up, we were given about 30 minutes to read our BOB books. For the second half of class, we got more time to work on our Foundations research. If your table finished the research you started on a rough draft of the one page poster we must create.

Today we spent about 30 minutes reading and BOB books. After reading, we followed some guidelines to create five questions that relate to our book. These five questions should be created so that we could use them in a mock Battle of the Books competition. Once we finished the five questions, we continued to work on our Foundations projects. We finished our rough draft, showed it to Mr. Snedden and once it was approved we began our final draft. If we didn’t finish the final draft, we will be given 15 minutes tomorrow to complete it before we present it to the class.

Our homework for this week was to do our first DBQ on the Causes of the Revolutionary War. Like a typical DBQ, we had to hand write an outline and the actual essay. To write the essay, you were supposed to use at least four of seven documents which can found on the DBQ link from the Assignment Page. Each document had a guided reading question that you were also supposed to answer. Tomorrow you should turn in a handwritten outline, essay and guided reading answer page.

By Scout Bidleman

Josh Ball WIR 9/13-9/19

On Friday of last week the class split into groups who either took the quiz first, which was unsuccessful because people from our morning class told the answers to the kids in the afternoon class, or they participated in Socratic seminar about the civil war in Syria. Then after one hour the whole class flip-flopped and then we did the activity we hadn't done yet. On Monday the whole class was supposed to have a discussion about the follow up questions for the Socratic seminar about Syria, but only half of the class completed the questions. So on Monday we ended up taking notes on how to write good essays. On Tuesday we discussed all of the persuasive techniques we could use in our business letters to convince the DMV to send us sample license plates for the license plate assignment. On Wednesday we were supposed to bring our Battle of the Books book to read and take detailed notes on in class. But more than half of the class did not bring their book to school, so the people that did not bring the book were assigned a five paragraph essay about responsibility and being prepared for school. On Thursday, the whole class brought their books to school because they did not want to repeat what happened on Wednesday. We then read our books for thirty minutes. After that, we watched and took notes on a documentary about the dangers of texting while driving. The assignments that are due tomorrow are 2 copies of our business letters to the DMV of your state with a postage stamp. Also due is our license plate about ourselves and our formal letter of introduction.

By, Not Josh Ball

9/19/13

Last Friday we had to do a Socratic seminar on Syria. We also had a test on Friday, which everybody cheated on. The test was on geography and one question on our BOB. Over the weekend we had to do some follow-ups on Syria. On Monday we kind of roasted but not really. We talked about the importance of outlines and how to properly complete a bibliography. On Tuesday we talked a lot about persuasive techniques and questions about the letter and then we had work time. On Wednesday we had to have our BOB books or else there was a 5-paragraph essay on whit is important to be prepared. Also on Wednesday we did Enlightenment thinkers part one and two in which we had to read a quote and explain how it was important. That night we had to take a bully survey to see if our statistics had gotten better from last year. On Thursday we had reading time and we watched and took notes on texting while driving. The Homework that is due tomorrow is 2 copies of our business letter titled to the DMV of your state along with a stamp for postage. Also due is our own symbolic license plate and our formal letter of introduction

By Hayden Buss

Last week we had a Socratic seminar on an article about Syria and then follow-up questions to complete over the weekend. The WIR Quiz: Skills 13.2 we did on Friday was about the five types of geography and other activities we did throughout the week. Our homework was the license plate procedures 1-4, and geography part 2. On Monday we roasted some peoples license plate assignments that were due on Friday for those who needed help with writing an outline or a bibliography. Also, we had to get our BOB books that we were going to read by Wednesday, and if you did not have it on that day you had to write a 5 paragraph essay on "why being prepared is important". Although, if you had your BOB books you were able to get started on reading while taking notes of the words you don't understand.  We did a warm up on Persuasive writing techniques on Tuesday and a warm up on the Enlightenment the next day, where we related different quotes by very accomplished people to the Enlightenment. On Thursday we a video on Texting and Driving and had to respond to a series of questions. For homework this week we have the license plate procedures 5-7 where we write our formal business letter to the DMV and create our own license plate. We also have to complete the Letter of Introduction that we must print and bring to class on Friday in addition to the business letter and license plate.
By Maddie Bolin

               On Friday we took a test on the things we needed to do when we enter the room and when we finished we talked about the scores. On Monday we did the review of all the battle of the books, books and we took notes that had a brief description of the books, the reading level, and the genre. On Tuesday we we started drawing maps of the United States of America that had to include specific mountains rivers and plains and once we finished that we would have to right about each mountains river and plain and why they are important. On Wednesday we took a page of cornell notes about the meaning of location, place, interaction and the way people adapt, movement of our bodies and movement of our thoughts and religion, our regions of physical features, and the regions of language and ethnicity, also we wrote the man made borders like states, latitude and longitude, and physical geography that you can touch like mountains rivers and claimant. And today (Thursday) we worked more on our maps of the United States of America and after we finished that we were give the assignment of creating a skit of ether proper edict in lunch in the halls or in class and the artistic style was trying to be humorous. The home work we had this week can be found on jsnedden.com but I'll tell you anyways, we had to finish part 2 of the geography, and parts 1-4 for the licence plate project. My name is Andrew Bass and that was the weekly review.

Week-In-Review Blog

This week and last Friday, are assignments were about the Battle of the Books, Geography, a Socratic seminar, a quiz, and our license plate assignment. The quiz we took on Friday was a review of what we were supposed to do when we entered the classroom. Our homework that we were given that was due Friday was "The Essentials," where we completed a chart about forty affixes and then wrote a comparative summary about two of our upcoming projects using the forty affixes. This week for the Battle of the Books project, we researched twelve books from the Battle of the Books website and made a list of our twelve books that included the title, author, a brief description, genre, and reading level of the book. When we were finished with our lists, we shared them with each other and took notes on the books that other people had been assigned. On our geography study, we took Cornell notes about the parts of geography and we made two maps, and we had to hand draw a map of the world and some of the things in it like oceans and mountain ranges. Then we had to complete two other maps. On our first map we had to locate, label, and color different landmarks like mountains, rivers, lakes, and plains in the US and then write about the significance of the landmarks. We did the same thing on our second map, except it was the whole world, not just the US and we did not have to write about the landmarks. In the geography homework, we had to locate the coordinates and write a brief description of the history of several cities. We had a Socratic seminar in which we read a poem about hope and then discussed it with other people. After we had discussed it, we responded to questions about it on a Google doc. On our license plate project, we were supposed to sign up for a state to write about and get a sample license plate from and we have two parts that are due Friday. The first part was to write a one to two paragraph expository about the federal system and the Department of Motor Vehicles and then explain their connection. The second part was to write a three to five paragraph essay about the history of state you chose and why its license plate is the way it is.

-Trajan Anzalone-Gurnee

Our Contract

We will each agree to the following 3 components of our attitude toward school this year:

1. Show up.  Barring serious health concerns, we will come to school everyday that we can with the understanding that some days will be better than others .
2. Work hard.  The teacher and students will demonstrate a commitment to ourselves and each other by adopting an ethic of hard work.
3. Laugh.  With an understanding that no one is perfect and without overstating the importance of middle school, we will learn to laugh at ourselves and with each other.

The Week-In-Review Blog

Each week a student, or students, will be assigned to provide a week in review blog post in preparation for that week's WIR (week-in-review) quiz.  Posts are due by 8pm on the Thurdsday of that school week.  Each post will include:

• A summary of the course content covered from the Friday of the previous week to the Thursday of the current week.
• A list and explanation of details of classwork assignments completed or worked on during the week.
• A list and explanation of details of homework assignments for the week.
• A discussion of important events, questions, revelations from the week.

Each student will be assigned to contribute at least 1 time during the first semester by posting a comment to the blog.

Directions and assigned contributor schedule to follow...