Tuesday, September 17th, 2019

This evening is our open house.  I hope to see you there!

Math was a continuation of the ordered pairs and coordinate grids in the four quadrants.  I was right about how the negative numbers seemed intimidating at first but once they get the pattern, it becomes simple.  What I was not correct about was how quickly they mastered it.  Great job!

I also used something for the first time here that I have used in the past:  Nearpod.  It is an interactive app/website and unlike Power Point or Google Slides, this one is far more interactive.  At the very least, students see on their Chromebooks (or handheld devices if that is the case) exactly what is on my screen.  They need not look at the board/screen for this.  And, unlike the presentation software mentioned, this one can incorporate polls, quizzes, etc.  

So what we did was to first do a warm-up that was posted on my Math Classroom.

Students then looked at the answer key and compared their work to that.  I am not going to make warm-ups a graded assignment since students arrive at different times.  Students are simply expected to do as much as they can in the time that they are here in the morning.  

The Nearpod activity was made as a live presentation, which meant that everything occurred at the same time with all students.  Students had to remain attentive.  The other option is to make it student-paced, which I will be able to do once I upgrade my account next month.  For now, I will be doing it live.
Below is a screenshot from my computer.  I am able to see what the students do when they post it.  I have the option of showing student names or cover them up.  For this screen capture, I hid the names.

After the activity, students played a version of the classic game, Battleship.  For this one, we did not have game board or game pieces.  It was done online but the idea is the same.  For those who are not familiar, I have found a site that explains the rules, just click HERE.  

Social studies was allocated for finishing up the mini posters.  There are still a few to be completed but most have been placed outside of the classroom to be displayed.

Reading began with a read-aloud and followed by a survey on attitudes and feelings towards school.  The survey is anonymous because there is no place to input names.  We also did a mini lesson on Close Reading Protocol, in which we covered differing levels of reader engagement with the text.  

Level 1​	Preview ​The reader looks over the text (skims) before really reading it.​
Level 2	Light Read The reader reads enough text to get the "gist" of what is being stated.
Level 3	Deeper Read The reader looks at the wording used in the text and thinks about the significance of it. "Why did the author state it this way?"
Level 4	Deepest Read The reader uses inference to "get into the author's head" and tries to understand the real meaning behind it

​Students were then given time to read independently.

In writing, students continued with their fictional stories.  I am hoping that I can begin conferencing with them either tomorrow or Thursday.