Brain Dump from the Woollcombe Class:
First off, it's Assessments season. The FSA (Provincial assessment) for Grade 7 is postponed until January, and there was much rejoicing. So we got ahead on DART (reading), and our Island Numeracy program. I'll be communicating those results soon, because they make a great reference for all the growth that's happening through the year.
Health and Safety:
Kids have generally been good with masks in common areas. Please make sure they get washed, and I have spare disposables aplenty. If you want your child to have an emergency spare for their backpack, send a clean ziplock and we'll put some in. Hand-washing has been OK, but some reminders from home would really help.
Social distancing is a problem. Even in class, we're supposed to give each other space and absolutely avoid contact. Please, Please, Please remind kids of this. Even if they all pile on the couch to play Mario Cart at home, they have to distance at school. Put yourself in the place of a contact-tracer for a moment and you'll immediately see the logic in this. Thanks in advance for the help.
Numeracy:
We've zipped through a lot of computation work and integers (negative numbers) and are doing the Island Numeracy Assessment (INA). It's less an assessment and more a way of learning math so that major concepts and competencies don't get missed. It builds confidence, and helps kids think in numbers while addressing all the grade-level content.
One thing we've found (and are working on) is an issue with place value. Where's the hundreds place? The thousandths place? What happens to a number when it's multiplied by 10? Divided by a hundred? It's a gap for many kids, and really deserves some work in class (and at home?).
Literacy
We continue our parts-of-speech, spelling, and grammar daily. It's routine and occasionally fun, so a great way to get settled in the mornings.
Our literacy competency-of-the-month is reading for information, so we've been looking at news stories and articles (avoiding US politics for sanity's sake). We'll be moving towards outlining, organizing, and rephrasing in the next week.
Social Studies
Mrs Allan is doing a great unit on early societies as seen through art. I'll get her to send an update.
As a way to look at anti-racism and developing a stronger sense of self and community, we're also looking at some local history. I'm frankly gobsmacked at the diversity of our history here, with Indigenous, European Settler, Black Settler, Japanese Settler, and Kanaka settlements dating to before 1860 (or before 1860 BCE, depending). At this point I'm just discovering cool stuff, sharing with the kids, and having discussions. If you have any local history to share, bring it on!
As an aside, one of our EA's is John Gogo. If you know BC folk music, yes, THAT John Gogo. He's been a student of local history (mostly Cowichan and beyond) for a while now, and his songs on the subject are a treat.
PE
Volleyball. They're getting it. It's taken a bit, but now it's fun. Following the COVID rules for PE is tough, and it requires a lot of patience from the kids, but we're getting there. We also throw in some circus skills, minor games, and disc golf when we can. I'm certainly getting more much-needed exercise!
French
Si possible, utilisez un petit peu de Français a votre domicile. Cela nous aiderait beaucoup.
We've done greetings, numbers to 20, clothing, days of the week, months, and basics of -ER verbs. Anything you can do to reinforce at home would be awesome. My French peaked in 1993, but it's coming back!
Science
We'll be sharing our Newton's 3 Laws demos this week and next, and I hope to get them on video. They're pretty cool! The challenge is to demonstrate the effect (conservation of momentum, Mould effect, barycentre effect, etc) in an engaging way. They can show you what they have so far in Classroom.
Music
Ms Footz and the kids are doing a great job with a short music exploratory in Guitar. We're up to G, C, D, and Am chords, and are learning to move between them quick enough to play some songs. If you have a guitar at home, time to bring it out!
Coding and Design
Turns out we can hit a bunch of our coding and design goals IN MINECRAFT!!!! We're using Minecraft Edu, so I have some control and it doesn't revert to chaos, but oh my... these kids are motivated. I'm setting up a persistant world so assignments can be available any time, but that will take a bit.
If you could see these kids helping each other, making sure nobody's left out or left behind, collaborating on making wild ideas reality, taking up my challenge of "How can we use this to LEARN?", you would feel pretty great. Take my word for it, the kids are alright in the best ways.
