Ms. Emma's Data Talk

Date: Monday 9th December

Name of Activity: Ms. Emma’s Data Handling

Unit: Math

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My class just came back from the movement room near the gym where Ms. Emma talked to the whole grade about data handling. She told us that in her office, (along with the board directors) she used data. Then she showed us some pie charts where it shows how many parents think that UNIS is an appropriate place for students to learn (which I think that it is a VERY appropriate school). There were about 48% who agreed, around 40% who strongly agreed, 14% who disagreed and only 1% who strongly disagreed. Ms. Emma said that the school has to work on that because there was 14% who disagreed. She hopes the school could do better. Anyway, then she showed us some other examples of data that was for students and parents. The first one she showed us was for teachers to fill out. It was something like: Technology helps my students learn better. On the total score of the school's technology access, it was doing better than other schools. The average technology access of other schools are around 85% and UNIS is even higher. The technology access here is about 89% access to the technology. UNIS is doing a REAL GOOD JOB! On the next one Ms. Emma showed us was for students to fill out. It was: I am happy with the quality of food at school. It went from good... to BAD! In 2010, the students were happy with the cafeteria food. Then in I think 2014, the food got worse. Somebody mentioned that there were 2 variables: 1. the cafeteria food is just plain bad. 2. it's too expensive. 

That was a very nice way to figure out how the school uses data. Ms. Emma also told us that handling data is very hard to understand but once you get used to it, it'll be easier to handle and understand. 

Goal Reflection

Date: Monday 7 December 2015

Name of Activity: Goal Reflection

Unit: PSEL (Personal Social Emotional Learning)

Learner Profile: Reflective

Attitude: Integrity

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At the beginning of the year, the class each made 1 goal for English that they would like to improve. My goal was: to write stories with hidden messages in them. I have not met my goal yet because my stories still do not have much messages in them. Maybe I just care too much about the story to care about the messages. But that's sort of what I want the readers to do: care about the story and not notice the messages. I want to SURPRISE THEM!! I will try to hide some small secrets in the story later on this month.

To write stories with hidden messages

How this activity showed being Reflective was because we had to think of the things we did wrong in the past (for example: reading with no expression) and making a goal to help us (for example: To read with more expression so it feels like you are actually hearing the voices of the people in the story).

How this activity showed Integrity was because you had to be honest. You can't just say, "I'm good at everything so I don't need to write a goal!" Nobody is perfect. So you have to at least TRY to be honest with others AND yourself!

I think I could improve on being more specific on what my goal is. I also have to try harder to include secrets in the books I write. Whenever I complete this goal, I will make a new English goal! This is also a PERFECT activity because when I am older, I want to become an author! :)

Different words for "Said"

A few weeks ago, our teacher showed us a slideshow she made. We watched an episode on Brain Pop about how to write a good story and the different types of ways to write a story. After we watched that, we went back to the slideshow and our teacher showed us a slide that had the word Said in the middle. She told us to think of other words to use for Said. Here are the 10 words I remember that the class chose to replace Said: 

1. exclaimed

2. asked

3. replied/answered

4. joked

5. mentioned

6. told

7. barked

8. laughed

9. lied

10. roared

I think that this activity was VERY, VERY helpful for our writing. Especially the kids in my class that want to become authors or something when they grow up! My passion IS to write stories, so this was a REALLY good activity!

Our New UOI: Who We Are

So last week, our teacher told us that we were going to start a brand-new UOI (Unit of Inquiry).The unit is Who we Are. We are going to learn about how the human body works. For our first task (or activity) we were/are put in groups to make a human-sized body. I traced one of the people in my group, (in my opinion, I did a HORRIBLE JOB!!) and then we had materials to use when making the body. There were straws and balloons and other materials we can use. In my group, we used straws as the digestive system, we also used straws for the bones. We used a balloon for the brain (or at least we tried because we couldn't blow up the balloon). 
I am pretty excited about learning more about the human body and how it works!