December Plans

We are wrapping Christmas presents at home and wrapping up our how-to presentations in English class. I am always amazed by the knowledge shared by the students, and this year has been particularly amazing. With the addition of the computers, students have taken advantage of the keynote program in their presentations. It has added a whole new element to their speeches and I have been very impressed.

In Literature, we are finishing our literary circles books with many students completing their second, third, or even fourth books. After Christmas break, the whole class will be reading the novel The Outsiders. Click on the trailer for the movie to see what adventures are in store.

Keep Holding On

Click on the video below. It is a sober reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust and what the main characters in our novels are experiencing. Their legacy of survival will inspire us and teach us: Don't ever forget; don't ever let this happen again!

Holocaust Video "Keep Holding On"

English News

In English, our Twilight Zone project begins Monday. Get ready to step into a new dimension, one "not only of sight and sound, but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination...next stop, the Twilight Zone!"

Our inspiration for our writing assignments will be episodes from this series as well as topics from our novel Devil's Arithmetic. Both deal with time travel, intriguing settings, mood, and imagination.

Our next essay: What would your "Willoughby" be? Willoughby is an imaginary place, a "perfect" world to which we will be introduced. The five senses will be used to describe the sights and sounds found there.

The Holocaust

Have you ever read a book or seen a movie in which the main character is transported back in time? In our first novel, Devil's Arithmetic, Hannah steps back to the year 1942 and experiences first hand the atrocities of Hitler's rule. It is hard to imagine that anyone, especially children, could bear such suffering, and it is especially a celebration of the human spirit and survival.

Our Holocaust unit, which will be cross-curricular, will help us all understand how important it is to keep recalling the past...so no one ever forgets.

We have so many exciting activities planned, including a trip sponsored by Talent Search to the Holocaust Museum in St. Louis where we will speak with an actual survivor.

Go to: http://assignments.discoveryeducation.com and enter assignment code: TBAF2-413B to view the excellent video "The Holocaust: A Teenager's Experience."

Elements of the Short Story

In Literature we have been studying the elements of the short story. This knowledge will be helpful for our novel study as well. Most of our graphic organizers and worksheets have been placed in the Class Shares folders on our computers, saving copying on the rizo machine. Since everyone has his own computer, we can introduce stories with relevant videos from youtube and other web sites.

Next up: "Ransom of Red Chief." Does this little boy remind you of any mischievous kid (maybe yourself!)?

If you would like to follow along as the story is read, use your computer! Put on your headphones, google: www.classicshorts.com/stories/redchief.html, highlight the text, click Edit, Speech, Start speaking and follow along!

Inspiration: Nightjohn

When you woke up this morning, you were amazed and horrified to discover for some unknown reason you could no longer read or write! What would your day be like? Our first narrative essay will explore this situation with the movie "Nightjohn" providing the inspiration. We will use the computers to compose, edit, and publish our essays which will be due next Monday.

Roll out those computers!

The computers are here and in the hands of all of the students! We will all do our best to integrate them into our lesson plans. As the year progresses, we will become better and better at this as we are all still learning all of the wonderful, amazing things we can accomplish with them!

This week we'll be creating newsletters in the "Pages" application with a self-portrait and plenty of pictures. Be positive! No negative attitudes allowed in my room!

August 23rd

Yes, it is.

Is it really time to think about school supplies, registration, and new clothes? That's what all the ads say, so it must be so. Teachers have a workshop on Monday the 20th, and most of us have been working several days already getting our rooms prepared for the first day with students. That will be Tuesday the 21st so set your alarm clocks and don't be late! You wouldn't want to miss seeing all of your friends and hearing about all of the exciting changes in store for this year!

Alice Cooper & The Muppets

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer as much as our family!! School will be here before we know what happened, but we're all excited about the arrival of the new laptops. Amazing projects await us!

Ethnic Unit

We're exploring the concepts of prejudice, stereotyping, assimilation, and others as we continue our unit entitled "Neighborhoods." Each student has been "born into" a different ethnic group and are part of a "family." There are group projects as well as individual assignments, oral presentations and written ones as we study related issues.

Our unit ends with a group presentation which will include informational speeches, posters, recipes, music, and ethnic items. We always have a great time with the projects, and I'm looking forward to seeing what this year's 8th graders do.

As one of many extra credit assignments, students may research their own family trees. They may be asking for help with these.

ISAT countdown

ISAT--A time to celebrate!

Students and Parents: these are the colors we will be wearing to support our students as they take the state tests. Please make sure your child attends school prepared to do his/her best (plenty of sleep the night before, eat a good breakfast, good attitude toward the tests).

Monday, March 1: Wear RED...because we are RED-y for those tests!

Tuesday, March 2: Wear YELLOW...because we YELL-OH! We will do a great job!

Wednesday, March 3: Wear PURPLE...because we are going to PUR-PEL to the top!

Thursday, March 4: Wear PINK...because PINK makes me think!

Friday, March 5: Wear GREEN...because we're the lean, GREEN, ISAT machine!

Monday, March 8: Wear ORANGE...because ORANGE you glad testing is almost over?

Tuesday, March 9: Wear GRAY... because GRAY-t job today and every day!

Wednesday, March 10: Wear BLUE...because we BLUE our scores sky high!!!

ISAT Countdown

Only 24 days until ISAT!!

As soon as we wrap up our novel (The Outsiders), our lessons will concentrate on literary terms, vocabulary, and techniques which will be useful for taking the ISAT. 8th graders will be taking the Reading and Writing portions as well as the Math. We have been stressing the importance of the testing not only for each student but also for our school district as a whole. Please encourage your children to try their hardest when test time rolls around.