2012 Fall Conferences - you should have received an invite from Sign Up Genius for the conferences. If you didn't get one, please let me know - must mean I do not have your email!!
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I look forward to conferencing with you!

HI FolksWe spent a good deal of time catching up on Friday and making sure we are ready for the end of the Quarter this Thursday, Nov 8th.Here's what should be done!Monday - Big People Plant/Tree PageStudents had 3 separate class sessions to work on this assignment. It will be graded as a writing assignment as the are working on reading informational text and writing about it. Just so you know, I told all students that if their page is not ready on Monday then he/she will stay in 3 lunch periods with me! I will follow thru on this because I want students to use class time wisely and so far our class does not have a great homework turn in rate. I want all students to be responsible for their own motivation and completion of projects. Monday - Fantasy Book Group #5Catch up on reading this week and be prepared for group #5 as well as a group assignment. Monday, November 5 - 1st Quarter Service (we discussed these things in class as well)**may include: School - harvest faire, community - Day of the Dead (you can also use this for next quarter if you have fulfilled this quarter's), any other projects you have done that was approved by me!There should be a minimum of three paragraphs-I am looking for a strong hook and conclusion... CONNECTIONS of your work to the outside communities and world...Correct grammar and punctuations, and of course a creative piece (please don't do the same creative piece over and over again on each reflection... spice it up)-I would recommend doing your work on the computer as I often send back reflections for editing after I first receive them. Doing your work on the computer enables you to go back and make corrections without having to feel like you are starting all over again.What?•What did you do?•Who was involved?•Where were you?•What part did you play?•When did it happen? Cori's comments: The "what" is a quick, brief paragraph. Recognize that you must go far beyond the “what” to have a complete reflection as paragraph takes little thought and effort to complete. Pay attention to the “so what” and give the MOST attention and thought to the “now what”SO WHAT?•Why did you do it?•Why was it important to do?•How was it helpful?•Who benefits from the Project?NOW WHAT?•What are you going to do with what you learned?•What will you keep doing (or not doing) now?•How is this action connected to a larger issue? What larger issue?•Who is doing something about this issue?•What organizations exist to address this issue? (feel free to include newspaper articles, sketches/diagrams, current events etc)Always Consider…you --> School --> COMMUNITY --> WORLDCori's notes: A paragraph should be spent showing how your work connects outside of your three hours of service to the greater community and world. Final note:When looking at reflections I will always look for a hook, 3 paragraphs (with the NOW WHAT paragraph reflecting the most effort), and CONNECTIONS (showing how your work relates to bigger picture ideas).Hope this helps. We discussed Service journals on Friday, 7th & 8th shared with the 6th and we compared notes! I am most interested in the students telling me their story than answering the questions line by line. I want to know how this is affecting them rather than knowing they completed this project because they were told to. This outline will hold true for the rest of the year! Feel free to refer back to this page in the future!Tuesday - Hopkins Tree Farm

HI Folks
We spent a good deal of time catching up on Friday and making sure we are ready for the end of the Quarter this Thursday, Nov 8th.Here's what should be done!
Monday - Big People Plant/Tree PageStudents had 3 separate class sessions to work on this assignment. It will be graded as a writing assignment as the are working on reading informational text and writing about it. Just so you know, I told all students that if their page is not ready on Monday then he/she will stay in 3 lunch periods with me! I will follow thru on this because I want students to use class time wisely and so far our class does not have a great homework turn in rate. I want all students to be responsible for their own motivation and completion of projects. 
Monday - Fantasy Book Group #5Catch up on reading this week and be prepared for group #5 as well as a group assignment. Monday, November 5 - 1st Quarter Service (we discussed these things in class as well)**may include: School - harvest faire, community - Day of the Dead (you can also use this for next quarter if you have fulfilled this quarter's), any other projects you have done that was approved by me!
There should be a minimum of three paragraphs
-I am looking for a strong hook and conclusion... CONNECTIONS of your work to the outside communities and world...Correct grammar and punctuations, and of course a creative piece (please don't do the same creative piece over and over again on each reflection... spice it up)
-I would recommend doing your work on the computer as I often send back reflections for editing after I first receive them. Doing your work on the computer enables you to go back and make corrections without having to feel like you are starting all over again.

What?
•What did you do?
•Who was involved?
•Where were you?
•What part did you play?
•When did it happen?

 Cori's comments: The "what" is a quick, brief paragraph. Recognize that you must go far beyond the “what” to have a complete reflection as paragraph takes little thought and effort to complete. Pay attention to the “so what” and give the MOST attention and thought to the “now what”


SO WHAT?
•Why did you do it?
•Why was it important to do?
•How was it helpful?
•Who benefits from the Project?

NOW WHAT?
•What are you going to do with what you learned?
•What will you keep doing (or not doing) now?
•How is this action connected to a larger issue? What larger issue?
•Who is doing something about this issue?
•What organizations exist to address this issue? (feel free to include newspaper articles, sketches/diagrams, current events etc)

Always Consider…

you --> School --> COMMUNITY --> WORLD

Cori's notes: A paragraph should be spent showing how your work connects outside of your three hours of service to the greater community and world.

 Final note:
When looking at reflections I will always look for a hook, 3 paragraphs (with the NOW WHAT paragraph reflecting the most effort), and CONNECTIONS (showing how your work relates to bigger picture ideas).
Hope this helps. We discussed Service journals on Friday, 7th & 8th shared with the 6th and we compared notes! I am most  interested in the students telling me their story than answering the questions line by line. I want to know how this is affecting them rather than knowing they completed this project because they were told to. This outline will hold true for the rest of the year! Feel free to refer back to this page in the future!
Tuesday - Hopkins Tree Farm

Ecore questions and assignments due. Please write in complete sentences and at least a paragraph for each question! 

Festivities!

Hi All,
Day of the Dead Community Service Opportunity
Please join the Day of the Dead Procession - SES 4:30 in the Auditorium.
Jan and I will be there to paint faces as skeletons then we will join the community procession that will go on a walk about and end up at the Holocene on 11th/belmont. There will be Aztec dancers and music along with other festivities.
This is an excellent way for your child and your family to be part of a community event, learn about other cultures and make new relationships. Please plan on attending with your child. If your child would like to attend but you cannot, find a friend they can go with. I will be there but am not prepared to take responsibility for the students unless you personally ask me to! This is a community sponsored event that we are supporting! I hope to see many of you there, especially the Spanish students!

Halloween - students may dress up! Please do not be so distracting that you cannot learn - ie, masks or huge costumes that make you uncomfortable. To go along with our scary story theme, we will have a small viewing of something like the Twilight Zone and some popcorn for about 1/2 hour tomorrow. I look forward to being creeped out with the students! It's a great way to build community...screaming! I'm kidding!

One more assignment that was assigned today was to create a Big Plant Page in our our Big Book of Secrets. Each student chose a plant to create a poster. The assignment is glued in their Ecore. It is Due Friday! We spent over an hour working on it today and they should research at least 1 topic per night and take notes to be able to create the final project.

Hope you are all well. Please try to reduce the amount of Candy students bring to school in the following days. This will not only help students focus, it will greatly improve MY quality of life! Thanks.
 We have a BIG field study to the Hopkins Tree Farm all day Thursday. Be sure students are fully prepared! Waterproof gear is a biggie and a big lunch. We will leave at 9am.

One of the personalities of our class is a love of scary stories! I've started reading Clockwork by Philip Pullman and students are drafting their own scary story, rough draft is due Monday! I highly recommend typing them because it makes the editing process so much easier for students to manage. We have a few students who I believe are destined to be novelists and are having a hard time envisioning writing something LESS than 20 pages! They are invited to write the first chapters of their scary story. The final will be due Mon 11/5, so the stories are supposed to be short.

I handed out progress reports on Friday with instructions for students to share with you what they are missing and their plan for making it up. Please sign their reports so I know they are being responsible and checking in with you. I had quite a few stay after on Friday and worked hard to catch up. Students are invited to stay afterschool on Wednesdays for Homework Help. Can you believe there is just 2 weeks before the end of quarter? This means that on Nov 5th I will be collecting Service Journals for the first quarter projects. Students should have completed: At least 1 school or community service project of 3 hours & a full page reflection, 2 garden hours, 2-3 pages on school/home waste.

I highly recommend taking a side trip to the Tillamook Forestry Center on your next trip out to the beach. We had a great day on Thursday learning about the Tillamook Burn, Forest management and firefighting. Students also identified and compared native trees. We will use all this information in our next field study to the Hopkins Tree Farm. We will have expert foresters by the end of this year! Already students can tell me the stage of succession any particular forest we happen to be in, layers of the forest, the function of a nurse log, how plants grow for success and much more. They amaze me!

I hope you are enjoying thi cozy rainy October afternoon after a very busy week. Was Outdoor School only 4 days ago??