Genius Hour Idea Submission

http://astropt.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/keep-calm-and-stay-genius.png

Reading and Buddy Reading

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It has truly been a joy watching the students step into their role as big buddies. The Grade 7's have been very supportive and encouraging with their Grade 1 buddies, and the empathy they show to their young peers is heart warming. 

Not only are the Grade 7's enjoying reading with their buddies, but its exciting to have a class that knows the value of a good book! Our school put on a fantastic book fair this week, and there's been a great buzz about books that are new to our students, or classroom, and even new loans from classmates. Its great to see!

The two-fold reading experience has provided an excellent set up for our deepening exploration into comprehension strategies, and we are having more and more conversations about what it means to be a good reader. 

Genius Hour

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We have set aside our Friday afternoons this year for something different, something unique. We will be spending our Friday afternoon's as "Genius Hour". Today our work was to unpack the process by looking at this graphic by Gallit Zvi, as we as a few other info-graphics that now live on our wall. Today we explored our passions, and thought about a few we would like to work on by doing something new, something more, or something different (step 2 of the process as Gallit describes it). Next week we will circle back to these passions and progress toward a project question that will drive our personal inquiry and lay the foundation for a the learning that we will share with the class in a few weeks time (step 3!).

How Does Art Reflect Culture? Project

Class definition of culture as a Tagxedo wordle

• Outline
• Groups And Centuries Doc (with links to first assignment)
• Link to Timeline in its own window

Top Ten Things You Need to Know About...

Image from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Number_ten.jpg 

1. Find your most recent copy of your top ten list in the "Classwork" folder. Look for "schase", and then "top ten"
2. Please use the example to make sure you have everything you need on your list. Here are the criteria:
• set up your list from #10 - #1 most important
• capitalize every word in title, and use capitals where appropriate in your work
• make sure title reads “Top Ten Things You Need to Know About _____”
• minimum of one image
3. Check the capitalization rules we looked at yesterday to make sure you've followed all of them
4. Check the rubric to make sure your work meets your standards. 
5. Save it to your desktop
6. Open "My Computer", then "Dropbox", then "schase" then "top ten" and drag the file from your desktop to the Dropbox folder

Classroom Links and Resources

Throughout the year we will be collecting and curating resources to support and extend your learning beyond the classroom walls. We've used pinterest to share these resources. I also suggest checking out the HHLD collection of links here too.

Students - please start by checking out some Math resources here. 

If you come across something else you think will help your peers please share the link in the comments section at the bottom of this post. Thanks!