Merit Week 14

This week I introduced three of my classes to Tween Tribune. http://tweentribune.com/ They love it. I have been having trouble getting some boys to read and enter details on their blog. I offered that they could do two of these articles instead of that. Wow, there was great response. Each student will do one a week. They read a short article and then write at least five sentences back in response as a comment. Then I can access their comments and release them as well as grade them.

I also received my scanner. Wow, I love it. I am still waiting for the software to arrive but so far it is great. I can scan the spelling tests and then return them to the students. I will be able to see what type of words they are misspelling and see if I can spot a trend in their mistakes. I can reteach... It is small and fits write on my desk. I can unplug it and put it in my file cabinet for the weekend Yea!

Now I want to write another grant for memory to store all these wonderful files of my students. That is my job for this weekend.

I received good news on my Target grant. They have funded my $500 to take my social studies class to the Egyptian Museum. How cool is that? I am so excited for my class. I think they will really love it. I should receive the paperwork in one week to work out all of the details.

I have been busy this week teaching about circuits and bits, etc. I am preparing my math class for a trip to the Intel Museum. We leave on Wednesday. We practiced on how to write directions to make a peanut butter sandwich. It was funny when I put the jar of pnb on the bread. I told them a computer only does what you tell it to do exactly. I hope the field trip goes well. I invited a few students from my other section to attend with us. I told them the permission slips were due on Friday. Two students went home after school and brought them back before I left so they could attend. I was impressed.

I have a student who loves using my ipad every day. He waits until all the other computers have been used before asking if he could use that. I also pass out the ipod touches for them to look up words on dictionary.com. I find some students are a little afraid of using the comptuer and when they start with that devise they become more comfortable going to a computer.

I signed up for Grad school. I go Thursday nights starting in January. It will be a busy time. I was reviewed this week by the head of HR and next week my principle wants to watch me teach. Now I have to think about how I want to teach about ancient India and China....