Social Studies Review Content

Some students were asking me to upload the notes from today regarding the information for the Social Studies quiz on Wednesday. Check out the embedded Google Doc below.

Updates December 8-13

Social Quiz
We will be finishing up the first two topics of our Power & Authority unit in social this week, and will be having an exam to wrap things up before we go to the holiday break. Students will go over what to review in class tomorrow.  Our quiz will take place on Wednesday, December 11th. 

ELA Exam
Our ELA Elements of a Short Story exam will take place on Thursday, December 12. For information on what is on the test, check out the previous blog post.

ELA Independent Reading Project
A reminder that the Independent Reading project that was assigned in September is due next week on Wednesday December 18th. Students who are leaving early are expected to hand it in before they leave. Some students are still scrambling to complete this project. The assignment outline and the rubric are both on the "Handouts" Page, but I will insert them below for simplicity:

IRP Project Outline

IRP Rubric

Kindness Project
In December, we are celebrating the virtue of Kindness. 7-56 students have elected to participate in a Kindness Project. Stay tuned for more information on what will be coming. 

ELA Theatre Trip
On the afternoon of Thursday, December 19th, we will be going over to Vic Juba Theatre to watch a play by the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company. It's called Mekiwin: The Gift. Check out the poster for the event here. There is no cost to students, but they are taking donations for The Olive Tree, so if you would like to send donations, it would be appreciated!

Grade 7 Movie AM
As Ryan has already sent out, on Tuesday, December 17th in the morning, all grade 7s will be going to the May Theatre for our annual movie morning. The cost is $3 plus whatever students would like to spend on snacks. 

Talent Show
On the last day of school, Friday December 20th, we will be hosting the annual Bishop Lloyd Talent Show. Students and staff will be auditioning this week (Monday and Tuesday after school) to showcase their talents in a morning assembly. Parents are, of course, invited to join in the fun and excitement. I will update later with the exact start time, though it is estimated that it will be 9 am.

ELA Elements of a Short Story Review

It's review time! We have our ELA Mysteries PART ONE quiz this week. The quiz will cover the Elements of a Short Story. Check out below the Flocabulary "Five Things" video, the presentation slides, and the outline for the quiz. Enjoy!

Quiz Outline

Knowledge
Be able to explain:

• Plot
• Exposition
• Initial Incident
• Rising Action
• Climax
• Falling Action
• Resolution
• Fill in a plot diagram
• Character
• Protagonist
• Antagonist
• Static
• Dynamic
• Conflict
• Character versus self
• Character versus character
• Character versus nature
• Character versus society
• Theme
• Setting
• Mood

In addition to being able to explain them, students should have an understanding of the stories that we have read in class, and have an idea of a few examples of different types of characters, or settings, based on the stories that we have read.

Application
Read a new short story, and use the plot diagram template to identify the different parts of the story.
Click here to see the plot diagram template. 

Flocabulary: Five Things

Elements of a Short Story Slides

Take care,
- Mr. Hyland

Updates November 19-22

Hello again all!

A few updates today:

Performing Arts: Students are working on scenes for presentation. All scenes are to be memorized. Students are working in pairs on this performance. TOMORROW (Wed. Nov. 20) is our dress rehearsal. All students should be ready to go, with all props, costumes, etc. for our scene dress rehearsals. The final presentations will be on Monday, November 25th.

PA/Band: On Tuesday, November 26th, students will be engaged in an Arts AM. PA students will head over to LCHS to tour their drama area, to watch some performances from their students, and to participate in a master class on improv with them.

Band students will get a full band rehearsal in preparation for the December 3rd concert at Vic Juba! This will be a great day for students to work on their instruments, and rehearse in sectionals and with the whole band together.

ELA: All students should have handed in their first drafts of their Fractured Fairy tales. Today we went through reviews, and tomorrow will be the final peer-editing session. ALL FINAL versions of their stories are due on Friday, November 22nd.

Discovery Day: On Thursday, November 28th in the afternoon, students will be able to sign up for a selection of choices of discovery day activities. Ballots have been cast with their choices, and students will be grouped into activities based on those choices. The afternoon will be alternate, with students heading off to various locations to participate in their chosen activities. There may be a cost for some choices, and students will need to have those fees in ASAP after they learn about what activity they are in. 

Winter Dance: I encourage all students to come out to our winter dance. It is on Thursday November 21, from 6:30 - 10:00 pm. It's always a good time. In addition, there will be a green screen set up at the dance, and students are encouraged to have their photos taken in the green screen, and have them put into a wintery background. Cost is $2 a photo, with additional prints costing $1 extra. If you're interested in chaperoning for the dance, send an email to jaquie.pollard@lpsd.ca for more information. You're more than welcome, despite what your student might say.

ABC Rafiki Friend Chain Sales: Our WE Team is selling "ABC Rafiki Education Friend Chains" to help raise money to help students attend school in Ecuador. It's part of our year-long initiative to help bring education to students around the world. They're $10 each, and make great meaningful gifts. (Can you tell I'm helping to sell them?)  For more information, check out our info page here! 
You could also see the video below. If you'd like to order one or many, send your child with your request and the money, or request directly to me via email and just send the funds with your student.



Have a great week!

ELA: Fractured Fairy Tale Updates

We have been working hard on our Fractured Fairy Tales. First drafts are due tomorrow! We will be going through a few rounds of self and peer editing, but first we will be spending some time looking at how to do good peer (and self) editing. I've embedded the slideshow below, and you can download the "Presentation Companion Sheet" here. 

If you want to see the rest of the process, you can, as before, find it all on the website for the project:

http://bit.ly/ela7fairytales

Stay tuned for the final copies later this week!

- Mr. Hyland

Fractured Fairy Tale Project & Edmodo

I hope this weekend has been enjoyable for everyone! Today I have updates on our new ELA project, and Edmodo, which we will be using along side of it.

The Epic ELA Fracture Fairy Tales Project

We have begun our Epic ELA Fractured Fairy Tales Project. We will be working through evaluating fairy tales for their story elements, examining examples of ways that they have been altered to create new versions, and then creating our own. As we go through this project, we will be doing a significant amount of writing (each student will create a 500-700 word written piece). We will also be evaluating our own writing and the writing of others, as we work towards creating a polished version of our writing.

All classroom materials, and a complete outline of the project is available here: http://bit.ly/ela7fairytales. I encourage you to check it out, and discuss your child's writing with them.

Edmodo

We also will be using Edmodo for communicating throughout this project, and to hand in versions of this project.  Edmodo is a free and secure learning network for teachers, students, and schools.  It provides a safe way for teachers and students to connect, share content, access homework, participate in discussions, manage due dates, and receive class information.

Edmodo is accessible online and through any mobile device with Internet capabilities – including free apps for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android devices.  Students can access their account from any mobile device or computer, and set up notifications within Edmodo to receive alerts/reminders via text or e-mail.

Edmodo will not be used as a social network like Facebook or Twitter.  This tool will be used strictly for educational purposes using the following guidelines:

• Students will be required to use appropriate grammar instead of texting language.
• Edmodo does not allow private student-to-student messaging - the site will be used to discuss school-related content only, and the teacher will monitor all Edmodo activity.
• No put-downs or sarcasm toward another’s ideas. All expectations as outlined for our blogging & commenting apply to Edmodo. 

Students who violate the guidelines above may face disciplinary action and/or face losing the privilege of using Edmodo.

I look forward to a great year as we continue to incorporate the use of technology into our classroom curriculum.  If you have any questions, please contact me.

Edmodo can be accessed online here: https://blms.edmodo.com/ 

Edmodo can be downloaded through iTunes for any iOS device from this link here! 

Edmodo can be downloaded for Android here! 

Social Studies Presentation Tips

Today we have gone through some tips and tricks for presenting in class. We used a modified version of a blog post by Seth Godin to look at how to be convincing, tie into people's emotions, and create effective slideshow presentations.

We will be working this week on putting together our presentations for the Humanity Re-Settlement project, with the goal of being ready to do presentation rehearsals to small groups on Friday in class. We are looking to begin formal, marked presentations on Monday, October 28th. 

For more info on the project, you can check out the Google Site: bit.ly/ss7survival

For the presentation tips, check I've attached it as a Google doc.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxzb2NpYWw3c3Vydml2YWx8Z3g6NTI2MDVjOGM3Mjc2YzQwNg

- Mr. Hyland

Updates for October 21-25

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who came to interviews on Thursday! I look forward to seeing everyone else tomorrow, or on alternate dates as needed. It's a great opportunity for us all to connect on how the year is going so far, and what goals we are setting for the next term. If you didn't have an interview and still want to set one up, please email me: derek.hyland@lpsd.ca. A quick reminder that feedback from the interviews is due on Tuesday October 22nd.

Marks will be available on Tuesday from our first big ELA test of the year. We will be rolling out our new writing project on Tuesday as well, so stay tuned!

In Social Studies, we are concluding our research into mapping for the Humanity Re-Settlement project. We will be working on our presentations this week, and will be in final rehearsals by Friday so that we can start presentations next week!

Library Week is continuing and students are encouraged to bring in gently used books to the library, for which they will receive a ticket to come on Monday to exchange for a different book of their choosing. This will be running on Monday night at interviews as well, so parents are encouraged to participate.

All this week and next week until Halloween, we're running a food bank drive called "WE Scare Hunger". The goal of the drive is to collect as much non-perishable food items as possible. All students are participating in a challenge to see which class can bring in the MOST food items. We hope that the 7-56 team will be in the lead!  It is being organized by our WE Team, and is in connection with Free The Children. If students are interested in joining the WE Team for our food drive in the community on the evening of Wednesday October 30th, they should join us at the school from 4:45 pm to 8:00 pm. I've put up a quick info video below:


Thanks!
- Mr. Hyland

ELA Test!

We will have our first ELA test on Thursday October 17th. I'm posting both the review topics as well as the slides that we've covered recently in class!

Part One: Parts of Speech

Be able to identify, use in a sentence, and define each of the following:

• Noun
• Verb
• Adverb
• Pronoun
• Adjective
• Conjunction
• Interjection
• Preposition

Part Two: Sentences

Be able to identify, use in a sentence, and define each of the following:

• Independent Clauses
• Dependent Clauses
• 3 Types of Sentences
• Simple
• Compound
• Complex

Part Three: Reading Comprehension

Students will get a passage to read, and need to answer some comprehension questions on it. 

Click this link to get access to a PDF of the presentations on Sentences! 

Happy studying! Have a happy and restful long weekend! 

:) Mr. Hyland

Accelerated Reader: The App

Good morning all,

Just a note that Accelerated Reader is accessible via an app on Iphones.  

Have students visit the itunes store / App store and download it.

 It is free. 

After installation they will need to enter our Renaissance Place ID: BLS-44UP.

This will only need to be done once. After that all the regular rules apply (Monitor password, only at school and only during school hours.)

If you need some help, let me know! 

- Mr. Hyland

Student Led Conferences (formerly Parent Teacher Interviews)

Hello all!

Coming up soon we will have our Student Led Conferences! This year all classrooms are running Student Led Conferences. Each student will have 15 minutes to come in with their families and talk about how they are doing so far. The goal is for students to lead the conversation between themselves and their parents, and for them to articulate their goals, successes, and struggles. Since the student is running the conference, the student MUST be in attendance.

Mr. Sklapsky and I are using VolunteerSpot this year to have parents choose a time when they would like to sign up, in order to make the process a little easier for all of us. Our interviews will take place on either Thursday October 17, or Monday October 21. Both days have interviews at 15 minute intervals from 3:30 to about 8:00. If neither of those days work for you, please contact Mr. Sklapsky or myself to set up a date and time that works better for you.

To access the conference sign up, please check out the directions below, or click on the big button.

1. Click this link to go to our invitation page on VolunteerSpot: http://vols.pt/ue4yko
2. Choose the class that your student is in.
 3. Sign up! It’s Easy — you will NOT need to register an account or keep a password on VolunteerSpot.

Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact me and I can sign you up manually.



Want a little more help? Check out the video below:

Social 7: Post-Apocalypse Humanity Re-Settlement Project

Today we will be putting our mapping skills to the test in our first project of the year in Social Studies., through the lens of a topic that I have been interested in for a while, and one that has hit pop culture in a big way: zombies.

For this project, students will be working on the assumption that they are in a world very different than the one that they are in now, and need to create a plan, using maps to find a location suitable to handle the re-settlement of the human race.

Note: This is meant to be a hook, something to get students interested. We will not be studying zombies, but merely using them as a way to jump start our interest into the world of using maps for something useful.

This will culminate in a presentation to the class in which each group will present two possible locations that they believe would be good locations for a new settlement of humans.

It should prove to be interesting. Stay tuned along the way. If you want to check out the project page, you can find it here: http://bit.ly/ss7survival. I've embedded the intro video below, just for kicks.

- Mr. Hyland

Our Class Vision (7-5)

This year, we spent some time talking about what we wanted our classroom to look like. We created a class vision as follows:

"We are here to learn so that we will be successful in the future. We are here to meet other people, work positively with them, and have fun."

We took a look at a song called "Brave" by Sara Barielles. I challenged the class to come up with how THEY will be brave this year. This video is the result. Enjoy!

 

Reading Survey!

All students please complete the following reading survey! 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/19NE_IJ1oc_h-bCGwyWBC4X1mYFByBvc_xvzbjnVjx8c/viewform

Thanks very much! 

Mr. Hyland

Picture Day!

Tomorrow is picture day! If you haven't heard yet, students have been asked to go over with their parents which pose and background colour they would like for their photos, so that they can identify it tomorrow when they go down for photos. Please check out and discuss the options below so that students are ready to pick their photo tomorrow morning.

Updates!

These first few weeks have been flying by! We've been working a lot to get to know each other a bit better, and to set some directions for us as a class. This week we created a Vision together for our classroom. Our 7-56 Vision this year is:

We are here to learn so that we will be successful in the future. We are here to meet other people, work with them, and have fun.

We have all been brainstorming for ways that we can be brave this year, after watching Sara Bareilles' song "Brave". Stay tuned this weekend for a video on what we came up with. 

Tomorrow (Friday) we will have a whole school assembly in the afternoon with a guest speaker. 

We have started into the exciting world of blogging! Though we had some technical difficulties this week, hopefully everything will be set up by the end of the day tomorrow. You can find our blogs at: 

7-5: http://kidblog.org/hyland75/

7-6: http://kidblog.org/Hyland76/

We will have blogging assignments to complete every other week, however students are more than welcome to blog whenever they would like! All students have been given a blogging agreement that should have come home to be signed. If you haven't seen it yet, check with your child. 

Next week will be a busy week. On Tuesday we have our Picture Day, and on Thursday is our first school dance. In addition, our WE Team is planning a Welcome Week, so there will be events on all week. There will be a hot dog lunch on Tuesday. Hot dogs will be $1 each and all money raised will go towards the Terry Fox Foundation. Remind your student to bring some money on Tuesday if they are into hot dogs. 

Mr. Sklapsky and I have noticed that a few students have been struggling to complete math homework this week. We are encouraging students to either use their paper agenda or their digital agenda to help them keep track of work that needs to be done. If you could double check with your student to make sure that they have taken care of all the work that they need to, it would be great! 

Until next time, 

- Mr. Hyland

Grade 7 Fun Day!

On Thursday, September 12 we will be participating in our BLMS annual "Grade 7 Fun Day!" The high school Leadership team will be coming over to take us through a day of team building, fun, and exciting challenges. There are a few things that we need to do to prepare.

1. We will be OUTSIDE for nearly the entire day. That means that ALL students need to have: 
1. Water bottle
2. Appropriate footwear (no flip flops or open toe shoes)
3. Appropriate clothing (it might be hot, cold, windy; be prepared for the forecast)
4. Hat
5. Sunscreen/bugspray
6. Extra snacks
2. A hot dog lunch will be provided for ALL grade 7s. If hotdogs are a problem for you, please bring a lunch.

Stay tuned for stories and perhaps some images from the day! 

- Mr. Hyland

Blogging!

This week we are getting started on blogs. We've been examining what goes into making a blog, how to stay safe, and talked about our expectations for ourselves and for others as we work through our class blogs.

I drafted a document called The 7-56 Blogging Expectations and Agreement which includes the expectations that we think we should follow. All students need to sign to say that they agree, as well as bring home to their families to share with their parents, and have their parents agree. If you see it come home, please go through it together, and sign off on the bottom and return it to me by the end of this week.

I am very excited to get started with our writing, and to be able to share it with everyone! Stay tuned for more soon.

- Mr. Hyland

Home Ec Sewing Project!

A quick update today for all students in Home Ec!

All students in Home Ec. this term will be making a smiley pillow for their hand-sewing project this year. The cost is $15.00, which needs to be handed in to Mr. Gallagher by September 27th. This cost includes: project pieces, stuffing, thread and needle. Cash or cheque are accepted. Please make cheques out to LPSD.

Welcome to 7-56!

A warm hello to all of our new students and parents in the 7-56 family! Mr. Sklapsky and I are very excited to have been getting to know everyone this week. I will be using this blog to share information that we are working on in class, as well as to upload essential class documents, and we'll also use the calendar above to keep you up-to-date with everything that's going on in our team. Next week already we have our Muffin Morning from 7:30-8:30 on Wednesday September 11th. 

If you're interested in learning a bit more about myself or Mr. Sklapsky, check out the About the Teachers tab. 

We sent out a big package of information this week, and we would like to thank everyone who has turned it in so far. All of those forms and the fees are due on Friday, and we thank you for the time you take to complete them. It is a daunting task. 

I would like to share with you a bit more information regarding our contact this term. It is copied from an email you may have received from Mr. Sklapsky earlier: 

Remind 101 Contact Information

We will be using an application called Remind 101 this year. It is a program that allows us to send text messages to anyone who signs up for our classroom reminders. We will not know any parent/student phone numbers, and they won’t see ours. It will allow us to send reminders and information regarding homework, exams, due dates, etc. 

We encourage all parents (and students with phones) to participate. We will only use it for important information and you will not be inundated by texts from us. Mr. Sklapsky will be the primary sender of communication for this method.

HOW TO JOIN:

Text the message, “@756h” to the number 819-801-0336. You will get a confirmation reply to enter your name (please use first and last name), and it will create a contact list for us. 

If you want to receive these updates straight to your email, check out the "Subscribe to this blog" area on the right hand side. 

We look forward to an awesome year this year as we work with you and your children! 

- Mr. Hyland