2 Stars & a Wish: Week 9

*Unfortunately, I do not have a reflection for Week 8 as I was on a hiatus/break haha.

     November is upon us and reality is beginning to hit home. Number one, report cards are due in 10 days.... Number two, my first parent-teacher interviews are in 15 days... Number three, there are only 34 teaching days left until Christmas! Seriously, was it not just the first day of school last week?!? I guess the only thing to do is take a deep breathe and take one day at a time. In the mean time, here are some things that I think went well this week:

1 ) My Grade 8's Passed 1,000 Views On Their Blog!!
- When I first introduced our blogging project this year I feel like many of
  my students were skeptical... maybe even unenthusiastic. It was new to
  them and I think they assumed it would be a lot of writing.
- Fast forward two months and we now start each science class by looking
  at our map of viewers, see who our audience is, answer blog questions, etc.
  They LOVE when they see that a new country has been added to their
  audience map!
- On Friday, we celebrated the fact that their blog has now passed 1,000
  page views! When my students arrived I had 10 big balloons around the room.
  Students had the option of popping 5 of these to determine their prize. Some
  of the prizes included new pencils, stickers, candy, music time, and "no notes"!

2 ) I Only Have 5 "At-Risk" Students
- With report cards coming up I am tracking assessments closely, offering extra
  assistance & trying to track down those missing assignments. This also
  involves contacting parents if necessary.
- I am very happy to report that this term I only have 5 "at-risk" students (those
  who are below a 50%). I want all of my students to  be as successful as
  possible and try my hardest to provide multiple learning opportunities so
  students can understand content in different ways.
- For many of these students, I feel as though they understand the material, I
  just don't have assessment activities in to formally document their understanding.
  I am hoping that by this Friday I will have these students on track *fingers
  crossed*

     The things that I want to work on this week include getting students caught up on missing work and writing my report card comments. This is a busy time of the year for teachers and there seems like so much to do that I am worried that something will fall through the cracks simply because I do not have the experience to understand it all! I do, however, have a good group of colleagues and admin around me that I know are willing to help.

Week 7 Update

     Last time I shared that I wanted to work on differentiating instruction for my Grade 9 math class. Since then, I have included the following activities/resources:
- two different sets of notes
- manipulative blocks
- grid paper
- large-group/small-group review
- two different sets of questions
- interactive notebooks
- partner/small-group/individual assignments
- real-life scenarios (which of these classrooms is closest to a perfect square)
I feel like, instructionally, the class is going well. The reason they are behind, however, is simply because I don't see them very often.