Conference week! :) If you are not scheduled for a group conference I truly hope to see you during one of the arena sessions! Most students are doing quite well with Washington State History (we had a quiz on Friday) - and the Literature Circle on the novel Shakespeare's Secret --- this book combined nicely with our speaker Dr. Delahoyd from WSU - and has been very well received! Hopefully your student has shared some bits of the book with you and the DeVere conspiracy theory -- fun stuff! ---- Most students have been able to finish up their required reading and work on their lit. packet during class - a few have been checking out a book and doing some work at home --- this is our last week with the book for blocks 2 and 3 and block 1 should finish up next week. Our big focus for this week is POE --- otherwise known as "Poe Fest" --- The Tell Tale Heart is in our Lit. book - so we read that in it's entirety and then we do an overview of a variety of other works such as The Raven, The Pit and the Pendulum, Annabell Lee --- etc.... Should be a good time! Hope to see you this week!

Sorry it's been awhile without a post - filter issues with my district computer :( OK- to get you up to date....in the last couple of weeks we have finished our group maps and the scoring of these will wrap up tomorrow (would have been today, but the ch. 3 kids were gone to Q6). We also completed our PNW map test. There were quite a few perfect scores, and quite a few not so perfect scores. For those that struggled - lack of preparation was probably the issue - but good news, the group map project carries enough points to offset moderately poor test scores. We also watched a couple of short videos - Sculpted by Floods and Mud Slide - both dealing with the geology and climate of Washington. If you have an Mt. St. Helens memories, consider sharing them with your student :)

Today we started a new novel - Shakespeare's Secret - it is an intriguing mystery that also delves into bullying and other issues of "fitting in" -- I decided to go with this novel at this stage of the year largely because we will have a guest speaker, Dr. Michael Delahoyd of WSU's English department on Thursday - and he will be talking about some conspiracy theories related to Shakespeare - this same mystery is followed in our novel --- should be fun!!!

Also....in a quick apology - I hope to get the Music and Me papers returned by Monday and the book projects by late next week. This is an unusually slow turn around time for me. The death of my father near the end of the summer - followed by another family death - had me a bit off my game at the beginning of the school year in regards to energy for grading. I'm getting back up to speed, so please accept my apology and look for faster turn arounds in the future :)

Thank you to everyone who helped your student with supplies for the map projects - they really do produce some creative (and accurate) replicas of our state :) Hope you're all enjoying this lingering lovely weather!!!

Let the week of chaos begin :)In HISTORY: My tidy side says, "Noooo....don't do it!!!" - but my teacher side says, "You must, you must, they love and they learn so much!!!" ---- so here we go....the ever popular group maps of Washington state :) The students received information on the pre-map work (this will be info for a map test following this week), a packet that details the expectations for the map project, and tomorrow (Monday) they will be placed into their groups, decide what materials they need to bring, complete their templates, and begin construction on Wednesday (probably finished by Friday). This is a group project, and a small portion of their grade is based on how well they work on a group, but I try very hard to assess each individual student in terms of their contribution and do not give a blanket group score. In ENGLISH: Blocks 2 and 3 received directions and were shown multiple examples for their first book project. This is to be completed a week from tomorrow and will be done outside of class. I allow for a variety of formats to allow students to capitalize on their strengths....creativity, tidiness, technology, etc.... Finally....THE MAGAZINE DRIVE: Block 2 will be my group this year --- I of course love the energy and competitive nature of this event, but I also feel strongly about helping the students understand that this an opportunity for them to be active, contributing citizens of their school community. I encourage them to think of all the ways they benefit from ASB funding (sports, clubs, dances, spirit assemblies, filters on the water fountains, etc....) and that by selling at least one subscription, they give back to those programs. This should be a fun event, and I hope all will contribute. Ownership of the programs that make Lincoln special is a really important step towards becoming a contributing member of society on a larger scale :) Please support them in their efforts!

End of week three! MAPS testing in English is today and the math MAPS will take place 9/16 - students who miss either test will be scheduled for a retake. In class we turned in our Music and Me essays on Wednesday. Today is the last day for 1/2 credit. Some students shared bits of their essay along with their chosen songs via the new icube that Mr. Riley and I purchased for our classrooms with booster grant money last year - adding that technology has been wonderful :)! (we also combined money and purchased a flip-video recorder so we can video presentations etc....also a great addition to our classrooms). We had our first quiz yesterday in Washington State History. Most of the quizes for WSH are pretty straight forward with the questions for the quiz coming directly from the assigned chapter questions - so students who complete their assignments and review their answers should do quite well on these assessments. Next week we will continue with Ch. 2 WSH, introduce the group map project (blocks 2 and 3 will need supplies for this - your student should know what they need by the end of next week) --- We will be finishing our choice books and they will begin a book project in class on Friday. Enjoy the weekend and what might possibly be our last breath of summer :( kw
PS - a few students have yet to turn in their video/field trip permission slips - please check to see if your student falls into that category :)

WELCOME TO 8TH GRADE!!!

Hello all :) Welcome to 8th grade and the blog - I will do my best to post weekly updates for the class that include due dates for large assignments and summaries of what we are covering that week. I hope this is a useful tool :) Happy first week of school! kw

Beatnik Day is scheduled for a week from Friday - 4/23 - all students will recite a poem from memory with passion, oomph and gusto in front of the class - we are covering a variety of poets this way and delivering poetry in one of the prefered ways it is intended to be delivered - out loud - with an audience :) kids are expected to wear black on that day - they can talk to me if this is an issue - also, there will be xtra credit for extra effort with the Beatnik look - goatees, berets, turtle necks, glasses, bongos.....(yes i know this is the stereotyped version - but we are doing a rather Hollywood version of the Beatniks - no government bashing or drugs allowed!) - kids are welcome to bring pillow, bean bags, etc... as they will be sitting on the floor. i will be providing hot h2o and cups - they need to bring their own hotchocolate, cider, or tea.

In the realm of Civics - we completed our Wa. St. govt. ?s last week and there will be a quiz covering those questions as well as the bill of rights. (blocks 2 and 3 will quiz on tuesday - block 1 on wed. ) - the cycle of power is our next quiz - we are using this with Animal Farm - they will get Russian Rev. notes with Mr. Thornton today when we swap classes. All students (blocks 2 and 3) should be through ch. 6 my tomorrow with 2 questions written for each chapter - and we will finish the book by Friday.

I will be out of the classroom on Thursday (all day) and Friday PM for track meets - Mr. Harms will be here to carry on with Dictatorships vs. Democracies - current events - etc....

welcome back! i would say happy spring, but since the weather was nicer in edmonton than it was in pullman i think i'll wait on that salutation. ok - so in the coming weeks look for conversations about the "cycle of power" - a visual graphic i use to compare democracy with dictatorships - look for discussions regarding the book, animal farm - and continued study on the constitution and the branches of government. we will also be selecting poems for beatnik day - the poems must be apx. 20 lines from a published poet - of a more classic nature - or at least not suess or silverstein :) - and memorized so the student can own the poem when they recite :) final date for beatnik day will be announced by next week. happy 4th quarter - look for 3rd quarter grades by tues. (essays will be next quarter's grade)