Twin Day- Sense of Self

  One of our school spirit days is called "Twin Day" where you and 2 or 3 people dress up alike for a day calling yourselves "twins". As we all walked in class, Holly and Beata came up with a great idea that connected to our unit. She took pictures of us with our twins and we filled out a survey about our twins and our sense of self on ourselves and then we said positive things about our twins.

Some of he attributes and attitudes and TD skills that I worked on during this project are....

• Communicator- We had to be able to communicate out thoughts in a positive but honest way and sometimes give examples of things that they do.
• Integrity- Because integrity means being honest and fair, we had to write honest things about ourselves and our twins, but it had to be the honest and positive things about ourselves & our twin(s).
• Social Skills- We had to think of other people's feelings and know that whatever we resond in that form, will go on the board, and it had to be fun, positive, social and honest adjectives that described how we see ourselves and our twin(s).
• Caring- We had to be caring and think of or twin's feelings and only put positive and honest things on the board so nothing we say will hurt their feelings.
• Thinker- We had to think and come up with the most positive and honest things and adjectives that described our twin (and of course, ourselves).
• Knowledgeable- It connects to thinker, but in order to think and come up with kind and honest adjectives, we have to know our twin more and have to have knowledge of what our twin does and how they make informed choices.

Images on my survey is to be posted soon. Check back later!

Connections From UOI to Read-Aloud Book!

  Ever so often, Miss P will do a short read- aloud to us. The book that she is reading to us right now is the sequel to Because of Mr. Terupt which is called Mr. Terupt Falls Again . This book is all about his class in 6th grade (and starting adolescence). Sometimes while we read the book, a hand will shot up and a person will talk about a connection they notice from the book to our UOI, which is all about changes. Here are 2 connections from characters in the book to lines of inquires in our unit and/or activities we've done in this unit.

• Lexi- Lexi was a nice and friendly girl at the beginning of the book, along the way, she accidentally walks into an abandoned house and 2 High School girls are "hanging out". Ever since then, they've had a negative impact on Lexi. She started smoking, drinking (a bit) and wearing different and "cooler" clothes. She also connects to social and emotional changes in our life and An inquiry into informed choices during transitions
• Jeffery- Jeffrey is becoming more mature. But there is a debate: Is he acting more mature because of puberty or is he becoming more mature, because he found that baby that was abandoned? Also, his character connects to our line of inquiry: An inquiry into informed choices during transitions. He chooses to save the baby, visit him, help his mom, and starts the fight. These choices are probably because of adolescents and his maturity. 

Now, there are lots more connections that I can make, but if I wrote more this blog post would take you about 2 hours to read. But I think that this book is really helping my understanding of our unit by giving real life examples of what could happen. So the research and learning helps us know what's going to happen, but the examples and connections to the book will prepare us for what could and what probably will happen.

Mini- Research Poster/Presentation

 For apart of our Changes unit, our class did a mini research poster and presentation. These posters and presentations were connected to our 3rd line of inquiry; An inquiry into Physical, Social, and Emotional Changes in our life. 

At first, we all chose a question that people were interested in learning about. Each one of us had a different question. Mine was; What happens to peoples thoughts on body image, while going through puberty? Then, for 2 days, we researched on our questions using at least 3 sources. 1 source had to be a book and 2 had to be from online. I read 3 books and used 2 online sources (while we research, we take notes). After that, we take our notes and information we learned and created a poster with lots of images and few words. Finally, we presented our poster, using some running notes that all of us created for the presentation.

Some of the attributes, attitudes and TD skills I worked on for this activity:

• Thinker- During this activity, I had to think and come up with additional questions for my main question, so I can ave several elements and topic to present and share, not just one element on answering one question. (Attribute)
• Communicator- We had to be communicators in order to be able to present in front of the class and to share our learning in different ways. For example; images, quotes, text and captions, and something that we announce. (Attribute)
• Curiosity- During this activity, we had to be curious and also have Creativity in order to create our poster and know what we want to learn and to wonder what the audience would like to hear and what they wouldn't want to hear. (Attitudes)
• Research Skills- We worked on researching, because in order to teach something new and to LEARN something new, you have to do research. We also practiced how to take visual notes and sometimes electronic and word for word notes. We observed different sites for different information and we organized our research into different sections to put on our poster for the presentation. (TD Skill)

Click Here for a URL to my video, Click Here for the embed code.

Thank You!

Online Organazation

  Throughout 5th grade, we almost ALWAYS use our devices everyday. One of our main resources online that we use is Google Drive. In order to stay organized in Google Drive, I use folders and labels to help me find my work easier and faster, as well as Miss P. Here is a small list of folders I have in my Google Drive and my folders INSIDE my folders.

• Blog Post Drafts
• Combined Units (Writing and UOI)
• Conference Work
• Literacy (Reading and Writing)
• Math Work
• Others (Bulletin Board, Fairy Work, Goal Work, Homework, LP, Morning Meeting, Specialized)
• PYPX
• Specials (P.E, Art, World Language {Spanish})
• STUCO
• UOI (Changes, Conflict & Resolution, Forces & Motions, Governance, Tech Over Time)

Here is a screenshot of my Google Drive Folder with Miss P:

Here are some examples of detailed folders inside of general folders:

                                       This is all of our units throughout the year in one folder: UOI

                                                       Here are my "other" folders

  In Middle School, organization (like in 5th grade) is going to be very crucial in order to get work done and to find work. In elementary, it's important to know how to stay organized online, because in Middle School, we use practically the same resources. Such as Google Classroom, Google Drive, AAS website, Brain Pop, etc. In Middle School, I'm going to try to use my knowledge on how to stay organized online by color coding my folders, create a folder for each class I have, and (if I need to) create more detailed folders inside of general folders. This will help me to find my work and know what topics/folders are supposed to be connected and which ones are separate.