1. Unfortunately, several people were without their partners today. We discussed the debates as a class and agreed to delay the debates until Tuesday, since so many partners were missing and would likely come to class unprepared on Monday.
2. There will be a unit test next week on Tuesday that will include all the content from the beginning of our unit. We’ll be moving on on Monday.

1. I discussed the same online security concerns with the Grade twelves as I discussed with the tens. (See post description here.)
2. I shared with students video I recorded of my students from my previous school who participated in debates and did a tremendous job. I called those students at their school this morning to ensure I had their permission to show the video to these current students. In watching the video, the students were able to understand more clearly how their own debate will go on Monday and the formality of it all.
3. They were then released to continue preparing for their debates with their partners. Monday is the scheduled (hopeful) day of the presentations.

1. Students were given mini reports that show their grade as of today. It includes their marks from the Identity Project that was handed in last Friday. I went through the run-down of marks for those projects, explaining to the class some of the big errors people made or reasons why the marks were quite varied. With four portions of the assignment, and some of them holding nearly half the marks in one part alone, missing that part of paying little attention to it cost students dearly in their marks.
2. Students got together with their partners and prepped for the debate we will aim to have on Monday.
3. Tomorrow, the Gr 11 students will have to write a Provincial Writing Assessment. They will have the whole morning to write the assessment while the Gr 12 students will have other work to complete.

1. Students were able to see what mark they received after writing their quiz Friday on the comparison between the novel Night and the video Life is Beautiful. (Four students need to write that exam so they will be handed back later.)
2. Students were given a handout that detailed the format the debates will followed, explained the specific areas they will be evaluated by, and listed the ten debate topics they will choose from. Students joined with a partner and one from each group drew a topic/side from a hat, so it was completely random and fair. After this, I read through each of the debate topics and detailed the specific parts each side (Pro or Con) would focus on. Students got together, then, with their partners and did a little brainstorming. They will have tomorrow’s class to work on it. They were asked to come to class prepared with material to use in structuring their defence!

1. Students were given back several grammar quizzes and Fast Writes. They wrote their second Commonly Misspelled Words quiz first and then we quickly moved on to view three select portions of the movie that wouldn’t play properly yesterday. Once finished viewing those parts, students were given questions to complete individually and hand in at the end of class. Comparing and contrasting the two stories is a more complex task and goes beyond the simple recall and comprehension questions. Being able to think on a higher level and assess complexities of literature is important to achieve. 

1. We got started quickly in class to make use of all their class time. Students followed as I explained on the board the major difference and similarity of the two men in question:
   1. One was an Italian Jew who was put into a concentration camp and had his young son with him, but he kept an incredibly positive attitude about his circumstances and kept his son unaware of the horrors that were going on around him. The point to understand for Guedo was that he was not in confinement for as long as Elie, the other man, nor in as bad conditions.
   2. Elie was a Polish Jew and was in a work concentration camp, separated from his sisters and mother, but had his elderly father with him. Elie’s attitude about his circumstances was very dark and negative, denying God’s existence at times and awaiting death and the end at every turn. His containment was longer lasting and he possibly lost more to those containing him.
2. Students began watching La Vita Bella (Life is Beautiful) and enjoyed Guedo’s antics. I moved the video ahead to the part where they were being sent to the containment camp but, after a short while, my pc program started reading the dvd strangely. I stopped it eventually and explained part of the movie to students, relating how Guedo creates a whole imaginary setting for his son, pretending that the whole thing was a big game and they were the winners so far for not talking or holding out from eating for the longest. Students recorded some of their thoughts regarding the things that defined Guedo or influenced him towards his positive perspective.
3. Then they began reading 7 pages of the non-fiction novel titled Night, by Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor. In the reading, he struggles in waiting to find whether his father has been “selected” for death. It is a very dark and contrasting piece of literature, when compared to the comedic video of Guedo and his son.
4. Tomorrow, they are to do another spelling test and have that reading selection finished. They will have a question sheet to work on individually, like a test, to see how well they can do at elaborating on their ideas and distinguishing the differences and similarities between the two stories.

Here is a key example of Guedo’s approach to his environment:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/EsEBoOS6zZo" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/9nAszZ74t10" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

1. We had a great essay to read and share together. We reviewed what Colonization was and how Britain was attempting to maintain their dominance over the other countries of Europe by expanding their land territory and since Europe was already divided up between strong nations (France, Germany, etc) they began taking over territory in other lands where the people living there were considered “less civilized”. This was how areas of Africa, Asia, East India, Australia, and even North and South America were colonized or taken over by Britain and other countries.  (Whewh!! Deep breath!) British men were forced to serve in their army and the author of this essay found himself in a country where he was the minority but held the authority. He resented the British, disagreed with colonization, felt pity for the Burmese people but because of their hatred towards what he represented (the British authority) they treated him horribly and he found himself struggling to decide his emotions. In the essay, he finds himself forced to do something terrible that he clearly states four times he does not want to do but, because of the pressure and expectations put upon him as this authority, he folds. He has power over the people, or does he?
2. We watched a few clips of soldiers fighting in the war in Iraq. They don’t like the civilians they are there to defend and, because their surroundings are so extreme and their stress level so high, they find themselves acting cruely and making decisions they (hopefully) wouldn’t make in their normal situations back in their own neighbourhoods. (In the one video, when a child comes asking for candy, the soldier holds out a hand grenade for the boy to take instead, as a joke.) If you end up hating the people you are there to protect and serve, how can that be good? My intention in showing the video clips was for students to understand that perspective, where you are removed from your comfort zone and forced to make decisions based on the new and uncomfortable pressures around you. How would you react? Do you think you would still be proud of your actions, in general? What qualities of human beings are present when you are pressured to the max?
3. Tomorrow, students will have a quiz on the commonly misspelled words we reviewed in class yesterday. I hope you go over them!

Here’s a video where soldiers teach Iraqi kids to chant “Bomb Iraq”. What do you think? Leave a comment below

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/eBGi8jr_CBE" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

1. We discussed commonly misspelled words as students filled in details on their given handout. They will be tested on these words on Wednesday and Friday.
2. We reviewed what the story was about that we read together last Wednesday. Krysta did a great job of highlighting the key parts before we began considering the questions together.
3. Students did another Three Minute Free Write on one of two questions that tried to ask what would be left in their lives if they stripped away all the non-essentials.
4. I explained to students that they can consider what partners or small groups they want to work in for their formal debate coming soon. They will form groups of 2-3 (allowing that everyone needs to be paired with someone) and will choose from a hat what their topic will be and which side of the argument they will have to argue. More information will come soon.

1. The students have a personal blog project that they are to work on as the semester goes on and will be evaluated at the end. They were promised blog time and today was the day – a whole class with enough computer access for everyone to have their turn! Surprisingly, things went fairly well. The internet cooperated, students were patient and seemed interested and engaged by the assignment and they’re on their way … yay! I’m looking forward to what kind of blog posts and thoughts they share with each other.

1. We pushed through two tasks today. Students completed another comma quiz, after I addressed one common error I was seeing from yesterday’s quiz. Once that was finished, I asked them to settle in and get comfortable because we had a rather long story to read and try to get through. We ran out of time with just few paragraphs left. I asked students to had it finished for tomorrow’s class.
2. Tomorrow the class will have Blog Time, as promised. There are three blog topics for students to work on and they’ll have the duration of the class.