Week 8 Day 2

Today, we have to catch up on what we have missed. So we have a week of LdL missed, and we have two teachers on our group.

1. When Mr. Rick came in class...

...he did not give a lecture. He said that we must immediately start teaching the LdL so we can catch up on everything we missed. Everyone prepared for the Presentations to start. If we could, we could finish everyone's LdL on the same day which included three teachers. 

2. So, here is our first teacher's slides.

And the teacher teaching...

He taught about "What should be done with the King? Part 1", according to the semester planner. Everyone is also teaching the same thing. Here is the rest of the class with Mr. Rick grading another group.

After 15 minutes, the teaching is done. The we switch to the second teacher...

He taught about "What should be done with the King? Part 2". The rest of the class as well, and here is Mr. Rick grading another group.

And this is Mr. Rick grading our team. Well, sort of... (Hi!)

And there was supposed to be a third teacher, but our third teacher has to go home because he is sick. In other groups, most of the third teachers were unprepared as Mr. Rick said there was only going to be two teachers today. So Mr. Rick talked about the semester planner instead. The computer is on...

And there is the semester planner.

As we have taught on the other subjects, Mr. Rick told us to discuss about who is going to teach next, and what topic they are going to teach about. Then, Mr. Rick went outside for a while, and left the class in the room discussing.

And then, he came back inside the classroom and everyone is still discussing. 

Finally, the class is over. We should be finishing our LdL 2 by next week.

3. What we can improve more is on our communicating skills. We need to help each other and organize the schedules on what will be coming up. That way, our group won't get bad scores!

Week 8 Day 1

Today, we did our IT based test. Everyone is focusing on their tests. Good Luck Everyone!

1. As soon as Mr. Rick comes in the classroom, everyone gets on their computers, actually our laptops. Then, we go to Schoology to do our test. Here is how the test looks like... 

This test has not been made available yet. But it will be soon. The blog won't put the screenshot of the questions, to prevent some of the test being revealed to the other people who haven't take the test.

Then, the test is available. The test is for 30 minutes. After we finish the test we should immediately close the computer. People start closing their laptops after a few minutes. The Puncake group finished the test pretty quickly. I'm pretty sure we, boys, mostly guessed.

After the last person finished the test, Mr. Rick tells us to finish the History assignments that  we are not done with. Most of the people don't finish their Semester 1 History Portfolio screenshot, some are not done with writing the reflection sheet of the Team Presentations. These are people working with old group mates to make the old portfolio. (Note: the old portfolio is made with paper)

We all worked hard to finish these projects. Then, finally we are done with the class. Next class we are going back to normal, and we are going to do our daily LdL with two teachers.

2. What we can improve is that we need to remind each other with old projects that they are not done with so people won't get zeroes on their assignments. And we need to remind old group mates if they are not done with the work too!

Week 7 Day 2

Some other classes still have their team presentations, and we are very fast compared to them. So we have another tech time for today!

1. There was too much sunlight in the room, so Mr. Rick had to close the curtains. The thing that he forgets is to turn on the lights, but that's alright.

After that, everyone wants to know what the Team Presentations scores are, so Mr. Rick wanted to read it out loud. Some don't want to know their score, so their scores aren't read out.

This is the raw score, where the scores are not the final one. Mr. Rick has to grade it on a curve, which means we get additional scores too boost the ones we have now.

After that, Mr. Rick has to say something to us. He tells us stories of a few people.

There was a class where there were many negative energy of students misbehaving. There was this girl who is nice and not misbehaving and who are with nice friends. Because Mr. Rick needs to pay attention to the misbehaving students, he didn't pay attention to this girl. So her scores are not that great. But when she were given time to study herself, she did very well.

There is another story about misbehaving students. There was a gang that couldn't do good in their scores, and were jealous of the ones who could. So anyone in their class who gets good scores would treat them badly and called them names. Another student wanted to do differently. He studied well and got good scores. During the graduation, this student was called names by the gang who couldn't do well. But this student did very well at his scores.

Mr. Rick also told us another story that we should always remember. It is only an illustration. One day there was this Mexican who went to a store to buy crabs. When he went in the store he saw many baskets of crabs that are alive. Most of them were covered with something to let them stay in the basket, but one basket full of Mexican crabs were not covered. He asked the shopkeeper why that basket is not covered. The shopkeeper replied that other types of crabs, when one escapes can bring others along with them and all would escape. But for Mexican crabs, when one escapes, the others pull it back inside the basket to prevent it from escaping. That is why the basket was not covered.

These stories tell us a lesson. We should influence others to be good, so everyone will also be good.

Okay now... Tech Time!.

Again, tech time is free time on the computer, but you are not allowed to play games, except the ones that Mr. Rick recommends. (Plus earphones or ear wires are not allowed) We are asked to open Schoology to go to the links that are the educational games. Because of everything electronic here doesn't work (except the AC) there is no computer. Even the speaker wires are cut! So Mr. Rick tells us to play by ourself, using the given link in Schoology. The group is enjoying the games.

The game is called "Walk the Plank". After trying to fix everything, Mr. Rick finally got the projector to work. But there are no sounds because the speakers don't work as the wires are cut and broken. But here it is...

Actually, here is a better picture.

And this will happen to the teacher if you win.

There are two types of the game. Mr. Rick played each twice. These educational games can help you learn for the exams that are coming up.

Everyone is enjoying their tech time. Then, it is time to go home. Next week is a big thing, it is our IT based exams!

2. What we can do better everyday is to pay attention to the teacher who is in front and stop being busy with ourselves. and next week are the IT based exams, I hope everyone will study well, and... Good Luck!

Week 7 Day 1

Today is a different day. We are faster than other classes in our Team Presentations so we get tech time. Tech time means free time. No, not free time that we can play or run around or get out of the classroom. Tech time is free time on our computer, freedom on whatever you want to do in the computer (not play games). 

1. When Mr. Rick arrived, he realized that everyone has done team presentations so he was surprised.

So he gave us tech time. He said we deserved it because we did not have tech time for the whole year. So he gave us one full period of tech time. Everyone immediately grabbed their computers. Though, Mr. Rick gave us a different suggestion. He said we could visit the website he recommends. 

Opens the Website called BiteSize, and he says that every tech time he takes it from there. So here is the link, and the picture of how the website looks like. 

This website is full of games and activities. We are studying KS3, so Mr. Rick chose KS3. There are different subjects, and because this is History Class, Mr. Rick chose the subject History.

Then he asked everyone to chose a subject. But most of them were looking at their own computers doing their own business, not minding the screen. I chose to listen to Mr. Rick, and some other students did the same. One student chose "The Tudors and Stuarts" and the subject was chosen. 

There are many options to choose from, so we started from the first one called "Henry VIII". Before we started, there was a song to this, called Henry the Eighth. We sing that first before we start the activity. 

This is how it looks like.

The activity is animated, but it is funny because there are no eyes on the person. And the person who narrates uses funny sounds, which made the students laugh (the one that is actually paying attention). After we finished that quiz, we chose another subject. We chose "Elizabeth I" for the second subject.

After that, we were introduced to another game called Battlefield Academy. It is also about history, and this is the link.

This one is about war. The history of war, from a long time ago. The game is about strategy, similar to chess. Before we play, we were asked to make a username first. Mr. Rick chose the name "Springfield" because it is the name of our school. We can choose different names.

The game looks fun. But it is challenging! There are four missions in this game. The rules are a bit confusing though. The one who takes picture of this game has a hard time playing it.

Mr. Rick says we can do the rest until mission 3 for homework. Sounds like a fun Homework to me!

And then, tech time is over. Actually, the class is over! This is the best class... EVER!!!

2. What we can do better is... Well, everyone is good at tech time. Everyone is good at having fun (who doesn't?). So these are the general things we can improve on.

• We need to communicate more with each other. This makes it easier to remind others for upcoming projects and tests.
• We also need to pay attention to the teacher. Even though the lecture is boring, but it may benefit you someday.

And.. next day will be another History Class! :)

Week 6 Day 2

Today is the last day of the Team Presentations. We have the last two teams present and Mr. Rick to show us the demo.

1. Mr. Rick comes in a little bit late. 

This is Mr. Rick preparing the computer. The projector is a little bit blue in color... but that's alright.

The teams that did not get to present yesterday need to present today. The first one to present is team Charlie, which is Team Starbuckz. This is their PowerPoint...

Most of them did a good job. They did not look at the PowerPoint too much and read the Powerpoint too much. They need to explain more about what is in the PowerPoint, though.

The second team is team Bravo, which is SwiftGrande. This is their PowerPoint.

Their PowerPoint was much different than the rest of the groups. Their PowerPoint was very colorful and the font looks nice. The others PowerPoints look a bit... too... formal. Most of the group members did not read much at all, instead they explain. One of the team members gave a very lively presentation. (Good job on that one!)

After everyone is done, Mr. Rick told us that we have to teach with depth. So, we will not just explain it, but we also show depth in teaching. Mr. Rick still has time, so he gave us a demo on how to teach with depth.

This will be timed. Mr. Rick will teach about the Causes of the French Revolution. It must be about 3 minutes. Okay, ready... Go!

Mr. Rick showed us how to teach with depth. Unfortunately, he didn't time it well and he ended up with 3 minutes and 48 seconds. But he taught with depth, as he told everyone to do the same. And Mr. Rick said that you should not memorize the PowerPoint, as memorizing is much lower than the first step on the Bloom's Taxonomy Ladder, which is Knowledge. We should do more research on the topic, but not memorize your research.  

"Never memorize something that you can look up." - Albert Einstein -

(*)

And the Homeroom class of Grade 9 is waiting outside, so the class is dismissed. The Team Presentation weeks have ended. HOORAY!!!

2. What we can improve better is to be serious and listening to the people who talk in front. If we are not serious, the people in front might be laughing as well, and they will not concentrate. Also, we need to pay attention to the person who is speaking in front.

(*) The Albert Einstein picture is not mine. It is someone else's, and I looked up the link to see where it is from. The link is not the source to who it belongs, so I don't know who made it. But thank you for providing the pictures! :)

Link:http://www.mednmonsters.com/2013/07/fellows-of-science-and-imagination.html

Week 6 Day 1

Today, the team presentations are still going. So, today there are two groups that are presenting. 

1. So, Mr. Rick handed out the paper for markings. This is how it looks like.

Mr. Rick noticed a lot of things the students are doing. The students are actually reading the PowerPoint rather than teaching them. So, Mr. Rick explains about Blooms Taxonomy ladder, which is made of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation, from the lowest to the highest. We must have all these for our presentations. This is Mr. Rick...

Then, the teaching begins. We are the first one, so we are done last week. So the next team is the Bravo Team, which is the SwiftGrande. Unfortunately, the team has problems finding the PowerPoint so they have to do it later. 

Then... A group of kids outside are running and shouting and Mr. Rick has to calm them down. The class stays quiet.

Then, the next team is the Echo team, which is the Peace Team. They have PowerPoints luckily. 

Their Presentations are okay. Their Presentation is pretty short, so they go less than 3 minutes. 

The next team is the Charlie team which is Team Starbuckz. They also have PowerPoint problems, causing the PowerPoint not to show up. So, they also have to do it later, and they seem pretty happy they don't need to do their presentations. 

The final team is the Alpha team, which is Fantastic Four. They have PowerPoints, so they have their Presentations.

This student is the first one to have the plus 10 bonus in the whole class who has just done presentation! Well done!

This team was better than other teams (Yes, that means us too, let's be honest). They only have a little slides and they mostly teach. Some teach too long though.

Then, we hand in the scoring papers. And the class is done! Tomorrow, we will have the rest of the two teams that teach.

2. What we can do better is to pay attention more to the person who teach. Mostly, we don't pay attention because we are too bored in listening, but now we should improve.