Good students set goals and objectives.

• Goals are what you want to accomplish.
• Objectives are specific things you want to learn.

In order to set goals and objectives, ask yourself these and other questions.

• What about the English language do I already know well?
• What areas do I need to work on?

After you think about these questions, write a personal goal for your study of the English language and identify some specific goals that you want to accomplish:

Make sure your  goals are specific, manageable, achievable, realistic and timely (SMART).

Add a comment to this post outlining your language goals for this year.

Paraphrased with ammendments from GRAMMAR: STRATEGIES AND PRACTICE Advanced Sandra J.Briggs, San Mateo, California: Scott Foresman, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers

See me the first week back to school if you need to review and amend any part of your presentation.  Let me know when you will see me - after school HOT is a good time.  You need to come with your rubric and be prepared to suggest changes you will be making.

As there is little to no homework assigned over the holiday, have an enjoyable time, relax, sleep and catch up on some personal reading!

Some students have asked me to suggest websites where they could find information for their powerpoint presentations:

Try these:

Plate boundaries - this is a good site that explains divergent, convergent and  transform plate boundaries, with examples that tie in to the areas specified in your presentation

Baja - this site explains the plates and faults of the location, and has a link to some good photos showing movement of the plates over the years

California Earthquake Facts (this is simpler to read)

Baja California Earthquake History (simple place to find your examples)

Earthquake History of the San Andreas Fault System

Pompeii - a video of the eruption of Vesuvius

Explanation of  why volcano formed at Vesuvius

Vesuvius and plate tectonics (scroll down)

Discovery Kids - volcanoes and plate tectonics (good and easy to understand)

History of eruptions at Vesuvius

Eruptive History of Mt Vesuvius

Iceland and plate tectonics 

Geology of Iceland

Plate tectonics in Iceland (good site)

Plate tectonics / ocean floors / Iceland

Iceland / Mid-Atlantic Ocean Ridge / History of volcanic activity (easy to read)

and for fun…..

In class, we will be listening to a song entitled “The Last 10 Years”.  This video talks about the future.

What do you think your future will be like?

Look at Presentation tips under pages for 10 tips you could check out in preparation for your Powerpoints this week.

Over the course of the past few weeks, an enthusiastic group of Middle School students have been meeting three times a week during lunch hour and working hard in preparation for the Kids’ Lit Quiz literature competition. Kids’ Lit Quiz (KLQ) is an annual international literature competition, the brainchild of Wayne Mills, a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland who envisioned KLQ as a way to promote recreational reading. By 1993, KLQ had developed into an international competition which has included national competitions in South Africa, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, New Zealand, and China.

Push in Students:  You especially need to make a time to see me this week!

Don’t wait until the last minute to come and check in with me about your powerpoint presentations or your research projects.  The earlier you get to me, the more time we’ll have to work on your drafts.

iSpeech will convert your text into speech - and then you can post it on your blog.  You can download audio onto your mp3.  Click the play button on the sidebar to the right of this post to try it out.

Writing is the most difficult activity to learn… in any language. The Writing Extension elective provided students with specific support for academic writing tasks that they were expected to do at each grade level. Special attention was paid to the 6-Traits of Writing and extension through writing assignments from the CORE classes.

Multilingual Math Glossary for Middle School - This is a great site that will give you a translation of middle school math terms into Chinese / Korean / Spanish / Tagalog and a whole lot of other languages.  Check it out.

Harcourt Math Glossary - This site will give you an English definition and explanation of a math term, complete with little diagram that will help you understand.