In addition to a number of questions which will check your understanding of basic facts relating to early Colonial America, and a surprise extra credit question, you will also be given two deeper inferring questions on this Thursday's test.  Here are the two inferring questions you will see three days from now:

1.  In which early colony would you feel most at home?  Please provide at least three specific reasons based on facts from the text.

2.  How is the Mayflower Compact like the US Constitution (the document that governs our country today)?  ­­­­­­­­


Good luck!
 
Don't forget to check the link, and sign your name to it!

For a Friday

1/28/2011

 
Becky doesn't like school very much.  Press play to hear her plan to make it better.
 
Study hard!

Grammaropolis

1/28/2011

 
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Learning grammar isn't always the way we want to spend our free time, but hopefully you've noticed by now that knowing how to identify verbs, nouns, adverbs, adjectives and other parts of speech is really important to becoming a great writer.

If you are still having trouble finding the verbs, or knowing if your sentence starts with a subject or not, you might want to consider playing some of these grammar games at Grammaropolis every once in a while.  They're quick, fun, and you'll actually learn your grammar so writing will be easier for you!

 
Don't forget your Anything Project is due Monday.  Have it ready to go before class starts.  Remember, writing needs to be an important part of your Anything Project.  As you revise, don't forget about making your writing more clear, fluent, and interesting with sentence openers.
 
Today at chapel Brian and Bethany told us about Royal Servants Summer Mission Trips.  If you're interested, you can find more information at their website, or you can email Beth at bethmeaden (at) reignministries (dot) org.
 
Last night, President Obama told us about the state of the Union, or in other words, he told us the current condition of our country.  He talked about what we do well and what we need to do better in the future.

Below is a word cloud made from the text of his speech.  Remember, the largest words are the words used most often.  What does it look like the President focused on?
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So we've been in the standards-based grading system for about five months now, and I'm curious what you think.  I imagine that many of you don't really see a difference from a traditional system other than a slightly different looking report card.

I'd like to take a second to show you (parents and students) how to use the standards-based system to your advantage.  For example, you might be saying, "So what if I demonstrated a '2' in something?  What does that even mean, and what are some steps I could take right now to improve?"  Or what if you've demonstrated a '3', but lately you've been feeling bored at school?  What can you do to challenge yourself?

Please take five minutes to view the video below and learn how to use this feedback-rich system to your advantage.  When you're done, don't hesitate to comment on this post with any feedback you might have about how the system is working (or isn't working) for you so far... or maybe how you plan to use the system to your advantage now that you've viewed this video.  Thank you ahead of time for your feedback.  It will help me learn and do better in the future.
 
Make sure to check out your reading blog for comments!  I just finished reading through them and giving feedback.