One of your homework assignments tonight is to write a conclusion sentence for each of your three drafted paragraphs.

Here are some examples of conclusion sentences that connect the main idea of one paragraph to the main idea of the next paragraph:

• Through successes and failures, Abraham Lincoln's early experiences contributed to his future success as President of the United States.
• Not only do statistics support the argument, but a number of personal stories support it as well.
• Clearly, statistics support the argument, but it is important to remember that each of those numbers is first and foremost a person.

I know this is confusing to some of you, but give it a shot, even if it's hard.  We'll look at some examples tomorrow and you can revise what you've done.

There are only 6 school days left before Reading Blogs will be done for the first quarter.  They are officially due Tuesday, Nov. 30th.


 Keep in Mind
You can only post 2 books per day
You should read the comments to all posts to make sure they are counted.

Food for thought:  Tonight, don't ask you kids what they learned in school today.  Instead, ask them what questions they asked in school today.

By the Turkey Trot next Thrusday, the sixth grade class has committed to purchasing 135 items for homeless teens in Whatcom County.  That means every student (and teacher) need to buy at least 5 items each to meet our classroom goal.


Keep in mind, these are very specific items, so make sure to check the lists you were given last Friday.  If you lost your list, another one can be obtained from Mrs. Benham.


Also, a big part of this drive is that the kids take ownership over it.  We want each one of the middle school kids to being going to the dollar store or Walmart and picking out these items themselves.  Maybe even paying for them themselves.  Thank you parents for all your support in this.  We hope to make a big difference in a lot of teens' lives this year.

Over the course of this year, many of you have made me promise to let you know if there is anything you can do to help.  Normally, I don't have much, but since I was sick on Friday I'm playing a bit of catch up right now.  If you would like to grade a batch of History Tests, that would be wonderful.  Just email me and let me know.


Thanks everybody!

Today we are going to invent something.  Does that sound scary?  It doesn't have to be.  Look around you and think about what is too difficult, too slow, or too inconvenient.  Now fix it.

Look at the following inventions.  What problems did they solve?  What was "broken" before they came along?

1. Wheel
2. Aeroplane
3. Light bulb
4. Internet
5. PCs
6. Telephone
7. Penicillin
8. iPhone
9. Flushing toilet
10. Combustion engine

Have a great day off, but don't forget you have a history test (details here) and a vocab quiz over chapter 5-6 in Roll of Thunder on Friday.

Check out the video below to see how to search more efficiently.

Jacob got to miss school last Friday to go down to Harvest and help hand out fliers with his family.  He said it was a really cool experience.  Today, I noticed one of the photographers I follow posted a short video of pictures he took  there.

Today we are learning about different tools people use to persuade others.  I have narrowed the tools down to five: 

• Statistics
  
• Comparisons
  
• Observations/Anecdotes
  
• Predictions
  
• Expert Testimony
  

...or SCOPE.  One of the main places we see persuasion is in advertising.  Can you find any examples of SCOPE in the following ads?