Last official day of class

Good morning everyone,
Here we are at the end of our official class time for the year. I'm so glad that you have all made it through this journey with some new tools and good experiences that will inform your learning in the future.

Today in class we will do portfolio pulling for half the period and then discussing and writing of our greatest learning experiences in class.

Some of you will be coming to school for the rest of the next 2 weeks to complete assignments, others will just be preparing for regents exams and summer fun.

Keep checking in with the blog over the summer and I will post different books that may be of interest as a heads up as to what willl be coming in September.

Thank you all for a challenging and meaningful school year. I appreciate all that you have brought to the table and contributed to this class.

Have a great summer,
Ms. S

Portfolio time...

You have all been showing me what you know over the past couple of weeks, working diligently to finish standards work and complete missing assignments.

Monday is the last day of classes... I'd like us to spend time pulling portfolio pieces and reflecting as a group... where did we start? Where did we end up? What have we learned? How has this year's experience helped shape how you will work next year?

From the 3rd trimester:
You will need to select one exemplar piece... (your best work... what are you most proud of?)
One improvement piece - what shows your growth?
One informal piece - current events (1 of the 5), blog assignments, sourcebook entries, annotation exercises, etc.

For the reflection for each piece, please consider the following:
why did you choose the piece for each of the categories? what does it show you know based on the standards (you can look on teacherease and/or rubrics given out in class). How does it show it?
What would you do differently? What did you learn from actually doing it?

Class today and the rest of the week...

Hey Folks,

I left school today as the heat was not working well with my body. Make sure each of you stay hydrated and keep yourselves cool.

In class today, please continue working on your standards if you have not completed them... email them to me when you are through.

Those of you who have emailed me work, continue to do so and we will conference on Thursday.

Every student needs to email me whatever they worked on in class today by the end of the period... whether it is a lot or a little.

Thanks,
Ms. S
mssackstein@yahoo.com

Reflection and subject area pulling

Next week please come to class with a checklist... start thinking about the three pieces you'd like to put in your third trimester portfolio...

1 exemplar piece (any finished project/assignment - that you feel represents your best work)
1 improvement piece (something that shows your hard work and revision - all drafts should be included)
1 informal piece - something we've done in class that wasn't a "big" project... current events, analysis of a poem or any class research/notes

Reflections will need to be included that are based on the standards.

Standards - class today...

Please continue working through your reflection of the standards in class today... I will be there to help you if you don't understand what it is asking of you.

Remember, this is your time to really think about this year's body of work and honesty comment on your understanding of it... Even if you didn't finish assignments, that doesn't mean you didn't learn anything...

Be specific to your understanding and then try to talk about a specific assignment that helped you understand it... you may use teacherease to accomplish this task.

You should be done with 1 and possibly 2 and beginning 3 today. Make sure that by the end of class, I have your work emailed and/or printed out and turned in... I will be conferencing with everyone today about what they have done so far and where they need continued improvement and revision.

Important: if you are a person who is in danger of an NC for the school year (i.e. you are currently lined up to get an F in teacherease) it is especially important that I speak with you about what the portfolio committee has decided will happen. More on this in the future...