Mr. Rennie's Class

Sarah

All about me

I am from Bright lights

“go away” and “get out”

I am from Beefy Tacos

Thanks giving turkeys

and tender steaks being

cooked on our BBQ

I am from grandparents

and pressure, love, hate

and traditions

I am from Tragedies, death

Flowers and chocolate

I am from Running and sports

Ballet Tutus and Gees

From Medicine and shots

Doctors and the flu

I am from tears and shouts

Lost stuff and broken stuff

From mad and disappointment

I am from clean to messy

Secretive signs and knocking on doors

I am from a big loving family that

will love me forever.

I Am From...

I am from saying “wow” to eating

donuts and chips.

I am from playing soccer to

skateboarding with all my friends.

I am from getting stitches in my lip

to going to Mexico with my family.

I am from playing video games with

my dad to moving home to home.

I am from screaming and crying to

the quit noise of the heater.

I Am From...

I am from saying “wow” to eating

donuts and chips.

I am from playing soccer to

skateboarding with all my friends.

I am from getting stitches in my lip

to going to Mexico with my family.

I am from playing video games with

my dad to moving home to home.

I am from screaming and crying to

the quit noise of the heater.

John                                        Oct.26,2010

                        The Stench of the Dead Fish

   The hatchery field trip was almost over and I was exited what the thelast thing we get to do because in the hatchery it’s so fun.

“lastwe get to see spawning fish” Kelly said and I was glad because I’venever seen fish spawn and that got me to a surprise.We went over at theriver and just as we got there there were a whole bunch of fishspawning but it’s still hard to see though.

Ibrought out my ipod and took a nice video footage of  the spawning fishand I noticed that it’s connected to a lake where there was a wholebunch of stinking and moldy like you’ve never seen dead fish furtheron. I went to ask Kelly looked really nice so I can look at the deadfish“can I go see the dead fish further on Kelly?” “sure”she said andthere I went all exited again and I recognized man I should stopgetting too exited because it’s starting to be an issue for me.

ManI could never imagined how stinky it was , it smelled like a dumpsterfull of rotten fish left there in a year or so. I was even hoping thestench won’t turn out as bad as I expected. But Even though I know Icouldn’t last longer I didn’t care at the smell at all and  I pinchedmy nose so I couldn’t smell most of the stinky dead fish. I also took avideo of the dead fishes for five seconds , at the water and on therocky surface of the land. I went back again looked at the decayingfish and said  “It’s sad for the fish they die after they spawn but atthe bright side they did contribute for the world”. I knew that if asalmon doesn’t find a partner to spawn then their life’s a waste.

I saw jay going close to the dead fish too and thought how could he survive the awful stench when he’s really close.

Whenit was time to go we all went back at the front of the hatchery and Ididn’t knew that Ellen and the other girls were there.

We all went to the bus just in time for us to go home and I was glad for that field trip!!

By: John

  I have altered the website so that the students or parents can post their own blog entries. Just go to News and you'll see a "post new entry" button. You can add a poem, story or rant on a topic of your choice. Remember please that we don't use this forum as a place to put someone down or be negative. Otherwise be creative and have fun writing and reading. This week we will be sharing poems and stories with invitees from class. The kids will invite their classmates to read (but not edit) each others I Am From poems, memoirs and lessons from childhood pieces. Parents should feel free to read their kids work with them and even share their own connections and childhhod memories with their kids. Later next term the student's will explore third person narratives by interviewing and writing a parent memoir.

  On another issue, all students have been asked to remove theor last names from their site profiles. A form is coming home Monday to get permission for photo publishing. Please look for it.

   I am very satisfied with the work the syuden't have done so far in writing. We have explored a lot of what makes good writing and the improvement already is remarkable. Way to go us.

  The students are all immersed in the publishing of their memoirs for this week. We are attempting to use and incorporate all the skills we have explored so far in an effort to improve their piece. We have worked on Leads, Paragraphing, Thoughts and Feelings, Description and Detail Dialogue and Proofrreading this term. The piece they are completing is to be an example of their best writing and show evidence of what they've learned as writers. I am so far very impressed with their willingness to change and improve their work. Most really want to make their writing stronger.

  As they finish their memoirs and inquiries they are cartoonng on Tondo. We have eliminated playing games as an option after writing. Yet the kids are really enjoying cartooning and don't view it as writing, creative and purposeful, which it is. The students are actively involved and on task with writing tasks at all times in the lab. They have all improved at a rate which will surprise many of their parents.

  After working with Google Docs, Toondo and Wordle the students have developed a few skills and avenues through which they can represent their learning and ideas with more variety. This coming week the kids will be applying their recently introduced writing skills to a memoir piece. They have worked with teacher provided samples and their own, to practice skills and revise their work by improving leads, adding thoughts and feelings and providing descriptive detail. They will create a new piece or rework a previous effort and apply what they've learned as writers. They will then proofread it with a partner, word process on Google and present it for marking. Their choices will determine how much work and time is required since reworking an existing story will take far less time. I'm really looking forward to seeing what they produce as many have already gotten right to work eagerly when I gave them the heads up this week.

  Today the kids worked with wordle for the second time. Last time they created word groups to represent themselves. Today they did a wordle to represent their novel's main character and their traits. They were quick and efficient, most taking them home to color for Monday or finishing them in class.

  Many moved on from there to reading the web site posted poems and explored Toondo, a cartooning site linked here under resources. They need more time with it but they enjoyed creating cartoons with text. This site requires the user to set up a free account but really helps kids see writing in a different light showing the narrative in a different way. It will help cement use of dialogue and voice and I look forward to seeing what they come up with next week. One boy actually thought it wasn't fair at first because the person beside him was on a game site. He was thrilled when he realized he was expected to "play" on the site.

  Today the students word processed personal stories (memoirs) in Google Docs. They first listened to a story from me, then told stories in their groups. They are getting better at maintaining their silent writing in the lab. Today they lasted almost twenty minutes before many finished drafting and then went to inquiry project work which they love to share and talk about.

  The lab has become a work place as opposed to a play place. The fact that 95% of them go to project work when done is a testament to that. Only one student, who shall remain nameless went to a game when finished drafting today. We will next revise this piece for T&F (ask your kid) and for main message or "so what".  I have also had kids start to post their writing on this site and really hope they are getting read. The students have really embraced the new routine and everything is going well.

  Yesterday and today the students had the following list of items to work on in the lab.

1. Word Process "I Am From " poem on Google Docs and hand in a hard copy.

2. Invite four classmates to share online "About Me" slideshows using class gmail list.

3. Work on producing Inquiry notes and topic slideshows using google Docs and Internet.

4. If done WP new memoir from topics list in binders.

  They've been working on some of these things for weeks and were finally able to share them and work on them in the lab. Some students are at the end of that list while others are done one or two items. What they all had in common was they were working at their own pace, on their own writing and projects they selected, utilizing technology to complete and individualize their finished products. Their slide shows are cool and sometimes funny or touching. Their poems based on some we read written by older poets, are amazing. Their projects are on topics from wildlife species to ancestral homes and grandparents. Best of all, they are available for them and for their parents and those special few invited to do so, to share anytime anywhere with an internet connection. They won't be lost or ripped. They have an audience of classmates and families. They are really proud of this work and they should be. Please read and discuss it with them. John Palfrey and Urs Gasser in their work titled Born Digital, say "As students research and write, and create collaboratively through online environments, they will be learning skills that will serve them well over time, even as digital economies evolve." The skills these kids are learning and the work they are undertaking is preparing them for the future, a future where technology is not a luxury but a necessity. Are we already there? Before we left the lab on Thursday I asked the kids, " please raise your hand if you had fun in the lab today". Every hand went up. They are enjoying school work. Hmmmmmm.