I Wonder Questions

1. Is there snow in Australia?
2. Where did the name Adam and Eve come from? Is the story true or is it an allegory?
3. When did scientists think of the Big Bang theory?
4. How do sloths deal with no 3-D vision and the inability to grasp?
5. Why does the toilet flush the opposite direction in Australia?
6. What's the prediction about all the ice melting?
7. What is Haley's comet?
8. Is the sun really dimming?
9. How did they Egyptians makes such perfectly shaped pyramids?
10. Will the earth really end in 2011? (Someone heard that the earth is tilting)

Social Studies - Big Era 1

http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/dev/units/one/panorama/Era01_pan.htm

Big Era One covers 13 billion years ago - 200,000 years ago.

There are three learning objectives:

1. Scale of time of the universe
2. Humans and other organisms
3. Humans cultural characteristics

To read through the unit, click on the words "Complete Panorama Unit" in the top right corner.
To see the PowerPoint, click on "Power Point" in the top right corner.

Friday, January 25 we will have a test on Big Era 1.

Amanda!

Amanda is reading Touching Spirit Bear under duress. Well, maybe not anymore. She agreed to read it if I agreed to read a book she liked. It was tense for the first twenty minutes as we each grudgingly read our books, but then the tension lifted as we each found ourselves drawn into the story.

Reading Level 8
8.04 - Theme and Main Idea
8.07 - Critique issues (What things do and don't work in helping "troubled" teens?)
8.09 - Summarize

Rennaisance Club

We're still in Wales waiting to go to Diomede. The "blizzard" is happening and while it's not THAT bad, it took out the long distance, cable, and internet yesterday forcing us to have to find other things to do than chatting, Googling, and MySpacing.

In the spirit of the Renaissance, what are the things you did yesterday that felt good - the kinds of things we sometimes don't always make time for? (Life Skills 5.03 - Shares values and interests)

Daily Vocabulary Assignments

Amanda is signed up to take the SAT and so now is a good time for us all to begin focusing more on vocabulary development. There's a great site that introduces root words and I think it would serve as a great homework activity. At the end of the week we could test on the words learned that week.

http://www.resourceroom.net/comprehension/wordparts/index.asp
(Reading 7.01 - Latin and Greek Roots, Reading 8.01 - Context Clues and Root Words)

Go down the page to where it says "ject" in blue. Click on that and do the activity for those words on night one. The next night, click on "pre" and the following night, click on the next one. If you choose to handwrite your work, I suggest turning your paper sideways. If you choose to type or email your work, then I'd encourage you to write a sentence using the word instead of drawing a picture.

Please post a comment when you've completed the first night's homework. This way I'll know you figured it out or I'll know I need to explain something more. Also, how does a test on Friday sound?

Working Towards Graduation

This blog will allow you to stay up to date with classwork if you are absent or if you need a refresher. It will also allow you to work ahead. However, you must recognize that everything you publish on the blog and everything I publish will be available for the entire on-line world to see. This means that anything posted should be school appropriate in context and in grammar, as well as original. The goal is to provide opportunities for all of us to think and reflect on what we learn outside of the normal school day. You, of course, are always free to submit your thoughts via email instead of posting on the blog.