Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Your moment in the spotlight is here!

Who: 605 and 606
What: End-of-the-year awards celebration!
When: Wednesday during class
Where: Ms. Sharber's room
Why: Because you're awesome and I love you.

Bring your brilliant selves to class ready to clap for your teammates.

And bring a pencil.

Seriously.

All I want this year is ONE DAY in which everyone has a pencil.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Daily Notes

SHOUT OUTS for Monday, June 23
  • Theodore, for being so enthusiastic about writing a letter to Kay Miller
  • Isaac, for working like a true scholar on his letter to Kaitlin Ainsworth
  • Ms. Bolds, for showing such a great attitude on a day when she felt sick
NEWS
  • The last week of school is SUPER IMPORTANT, and we are learning until 11:30 on Thursday. GET OUT OF BED AND COME TO CLASS!!!
  • Our 605/606 baseball game is Thursday.




CONGRATULATIONS to today's winners:
  • Ultimate Science Challenge 2008: Theodore, Vincent, Ousman
  • Ultimate Math Challenge 2008: Bryson, Hakeem, Manny

Friday, June 20, 2008

Daily Notes

SHOUT OUTS for Friday, June 20
  • Ashford, for having a great positive attitude all day
  • Vernessa and Isaac, for being totally respectful citizens on the field trip
NEWS
  • Math and science final exams are MONDAY! Come prepared.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Daily Notes

SHOUT OUTS for Wednesday, June 18

  • Isaac, for being totally respectful all day long in 605
  • Anthony, for resisting the urge to argue back about the cool feedback for his presentation and instead saying a simple "thank you"
  • Devonte, for paying close attention to other groups' presentations and asking excellent, targeted questions
MATH
  • Both 605 and 606 have FINISHED their Fantasy Baseball League tasks and presentations!  Binders will be due next week, so begin catching up on any work you've missed.
  • Our math final exam will be Friday or Monday, depending on the school schedule. 
SCIENCE
  • Final exam is on Monday.
  • Click on the link in the post below this one for videos that will help you review.
NEWS
  • Tomorrow, Thursday, is our drum performance and 6th grade award ceremony!  Invite your parents from 9:15 till 10:30.
  • Bring money to the ceremony to support the 8th graders' jewelry and clothing business.  Items range from $2-20.

Awesome science videos!

Click here.   =)

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Want to know what college is like?

We've spent a lot of time this year talking about college and reading letters from people who went to college.  Recently, I found a way to show you what daily life in college is actually like, and I want to share it with you.


The link above takes you to a Web site with 24 videos of different classes and activities at Northwestern University in Chicago.  The videos trace an entire day in the lives of different students, professors, and university staff.  You can watch each one to get ideas for what you will do once you get to college!

A special note: the link that says "BLAST" shows the dance group that Ms. Sharber was a part of during college.  I used to teach dance classes just like the ones in the video, and the man teaching dance in the video is a friend of mine who I used to dance with.

Enjoy!


Friday, June 13, 2008

Election Season: Get Involved!

Many of you said you were interested in learning more about the candidates in this year's presidential race, Barack Obama and John McCain.


Here are the links to each candidate's official Web site. Later this weekend, I will be emailing a scavenger hunt for these Web pages to everyone who signed up for a Gmail account today.

Congratulations on setting up Gmail accounts!

The members of 605 and 606 who were in Ms. Sharber's class on Friday set up their own Gmail accounts so that they can add comments to this blog and keep in touch with each other.  During class, we experimented with sending emails to one another and setting up our contact lists.  

If you were absent on Friday or gone on a field trip, you will set up your Gmail account with Ms. Sharber next week.

If you get confused about how to sign in to your Gmail account, start here at www.gmail.com.

Have fun exploring!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Daily Notes

SHOUT OUTS for Thursday, June 12
  • Theodore, Vincent, Ousman, Vernessa, and Ashford, for coming to school on a half day. You rock.
  • Vincent, Ousman, and Ashford, for working hard to master another standard on their way to meeting their Big Goal of STRAIGHT 80s by the end of the year!
MATH
  • 605 moves on to designing their Fantasy Baseball League jerseys next week.
  • 606 will do their second round of group presentations on Monday.
  • Our math final exam is next week (the day is yet to be determined).
SCIENCE
  • Our science final exam is next Tuesday and will cover all units from the year.
NEWS
  • Due to the hard work of Vincent, Ashford, and Ousman today, 605 math mastery moved from 47% to 49% !!!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Daily Notes

SHOUT OUTS for Tuesday, June 10
  • Class 605 and 606, for leaving Ms. Sharber's room GORGEOUS when she returned from her absence! Woo-hoo!
  • Vincent, Ousman, Joanna, Ashford, Isaac, Kevin, and Destiny, for coming to school in perfect uniform even though it's so hot inside
  • Devonte, for working hard with Ms. Bolds on decimals during math
  • Theodore, for finishing the work of 3 people even though his whole team was absent

MATH

  • Tomorrow, Wednesday, we will do mastery conferences to update you on your progress toward your Big Goal of STRAIGHT 80s.

SCIENCE

  • Our unit test on organisms will be on Friday, so come ready to review on Wednesday and Thursday!

NEWS

  • Central Park field trip folks: we ARE going this Friday. Ms. Sharber will send out updated permission forms for those of you who have not turned one in.
  • ANY student who reaches his or her Big Goal of STRAIGHT 80s in science will be going to the Bodies exhibit in Manhattan at the end of the year. WORK HARD!
  • 12 DAYS left to master your Big Goal of STRAIGHT 80s!!!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Ready to become an expert on global warming?

For our final science unit of the year, we will be taking a close look at global warming. I will be posting videos on our blog to help you explore what global warming is, what is causing it, and what effects we may feel in the coming years. Enjoy this first video, and respond to the question at the end for extra credit.




Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Daily Notes

SHOUT OUTS for Wednesday, June 4
  • Franklin, for offering some very insightful suggestions to his classmates after their presentations
  • Emmanuel, for asking in-depth math questions to other teams
  • The Coneheads, for sticking together as a team and completing all their batting averages

MATH

  • Our next round of presentations for the Fantasy Baseball League will be recorded on video, so make sure your team is working hard to get ready!

SCIENCE

NEWS

  • No school tomorrow, Thursday.
  • 14 DAYS left to master your Big Goal of STRAIGHT 80s!!!
  • Please give Ms. Sharber your email address using the form below.

Lynchings: Tough to talk about, but important to study

Today, many of you said you wanted to learn more about lynchings in the United States. A lynching is the illegal killing of a person by a mob (a large crowd of people). Often, the victim did nothing wrong. And often, the victim is a member of a racial or ethnic group that the large crowd dislikes.

We will be learning more about lynching in class during the next few weeks, but if you want to explore on your own, check out this Web site. Please ask your parents to look at this Web site with you to help you understand better.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Daily Notes

SHOUT OUTS for Tuesday, June 3
  • Shane, for rocking his first Fantasy Baseball League assignment on his first day of class
  • Hakeem and Bryson, for embodying the qualities of excellent teammates
  • Joanna, Vincent, and Anthony, for working hard on multiplying decimals at 7:45
  • Milton, for sweeping Around the World
MATH
  • Practice 7 times tables for Around the World this week.
SCIENCE
  • Today we had Life Skills instead of science: RESPECT AUTHORITY!!!
NEWS
  • Don't forget (like there's any chance of that): No school on Thursday!
  • 15 DAYS of school left to master your Big Goal of STRAIGHT 80s!!!