Saturday, June 23, 2007

Weekend Homework

Due Monday, June 25
  1. Humanities Project: 6 graphs (2 bar charts, 2 pie charts, 2 complex charts), include a small analysis of the results.
  2. DT - Design Technology: Mobile Phone Holder project due 8:30am
  3. Science - Essay due
  4. Portuguese - Homework due
  5. French - Homework due

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Words of wisdom . . .


Ten Rules Kids Won't Learn In School
via The Prairie Rambler, February 1998

1. Life is not fair. Get used to it. The average teenager uses the phrase "It's not fair" 8.6 times a day.

2. The real world won't care as much about your self-esteem as your school does. This may come as a shock.

3. Sorry, but you won't make $40,000 a year right out of high school. And you won't be a vice president or have a car phone, either. You may even have to wear a uniform that doesn't have a designer label.

4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss.

5. Flipping burgers is not beneath dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping. They called it opportunity.

6. It's not your parents fault if you mess up. You're responsible! This is the flip side of "It's my life" and "You're not my boss."

7. Before you were born your parents were not boring. They got that way paying your bills and listening to you.

8. Life is not divided into semesters. And you don't get summers off. Not even spring break.
You are expected to show up every day for eight hours; and you don't get a new life every 12 weeks.

9. Television is not real life. Your life is not a sitcom. Your problems will not all be solved in 30 minutes, minus time for commercials. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop to go to jobs.

10. Your school may be "outcome-based," but life is not. In some schools, you're given as many times as you want to get the answer right. Standards are set low enough so everyone can meet them. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblance to anything in real life—as you will find out.

Good luck!
You are going to need it—and the harder you work, the luckier you will get.



Thursday, June 14, 2007

Tessellation


What is a tessellation?

A tessellation is created when a shape is repeated over and over again covering a plane without any gaps or overlaps.

Another word for a tessellation is a tiling.

Below are some link that are associated with tessellation. Check them out!

Tessellations.org is a good place to begin. It's elementary and offers good basic advice for creating tessellations.

M. C. Escher is an artist of great imagination. The official M.C. Escher website will offer inspiration!

Math Forum .

Enter a tessellation contest here. This would be a really cool thing to do.

You can even wear tessellations. If you think about it, the patterns on many ties is nothing more than a tessellation. Click here to check out some M.C. Escher tessellations on clothing.

Look around, there are tessellations everywhere!

Monday, June 11, 2007

Change . . .

Autobiography in Five Chapters - by Portia Nelson

Chapter One

I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost.
I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out!

Chapter Two

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again!
I can't believe I am in the same place.
But it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out!

Chapter Three

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it there.
I still fall in.
It's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately!

Chapter Four

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter Five

I walk down another street.

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Can You Remember?

Memorize From General to Specific. Study the big picture, then learn the details. Learning and memorization are like a funnel. The process is not very effective when the small end is at the top.

Cramming Does Not Work! Cramming for an exam only commits the information to your short-term memory. You will forget when you never really learned.

Four Basic Reasons Why We Forget Pieces of Information:
1. Don't use the information.
2. Confuse it with other information.
3. Decide the information does not match what you already believe.
4. Never really learned the information in the first place.

Keys To Remembering:
1. Be interested. Pay attention. Consciously choose to remember. Establish a need to
remember.
2. Visualize. Picture in your mind what you wish to remember.
3. Relate. Relate and form associations between the new ideas and information you
wish to remember and information, ideas, persons, things, etc. that you already know.
4. Repeat. Even though something is initially learned, it will more than likely be
forgotten if not overlearned. Be sure to repeat information in your own words.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Critical Thinking Skills

  1. Don't Believe Everything You See, Read, or Hear. Decide for yourself what you are going to believe.
  2. Critical Thinking Is Important In Order To:
  • Enhance common sense.
  • Filter emotion.
  • Categorize experiences.
  • Select reference.
  • Understand the "experts."
  • Sort fact from opinion.
  • Learn to express yourself in a cogent and expressive manner.

3. Critical Thinkers Are:

  • Attractive socially.
  • Able to resist manipulation.
  • Able to overcome confusion.
  • Able to perceive connections between subjects and events.
  • Able to base judgments on evidence and facts.
  • Able to realize that the "truth" is never simple. Grey or foggy areas always exist.

adapted from Keys to College Success by BarCharts, Inc.

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Try This Great Interactive Writing Site

This is a wonderful site that is full of information and help for writing in English.

For academic success give it a try and click here!

Goal Setting

GOALS ARE TARGETS TOWARD WHICH YOU AIM
  1. Set realistic goals, within timeliness (in writing).
  2. Goals should be specific and clear.
  3. Determine the purpose of your goals and thier achievement benefits. Write them down next to your goal.
  4. Set specific strategies for accomplishing each goal (in writing).
  5. Set target dates for self-evaluation of progress.
  6. Periodically visualize your goal-as well as your strategies for accomplishing the goal.
  7. List potential obstacles to attaining the goal.
  8. List strategies for overcoming obstacles.
  9. Follow through on all strategies.

Are you willing to make the necessary sacrifices to accomplish your goals?

Source: BarCharts, Inc.

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Math Links

Ok - we've just started a new unit in Maths. Pay special attention to all that is said and KEEP GOOD NOTES. This is important because we need a good score in Maths.

This time we are focusing on Algebra 2.

We began talking about POLYNOMIALS.

Click here for an Algebra link that deals with polynomials.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

the question of the day - or should I say two?

There are several times throughout life when we need to re-evaluate what we are doing. What works for us at 5 years old, doesn't necessarily work when we are older. Such is life and we need to grow intellectually and emotionally (we need to go with the flow). So, to be more successful, we need to pull back and pay more attention to our behaviour. We need to get in touch with our "self" and ask a series of questions. Two questions to begin with are:

1. What is conditioning?
Click here to read what Wikipedia has to say about Classical Conditioning.

2. Why do we have rules?


Directions: Please take a few minutes and respond to these two questions. Use your own words to answer the questions.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Task 1 - "chasing cars" . . . What does it really mean?

Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol





Click here to see the song lyrics

Click here to read about the lyrics

3 Questions:

1. What does the term "chasing cars" mean (figuratively)?

2. Do you like this song? Why or why not?

3. Do you like the video? Why or why not?

Directions: Please read each of the three questions. Click on the link and read the lyrics to the song. You may "print" the lyrics if you like. Click "Play" and watch the video. You may read the lyrics while watching the video. You may watch the video as many times as you like. Click on the link to Wikipedia to read "about" the lyrics.

Email me your answer to these three questions so they can be uploaded onto the blog. (Type a number 1, then type your answer to the first question. Type a number 2, then type your answer to the second question. Finally, type a number 3 and type your answer to the third question.)

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Welcome to Connected!

Welcome to Connected - an educational blog.

Check out this blog often to see what we're up to. Leave us lots of comments. We want to get connected!