BIRTHDAY!

You are going to respond to THREE different BIRTHDAY prompts. Your assignment will be saved on ONE Microsoft Word document that you will name as your last name and birthday (ex: HeistBirthday). Once you've finished all THREE prompts that you've chosen and it is as near-perfect as can be, drag it to the H Drive in the folder marked birthday. You may choose and save a picture to go with your assignment, if you like.

 

PROMPT CHOICES:

1. What was your favorite birthday and why? Who was there? Did you have a party? What presents did you get? Be very specific about what made it so special.

2. What was your worst birthday and why? Be extremely detailed about what made it such an awful memory. As always, you can make it into a character's story and exaggerate all the details to an extreme degree.

3. Have you ever been to a birthday party that was so extravagant it actually made you somewhat jealous? If not, create a story in which a character goes to a birthday party that is completely out of his league. This especially includes the present that you got this person.

4. How do you feel as though you will change with your upcoming birthday? Will your responsibilities change? Will your clock start ticking a little faster to do something that you've been meaning to do? Be specific and detailed.

5. Create your ideal birthday story for any age that you wish. You can re-make a birthday party or get together you've already had or plan out a new amazing celebration for the future. The important thing is to make it absolutely perfect in every possible way.

6. In a bit of magic, you get to relive each of your birthdays from the age of one all the way to now. How does it feel to be back in that high chair? What about playing party games a little bit down the road? Sitting with that middle school sweetheart you had at the time? What would you do differently and what would you make sure stayed the same?

7. Create a story in which the main character hates birthdays, and tries extremely hard to avoid telling people that today is his special day. And it happens to be the best day of his life. Elaborate to the extreme.

8. Talk about your best birthday cake experience, yours or someone else's. Did you put your face in one? Did you eat five to ten pieces of one? Have fun with this one and really flesh everything out using a lot of details! Mmm, frosting.

9. Write a story about throwing a birthday party for someone. Whether it be for a family member or a significant other. How did it go? Did the person enjoy him or herself?

10. What is the best present that you've ever gotten for your birthday? Not necessarily the most expensive, but the one that was the most important to you. Talk about it and try to remember where that present is today.

Nora's Picture

Coltan's Picture

Abby's 1st Picture

Abby's Second Picture

Chase's Picture

Katie's Picture

Kishan's Picture

Lacie's Picture

Lena's Picture

Ryan's Pic

Travel Assignment – Due Friday, April 15th

 

Your assignment is due by 3:00 pm, on Friday, April 15, 2011. You will turn in a digital folder that contains three separate items:

 

1. A Word document with your original notes and research.

2. A Microsoft Publisher document (which can be a flyer, a brochure, a postcard, etc.)

3. A Word document that contains your report.

 

Your travel report needs to contain the following information:

    ~Where you're going on the trip and who is going with you. Also include a detailed explanation of why you chose to go          where you're going and why you chose to bring who you are bringing.

    ~A calendar for each of the seven days outlining what you'll do each day. Be as specific as possible.

    ~A budget outlining your expenses including (but not limited to) airfare/carfare/train fare, etc., spending money, food     money, hotel expenses, car rental, etc.

PowerPoint Presentation Assignment

You are to create a PowerPoint presentation that uses information you've found by conducting Internet research. Your project should be colorful, interesting, and fact-filled. Goldilocks, remember that each slide should be just right --- not too much information/text and not too little text/information.

SAVE AS YOU GO!

    SAVE AS YOU GO!

        SAVE AS YOU GO!

            SAVE AS YOU GO!

                SAVE AS YOU GO!

Your topic? Here you go… design the PERFECT school.

You will include your own ideas and thoughts on what make a school successful. Each slide should have graphics/pictures, text, and plenty of YOUR OWN ideas.

SAVE AS YOU GO!

    SAVE AS YOU GO!

        SAVE AS YOU GO!

            SAVE AS YOU GO!

                SAVE AS YOU GO!

Save to the folder marked Perfect School. Name the project your last name school (example: HeistSchool)

SAVE AS YOU GO!

    SAVE AS YOU GO!

        SAVE AS YOU GO!

            SAVE AS YOU GO!

                SAVE AS YOU GO!

 

March 14th – PowerPoint Assignment

You are to create a PowerPoint presentation that uses information you've found by conducting Internet research. Your project should be colorful, interesting, and fact-filled. Goldilocks, remember that each slide should be just right --- not too much information/text and not too little text/information.

Choose one of the topics below:

• Isn't Health Insurance the Right of all Americans?
  
• Nuclear Proliferation: Will Development of Nuclear Weapons Fuel a Third World War?
  
• Violent Video Games Should be Banned
  
• Is Death Penalty Inhuman?
  
• Euthanasia: The Right to Die?
  
• Some Thoughts About Human Cloning.
  
• Pros and Cons of Adoption.
  
• The Grim Reality of Climate Change.
  
• Use of Mobile Phones in Schools.
  
• Should an Extra Language be Made Mandatory in Schools
  

• Are Websites like Facebook or MySpace Substituting Face-to-Face Social Interaction
  
• Homework Should be Banned
  
• Television is a Bad Influence
  
• Pros and Cons of Coeducation Schools
  
• Importance of Finding a Career
  
• Is There a More Effective Punishment than Grounding
  
• Should Schools Make Uniforms Compulsory?
  
• The Cons and Cons of Junk Food. ('Cons' repeated twice for effect.)
  

Sex Education in Schools

• Teen Pregnancy
  
• Best TV Shows for Middle School Students.
  

 

Save to the folder marked March 14^th. Name the project your last name 314 (example: Heist314)

SAVE AS YOU GO!

    SAVE AS YOU GO!

        SAVE AS YOU GO!

            SAVE AS YOU GO!

                SAVE AS YOU GO!

Anti-Bullying Reflection Questions

1. Do you think bullying is a serious problem in your school or community? Why or why not?

2. How do you think bullies feel when they demean someone else?

3. Do you think it's possible to make a bully understand other people's feelings? Why or why not?

4. How do adults in your school or community address bullying? Have you seen adults look the other way? What

kind of interventions have you seen adults use to prevent or stop bullying?

5. What kind of interventions can young people use to prevent or stop bullying? List three things you could do to

defuse a bullying situation.

6. Do you think you've ever bullied someone? If so, what made you stop? What made you want to bully someone

again?

7. Did any of the facts in the quiz concern you personally? Which ones?

8. After taking the quiz, are there behaviors or experiences you have had that you want to change? Describe your

feelings, what you might want to change, and how you could go about making that change.

upper grades handout

Story – By the Numbers!

Character a new mother a photographer a recent high school graduate a restaurant owner or manager an alien from outer space a homeless child a 93-year-old woman an environmentalist a college student a jazz musician

Setting near a National Forest a wedding reception a celebration party an expensive restaurant a shopping mall a city park the porch of an old farmhouse a polluted stream a college library a concert hall

Time during a forest fire after a fight the night of high school graduation after a big meal sometime in December late at night after a big thunderstorm has passed in early spring first week of the school year during a concert

Situation/Challenge an important decision needs to be made a secret needs to be confessed to someone else someone's pride has been injured a death has occurred someone has found or lost something someone has accused someone else of doing something wrong reminiscing on how things have changed someone feels like giving up something embarrassing has just happened someone has just reached an important goal

TIP OF THE WEEK:

If you are working in Microsoft Word and find yourself using the same nouns and verbs over and over, the program's built-in thesaurus can make your writing less repetitious. The thesaurus is available from the Tools menu, but there is an even quicker way to summon this handy reference tool.

In most versions of Word for Windows, highlight the word you want to change and press the Shift + F7 keys to quickly open the Reference Tools box. On most Mac versions of the program, highlight the word and press the Shift + Option + Command + R keys all at once to see a list of alternatives.

On both systems, you can also right-click (or control-click) in a selected word and choose Synonyms from the menu to see your options.

By: J. D. BIERSDORFER

iPad vs. textbook: which one do you want?

iPad vs. textbook: which one do you want?

School? There's an app for that. According to the New York Times, an increasing number of schools across the country are replacing textbooks with iPads, and using the Apple gadget as an overall learning tool.

The iPads are being distributed by schools to students and teachers, and allow students to learn lessons, correspond with teachers and turn in assignments. Teachers say the devices let students to have a multimedia experience when learning English, math and more, and help to teach pupils using animation and games.

Schools in New York, Illinois, Arizona and New Jersey have already embraced the gadget, and more states are expected to follow. However, the educational value of the hi-tech devices has yet to be proven by research.

"There is very little evidence that kids learn more, faster or better by using these machines," said Larry Cuban, a professor emeritus of education at Stanford University. "IPads are marvelous tools to engage kids, but then the novelty wears off and you get into hard-core issues of teaching and learning."

But teachers are in full support of the thousands of educational apps available, and praise the physical design of the iPad, which allows students to maintain eye contact with them. The lightweight device also relieves students of heavy, textbook-loaded backpacks, which can cause neck, back and shoulder pain.

Boy rescued after his tongue gets stuck on pole

Boy rescued after his tongue gets stuck on pole

In a scene straight from the movie "A Christmas Story," an 8-year-old Oklahoma boy got his tongue stuck to a metal pole after he licked it on a dare.

Officials say when rescue crews arrived Tuesday morning, the boy was standing on his tiptoes, trying to wriggle his frozen tongue free from a stop sign pole across the street from Woodward Middle School.

Paramedics were able to help the boy by pouring water on his tongue. Once free, the boy told officials he got stuck after his brother dared him to lick the pole.

The boy was taken to a Woodward hospital for treatment.

The scene was similar to one in "A Christmas Story," a 1983 movie adapted from Jean Shepard's memoir of a boy in the 1940s.

**From: Associated Press

What Are Your 2011 Hopes and Resolutions?

by KATHERINE SCHULTEN

 

The Week in Review encourages readers not to feel guilty if they've already broken their New Year's resolutions, and suggests some easy ways to have a "sustainable life." Do you make New Year's resolutions? Do you keep them? In general, what are you hoping for in 2011?

In the Sustainable Life issue of the Week in Review, Mark Bittman suggests three basic recipes to help change the way we eat and live, David Pogue writes about ways to recycle tech gadgets, Tara Siegel Bernard explains why budgets don't work, and Tara Parker-Pope explores how long-term relationships thrive. In the introduction to the section, the editors write:

It's the day after New Year's— broken your resolutions yet? No guilt necessary. After all, it's hard enough to make it through a day, never mind a year, of good intentions. The problem is often with the resolutions themselves: Stay financially upright. Be loving to your spouse. Eat better. Recycle. Easy to say, but hard to do. So here, a guide on making those resolutions stick — and keeping the guilt at bay.

Students: Tell us about your hopes and resolutions for 2011, and be as specific as you can in describing what you want and how you'll go about getting it. That is, rather than writing, "I want to improve my grades," tell us exactly what grades you'd like to improve and how you plan to make that happen; instead of writing "I want to have more fun with my friends," tell us what you idea of "fun" is and how and when you can find ways to have more of it. Do you agree with the Week in Review that, in making resolutions, the battle is in "finding ways to close the gap between good intentions and human nature"? What gets in your way?