Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has had a good Winter Break with an extra day added in there :). Before Break, we finished our Unit on the Advanced Rock Cycle and took the assessment on Thursday, December 18th. There was an assembly that ran longer than expected that day so 7th hour has 30 more minutes to finish their assessment on Monday, January 5th. If your child missed the assessment, please remind your child to take care of getting it finished after school at Homework Hub on Tuesday. I would like to be able to hand the assessment back to students quickly so I need all students to take the assessment quickly.

We will be beginning 2009 with a new WMU intern, Ms. Tracie Cagle. She came in and observed for two days before break started so most students have met her. Welcome to Milwood, Ms. Cagle!

If you did not know, we have been holding Homework Hub after school during the last two weeks of school. All the team teachers rotate through doing this and the schedule is posted in the team hallway each week. Students must sign in and also get a ditto slip that they fill out what they did and if it is finished or not. Then the teacher initials it and hands one sheet back to the student so they can show the parent/guardian and the teacher files the rest of the copies. Lots of kids have been taking advantage of this program either to just get their work done or get help.

We are now beginning our unit on Biofuels. What an opportune time to look at biofuels and how they affect Michigan and Detroit's Big Three! If you run across any information on the changes that Detroit's automakers are making to vehicles in order to improve sales please forward it to our classroom for discussion. Thanks.

Here's the schedule:

Monday, January 5
Science
Today, we will be getting our Science Binders in order so they are ready to turn in within the next two weeks for a final grade. We will also be beginning to see how the Biofuel unit looks and completing our Mind Map. In Science class, we are also responsible for reviewing hallway behaviors for the new year.

Tuesday, January 6
Science
Hopefully all assessments will be finished so that we can pass them back, look over them and then complete our test reflection and earning 1/2 points back.

Science Connections
We will be continuing the article on "Petroleum" that we began on Wednesday before break. (See December 17th and 19th).

Wednesday, January 7
Science
We will begin class with a reading strategy called, "BKWLQ". We will have a short article on what is occurring in MI currently with the automobile industry. Then we will create a list of things we already know about the situation with a partner at our table using the Kagan Strategy "Rally Table". Then we will share our ideas as a class using the team/student selector. After sharing, we will then go back to "Rally Table" to brainstorm all the things we want to learn about the topic during this unit. Again we will use the team/student selector to pick people to share their ideas for the class list. We will then read an article on the plight of the auto industry in Michigan independently and Rally Robin at our table ideas from the article. Students will complete an Exit Slip to leave class.

Thursday, January 8
Science
We will begin learning the vocabulary that will help us with this unit of study by completing Word Boxes. If they are completed in class today, students may turn them in, but they are due by tomorrow. Here are the words: biofuels, carbon dioxide, combustion, crude oil, emissions, global warming, hybrid, hydrogen, innovative, nonrenewable, oil refining, petroleum, renewable, and sustainable.

Science Connections


Friday, January 9

Science
We will begin our study of biofuels with a study of what the production of gasoline entails. Students will be given a primer, "How Gasoline is Made". We will work in pairs to read portions of the text and then come back together to take our Lancer Notes. This activity will be finished during Monday's lesson and there will be questions assigned to students to turn in on Tuesday, January 13th.

Ms. Cagle's Link: http://ms.cagle.tripod.com/