Dear Parents/Guardians of Nanowrimo authors,
After a month of slogging and sweating and creating and correcting, it is time to WIN.
In Computers tomorrow, students will be asked to verify their word count for their novels by cutting and pasting the text into the Nanowrimo Word Count Validator.
See here for more information: http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/node/1091548
Once the word count has been verified, your author will be proclaimed a winner of the challenge, and will be eligible for the prize!
Your involvement is necessary for the prize, however. Please see this for more details:
http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/node/1075382
and
http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/node/619879
The students have worked hard. We will be Youblishing the stories, too, but I want to give them a little time off of the stories before making final revisions/editing. I think they'll be in a better space to edit once they've had a short break from the stories.
Nancy
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Home stretch!
Nanowrimo was not assigned for homework, although some students chose to continue working on their novel at home. However, we are now in the final week of writing. To be on track for completion on time, your writer should be at 75%.
So, the homework this week is going to be for everyone to be at 90% by the end of the week, and 100% by next Wednesday (November 30).
Remember, the writing itself takes place on Google Docs, but the nanowrimo site needs to be updated after writing is done. Students were given my email address in case of technology issues (such as password issues, etc.)
Thanks for continuing to support your budding novelist!
So, the homework this week is going to be for everyone to be at 90% by the end of the week, and 100% by next Wednesday (November 30).
Remember, the writing itself takes place on Google Docs, but the nanowrimo site needs to be updated after writing is done. Students were given my email address in case of technology issues (such as password issues, etc.)
Thanks for continuing to support your budding novelist!
Friday, November 11, 2011
Check in on your budding novelist!
I am so impressed; Division 7 was floundering a bit this week when it came to our Nanowrimo goals. On Wednesday we were 14% of the way to completion with about a third of the month gone by. By Thursday we were at 18%, but many ambitious writers had increased their personal goals, finding that the Young Writers Program guidelines were too conservative for their abilities! Way to reach for the stars, Div. 7 writers!!
However, today I am thrilled to see that our class is at 42%, which is where we should be! Yay!!
Please ask your budding novelist to show you his or her story (on Google Docs). At this point we have learned about the structure of a story, good beginnings, and we've talked about character, so hopefully you see some of those lessons reflected in the writing. Next week we will talk about setting and good endings.
Also, remind your writer to make sure he or she has updated the YWP Nanowrimo site with the latest word count!
http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/
However, today I am thrilled to see that our class is at 42%, which is where we should be! Yay!!
Please ask your budding novelist to show you his or her story (on Google Docs). At this point we have learned about the structure of a story, good beginnings, and we've talked about character, so hopefully you see some of those lessons reflected in the writing. Next week we will talk about setting and good endings.
Also, remind your writer to make sure he or she has updated the YWP Nanowrimo site with the latest word count!
http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/
Monday, October 31, 2011
Blog survey
Please take a minute and give me some feedback on how you're finding the use of both this blog for giving parents information and the kidblog for writing homework.
I appreciate any input you can give me!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHBvY21RbzlNRFNxTFBzenlzVkV3TXc6MQ
You will have to cut and paste this--I am not sure why, but when I hyperlink it, I get an error message when trying to access the page. My apologies!
I appreciate any input you can give me!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHBvY21RbzlNRFNxTFBzenlzVkV3TXc6MQ
You will have to cut and paste this--I am not sure why, but when I hyperlink it, I get an error message when trying to access the page. My apologies!
Lots of education news!
My head is spinning with all the BC education news this past week... Of course we're all stressed about the continued protracted labour dispute, and looking for some good news there.
But today's government announcement has me feeling a little more hopeful than I have recently: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/announces+plans+modernize+education+system/5623807/story.html
I have to say that I agree with Susan Lambert that teachers are the ones pushing schools into the 21st century as we take on the challenges of using technology in the classroom. In our classroom, Mrs. Kollen and I continue to try to get comfortable with the SMARTboard, and by introducing students to Google's tools and blogging, I am hoping that we are giving our students some of the background they will continue to need throughout their public schooling.
I am currently doing a post-bac diploma at SFU, and one video we were shown in a semester on technology really opened my eyes to the way the world has changed, even in the past five or ten years. I thought I'd share it with you too (some of you have probably already seen it):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8
These are interesting times for our children...
But today's government announcement has me feeling a little more hopeful than I have recently: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/announces+plans+modernize+education+system/5623807/story.html
I have to say that I agree with Susan Lambert that teachers are the ones pushing schools into the 21st century as we take on the challenges of using technology in the classroom. In our classroom, Mrs. Kollen and I continue to try to get comfortable with the SMARTboard, and by introducing students to Google's tools and blogging, I am hoping that we are giving our students some of the background they will continue to need throughout their public schooling.
I am currently doing a post-bac diploma at SFU, and one video we were shown in a semester on technology really opened my eyes to the way the world has changed, even in the past five or ten years. I thought I'd share it with you too (some of you have probably already seen it):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8
These are interesting times for our children...
Sunday, October 30, 2011
NaNoWriMo
I really wish they'd come up with a better name for this event!
I wanted to clarify what our writing program will be for the month of November.
We will not be blogging this month. We will resume weekly blogging in December.
Instead, our sole writing focus will be on writing a novel. Having said that, each student is setting his/her own writing goal for this novel. The NaNoWriMo website has laid out the following guidelines for length: http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/wordcount
I've encouraged each student to both challenge herself and to be realistic in setting her goal. Prolific writers can exceed the upper end of the range for their grade, while struggling writers will want to stick with the lower end of the range.
One fun thing is that a fellow teacher at Alexander Robinson Elementary is doing the NaNoWriMo challenge with her class, so we will be having some friendly competition. It will be fun to check in with them and see how they're coming along with their writing goals!
Our class has three computer blocks per week. Lately we seem to be spending a lot of that time just logging in and troubleshooting. However, once the students get used to logging in, they should have about two hours in the lab per week to devote on the writing. I do not anticipate they will need to do any writing at home this month at all. However, about mid-month, I will have a look at where each student is and I may recommend some students spend some time at home working on their stories, too.
I wanted to clarify what our writing program will be for the month of November.
We will not be blogging this month. We will resume weekly blogging in December.
Instead, our sole writing focus will be on writing a novel. Having said that, each student is setting his/her own writing goal for this novel. The NaNoWriMo website has laid out the following guidelines for length: http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/wordcount
I've encouraged each student to both challenge herself and to be realistic in setting her goal. Prolific writers can exceed the upper end of the range for their grade, while struggling writers will want to stick with the lower end of the range.
One fun thing is that a fellow teacher at Alexander Robinson Elementary is doing the NaNoWriMo challenge with her class, so we will be having some friendly competition. It will be fun to check in with them and see how they're coming along with their writing goals!
Our class has three computer blocks per week. Lately we seem to be spending a lot of that time just logging in and troubleshooting. However, once the students get used to logging in, they should have about two hours in the lab per week to devote on the writing. I do not anticipate they will need to do any writing at home this month at all. However, about mid-month, I will have a look at where each student is and I may recommend some students spend some time at home working on their stories, too.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Art
Hi Parents,
We have been working on our portraits for several weeks now, and students are almost finished. The final step before mounting the portraits on construction paper is to finish collaging, and for some, this has been challenging.
My hope is that the students can finish the collaging at home. They are to match (as best they can) the colours from their coloured copy with magazine (or catalogue or flyer) paper cut into small shapes (about an inch square). There should be no white showing behind the collaged paper.
I have allowed students to bring magazines home with them, and there are more still here, so if finding paper is an issue, please just have them bring more home tomorrow.
The art is due Friday, November 4th.
Which brings me to a plea... some students do not have scissors at school. Could you please make sure that your child has the following at school?: scissors, glue sticks, fine liner, pencil crayons, ruler (in centimetres), pencils, pencil sharpener (with container to collect shavings).
Inevitably things break or go missing (or get used up), so I may post this type of plea from time to time through the year if I'm noticing children are asking to borrow my supplies often.
Thanks!
We have been working on our portraits for several weeks now, and students are almost finished. The final step before mounting the portraits on construction paper is to finish collaging, and for some, this has been challenging.
My hope is that the students can finish the collaging at home. They are to match (as best they can) the colours from their coloured copy with magazine (or catalogue or flyer) paper cut into small shapes (about an inch square). There should be no white showing behind the collaged paper.
I have allowed students to bring magazines home with them, and there are more still here, so if finding paper is an issue, please just have them bring more home tomorrow.
The art is due Friday, November 4th.
Which brings me to a plea... some students do not have scissors at school. Could you please make sure that your child has the following at school?: scissors, glue sticks, fine liner, pencil crayons, ruler (in centimetres), pencils, pencil sharpener (with container to collect shavings).
Inevitably things break or go missing (or get used up), so I may post this type of plea from time to time through the year if I'm noticing children are asking to borrow my supplies often.
Thanks!