Complementary Angles

This is a great khanacademy video over supplementary and complementary angles. We will be watching this video on Tuesday when we come back from the break.

Russia after Communism

Russia during Communism

We will be taking notes over this video as well. What did Russia look like during Communism?

Russia under Lenin

We will be taking notes over this video as well about Russia under Lenin.

Russia under the Czars

This is a video about the Tsars of Russia. We will be taking notes over this video.

Boo Fun Grids

Class,

          I have hung up all of your fun grids out in the hallway for all to see. You all did such a great job on them. On Friday, since it is a half day, we will probably work on another fun grid, maybe the Shy Guy fun grid or a Star.

Bald Eagles in Llano, Texas....just two or three hours north of here

These are some beautiful photos of Bald Eagles in Llano, just up 87 from here.

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Southwest Florida Eagle Cam

http://www.ustream.tv/SouthwestFloridaEagleCam

Guys,
    
     You have to go to this link to see the mother Bald Eagle in her nest with her eggs, she just laid them today, I missed seeing her lay the eggs by minutes. My class watched the live minute-by-minute streaming video of them this afternoon, and it is AWSOME!! Just go to this link and the video is right there. The eagles are nesting in South Florida. My sister lives close to this site, and she directed me to this link knowing that I have a class full of students. I thoroughly enjoyed the footage!

Types of Energy Song

This is a cool Maroon 5 rendition of types of energy. You have to see this video. We will be discussing this concept when we return from the break.

Conserving Energy

This is a cute little cartoon on conserving energy. Watch this video and be prepared to discuss on Tuesday. Think about ways to conserve energy, and be prepared to identify them in your Energy Conservation Posters that we will be doing tomorrow.

Social Studies shortwrites.....

Class,

We will be having a social studies short-write every day of the week over each part of Russia we discuss note-wise. This will help you guys with your understanding, since you will be writing and reinforcing the knowledge you have learned into text. From now on, we will be doing short-writes over all the things we discuss in social studies.

The Fun Grids today...

Class,

          I am very pleased with all of you and your efforts on our first fun grid of the year; get used to them,because you will be seeing a lot of them the rest of the semester and throughout the rest of the year. This is a fun little activity that relieves you from the stress of math calculations, yet it reinforces the concepts of coordinate plane we just learned. We will be having a fun grid tomorrow that is just a little bit more difficult than the "Bullet Bill" we did, and we will be working on it for two days. There will be yet another fun grid on Friday, since it will be early release, I might even send one home with you over Thanksgiving. I will see everyone tomorrow bright and early.

Russian Society

This young woman describes in detail some of the aspects of her country and covers a range of topics. View this video and be prepared to discuss on Monday (November 18, 2013).

The Philippines Typhoon

This is just a glimpse of the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. We are talking total destruction of most of the Philippines. I would like for the class to write an essay describing your feelings about this picture on Monday.

Next Week at a glance (November 18-22, 2013)

Class,

          This week will be the last week before the Thanksgiving Holidays, and we will be quite busy. In math, we will be be continuing our study of coordinate plane and discussing Algebraic Tables. I will be letting you guys do some really cool fun grids since we know how to grid now. If you guys know how to find consistent equivalent ratios, algebraic tables and writing the expressions should be a breeze, and just about the entire class did really well on the last exam.
          In English, we will be reading Chapters 8 - 10 in the 39 Clues Book. I am postponing the book exam until we come back from Thanksgiving and make the exam cover Chapters 1 - 10, and I will probably give that exam the Tuesday we come back (December 3, 2013). I will also be giving the Unit 2 ELA Exam on that Friday we come ( December 5, 2013), so we will have two exams for English that week.
          In Social Studies, we will continue to look at Russia, some of its culture and history, as well as the economy. We will also continue our exploration of Energy Resources. 

Tomorrow at a glance (November 15, 2013)

Class,

          I would just like to take a moment to say that I am proud of all of you. The Ratio/proportion exams went quite well. All of you showed your work, and it was evident by the good grades. Keep up the good work.

          Tomorrow, we will be doing Gridville. After today, and our first discussion over coordinate plane today, I am quite confident in the ability of each one of you to plot ordered pairs efficiently. We will be discussing how to plot fractions and decimals on the coordinate plane. This will help us when it comes time to do fun grids and Coordinate Siege.We will also be reading from Chapter 6 of our 39 Clues book, and we will be looking at Renewable and non-renewable resources in more detail.

Answer this question......(Homework Thursday November 14, 2013)

Here is the writing prompt:

We have seen from our Chernobyl video how dangerous nuclear waste can be. Write me a short essay telling me how nuclear waste and the production of nuclear energy can be harmful to the environment?

Unit 5 (Algebraic Representation) Tomorrow

Class,
Tomorrow, we will be moving into Unit 5 and looking at plotting ordered pairs on the coordinate plane. Those of you who have not finished or done the Ratios/Proportions exam due to absence, you will be completing that exam tomorrow morning. We will be reiterating the discussion form tomorrow on Friday as we do our Gridville activity. I will be showing you guys how to plot a coordinate on the X and Y axes. With this will come lots of other fun activities. See everyone tomorrow.

Multiplying Fractions

This is a concept we will be covering after the STAAR test. It is a very simple concept that will help you guys be ready for 7th and 8th Grade.

Gridville Illustration

Here is a bird's eye view of Gridville. It is my little creation.

Pythagorean Theorem

Here, I teach about Pythagorean Theorem. I give a step-by-step lesson. I will be going over this concept in class around April, after the STAAR.

Ordering Decimals

This is something in my class that students had some trouble with on the Screener, most of my students. I want you guys to view this tutorial and practice some decimal ordering.

Algebraic Functions

This is just an extension of Algebraic Expressions; it is pretty much the same process and concept.

Algebraic Expressions

This is one of my videos on solving simple algebraic expressions. I make this concept easy to see and learn. View this video.

Simple Algebraic Expressions

This is a good khan academy video over simple algebraic expressions. We will be starting this Unit on Thursday. View this video, and be prepared to discuss it a little on Thursday morning.

Coordinate Plane (November 14, 2013)

This is a step-by-step explanation of the coordinate plane. We will be doing this on Thursday, and I want you all to be ready for it. Please view this video (I know it is 19 minutes) and be prepared for Thursday and Gridville.

This week at a glance (November 11-15, 2013)

Class,

          This week, we will be busy. In math this week we will be doing stations for Unit 4 Exam preparation and a review on Tuesday. Unit 4 Exam will be given on Wednesday of this week. On Thursday, we will be in Unit 5. This is where we will start looking at grid points and graphing;look forward to seeing Gridville this week as well.  I have videos on the blog that give you a visual depiction of Gridville.
          In English, we will also be reading Chapters 5, 6, and 7 out of our 39 Clues book, and we will be doing punctuation and spelling corrections once again this week as well. We will also be getting our new spelling words for the week, and we will have a spelling test on Friday. Next week, we will be taking the Unit 2 Exam for English  and a Chapter 1-7 Test over the book.
          This week we will be having our Unit 5 Exam for Social Studies. There will be a review on Monday and the Exam on Tuesday. Starting Wednesday, we will be going into Unit 6, which discusses Russia and the Eurasian provinces.
          In Science, we will be taking the Unit 5 Exam for Compounds. We will then jump into Unit 6 and Energy Conservation where we talk about renewable and nonrenewable resources. This week will be a wee of lots of new things. I am excited!!!

    

Adding Mixed Numbers with Michael Ellison

In this video, I show you how to add two mixed numbers together using a simple method that breaks up and separates the mixed numbers into 4 separate numbers. Check it out and tell me what you think!

Warthog gets attacked by crocodile

 You guys have to see this video of the warthog that is attacked by the crocodile. It is eerie!!!



 

Extinct Western Black Rhinos

Hey everyone,

It is a sad day for our world and nature; the Western black rhino was declared extinct today by the IUCN. When any animal species goes extinct and leaves this earth it makes me very sad indeed. I hate hearing that kind of news with me being an avid naturalist and lover of animals, wild ones especially. Here is a picture of this once beautiful majestic animal before it met its demise. We must all be aware of our earth and do right by it. We need to educate people on just how delicate the balance of nature really is and how our actions and activities on this earth interfere, a lot of the time, with an animal species' way of life.

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Greenland before and after ice cap melting

envs1020ko.blogspot.com

210 × 254 - jamesbalog.weebly.com

What Earth may look like after total ice cap melting

This is what the Earth could look like if the polar ice caps melted completely. The oceans would rise approximately 212 feet. This is really scary. My home town (Houston) would be gone.

resumbrae.com

resumbrae.com

theminiaturespage.com

 

 

Giant crocodiles

These monsters lived prehistorically also and were terrifying.
 

620 × 197 - prehistoric-wildlife.com

Prehistoric horses

Horses were actually this small in history. There are fossils that have been found of these little creatures. The Eohippus is one prehistoric species.

350 × 260 - eohippus.usegrid.net

Titanoboa

         This snake did once exist here on earth during the Miocene Era right after the fall of the dinosaurs. It has been found in fossils and is thought to have reached lengths of 40+ feet and had a weight of 2,500 pounds. Now guys, I love snakes, love to handle them and play with them, but a snake this size would be pretty scary, and snakes do not scare me one bit y'all.

738 × 358 - dinosaurs.wikia.com

Science prompt (November 7, 2013)

Class,

For the writing prompt today I want you to tell me some of the ways you can tell that a chemical reaction has taken place. Use your notes that I gave you for help if you do not remember all of them.

Tomorrow at a glance (November 7, 2013)

Class,

          Tomorrow, we will be getting into day 2 of our project. Remember to take your time on your work and check it thoroughly, because this is a big ticket assignment. We will also be getting into our Social Studies project and having our own little Renaissance in class. Bring your art ideas and be prepared to be creative...

39 Clues and Math homework for tomorrow (November 6, 2013)

          We will be reading Chapter 3 of the book 39 Clues. We will also be doing a chapter sketch over Chapter 3, and I will be having you all do a short write over how you would feel if you were in the same circumstances as Dan and Amy; what would you do? We will also be reading Chapter 4 on Friday.

         Tomorrow, for sure, we will be having homework for math; it will be some more long division that will have a remainder that you will turn into a decimal. I want all of you to get really good at long division, because solving proportions and unit rate depend on you being proficient at long division.

XYZ Construction Project tomorrow

Class,

Tomorrow we will be starting our XYZ Construction project; be ready to work. This will be some preparation for next week's Unit Exam. I will be giving out 60 tickets to each group.

The Renaissance

We will be watching this youtube for social studies today as we explore the Renaissance and how it affected Europe and its culture. Be prepared to write a summary about the video.

Renaissance Art

 

This is a short clip of some famous Renaissance artwork. We will watch this video and be prepared to discuss tomorrow.

Class Math Project this week (November 6-8)

Class,
          This week Starting on Wednesday, we will be starting a math project that involves solving ratios, unit rates, and proportions. Our company will be the XYZ Construction company, and it will be divided up into 5 divisions. I will put you all in groups of no more than 3, and I will be choosing the groups, so be prepared to venture outside your comfort zone a little. This will be a big grade, almost like a test, and each division will start off with wages of $60.00(tickets for students), so this is a big ticket earning opportunity for everyone. I will explain the rules on Wednesday. We will be having the Unit 4 Math exam next week, around Tuesday.

Chemical Reactions

Today we will be talking about chemical reactions. We will be viewing this youtube and discussing it in class today. I will want you guys to write a short summary about three things you learned about chemical reactions.