Welcome to the ICS Middle School Blog!

Greetings!

 

This blog is here to showcase the incredible work that our students are doing in their classrooms.
We are so excited for what the 2016/17 year will be bringing!  Our teachers are ready to walk with students through the learning process utilizing amazing tools and strategies!  This is going to be a great year!

If you are interested in a specific grade, please click on the tags to the right for your specific grade level.
Thank you so much for your support and we look forward to sharing our learning experiences with you!

 

Reflections of a reluctant Smart Music user

Of note this year is the move by the band and strings groups to using Smart Music in a more intensive way. Made possible by the school purchasing Smart Music licenses for every student and intentionally focusing on the use of Smart Music as an integral part of the teaching process. Taking advantage of the school 1:1 laptop program, this has meant the students can all have access to Smart Music whenever it is needed at school or at home.

A great benefit of this is that this has eliminated long lines in the practice rooms, and the need to students to stay after school to complete assignments if they had not purchased a Smart Music subscription. Another major change has been the discontinuation of a paper practice journal, replaced by a Smart Music practice assignment.

As the Middle School Beginning Band teacher, in the past I have not put much emphasis on the use of Smart Music beyond making sure my students can use it to complete their assignments so that they had the skills needed when they move up to the Intrada Band. My feeling was that initially it was not much use to the beginners as they did not yet have enough control of their instrument to benefit in a meaningful way from what Smart Music offers.

This year we introduced Smart Music into Beginning Band much earlier that we normally do due to the changes in the way we are using Smart Music. Initial attempts were dramatic, mostly red notes and high scores of 2%! Reassuring the students that I would not be grading their Smart Music assignments (yet). Feeling smug that I was probably right in my assessment of its usefulness for the beginners; and thinking that I would just make sure that they know how to use it, and encourage them to integrate it into their practice time to help them create good habits for when they transfer into Intrada Band I decided to get back to helping them play. However a month later and their scores were now in the 60% to 80% range and they are enthusiastically talking about how they are using it at home to improve their playing I realize I may have underestimated its value for the beginners.

Initially in class I focus on breathing and making a good strong sound. Then once we have started to master that I have them quickly learn the first six notes. We can then spend time working our way through exercises that strengthen their tone, technique and breathing. One of the reasons I do this is so that they have something more interesting to play than the earlier exercises in the book, and it is more motivating as they feel like they are making progress.

Smart Music helps the beginners to move from merely practicing what we have been doing in class to actively learning while they practice. Smart Music allows them to:

1) Listen to their part before playing, this allows them to hear the music in their head which makes it easier to find the notes

2) Play along with their own part, accompanied or a click track

3) Click on a note to see the fingering

4) Forces them to match the speed which helps with Music reading, fingering recall, reaction speeds etc

5) Practice keeping on time, maintaining a constant speed throughout

6) Receive immediate feedback

7) See their progress as they improve

For myself as a teacher there are also advantages, for example

1) To move from the Beginning Band to the Intrada Band students need to audition for the Intrada Band teacher. Smart Music allows us to pre-audition the students to determine the best time for them to audition.

2) Allows for other Music teachers to offer diagnostic help if I have a student struggling

3) There are more options for reporting progress to parents

4) I can listen to their submitted assignments and provide feedback to them on the work they are doing at home. Then I can reassign the assignment and ask the student to resubmit based on my feedback.

5) I feel that I know my students better this year as I can hear them where they are at and plan more effectively to meet their learning needs in class.

Other classes/Teachers use Smart Music to

• Set a sight reading challenge, students get one chance to play a new piece and see how well they do.
• Set targeted and guided practice
• Reassign assignments to see how much a student has improved
• Use an assignment as a formative assessment, then once the student has had time to master the skills, the assignment is modified and reposted as a summative assessment.  

Miss Weldon says...

“I use it in all of my classes for practicing. Each week they have a smartmusic practice log where I can see what they've practiced and when. They also have playing assessments about every other week where I can hear how they are doing in their concert pieces so I can help them in class. It's totally changed my class and has been so effective!”

Beginning Band is a crash course in playing an instrument, and our of our goals is to transition the students into the full Band. One of the ways that this occurs is we take the beginning Band students into the Intrada Band for part or all of a number of lessons. This allows them to see what the band is like and the expectations of a band class. Smart Music allows us to take this integration phase one step further. The Beginning Band students can also join the Intrada Band Smart Music Class and thus see what their current assignments are, they can practice the same assignments and even submit them in Smart Music. This is very motivating for the students as they can set goals for their practice times.

Overall Smart Music has proven itself to be a valuable tool in helping the students to master their instruments, providing a versatile assessment tool both for teachers and the students. It has allowed students to more easily identify their weak areas and address these through targeted practice while providing support to them through helpful features and immediate feedback at home.

While at the start I would have said that I was a reluctant Smart Music user, I can now see the benefit to the students as they use it as a tool to improve their playing and prepare themselves to move to the next Band.

For more information contact you friendly Band or Strings teacher, they will be happy to tell you more about this amazing resource and how it can benefit your playing

Exploring and Investigating Using Web-based Simulations

In our Weather and Climate unit, students investigated the impact of carbon dioxide on temperature by "introducing" carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and analyzing graphs. In this simulation, students observed how greenhouse gases trap infrared radiation (heat), which in turn, increases temperature.

Recently, in our Space Science unit, 7th grade students explored the lunar cycle. Here, they're taking an initial look at the way the moon is lit, so that they can begin to understand the phases of the moon.

This year, the use of laptops in the science classroom has enabled students to use models (one of our Science and Engineering Practices) to aid their understanding of concepts, and explore and investigate using simulations.

Using Glo Bible to Create Visual Understanding

The Glo Bible application has been installed in all MS student's computers. One of its benefits is that  students can view actual photographs of actual Bible locations that are mentioned in specific passages. We used the following pictures when discussing the events of 2 Kings 3, which take place in specific geographic regions, which have an important connection to understanding what happened and why.

Plains of Moab

Dead Sea

Desert of Edom

Mountains of Edom

Using Technology in Beginning Band to Excel.

Learning an instrument can be daunting at first. When a new student arrives at ICS they need to join one of the instrumental groups. If they chose to play a band instrument, they first come into beginning band where they learn the fundamentals of their chosen instrument. We aim to accelerate them to the point where they can join in one of the performance bands. This can be tough, especially if they don’t already have a strong musical background.

Today's students have the advantage of technology to help them on their journey. It allows them to focus on weak areas, and get specific help where they need it most.

If a student is struggling with note identification or music theory, I found that http://www.musictheory.net/ is a great tool to help students learn the names of the notes and the basics of music.

Often students are able to read the music, but trying to make the connection from the music to the fingering proves difficult and at times frustrating. The website http://www.musicracer.com/ is a great tool, allowing students to practice identifying the fingering for their instrument.

Do not forget our ever present phone or other device, I encourage students to download a chromatic tuner app to help them practice with their pitch. This is especially helpful for trombones where they need to practice the accuracy of their slide positions. Another very helpful app they can download is a metronome app.

Last but not least is SmartMusic. Well-known to the students as part of their regular class assignments, SmartMusic allows the students get immediate feedback on their playing, including correct notes and timing. It is also very helpful for the beginning band students as it challenges them to play along with the music without stopping and with the correct timing.

If you would like to see for yourself the progress that they are making, you can have them log in and show you the results from the tests that they have done in the past as well as previous recordings of those tests.

Need to know more? Talk to the band teacher, they are excited about seeing the students be challenged, and grow as musicians!

Mr. Wilson

A Collection of Peer Recommended Resources

In G7 Earth Science, we've been using Padlet to consolidate online resources from a large collection (scilinks.org) of topic-focused websites.
Scilinks contains a tremendous amount of links, and it can be overwhelming for students to effectively use it as an extension. The use of Padlet allows students to share and recommend the links that were helpful to them. 
Padlet, in this case, served dual purposes - consolidate resources, as well as build a learning community where students get to do what they enjoy (i.e. sharing their opinions and letting their preferences be heard).  

The 7th Grade Humanities Projects are Underway!

Right before Christmas break, the 7th grade students began working diligently on their Humanities Projects in preparation for the Academic Fair to be held on May 6th. More recently, they have been recording and organising their researched information and developing note cards.

The process of writing note cards has been made more efficient and effective, thanks to EasyBib. This program allows the students to keep an online and ongoing record of their note cards in a systematic way that checks to make certain their sources are credible, records their sources, and gives students an opportunity to organise their information in one of three ways: direct quote, paraphrase, and summary.

The students have been learning how to properly cite sources and just today they were given a lesson on in-text citations as they make the "big transfer" of connecting what they have researched on their note cards and using the information within their research papers for their Humanities Projects.

The humanities teachers are extremely proud of how hard the students have worked so far and we hope to see many of the parents of 7th grade students at the Academic Fair in May.

 (In Humanities class, several 7th grade students are sharing and discussing their note cards on EasyBib.)

Empowering Students through Self Defence

Our grade 7 girls spend a unit learning Karate as a form of self defence. During this unit students will learn not only self-defence skills, but also self-discipline, respect, self-control, and confidence, along with having a lot of fun.  This is a popular unit which the students have greatly enjoyed.

A look at how to kick and punch:

Student Reflections:

"It impacted me because I am able to realise how important karate is for self defence. It helps me understand how to control my powers and use it at specific and desperate times. Karate not only builds self control, it also builds our self confidence. Karate helps us focus on our inner movements and it is demanding discipline. You aren't able to maintain structure without discipline because with karate, comes respect. I think that discipline impacted me because I should understand how to respect the teacher and follow orders as instructed."

"I thought that this unit was that it was very helpful for my everyday life and it is a good skill to have in my back pocket, just in case of dangerous situations.  I thought that it was fun and cool because you get to learn the cool karate moves that you usually see in movies.  It was one of my favorite units.  Not only was it fun and edgy, it was also very informational and important to learn.  I would like to learn more cool moves and do a mock fight where it is like real fighting but no one gets hurt.  Something like sparring.  I learned that I have to have a faster and quicker reaction to when people try to attack me because when I was sparring, I was very slow reacting and my opponent always got me." 

Go green Go fast

Using Schoology

Do you know that Schoology is also an assessment tool? There are different types of questions on Schoology, e.g. multiple choices questions, true / false, ordering, fill in blanks, answer questions, etc. 

In my 7th grade Chinese class, students need to finish reading comprehension and listening exercise on Schoology. Once they submit their work, they can immediately get feedback such as explanations on why certain answers are correct. Using the quizzes/tests feature of Schoology helps us save more paper and go green!

Israel's Neighbors - A Project about Influence

Students worked in small groups on this project for Bible class. They researched a country that was a neighbor of Israel with the aim of deciding which country had the greatest influence on the other. Each group created a presentation using technology to teach the class about their country and its influence. This group used Prezi to present their information in front of the class, and also developed an engaging Jeopardy quiz for class review at the end. After the presentations students wrote about what ideas, products and trends in our culture today are having an effect on them.

 

Earth Science Mini-Project 
Meets 
ESLR Thinking Creatively, Analytically, and Independently

One of the performance expectation in Grade 7 Earth Science was to develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth's systems. Students needed to show how the energy from the sun and the force of gravity drives this cycle.
To demonstrate understanding, students were given a choice between creative thinking, or independently solve a challenge that requires knowledge of the water cycle. 

For the creative project, students created comic strips, wrote autobiographies as a raindrop on a journey, performed voice recordings, documented their life as a raindrop in a journal, made stop-motion videos etc. Here are a couple of creative digital products: a stop-motion video, and a voice-recording of a raindrop on an exciting adventure.  

For the challenge, students had to figure out how to obtain drinkable water while stranded in a humid forest, with nothing but a tarp and a can of beans. Here's a video created by a student, who went beyond what was required, to demonstrate his problem solving skills in a creative way.

Whats APP'ening in PE? - 7th Grade Invasion Games

Justin Trudeau said "A good teacher isn't someone who gives the answers out to their kids but is understanding of needs and challenges and gives tools to help other people succeed." 

This comment epitomizes how technology can and should be used in the classroom, it is a tool, a tool that can enhance the students learning experience by allowing them to explore areas of their performance more deeply than before. This is paramount in the PE classroom, we encourage our students to assess theirs and others performance regularly, to check and re-check how they are moving towards their learning goals. Technology allows us to do this to a much higher level than previously. 

This video below is a part of an invasion games assessment that our 7th graders do which is focusing on creating and implementing defensive strategies. First they use an APP called 'COACH NOTE'
this allows them to plan out their strategy - here is an example of a 7th graders Coach Note plan.

The second part of the assessment involves taking this defensive strategy and implementing it into a tournament situation. Each game is video recorded and the task is for the students to demonstrate that they are able to implement the strategy they have created, consistently, into a game situation. Students are graded on how they implement the strategy and not whether they win games i.e. are they in the correct position? Do they help their team mates? Are they sticking to the plan?

This APP allows the students to plan in a far more detailed manner, to demonstrate their thinking in a more verbal/visual way and it is something that can be tangibly assessed and commented on.

MS News!

3 years ago, while at an education conference, Mrs. Bartell and I started wondering why we were sharing important information via Word documents and Schoology posts.  Besides the lack of engagement from simple text, there was no way of knowing whether or not the messages were being received.  6th grade news was born!

The following year 7th grade news was added, and this year we have gone to a full MS News with separate grade level specific news still being done.  We also migrated from just using whatever open classrooms we could find to utilizing the 5th floor media lab and some of the more advanced equipment available in there.

The best part of the news team is that it is student led.  16 students this year have come together to gather news, write scripts, direct, act as news casters, and edit video.  We also have a lot of fun in the process!

Thanks to YouTube, we now know how well we are reaching our audience.  This year we are averaging 150 views for MS News and about 35 views for each of the grade level news videos.  We hope those numbers will continue to grow as we continue to get better at what we do!

Reader's Escape: Book Trailer

Throughout their 7th grade careers, students are required to read 20 books from 10 different genres. One assignment was to create a book trailer to share one of their favourite books with their classmates.  The goal of the video was to share the basic plot and characters of the book, as well as persuade students to read the book their video illustrates.

Week Without Walls Video Review!

Enjoy the video of the 2015 Middle School Week Without Walls!

Each of the videos was put together by a teacher leader using iMovie.   

Week Without Walls at the Movies

During Week Without Walls we had the opportunity to help students make movies.  Students were responsible for adapting a children's story, writing the script, filming, acting, editing and producing the video.  All of the editing and producing was done using iMovie on their Macbook Pro computers.  Some groups utilized the green screen option as well.  Below are a few examples from the week.  Though these are not Oscar winning films, this is a great beginning for students to tell stories through film.  Please enjoy!

The Giving Tree (7th Grade Group)

Eat Your Peas (8th Grade Group) **Winner of Best Picture**

The Gruffalo (6th Grade Group)