Learning Log: November 30th

What we did today:

      Today in class we started to watch a movie called "First Knight". It is about Lancelot,who at the moment is not a member of the round table. Also it is about Guinevere and King Arthur getting married. During the movie we took some notes on things the movie can tell us about Medieval Times.


Learning Intentions:

     We did this both for fun and learning purposes. It was for fun since we got to watch a movie; but still educational since the movie took place in Medieval times.  We also took notes to further our understanding of the time and to help us with the worksheet that Ms.Lees will post on the blog for us to do.


Homework:

       The only homework is the worksheet Ms.Lees will be posting on the blog.
Don't forget about peer reviews for Genius Hour. We are presenting next week.


Tips:

       You need 3-5 peer reviews for Genius Hour.
        Check the blog for the worksheet.

Genuis Hour

Genius Hour Project

What is your project about?

Our project is about making games with Game Maker, we are helping each other when we have problems with our games.

Why did it appeal to you?

It appealed to us because we wanted to figure out how to make games. We have always been  interested in games and have always wondered how to make the games that we see.

Content and skills
The skills include:

•      Programing (To allow things such as movement into the game)
•      Art (Sprite Making)
•      Creating a log to show process (Our blog)
•      Problem Solving (You can get many errors while creating the game)
•      Math (Graph, x, y, speeds)

Where are you now?

We are at the point where we are all almost done our games, we are logging our progress on our blog.

I’m doing well on my genius hour project. I have a free play mode complete with moving enemies, allies and a scoring system to allow you to either win or lose. You can also test your skills in free play by decreasing your amount of allies and increase your opponents’ amounts; or vice versa. I have a save system too. This includes 2 different kinds of saving, story and free play. Speaking of the story, I have started my story. This only includes 2 levels, but I now where it’s going to go as well as what I need to do to get there. I should be done by this week or over the weekend.

- Jarrod

Well, I am doing well on my Genius Hour project. I have created most of the sprites, and most of the backgrounds are finished. I like to write in Comic Sans because it makes people cry. I’ve had a few problems here and there, but I am doing well so far. My game is called “Crystal Puncher”, because it is a game where you punch crystals. Simple! If you’d like more information, check my page on our blog. It has more information there.

Thank you!                                                                                                            -Alayna



I’m doing well on my genius hour project, I finished 1 game, Cat&Mouse, where there are orange blocks(CATS), and You,the mouse(GREY BLOCK). You are trying to avoid the cat, but cats spawn(appear) every few second, and more and more spawn until you lose. Your score goes up every second, and every 50 second, a cheese spawns, which gives you an extra life.

My second game is Attack of the Burgers. There is a McDonald box on the top of the screen, and it constantly spawns burgers out of it. The Burgers, if it is on top of you, pushes you down. There are Pop (Soda) on the bottom, if you touch it, you lose. I finished making the burger, McDonalds, and the player. I still have to do the collisions and the Pop, but i am pretty much done.

When i finish this game, i plan on messing with HTML5, because if you do it that way, you can play it on ANYTHING as long as you have a browser, and Internet connection.

- Johnny, the master of masters

Right now in my game I have done much of the basic things but I still need to fix some of my characters attributes so that he can attack the enemies, stop getting stuck in places, going through walls and have a health bar. My enemies still have no gravity so the float also I need to make them attack my character. I also need need to make a boss to fight at the end of the level. There will be only one level in my game because it is my first one but if i make another game it will probably be more advanced.

- Jadyn

If you could give us any feedback, that would be great!
We would like to know if:
Our games appeal to you
How effective the blog is
If you’d ever use Game Maker to create your own game
What would a good way to present be?

LINKS:Our blog
Game Maker 8.1
Game Maker Studio

Genius Hour Project Outline! Sydney, Jessica, Emily, Olivia

Genius Hour Project:              Sydney, Olivia, Emily, Jessica
Why do people sneeze differently?

  

What is our project about?
       Have you ever wondered why every sneeze sounds different? Well, that’s what our project is all about. Our project explains the effects of sneezes and how everyone sneezes differently. There is such a wide variety of different sneezes that not everyone knows about.  Our project is going to answer several different questions regarding sneezes, such as, “What are the common causes of sneezing?”,  “ How do surroundings change the sound of your sneeze” , “Why do people sneeze differently?” and “What happens inside your body when you sneeze?”. We have planned a video showing people how everyone sneezes differently in a variety of different surroundings. We are also using the editing software “iMovie”. It is our first time using iMovie so this will be a learning experience also and it will help our problem solving skills.
Why did our project appeal to us?
      One day in class, we looked around and we heard and saw different people sneeze differently with a variety of sounds. We all wondered why and we have never heard an answer for this so we thought this would be a good project to work on. It would answer our question along the way and we hope it will answer our fellow classmates’ questions too. This is an everyday occurrence so it makes lots of people wonder why it actually happens. We think it is an interesting topic that everyone encounters on a daily basis.
Where are we at now?
   We are almost done. We probably need around two more classes to work on our projects to polish them up and prepare for the presentation. We have the video made but we want to edit it a bit more and put some finishing touches so it will be perfect. It will be about 5 minutes long and we hope to catch the audiences’ attention.
Feedback:
We need some help with the presentation of the project. We have our voice in the video already but we are supposed to talk during the presentation so we have no idea how. Please give us some suggestions, advice, and feedback. Thank you.                      

Genius Hour Progress

Here is our progress so far with our Genius Hour project. Kevin, Brendan and Eddy.
Please click this link.

Learning Log for November 26th!

       

 What we did in class today:

       Today in class, we looked at the Morris Ward Blog and also their newspaper. We saw that they had shared their inspiration projects with us on the blog so we took a quick look over several of them. Our class is also sharing our genius hour projects with the Australian class so we went to the computer lab to type out our information regarding our genius hour projects. Its basically like a summary and also a feedback form. If we were done our genius hour project, we were told that we could post it on there also so that they can give us some feedback. We included some struggles that we have right now or in the past when working on our projects and we asked them to give us some feedback or advice to help us with our problems.

  Learning Intentions :

          We are sharing our genius hour projects with the Australian class so that we can get lots of peer feedback to make sure our projects are to the best they can possibly be. It helps us with our problem solving skills and it gives us an idea of what other people think of our project. It will also help us reflect on our projects and think of the struggles that we may have had in the process of developing our project. I think it will help us a lot in making our projects better.

   Connections: 

          It connects us to the world and gives us an idea of what people far away from us think of what we are doing. It will help us a lot to know what other people think based on what you have down because they don`t know you personally. It is a skill to develop good sharing habits that we will benefit in the future when we want our work to be flawless. Like in university, when you are writing an essay, you want it to be very good and not have any errors so it is best to have someone check it for you.

  Homework:

       For todays homework, you have to finish up your basic summary of what your genius hour project is about. You should also read and finish your novel by Wednesday! 

  Tips:

  - Put your genius hour summary and peer feedback that you are sending to the Australian class in a Google Doc. so that all the members in your group can work on it and edit it together.

  

          

Learning Log november 23

What we did in class today:

In class today people that didn't go up in there groups went up to peer review the grades that other classmates put on the graphic organizer. What I mean by grades what, last class we got in groups and got a few already done graphic organizers. We disscused them in our groups and decided what letter grade they should get A+, A , B+ , B , C+ depending on the information, neatness ,and  the kind of pictures/Venn diagrams etc. After when we were all done we put them up on the board from A+ - C+. When everybody was done we got called up in our groups and put red stickers beside the letter grade if we dissagreed and green stickers beside them if we didn't. Some groups didnt get to go up because we ran out of time .

Today the groups that didn't finish went up and disscussed what they thought!after everybody finished we went over them as a class to review if the marks were appropriate, we also discussed a lot about what makes a good graphic organizer. We discussed what was important to have like.... Venn diagrams,t charts,fish bones etc.  and also different visual things like... color coordinating , pictures/drawings and also one of the most important things is the information like... no sentences,lots of details, and makes sense. After looking over and discussing what makes a good graphic organizer we started to take notes about graphic organizers and unnecessary things in them and very important things that we should know. While doing graphic organizers we have to stay on topic and make it interesting and eye catching and VERY neat!! 

Learning intentions:

I think it is very important to know how to use graphic organizers efficiently and useful.Graphic organizers can help you when you need to study for a test or for project ideas maybe even just ideas for maybe a birthday party ideas when and you don't know what to do. Ms.Lees has gone over graphic organizers a lot because they are very important the learning intentions are so when we get older or even just for other classes we know how to use them properly because they can really help. The point of learning so much about them was because graphic organizers can help get your ideas flowing/ brainstorming !

Homework:

• Read your novel.. you should almost be done FINISH BY WEDNESDAY!

• Work on Genius Hour projects/ we will be showing our progress somehow to our Australian friends soon! 

Tips!

Look over your graphic organizer notes because we will be making our own on wednesday about our novels!

RE: Posting Order

I'd rather not have everybody bumped back a day as we are using the schedule because it fits us the best, e.g. for days we have after-school activities.

Is everybody okay with this order for this week and after that, we go back to our old schedule.

Monday - Kevin
Tuesday - Jarrod
Wednesday - Sydney
Friday - Jessica

Learning Log - November 19th

What we did:
At the beginning of our class, we began working with discussing what graphic organizers were and examples of them. However, this came to a halt after we were unable to describe the definition of a sentence - leading us to change topics. Ms. Lees then began discussing parts of speech with us.

For the remainder of the block, we broke down the major parts of speech and included easy to understand definitions, examples and further details. The major parts of speech are noun, verb, proper noun, pronoun and adverb. The placement of the part of speech can greatly affect its' meaning and context.

For example, Jack had to run to school because he was late. Ms. Lees will run the meeting today. Also, you have a run in your tights.

Following that, we watched a video from "Schoolhouse Rock?" that had a song about the parts of speech and adverbs. If you were intrigued enough or need to rewatch, you can do so by clicking here.



Learning Intentions:
Our learning intentions for today's lesson was to learn the different parts of speech and about writing a complete sentence; which by the way is a "complete thought". This will help us in other classes and the future when we need to write a paragraph or essay. We will be able to use proper grammar and include these various parts of speech without error. Our improved knowledge of grammar will definitely benefit us.


Connections:
Although I do remember learning various parts of speech in elementary school, today's refresher definitely didn't hurt. I didn't know how much the placement of a verb or adjective could affect the sentence. In other classes, we will now know exactly what we are writing and the true meaning rather than just copying text.


Homework:
Be sure to respond to our friends in Australia if you haven't already here. Also, everybody should be finished their first novels by this Friday.

Ms. Lees has also issued a challenge for our class about the HACE assignment here. Keep in mind the assignment is due on November 30th!


Homework Tips:
Do not put off your books and HACE assignments to the last minute. Try doing parts of it every day to avoid procrastinating.

Posting Order

Just a reminder, I will be posting tomorrow and every ones day is bumped back by 1.

Noticing some improvements

Hello Jumping Unicorns!

Really starting to enjoy your group bklog.  I like the links to your FHlearn blogs - smart idea (although Johnny's link is not working to his HACE assignment.

Some suggestions:  Create a separate page for Genius Hour and for HACE assignments.  (Some of you have not finished your Hum 8 page set up).

Learning Blogs:  I am a little concerned after spending a full blog review criteria, directions and expectations for a good blog that many in this group are not meeting expectations..  Some are so brief that the scores would be a 1-2 on our scale.  Please review before your next post and if you would like to improve an earlier post, you may do so but try to make the changes in a different colour type than your original as this will help us to see your progress.

Learning Log November 14

What we did in class :
Today in class we worked on our genius hour projects the whole first block. Mrs. lees at break decided that we were working really hard so we got to work on genius hour for the whole two blocks! in my opinion I think everybody got a lot done in those two blocks, after we looked over our planning many genius hour groups got a peer review to see how there progress was going .Genius hour is where you find a group (usually 2-4 people ) and you think of a question that you have always wondered like why do people sneeze differently .Then with your group you plan out the question, how you are going to answer it, your timeline that you are hoping to get it done by, and why you are doing this question. genius hour is a fun project, well for me at least. I really enjoy working on it and it really keeps you focused because you have a very open  opportunity to figure out answers for questions that  you have had. 

Learning intentions :
We do genius hour to work on our planning skills and our time management. I also think that genius hour gets your brain juice flowing because lots of people enjoy it and you have a really big variety to do whatever topic you want! genius hour keeps us focused and you can really choose what you want like some groups are making apps! genius hour helps us in the future by giving us skills for team work and making a good team, also splitting work evenly which is a part of team work skills. These projects also help with presentation skills and group and interdependent planning!

homework : 
Work on your genius hour projects not just in school but out of it too so you don't have to rush both of them when Mrs.Lees wants us to present them! 

tips : 
Go over the criteria for posts  hand out sheet that we got on Tuesday! genius hour - watch your timeline, you will need to get peer review feedback before presenting.
Read your novels Mrs.Lees is expecting us to be done in around 2 weeks
Respond to the Australian reply's if you didn't get a reply click the link here you will need to comment on the link i attached above to notice Mrs.Lees the sooner the better!
Remember to comment on posts that your blog members posted!
Bring your HACE assignment to class on Friday

Nov. 13 Learning Log

What we did:

         Today the grade 12's had an assembly so we had Humanities at the second period. We talked about the blog expectations, how to improve on our current posts, and collaboration skills.
Then we went to the computer lab in the library. We got into partners and went to Ms.Lees Blog and then picked a blog from last year. We got 3 sheets of paper from before with the blog expectations, and we had to write on the papers what 1 2 3 4 5 would be (5 = Amazing, 1 = Undeveloped). We gave one to Ms.Lees, one for you, and one for your partner.

Why we did it:

         We did this so that we could know the expectations of our posts. We could also look at the examples of posts from last year for examples. We also did it to reflect on our own posts so we know if we need improvement.

How this is useful:

         This is useful because in the future we will know how to write/type out formal writing.
This can also help us post better on our e-portfolios.

Homework:

         We don't have any homework today but keep working on your genius hour projects. Finish your notes if you haven't already.

Tips:

         We have a assembly/presentation tomorrow for HACE.
         Go to FLEX if you still haven't finished your notes or if you need help.

Nov.8 Learning Log

Today we watched 'A History of The Middle Ages'.
During the video we took notes about main events and details (Cornell style).
We sometimes paused during the video to talk about what kind of notes and important events were shown in the part before.


Homework:

If you didn't finish your notes (which you should have) then do finish them. Also don't look it up on the Internet, it would be pretty obvious.

Work on your genius hour projects. You have a 4 day weekend so you should be able to get some done.

Check Ms. Lees blog for updates.

Read your novel.

And lastly add the pages on your FH Learn sites if not done.


Tips:

You can put pages under each other by giving a page a 'parent' of what you want it to go under.
You should have these pages:-Humanities-Communication-Oral Communication
                                                                                               -Reading
                                                                                               -Writins and Representives
                                                                   -Digital Literacy
                                                                   -Creative and Innovation
                                                                   -Collaboration Skills

Reminder!

REMINDER:
Don't forget to bring poppy donations tomorrow for the Royal Canadian Legion! 

Also, no school Friday or Monday!
Have a great long weekend! :)

Learning Log - Oct. 7th, 2012

What we did:

For the first twenty minutes of the block, we were given silent reading time to read our novels. After that, we partnered into groups of 2 or 3 and got the Macbook laptops to add new categories, menus and pages to our fhlearn e-Portfolio sites. 

         

Why we did it:

 The main objective of uploading our work to our fhlearn ePortfolios is in case we ever lose any of our work, we have the proof that it was completed online. This will also help us stay more organized for future projects.        

How this is useful:

By learning about how to create menus, pages and categories on Wordpress, this will benefit us in other classes where we need to add these to our fhlearn sites. 

Also, we now know that we can upload our work from other classes to our e-Portfolios in the event that we lose any of our work or projects.

Homework:

Our weekend homework is to create these categories and menus for our fhlearn ePortfolios. If you forget how to do so, re-watch the video on how to do so.  

If you have not done so already, finish your Pathways notes and continue working on your Genius Hour projects and logging your process. 

Tips:

We need to finish our novels in about two weeks so start reading; don't push everything to the last minute! If you are having any difficulty with the menus on fhlearn, ask Ms. Lees or a fellow classmate. 

Keep on checking the "Morris Ward" site for replies; there have been a few uploaded tonight!

By the way, no school Friday or Monday!  Have a great long weekend! :)

Nov. 6th Learning Log

What we did:

         Today Ms. Lees was away so we had a substitute. We sat in our novel groups. We got the pathways and read about the Bayeux Tapestry. We took some notes and wrote a paragraph about it.

Why we did it:

         We did this because the Bayeux Tapestry is talking about the medieval ages, which is the topic we are on. It can also help us practice making notes.

How this is useful:

         This can help us practice taking notes and getting us familiar with the medieval ages.
It can also help us learn to get ideas/notes/facts from the text.

Homework:

• We have no homework because we can't take the Pathways home.

Tips:

• we will get the laptops tomorrow 

November 5th Learning Log!

        Today in class, we changed seating plans so that we are sitting with the people that are reading the same novel as us. Each group then got a piece of blank paper and we were told to write and brainstorm what we want to learn from the novel we are going to read. It's okay if you don't actually learn that after you read the novel, it's just what you want to learn and what you think you are going to learn when you are reading the story. We handed the paper in. Ms. Lees then showed us how to use Inspiration (which is a program on the computer) for taking notes. She showed us how to create diagrams and change them into an outline so that it would be more convenient when we our organizing our notes. After that, we had to fill out a booklet with the people in our group blogs. We also got the computers and looked up some things regarding the booklet.

         We changed seating plans and we sat next to the people who are reading the same novel as us so that it would be more efficient to talk with them about the novel so we wouldn't have to move every time and it's also good because we get to meet and talk to new people! We wrote down what we wanted to learn about the novel because it gives us a better understanding of the novel and it also helps us when we are actually reading the novel. We got the booklet about our group blog so that we could see which parts we are lacking in and try to make them better! It is a really good way to reflect on what we have been posting on our blog. The computers helped us determine which days we posted on and if anyone commented on our posts or not!

         Learning how to use Inspiration is very useful because it helps you take notes in an organized manner and it helps you study too! There are a lot of different ways to use Inspiration so learning it from someone who already knows how to use it is very helpful and saves a lot of time!

        Homework:
     
        Come in for flex tomorrow if you didn't finish your notes or if you didn't sign out a Pathways textbook!
        Work on your genius hour projects at home!

       Tips:
     
       Read the textbook from page 9 - 20 and 31 to the end very carefully so you can get the notes down carefully and you can find all the main points.

     
       

Question.

Does anybody know if we need to hand in anything at the end of our Genius Hour projects?

-Posted via Blogger for iOS.

Nov. 2nd learning log!

What we did in class:     today in class we continued on working on our note making from the textbook most people finished. Sadly the Woodlieghville Morris Ward hasn’t replied to our replies yet but they should soon! We also received our novels that we rated and wrote about, now we will be starting to read them and do some activities with our groups. We have been learning how to take notes and be able to see the most important things in paragraphs and we learned all different kinds of note taking like outline, web and Cornell. Cornell is a way of taking notes where you have a t chart usually the left side bigger than the right and you write details and topic in the split page, then you add a small square at the bottom.

Why we did it:      we have been practicing note making so that as we grow older to study for tests we know how to recognize the most important things. Note making or note taking is an essential skill you need to do well on things. We also did this because it is another way of connecting topics and similarities.

Tips:      when note making, don’t copy work for word and make abbreviations and try to make your notes point form and NOT long! You only want the most important things so don’t worry if you didn’t write a bunch! You’re not supposed to and check lees hum 8 frequently for updates on homework or news.

Homework:    there wasn’t any homework because we aren’t allowed to take the pathways home so…. If you didn’t finish the note making that you need the pathways for, GO TO FLEX ON MONDAY!!!! have a good weekend