Day 3 - SOSE, Writing, and Social Networking! Oh my!

We started off our day today by welcoming the students into the classroom. One of the first things that came up was that one of the students had asked to be my teacher's friends on Facebook. This sparked a discussion about safety and what's appropriate/inappropriate on the internet. For obvious reasons, students aren't allowed to be friends on Facebook with their teachers to ensure that the students are 100% protected from everything that could go wrong with these sorts of "relationships." It's sad in a way that a few bad experiences has ruined the trust of many, if not all, teachers. But this is the world that we live in now and it's better to be as safe as possible in these types of situations to avoid misunderstandings.

After morning tea we began a writing exercise where the students were able to talk about their holiday between term 2 and term 3. The students got to talk about certain aspects of their holiday yesterday but there's obviously not enough time in the day to hear about 26-27 two week long holidays. The students brainstormed for about 10-15 minutes about possible things to discuss and then they were given 20 minutes to free write. The twist for the story was that it had to include the words "heavenly", "disastrous", "horrible", "amazing", and "hilarious." This is a great activity because the students had to include good and bad points about their holiday. It allows them to include a variety of vocabulary and experiences into their writing. During Year 6 in Australia, students are expected to be able to write Factual Recounts. They're expected to write with proper grammar and be able to use vocabulary appropriate for the content of the writing (in this case, their holiday experience). The students are also expected to document a series of events and to show their significance in an explicit way.

At the end of the day we took the students to the computer lab to do research. Today is the 14th of July, which is Bastille Day in France. It's the day the French celebrate their independence, much like Australia Day (January 26th) and America's Independence Day (July 4th). The students were given about 40 minutes to find out as much as they possibly can about Bastille Day. Then the students came back together and discussed what they learned about the holiday. It was a good introduction to the SOSE unit about different cultures that will begin in the coming weeks.

I thought I'd end off the blog today with a list of the rules of Room 6P.

1. Always try your best.

2. Use your common sense.

3. Respect everyone and their belongings.

4. Do not judge people or make fun of them.

5. Keep your hands and feet to yourselves.