Mr. Shahriari’s blog

Congratulations on all of you who finished you Exhibition projects and are ready to go!  Congratulations also go out to the performers who did such an excellent job in the holiday performances. 

There will be no homework for the weekend except to start the next wordly wise vocabulary unit.

Math students see my note on Pearson. 

See you all on Monday.

My students are to what some TV commercials.  Actually it is best to find them on line so you can watch them more than once.  pay attention to how the advertisers tell a story in pictures.  watch how they hook the viewer and hold attention.  This will help you in your presentation at exhibition.  You might also want to watch some speeches by various politicians.  CSPAN is a good place to look.  You can also look on  http://www.history.com/video.do?name=speeches  to find many speeches to use to see how experienced speakers speak.

Oh and if you really want to challenge your US Geography knowledge (Sunnie) check out this web game http://www.history.com/states.do?action=detail&contentType=State_Generic&contentId=54610

Wordly Wise spelling test tomorrow.

Science worksheet on sound.

Math Students – same as yesterday plus finish the mixed numbers from today if you didn’t do it in class.

Exhibition is right around the corner…can you believe it? We have been working hard since the beginning of October, and can’t wait for you to see what the students have produced! They have just finished creating their visual representations and are now working on their oral presentations. The students will be presenting their Exhibition projects to their own classes this Friday and to other fifth grade classes on Monday as practice for the real thing. Please remember that Exhibition Day is next Tuesday, December 15th. Each class will present for one hour in the cafeteria, and our class is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. Students are to dress as if they are going to a special event. Please no jeans, t-shirts, or tennis shoes. Boys usually choose to wear slacks and a button-up shirt or polo. Suits or ties are optional. Girls usually choose to wear slacks and a blouse or a dress. If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can’t wait for you all to see the amazing products of all the kiddos’ hard work!

My class — science worksheet on sound.   Wordly Wise unit 7 spelling.  Work on verbal presentation for exhibition.  Practice, Practice.  Go in the bathroom, close the door, and speak like you are trying to wake the neighborhood.  Just like Larry King!. 

Math – math journal – pages 122,123,124,126 & 127  by Friday.  Do some tonight and some tomorrow.

Instructions were sent home several times in the last few months and can be found on the HISD website.  Go to the website and click on the parent/students tab or just click this link: http://www.houstonisd.org/HISDConnectDS/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=cf1c2f796138c010VgnVCM10000052147fa6RCRD 

You must have your student PEIMS number or student number so pull out that info before you set up your account.  If you are confused by any of this talk to the people in our office for help.

Tomorrow is the last day on which student may work on the visual part of their exhibition projects.  At the end of the day tomorrow, all work will shift from creation of the visual presentation to the creation of the verbal, or speech, part of the presentation.  This will be a good chance for all parents to aid their children.  Have them practice with you.  The presentation should be about 5 minutes long and needs to be presented collaboratively, so that all team members will take part in the speaking.  They must also be ale to answer any questions that the audience might pose.  Critique and guide them on how they present.  Make suggestions, but do not do any of the writing for them. 

I also want to let parents know that I have finished grading (for now) after getting a bunch of missing work put into gradespeed.   Some of this was backlog, some of it was redos or make-up work, but now you should be able to get an accurate picture of your child’s progress.  I still have a few missing assignment, especially in my math class, where my students seem to be forgetting their names.  I will advise all with missing work about it tomorrow and allow submission of the work with no penalty (something that rarely happens in middle school.)   

My STUDENTS remember to start working on the ORAL PRESENTATION for exhibition. Write out what you plan to say WORD-FOR-WORD  like a movie script.  Exhibition is coming fast!!!!

MATH Students finish your Pearson Fractions work if you have not already done so.

I am starting the process of filling out many recommendation letters and finishing the grades for papers that I got just before the break, so there is little time to post all the homework.  By this time in the year, you should all have gotten into the habit of writing it down, asking a friend, or posting a help request in our forum.   Remember, tell you I could, but enriched you will be….

Helping each other.  That skill is one you will need from now on.  You will need to rely on yourself and your friends to solve problems.  Practice solving problems on your own will make you happier and wiser.

Tell you I could… you know the rest.