Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Happy Holidays

Thank you for all your hard work this year and to those of you that have put a real effort into your blogs - they look great!

From what I have heard, I will be teaching 10IL next year :)
Keep your blogs going as we will continue using them if you are in this class.

I hope you all enjoyed your first year at AC and that you have a wonderful holiday filled with heaps of fun, family and relaxation.
Keep safe and I will see you next year!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Survival Guide to AC T4W4-5 Task Due 30/11

Book Charts - you need to get these done and handed in on Wednesday 30th November.

This week for homework I want you to write a 'survival guide' or write up some tips for Year 8's that will be starting our school next year.  It needs to be at least 3 paragraphs.



Monday, November 14, 2011

Thank you letters T4W4 Task Due 23/11

The end of your first year at Alfriston College is coming to an end - only a few weeks left!
Your task this week is to write a thank you letter to one of your teachers from this year.
You need to write at least 2-3 paragraphs and format the letter correctly - cast your mind back to our first assessment!
Post the letter up on your blog and I will email your blog address to the appropriate teacher.


P.S. Make sure you are reading your books for homework so you have something to write about for your reading chart assessment.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Congratulations...

To Ruta-Kau, Venus, Lauren, William, Ajay and Brooke for gaining an Excellence on the Close Reading test.
Well done!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Catch Up / Book Charts T4W3

Firstly, thank you for all your hard work on the 2011 magazine.  It looks great and I think it is the best yet!

This week I want all of you to go back and check your comments from me on your past posts and fix up anything I have mentioned.  Thank you to those who have already done this; it is something that I expect you to do weekly.  If your work is not up to standard you need to correct it.  It is not acceptable to hand in nothing or work of poor quality.

I also want you to get started on your book charts.  We will go to the library at the start of Friday's class if you need to get a book out.  You can write the answers to the book charts up on your blog if you wish instead of on paper.

Last thing - you will be getting your Close Reading test results back on Friday :)

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Celebrations T4W2 Task Due 9/11


Recently there have been a few annual celebrations have occurred such as Halloween and Diwali.  Also Guy Fawkes and Christmas are coming up.


This week I want you to pick an event that your family celebrates each year (or one that you don't know about if you want to find out about something completely different) and present some information about it.
Information you must include:
  • Explain the history of the event.
  • How it is the event celebrated around the world?
  • If it is an event your family celebrates, what do you do?
  • Are there rules and regulations surrounding the celebration?
  • Who celebrates it?

You need to put together something that explains the event so that someone new to our planet would understand what it is all about.  Some on-line options for presenting you information are:
  • Set your information out like a wikipedia entry
  • Make a document such as a powerpoint and upload it to your blog
  • Create an online poster using a site such as glogster.com and provide the link
  • Make a video and upload it
You are also welcome to hand in something on paper :)


Other tasks you need to complete:
  1. Comment on two blogs made by other members from our class giving them some feedback.
  2. Go back and read the comments I have left you.  Some people need to fix up previous homework.  I am not counting this homework as finished until it has been fixed and home will be contacted.  I have put a list up of people who need to do this on the right hand side but I may have missed some by accident.
  3. Make sure you get two books read for your reading charts.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Equality / Inequality – freerice.com T4W1 Task Due 2/11

Hello, welcome back to school for Term 4.  This term in English we will be focussing on the topic of ‘Equality / Inequality’.  Most of the work we will be doing in class looks at food in relation to this topic.

So, your homework for week one is to visit freerice.com, play the English Grammar quiz (you may need to go to the subject link at the top of the screen and then choose ‘English Grammar’ as it starts on ‘Vocabulary’ by default) and then post up a screen shot (either use print screen on the keyboard or use ‘snipping tool’ if you have it) of your score onto your blog.  You need to do this by Wednesday 2nd November.

rice1
Before you start playing on freerice.com, have a read of these English comics from the oatmeal.com.  I’ve only put up a snippet of each comic so click through using the links to view the whole thing.  They explain some simple things to do with English that you need to know :)


bacon
alot

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

If I could change our school I would... T3W10 Task Due 26/10

A few pieces of homework while you are on holiday - nice and easy stuff too :)

1. Imagine you are in charge of our school and you can make any changes you want.
What would they be?


I want you to write 3 - 4 paragraphs out lining different changes you would make and why.

For example:
If I was in charge of our school I would build a school swimming pool behind our astro turf.  I believe that having a pool would benefit us in many ways.  Firstly, learners that are keen on swimming could train here and we could start up teams for sports such as water polo and underwater hockey.  This would add to the sports our school has on offer for students and make our school more appealing.  Adding a pool onto our school grounds would be beneficial to all learners as we could then offer swimming lessons during P.E. classes.  This is a good idea because New Zealand is surrounded by coastline, where many people drown each year.  Equipping our learners with the skills they need in the water through swimming lessons may help to decrease our countries sad drownings statistic while also providing a form of exercise.  If we had a school pool we could charge the public to use it after school hours.  This would mean the community could benefit from the facilities too, while our school makes a profit from it.

2. Try uploading a photo from your holiday to your blog OR write about the best part of your holiday.


3. You have a reading assessment next term - you need to have read two books for it, one must be fiction.
Sort out some books to read and start over the holidays.  If you have already read something and want to use it for your assessment, you need to make sure you will have access to the book next term.

Enjoy your holidays.  Keep safe, have fun and see you next term.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The internet is a dangerous place... T3W9 Task Due 5/10



The internet is a dangerous place.

Do you agree or disagree?  Your task this week is to write an opinion piece arguing either for or against the sentence above.  You need to have an introduction, a few paragraphs and a conclusion.  Remember to reference your sources by adding a bibliography at the end.

Stuck for ideas?
-Try looking up cyber bullying or crime (the New Zealand Herald website has heaps of articles)
-Here's some interesting statistics about Facebook.
-How would you feel if your potential employer in 10 years time could see the photos you posted up on the internet now?  Can you put too much information out about yourself?
-Isn't it easy and pretty instant to access any information you want on the internet?  Is all that information correct - can't anyone post info up?  What if children access inappropriate material?
-Think about what the internet is used for - social networking, file sharing, an information database, entertainment, work, etc.  Has the internet changed how we do things in a positive or negative way?

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Review Writing T3W8 Task Due 28/9

1. You need to follow this blog.
This means that you only need to log in to blogger and from your dashboard you can access here and your own blog.  Some of you have already done this :)

To follow a blog...
Go to your 'dashboard' - the page it takes you to when you log in to blogger.
Down near the bottom of the page it will show you the blogs you follow, or your reading list.  There will be an 'add' button.  Click this and type in acemisskelly.blogspot.com in the box that pops up.  You need to follow the blog publicly so I know you have done this.


2.  Review Writing!

You need to write 2 reviews about whatever you want... a TV show, a movie, a rugby game, a book, a CD, what i-learn was like, etc.  They need to be at least 2 paragraphs each.

Check out The Corner for some ideas.  This blog was set up by one of my friends from when I was at school.  He started it last year and now gets free CD's to review from record companies and recieves tickets to concerts and events.  He is also now published in music magazines like 'Rip it Up'.

Have a read of reviews online and in magazines for some ideas.  You might want to check out the Film3 reviewer, Kate Roger, and have a look at the stuff she does for TV 3 news.

Try to:
-Make your two reviews seperate posts
-Add link (could be to one of your sources)
-Add a picture or video clip (something relevant to your post)

Friday, September 16, 2011

About Me

Last book read: The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
Favourite website: bakingmakesthingsbetter.com
Pets: None
Hobbies: Baking, Craft, Swimming
Favourite colour: Yellow
Last movie you saw: Crazy, Stupid, Love
Favourite singer: at the moment it is Adele
Favourite subject: English :)

Some of you might want to try a post before we get into doing the homework assignments to familiarise yourself with using blogger.
So, try making a new post, you can copy and paste the info above and change it to suit you.  See if you can change the text colour for you favourite colour and try adding in some links or a picture!

Remember, once you have set your blog up post a comment on the Welcome Post with a link to it.  You can see a list of links to everyone else's blogs on the 9IC Blogs page.

Welcome!

Hello,

Welcome to our English class blog.  Each week I will put up a new post containing a writing topic or homework assignment for the week.  You have one week to complete it.  New assignments will be online here each Wednesday.

By Wednesday 21 September you need to have set up a blog and sent me the link - do this by commenting on this post.  Once you have sent me the link, I will put it on this page so that you can access each others blogs.  Try following one another's blogs and write comments on each others posts that will be made in the following weeks.
You also need to put a picture on your profile.

Other programmes / websites you might want to have a look at which will help enhance your blog experience (reading, writing and editing) are:
-Windows Live Writer - you can search for this, it is a free downloadable programme which is easier to sort out the layout of your page when you are posting.
-Picasa - this is also a free downloadable programme - it makes it really easy to edit photos.
-Bloglovin' - this is an internet site where you can manage the blogs you follow - you can mark posts as read,  like posts and see how popular blogs are against all the other blogs that members of the site follow.

-Miss Kelly