Techno-Tragedy

I love the new school and the room that I work in.  I there are only a couple of periods a week that I need to be out of it.  So when I sat down and started to record my math lessons for the day for the students to watch on Tuesday I had a plan.  Unfortunately it got derailed when my microphone did not work.  I tried it on a couple of different computers but now it is in the garbage.  So I did not record the lesson ahead of time for the first time this year.  Oh well I think that the students were fine.  We went over 3 lessons on Tuesday anyhow because it they were all about the basic definitions of geometry (rays,  lines, angles, and triangles).  It was pretty easy and we skipped over the one lesson that I do not like in the book on constructing angle and segment bisectors. I was kind of disappointed I had a great picture of Samuel Jackson to talk about when we went over planes.  It was from "Snakes on a Plane"  so I was pretty sure the kids would find it funny. I got a new set of headphones so I recorded today.  

The Sixth Graders started on the wiki process on Tuesday and worked on it today as well.  After giving the 7th Graders total freedom to create something on Japan,  I realized that the students needed a little more guidance.  Within the project set up, each has a page where they can put stuff.  They needed to find material on the four chapters that we are studying about the successors to the Roman Empire (Germans, Franks, Irish and Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings).  They seemed pretty into it.  I did have limit the amount of "Deadliest Warrior" video time in the computer lab.  It was fine providing it was on topic but once they started roaming and looking at other episodes I re-focused their attention on the topic.  Some of the students had set up the pages in the wrong section and I was able to easily change them to the right place by cutting and pasting.  They were all into the project but some got it quicker than others as expected.  Good start and a good way of reviewing some material that I have always found kind of boring.  We are probably going to go back again tomorrow and I will likely take the 7th Graders to so they can work on their Japan pages.  Two of my kids have been adding stuff in their spare time for fun.  Now that is buy in from the students.