The Day Has Finally Come

Our visitors arrived!! Mayor Charles Johnson and Town Commissioner Mike Constantino visited our class today to listen to our persuasive letters.

Some awesome things happened!! 1. Mike Constantino was attending a meeting tonight to initiate a soccer field/recreational program. He offered to take our letters with him to the meeting! 2. Mayor Johnson shared that our town is getting a greenway (another thing our students had written about) 3. The students were praise for their professional attire and behavior. We blew them out of the water!!

You guys rock! This year will go down in the history books for me; I hope it does for each of you as well.

Practice Makes Perfect

We have been practicing for our big Persuasive Platform tomorrow with members of the federal government, the mayor of Siler City, the town commissioner, and the director of parks and recreation.

We have worked so hard and the kids are very excited to have their voices heard by the people that have power.

Worker Bees

We have been working so hard today scheduling readers, cleaning our room, and organizing our materials for our visitors to arrive!!

All three classes are hosting a Persuasive Platform on Tuesday. They will be able to stand up in front to share their beliefs and letters with their peers. Second block will also be sharing with the mayor of Siler City, the town commissioner, the parks and recreation director, and our school principal. Not to mention, the federal government is dropping in next week to renew our accreditation!

Busy week!! We definitely earned our trip to The Hunger Games movie on Friday! So excited!!

Ready or not

It's that time of year! We are starting to think (and hopefully act) like freshmen in high school.

Ms. Awesome visited our classroom today to get us prepared for high school. She gave us booklets that detail the courses we will be taking at JM next year and shared some of the challenges we will be setting for ourselves.

Many students learned what it would take for them to participate in sports, clubs, and honors/ap classes. The students were advised to bring the book home and look it over with their parents and siblings so that they can decide what courses they will be takin next year. Next week all 8th graders will be registering for their classes

We HOPE all students will become freshmen next year!!

A few things to remember:
1. In order to participate in advanced pe or weight lifting, you must first complete health/pe.
2. Just because you do not take honors classes your freshmen year does not mean you will never take them.
3. To play a sport you must be present 85% of the time.
4. If you do my pass the EOG you will have to give up an elective to take an additional concepts of English course.
5. The average high school graduate makes more than a dropout.

Bagged Lunches

Each student holds a special place in my heart for various reasons. I remember them for years for their comments, pictures, jokes, athleticism, etc.

This student is only in 7th grade, but she already has a place in my heart. She has been in my life for 2 years now. Sarah was the manager of my basketball team her 6th grade year and was a standout on the court for me this year.

I even made her a captain this year. I've never had a 7th grade captain; it's a big responsibility!

One day Sarah was eating a lovely lunch her mother had packed her. It was full of goodies! Since seeing it she has packed me a brown bag lunch at least once a week. I love seeing her walk down the hall with her special delivery. She brings joy to my life.

Thank you, Sarah!

Let's Get Ready to Rumble!!!

I've been telling you all about the Crusade and wrestling match going on this week at Eastern Randolph High.

If you didn't come out tonight, you missed a great time! Good news: it is happening tomorrow, Friday and Saturday nights, too!!

It starts at 7:00 each night. Be sure to come out and bring your friends!

We are the Champions!

Congrats to the Lady Jets for winning the state championship on Saturday!!

Many of the girls in the team are former Chatham Middle students.

Everyday we're sHuFfLiN'

We love to make things fun around these parts.

Everyone has been working so hard lately (and not complaining--TOO much)

so we celebrated with a Red Button!!

Two students in my third block had a dance off.

We also collaborated with Mrs. Colling's art class on a special project for one of our classmates' brothers.  Lale Hanner's older brother is preparing to graduate from the Marines.  His mother, Mona, contacted Mrs. Colling and me several weeks ago to see if we would be willing to create cards for the soldiers that are going immediately into more schooling.  There is a program that creates care packages for these soldiers and each package has a handwritten card inside.  

Mrs. Colling had her art classes design and decorate the cards and I had my students write on the inside to the soldiers.  We shared our pride for them and our well wishes.  Many students even shared with the Marines their own goal of joining the military one day.

Here is a picture of the entire Eagles team holding the cards we created to send to the Marines.

Since we have earned some Red Buttons recently, I've realized that our music selection has quickly become LAME.

I need suggestions, people!

Feel free to make suggestions in the comment area below.

(Make sure you are picking songs that make you want to get up and dance!)

I feel like we are in an office...

That's what my students said today. We sat at our tables working on our persuasive letters in our writing clubs eating snacks. Snacks are yummiest when we are working hard!

While meeting in writing clubs, Mr. Aguilar and myself met with individuals to conference about letters.

Third block worked so hard they earned a Red Button!!!!!

Team Peeta vs. Team Gale

We are still preparing for our field trip to see...

THE HUNGER GAMES!! 

Personally, I am beyond excited for this trip.

Anyway, make sure that you purchase a candy-gram for St. Patrick's Day to support the 8th grade field trip.  They are only $1; send a special treat to your bestie, your girlfriend/boyfriend, or yourself!

All candy-grams will be delivered on March 16th in honor of St. Patrick's Day. 

Visit here for more information on the movie to get you excited:

www.thehungergamesmovie.com

Are you Team Peeta or Team Gale?

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Friday, March 2nd, we celebrated Read Across America Day in our classroom.  We had a guest reader come and read us another Edgar Allan Poe tale.  He also shared a cool video with us from www.flocabulary.com Just what we love: hip hop and Poe at the same time!

After listening to "The Pit and the Pendulum," we got on our blankets, got out some snacks, and laid around the room reading whatever we wanted.  What a great, relaxing way to spend our day after working so hard on our persuasive letters all week!

Kevin and Gabriel brought magazines from home to read.

This week we are working on the rough drafts of our letters and preparing for the revising stage of the writing process.