Week 8

Aspire Class Programme

At the start of each week, your students are given SRL basics to complete by the end of the week and it will usually contain: spelling (and literacy activities that relate to those words), handwriting, basic facts (maths times tables) and a weekly quiz. At the end of the week, students sit in groups of 3 and justify to their peers how many marks they should get - relating to whether or not those SRL basics are completed to an acceptable standard. We would love for you to check in and ask your student what they scored for the week. This seems to be a reasonable measure for how they are managing their time and becoming a responsible learner. As you can imagine, some handle this task better than others but there are a few strategies that the consistently successful students do:

• Use headphones to play music - this stops others talking to them which minimises distraction as well as tunes out other conversations and lets them focus on the task in front of them. We have around 15 sets of headphones, but we do encourage students to bring their own so that they don't have to rely on them being available.
• Get started as soon as they arrive in the morning - lots of time can be wasted here (over 2 hours!) and it really adds up by the end of the week. Those who don't manage this one seem to be the ones who consistently struggle to complete all tasks on time.
• Sitting away from people who may distract them

We hope that you could help encourage your student to make the smart choices that give them the best shot at learning.

SRL is one component of work for the week and within it, students work through an initiative called Level Up. This is teacher marked according to a rubric that is glued into each portfolio. We encourage students to self assess their work as they go through to ensure they are working at the appropriate literacy and critical thinking standards for their year level. We spend quite a lot of time encouraging them to think deeply about concepts and it is important they show us everything they know and understand. To further help students know what a piece of writing should look like, an exemplar is on display in the classroom for them to compare their work to. This strategy is great at showing students how to move their writing forward and develop their literacy skills. Due to Level Up taking a more in-depth approach, students usually have 2-3 weeks to complete it.

Aspire is not without a bit of fun and we make sure we get to go out for a game sometime during the day. Most of these have been teacher-lead but with so many students interested in flexing their leadership muscles, more and more of those activities will be run by the students.

The Year 8 students are completing goals, planning and research for the Year 8 Leadership project and the Year 7s have the Gold pathways underway. This should be what they are working on as homework so don't let them tell you they don't have any!

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this and for supporting your student to 'be more' in Aspire (and in life!). As always, feel free to pop in and say hi or send us an email if you have any questions or concerns. Have a fantastic Easter break and we look forward to seeing you soon.  

Week 7

Aspire Week 7

Class website is HERE

Gala:
Students have been preparing for the Gala with Emma to bag up pears and potatoes. Lachie has organised a student roster which is here
Year 8 parents are managing car parking with this roster. We might need to be flexible with timings as parents may also need to be available to assist with cars leaving. Funds raised will be divided equally between all those involved.
We could also have another parent on the second shift (tricky with Basketball)

3-4 people First shift:  3:30 to 4:30	3-4 people Second Shift:  4:30 until 6:30pm
Rebecca French Ian MacGillivray Erica Wheeler Jemma van Klink	Sarita/Scruff Kim/Dean

SRL
We have SRL basics (spelling, spelling activities, basic facts, handwriting, quiz) and the Memory Level Up which is due Wednesday next week.

Personal Narrative Collage for Inquiry
We will need magazines to complete the collage work.

Year 7 Pathways
Gold pathways doc is on our Aspire website (paper copies are available if required).  There is an expectation that 2-3 tasks will be completed by the end of term. The best way to share tasks is in a clearfile, online (blogs etc) or in an exercise book. We will mark and monitor work completed as it comes in.

Year 8 Leadership Projects
Almost all of the Year 8 students have decided on a goal for their project (this is an alternative to Pathways, and will be the Year 8 homework for 2016). The guidelines for the Leadership Project are on our class website. The first step is a clearly written goal, and then the students are expected to write out a plan (small steps, and an approx timeframe).  This is followed by research and skill building.  All of these steps need to be completed before the project starts (which will probably be in the middle of Term 2). We are having regular meetings to check in and monitor progress.

Next week:  triathlon on Tuesday,  Good Friday