The Luckiest Teacher in the World

Team Lakeview at the 'Educator of the Year' Banquet 

Mr. and Mrs. McGinty

Thank You, Students!  As many of you know, I received a special honor as a teacher last night. Thank you to all of you who have encouraged and supported me leading up to this special event. I'm especially grateful to the team of girls in 6th period yesterday who borrowed their mothers' make-up kits and diligently tried to disguise my black eye (I ended up removing the make-up, but I hope you don't think I looked too bad). In my speech I made sure to thank you, my students, because you are the reason I do what I do. You inspire me, motivate me, challenge me, and make coming to school each day a joy. I appreciate each of your for who you are as individuals and the contributions you make to our classroom community. I feel like the luckiest teacher in the world! Thanks again for all you do! 

Writing an Informational Essay: The Conclusion Paragraph  I know many of you are at different places with regards to the informational essay component of the District Writing Assessment. My hope, however, is that most of will have an essay completed by early next week. We do need to move things along, so today I'm going to introduce a few strategies for tackling the conclusion paragraph. 

The conclusion paragraph is the place where you bring your essay to a close. It's an opportunity to restate your thesis in a new way, summarize your main points, and leave your reader with something to think about (perhaps with a question, a quotation, or a 'call to action').

To learn more about writing an effective conclusion paragraph, check out the link here. 

Now, it's time to continue working on the Writing Performance Task: Part Two (The Informational Essay). Please let me know how I can best support you. 

The 100 Word Challenge: Publishing Time  Before we publish our 100 Word Challenge: Photograph (Week #14) stories, take one last moment to carefully review your writing. At the very least, make sure your spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar are as good as they can be. 

Next, it's publishing time! Copy your story from your Google Doc and then login to Kidblog. Make a new post. This week you once again get to title your story whatever you find fitting; just make sure you put 100 WC: before your chosen title. Paste your story. Finally, click "Publish".  

Next, copy the web address of your posted story and then head over to 100 Word Challenge. Scroll down and paste the web address into the box that says 'Blog Link'. Enter your first name, 6th Grade, Lakeview Middle School, and for location: Watsonville, California, U.S.A. Finally, click 'Submit'. Congratulations! You have published yet another story. I can't wait to hear about the feedback you receive.  

Homework  Make sure you read for 30 minutes at least once over the weekend and make an entry on your Digital Reading Log. I will be grading this week's Reading Log on Monday, December 8.