We are going to be doing a quick grammar review before school gets back into full swing, so I have been looking over and updating our grammar concept maps. I thought that the idea or the maps themselves might prove useful to others, so I decided to post these. Just click on the thumbnail to see the study page full size. Once printed these take just a bit over 1/2 a page of paper. There is plenty of room to add your own notes, examples, and reminders.

Please note that some subtopics do not fit precisely under the main topic heading, but for one reason or another they prove useful to bring into that page's concept map. A case in point is the semicolon being listed in with the conjunctions. It isn't a conjunction, but it does fit because there are strong parallels in the handling of the structure. Another case in point would be the gerunds being listed in the verbals concept map. It is not a verbal, yet the parallels with verbals are strong enough to bring it up with them.

Phrases and Clauses Concept Map:

Pronouns Concept Map:

Verbs Concept Map:

Verbals Concept Map:

Conjunctions:

Today is our first day back after Christmas break. This is the first holiday in 14 years that I have taken where I wasn't thinking school prep most of the time. LOL. I took a real holiday for once. Funny how it feel like it has been months instead of weeks since the last day of school.

That means I feel really out of step this morning though. We are getting a planned 9:30am start to allow the kids a bit of transition time to getting up for school again. During the holiday we all got turned around with staying up late and sleeping in. The boys are already busy working on their 40 minute writing warm up now, but Melody still has her bedroom door closed getting dressed. It is 10:08. Hmmm, grace or firmness? Don't you hate parental moments like this?

The 40 minute writing warm ups typically run about 3 to 5 paragraphs. That is about all you can do in 40 minutes. Here is the one assigned for this morning :

Openning - Moody:

Begin your story with a stormy, nightime opening. Build tension to the opening climax of the power going out. Introduce your character(s).

 

Main Body of the Story:

Decide on what will happen in your story and build tension to the climax of the event. You may want your story to be spooky, survival-oriented, romantic (ha, ha), or even inventive. You decide.

 

Resolution:

Make sure your ending is satisfying to a reader.

 

They will be posting their writing warmups to their homeschool blogs today as well as to their writing e-notebooks. They haven't blogged in a while, so it is a goal of mine to get them back to daily entries again and having them use the guidelines for content that I gave them. They had devolved a bit into simple lists of what they had done that day with a tone more of defending why they did what seemed to be so little. I was aiming for something more substantial when we began the blogging project. We are going to give it another go. Maybe the entries will be more on target.

I have been using online learning journals with the kids in conjunction with the electronic notebooking. Thir notebooks will have a hyperlink to their online learning hournals and will be the record of the when and how of actual work done.

I found a great rubric for learning journals at http://ivc.uidaho.edu/mtpe/journrubric.html.

I think that I might use this one with the kids' learning journals. Here it is:

By Saturday night of each week you should react to

1. What did I learn this week about [insert subject here]?
2. How did I learn each key idea, concept, or practice?
3. How do I feel about what I am learning? What is the value of this content or way of learning for me? for my students?
4. What have I contributed to the other members of the learning community this week?
5. What have I gained from the other members of the learning community this week?
6. What questions do I have this week?
7. Additional comments and reflections?

Criteria for evaluating Journal entries

1. Number of questions responded to.
2. Regularity of journal entries.
3. Depth and breadth of content knowledge.
4. Synthesis of learning.
5. Reflection on knowledge and beliefs about learning.
6. Application to classroom use.
7. Identification of areas for personal growth and next steps.
8. Optional: Over the duration of this course, you may develop a criterion important to you for evaluating your journal that is not in the list above. It is your choice to bring this to the attention of the facilitators for consideration.

Rubric for Journals

To earn an A

1. Respond to the majority of the questions listed above each week and make additional comments. (Each question must be addressed at least once during the term.)
2. Make thorough and complete journal entries for at least 14 of the weeks.
3. Cite instances that demonstrate accurate content knowledge of Earth systems science and that relate to the week's activities.
4. Synthesize what you are learning with what you already know.
5. Reflect on how your knowledge and beliefs about learning are affected by what you are learning this week.
6. Apply what you have learned with students and analyze the effects.
7. Readily identify your own misconceptions, questions, weaknesses and areas for growth.

To earn a B

1. Respond to a least 3 of the questions listed above each week and make additional comments. (Each question must be addressed at least once during the term.)
2. Make comprehensive journal entries for at least 13 of the weeks.
3. Cite instances that demonstrate accurate, even if limited, content knowledge of Earth systems science and that relate to the week's activities.
4. Identify new learning and related prior knowledge.
5. Describe how you will use your new Earth systems knowledge within your knowledge and beliefs about learning.
6. Describe a classroom application of something you have learned this week.
7. Usually identify your own misconceptions, questions, weaknesses and areas for growth.

To earn a C

1. Respond to any of the questions above as it relates to the weekly lesson along with your own additional comments and reflections. (Each question must be addressed at least once during the term.)
2. Make complete journal entries for at least 12 of the weeks.
3. Cite instances that demonstrate accurate and comprehensive content knowledge of Earth systems science and that relate to the week's activities.
4. Make limited mention of what you are learning as it relates to what you already know.
5. Comment on changes in your knowledge and beliefs about learning.
6. Describe a classroom application of something you have learned that you would like to try in the future.
7. Occasionally identify your own misconceptions, questions, weaknesses, and areas for growth.

Whew, much tougher to get the kids going in online learning journals than I anticipated. They have done paper-based, fill-in-the-box style learning logs before and some learning logs within a notebook, but not quite the public journalling that these are. I had originally anticipate one to two hours of the school day would go to the kids personalizing the look of their learning log sites and getting profiles in place, etc. But, it took each of them a bit more time than that - nearly all of the 6.5 hours school day.

They were real troopers though...

Greg spent an hour on this really awesome profile entry. He even took the precaution of copying to the clipboard before hitting save. Cyberspace ate all but two partial sentences of it. All his precaution to the wind, his recovery from the clipboard copy he saved went sour and it was lost anyway.

Timothy spent careful and creative time creating a custom avatar and banner for his site using Paint Shop Pro. He tried sevaral styles of backgrounds and inserted his banner directly into the html code. His site looked great despite the fact that his browser, Opera, wouldn't let him see any WYSIWYG tools. His Windows Explorer is unstable, so he has switched to this browser. He ended up having to enter every keystroke of his learning journal contents directly into the html. I am glad that he has gotten all that html experience this summer when he was customizing his forum. He will have the option of using the family or John's system if he wants to access the WYSIWYG options. But, like Greg he hit a loss of his work. He had spent several hours getting the look just as he wanted it. Then he turned his attention to entering text. He had bounced around from one page to another a bit during all that design work. Unfortunately, he entered his text (into html remember) and hit save to discover that he had actually been entering text in a window from early this morning. The window with the original template, not his customized one. With one click, he wiped out  all his hard work. That really took all the wind out of his sail. He recovered. He had his image files and he was able to rebuild his own template pretty fast, but the frustration did color the rest of the day for him.

Melody, who couldn't sleep last night, functioned on only two hours sleep through the day. She was uncharacteristically giggly, so I knew she was really tired. Fortunately, she did not suffer the losses that the boys experienced. She enjoyed creating her banner. She used a picture of Neo when he was a kitten. She did a really nice job. She was able to finish her customization pretty fast; though she has some entry jobs to catch up on. She moved on to work on several computer model projects which she will be posting to her learning journal tomorrow.

Zachary enjoyed our walk to Mary's house to give her watermelon and take a TRUST Lending Library package to be mailed off. It was very hot. Not very smart to walk at 2:30 in the hottest time of the day. We survived though and the AC felt so good when we walked back in.

The kids have been so busy that they have been largely unaware of the damage of hurricane Katrina in neighboring states. We let the older three stay up to watch the news at 10 so they could become aware just how bad it has been - and how, even though there were some set backs today, we have much to be very thankful for. They were amazed at the scenes of utter devastation. We discussed just how impacting this is for many, many families. Loss of homes, jobs, culture, heirlooms, and life.

Here is the bedtime status of my original to-do list for the day. Having a to-do list on the blog is an interesting motivator. I may do these some more.

O  Homeschool: I did well here. Most of my to-dos are done in this category.

1. DONE - Help the kids in getting adjusted to the online learning journal method of planning and recording their school work each day.
2. DONE - Assist Melody and Gregory in setting up their 3-ring version of the notebooks by printing out the half sheets and getting the plastic sleeves tabbed for them.
3. DELAYED - Meet with Tim to plan out his history e-notebook template. He was really burned out on history after the two or three questions didn't match his book. Normally he would have sprung right back, but not today. We will meet tomorrow.
4. DELAYED for taking the pictures in good outdoor daylight. I should have thought of this while we were out walking today - Zach and I have a 'date' to work on his Pre-School e-notebook. We will be taking pictures to try the tab idea I had a few days ago that we haven't had time to pursue.
5. DONE - 4 to 5 pm learning journal accountability with each of the kids
6. DONE - Add links to their learning journals here at my blog
7. DONE - Send John the links for all the blogs to his work e-mail so he can drop in on our day here at home whenever he wants to. :0) After looking, I am not sure I have the correct e-mail, so I will wait until he gets home to double-check. Then send the e-mail from him to easily link to the journals tomorrow.

O  Virtual Homeschool Group Courses: Didn't get anywhere near as much done here as I need to. I will have to do better tomorrow if I am to be ready by next Tuesday!

1. Set up the online, collaborative Student Product Binder workshop idea I had to see if it will work like I hope.
2. Work on the additional templates that we will need for non K-12ers
3. Work on the course guides some more
4. DONE as much as is possible anyway - Help Barbara in FL figure out why she cannot see all the thumbnails in the courses: Mmm, the direct links that I e-mailed worked for her. Next, she will try here to see if she can open the thumbnails I have in my blog for Aug. 20th. OK, she cannot see them here either. This is such a puzzle! The only thing I can think of to help her is the next entry on my to-do list - add links.
5. I think that I am safe to assume that if one mom is having trouble seeing the thumbnails, then there will probably be others as well once the course gets started. That being the case, I will go in and add links as a back up.
6. Add some more PrintMaster files that moms can download.

O  TRUST Lending Library: A new TRUST order came in tonight, so we will probably go walking again tomorrow - not mid-day again though!

1. DONE - 2:30 pm Take a walk with Zach up to the post office to mail out the Babywise books to Tasha. Email her when we get home with the postage amount. While on the walk, take our excess watermelon to Mary. The melon is way more than we can possibly eat. It would be a shame to waste it, and I am sure that Mary will appreciate it. Try not to stay too long visiting though. Too much to do today. :0)
2. Enter the new box of donations from last week that I have not yet added to the database.
3. Find homes for the books that have come in if I can. Shelves are pretty full; brainstorm a solution.

O  Homemaker's Corner: I did well in this category. Only one to-do remains.

1. DONE - The originally planned leftover Fajitas will be great for John and I, but consider pizza for the kids. Melody and John both really wanted to eat some of those wheat flour cookies that John was given yesterday. While the oven is hot from the pizzas make them some rice peanut butter cookies so they will have cookie treats too.
2. DONE - Catch up on laundry. It is starting to look like Mount Never-rest in there.
3. DONE - Meal plan and get a grocery list going for tomorrow's errand day.
4. Help Zack get his room back in order from his 'playdate' yesterday.
5. DONE - Pick up the bedroom - lots of books and papers are begining to multiply on the dresser and computer desk. Get it back under control.
6. DONE - Clear the kitchen counter

I had been thinking that the home-network would be the place for the kids' learning journals, but now with so many online options I am reconsidering that idea.

One option is to set them up to journal using Virtual Homeschool Group. There will be several possible ways to do these using Moodle. They could just simply use the journal tool and only I will see what they write. They could use the workshop tool and the entries could be peer reviewed. They could all three add their entries to one wiki. Even beyond the decision of which tool to use, there would be options as to where to put them. I could set up a course (public, password, or private) just for them to use. The number 0 box could contain all cummulative information. Box 1 would contain all journal entries and work from week 1. Likewise, box 2 would be for week 2, etc. I like the weekly idea because progress through the year would be so obvious.

Another option is to set them up with their own blogs here at HomeschoolBlogger.com The advantages of having one here is the search function. Another advantage that will appeal to them is that here they would have one continuous blog. I know them well enough that since the site is open to change the html they will want to modify the look and make their own blogs truly their own in style and design. another adantage is that when I want to print out a journal onto paper for archiving, I could just hit print here. If I tried to run a journal from Virtual Homeschool Group each entry would be separate. Mmmm, decisions, decisions.

Perhaps we will try a few weeks of each way to see which one they like better.

One of the tasks that I worked on today was to make the Online Student Product Binder page for learning journals. I am streamlining the information that we have gathered from multiple sources on the web into one quick concise entry. Kids and moms wouldn't want to wade through the pages and pages of printouts we have collected on the subject.

I haven't completed the Soak the Sponge section which was my big project for this last weekend. I have some slack in the schedule yet, so I am not overly concerned at this point.

We are a bit behind in starting up for this session as well. I had originally planned for us being up to a full schedule on Monday. The kids being under the weather made it reasonable to push that to today. We all felt a little scattered and low on energy today so we had another easy day. Melody's stomach was settled today, but she still has a whopper of a headache that no Tylenol or Advil will stop. Her immune system seems to be weakened as she began having a sore throat too. Hopefully she will feel better tomorrow.

Today, the boys finished up what we had been working on the day before. We listened to the last of the Tom Sawyer tapes. Now they will be reading the book and working on their notebook entries. Gregory is done with Jennifer's system and she picked it up. He has finished all but getting a few drivers loaded on the McNaulty's computer. Tim continued and is nearing completion of a variety of sub-projects for his and a friend's forums.

Zachary has been on an intense focus the last week or two with the computer. He is having a great time with it. He hit a wall with the educational program that I got for him that started this last stretch of computer fun. He is at a place where the game will not let him do anything until he masters this particular phonetic concept. He was getting frustrated with it to the point of temper and tears, so we have diverted him with a Spiderman game for the moment. He is passionate over Spiderman and has been for more than a year, so it was sure to be a hit. We were saving it for just the right moment and this was it. LOL. Spiderman is the only non-educational game he has ever done. I don't plan on letting these become a habit, but since Spiderman is such a love right now, this one is fine with me. Gregory has been such a wonderful big brother to him. Zach hits a hard place in the game and he calls for Greg. As busy as Gregory has been with the computers, he still drops what he is doing to come to the rescue. Zach has been especially cuddly with Greg because of it. I know that he appreciates all the help.