Winter Activity Day! Our Roar-tastic students Rocked!

Thank you to the entire Hester staff and student body who helped make Activity Day(afternoon) 2013 a success.  Here's a little glimpse (unfortunately we didn't get a picture of every activity) of what our students got to do this afternoon!

 3 on 3 basketball

 Handball

 Spa room

 Board games

 Anime drawing & watching

 Cookie decorating and board games

 Cookie decorating

 Cookie baking

 Ornament making

Trivia

 Karaoke

ROAR! Scooterdodgemahockeypinball!

There are few words to describe this afternoon at Hester Jr. High, although two words do come to mind......"TEACHERS WIN!"

No Shave or...BEARD BLOG

On behalf of Mr. Zabocki:
 Best (worst?) beard voting cups

It brings me great joy to announce that we have raised a total of $455 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation. The safeway foundation has announced that they will actually match our donation so that means we are actually contributing $910!!  Our students, beards and male staff members really went all out during the month of November and for that I just wanted to say THANK YOU dudes! Hopefully HJH can continue this tradition every single year!  

    No Shave close-ups                      

And the winner is.................Mr. Cybulski!

Juggling Progress!

In the interest of honesty, this video is a week + old, but it is a fair representation of where my skills are at this point. I started from scratch, not even able to throw and catch with my right hand at all.  After a little practice and some tips from a few juggling-capable teachers at school, this is where I'm at.  Nothing can match that feeling when you "get" something that you didn't have the previous ability to do!

Zombie Clue! Mr. Maicki's 7th grade SS

Black Friday can certainly be a time to purchase flat-screen televisions for rock bottom prices. As you saw in the picture, these two gentleman capitalized on those low prices. The question is, where did that money they spent go? By recognizing the name brand on the television boxes, you'll be able to tell me where that corporation's headquarters are located. I need both the country and the capital city in which this company calls home. I also need the full "nickname" of the 38th parallel that separates North from South Korea.

Image credit:
http://www.netanimations.net

Thanksgiving/Black Friday CAPTION CONTEST

All Hester students:
Submit your original (school appropriate) caption for this picture and win a great prize!  Individually or in a pair or triad, use your writing skills to write something witty, clever, or just plain hilarious!
You have until  the end of school on Wednesday the 4th to enter.  A winner will be chosen based on both humor and originality.  Only posts that exhibit correct grammar or will be published.  Please do not use texting language, shortened words, etc.  Good luck!
Here's an example to get you started: "Dude, I give up. You drive slow and I'll just walk behind the car all the way home to make sure it doesn't fall out."

*I borrowed this picture from http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2013/11/29/bargain-hunters-crowd-stores-open-on-thanksgiving.html

GUEST POST, Mrs. Petrin learns something new!

As a teacher, new to Hester Jr. High, I feel like each day thus far has been a “learn something new day”. I have really embraced my role as a facilitator of digital literacy. In order to reach my goal of becoming a distinguished educator, I have made an effort to become a connected educator. Meaning, I am making connections and collaborating with other educators all over the world using web 2.0 tools.

 I consider myself to be a private person, so putting my thoughts and ideas out into the world is a little scary for me. I started small by joining Edmodo Communities. I am able to share lesson ideas and resources with other teachers just like me! After attending a “Flipping Your Classroom” conference, I went out on a limb and joined Twitter. Next, I began to ‘Follow’ companies and people that relate to educational technology. I’ve since made a point to Tweet at least once a day about things we are doing in class or interesting articles about education that I’ve read. Each time I tweet, though, I have doubts. Am I using @ and # correctly? Have I given proper credit? Are my tweets too long? Is anyone even reading them? Turns out they are! I have slowly began to acquire more followers and have noticed that some of my tweets are being re-tweeted by the companies I follow!

Last night I took part in my first ever Twitter Chat. A twitter chat is an interactive conversation at a specific time on Twitter, using a common hashtag, such as #edmodochat. As this was a brand new experience for me, I was very nervous, but I joined the conversation anyway! It was awesome. The two Edmodo Ambassadors, facilitating the chat, were from Australia. It was 5 pm on Wednesday night for me and 10 am on Thursday morning for them. There was even a participant from Italy, where it was 1 am! The way the chats work are the person or people facilitating the discussion post a question relating to the topic and whoever has joined the chat can respond.

Last night, there were four discussion questions during the hour chat and about 10 participants. I learned how to use some new features and apps in Edmodo, and how other teachers utilize Edmodo in their classrooms. I even discussed creating a group with another teacher around the world, so our students could “meet” and collaborate. Another great feature is that this conversation is automatically stored “in the cloud”, meaning I can log into Twitter, type #edmodochat, and review the conversation anytime I need to. I was able to tweet directly to @Edmodo and @CommonSenseEdu thanking them for the wonderful resources they provide and they responded back to me! I learned some abbreviations for commonly used words, and best of all, I now feel more comfortable using the Twitter platform.

 I guess the easiest way to learn something new really is to dive in head first. I would recommend joining Twitter to any of my colleagues. It is a great way to connect with others who are in the trenches, experiencing the same things we are. Follow me @sarahpetrin. See you online!

Reading Lab writing assignment Nov. 19

I was walking down the basement hall on Tuesday afternoon and I happened to see my name on the marker board in Mrs. Reyes' classroom.  So naturally, I stopped to see what it was about.  It seems that our Reading Lab students were responding to a HYPOTHETICAL prompt about whether or not I should change the school day so it starts later.  Below is the prompt and their pleas for me (backed up with evidence) to start school later.  I'm much more of a night-owl than a morning person, so getting me on your side might not be as tough as you think! :]  I'm excited to read your responses and I might even have some follow-up questions, so make sure your argument is solid.

Mr. Trotter is debating whether or not he should start Hester Junior High School's day later than usual.  Your opinion counts!  Write a letter to Mr. Trotter explaining why or why not we should start school later than  usual.  Provide solid examples.

Hester Fall Concert Nov. 14, 2013 (pictures)

6th grade band

6th grade choir

Jazz band

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Concert band

Combined chorus and concert band