But in quiet moments that waiting…waiting…waiting invades my consciousness.  Would I rather not know and be surprised?  I don’t think so.  Significant would become catastrophic.

So I must be satisfied with waiting…waiting…waiting.  I try to keep busy, but sometime inertia overtakes and I seem to go from thing to thing overwhelmed by the immensity of it all, the inability to effect outcomes…that’s when I wish I had the “clean gene.”  Everything in my house would be clean and picked up using the “clean gene.”

If you pray for patience does that mean you have to wait longer?  Hmm.

How do you wait?  What does your practice of patience look like?

In working with court-involved young women ages 11 through 17, we find that all students that are identified as truant have significant reading and/or writing deficits. It’s a vicious cycle that they are trapped in–they go to school, don’t “get” what they are being taught, fall behind, can’t or won’t ask for help (that will be inadequate to solve the larger problem–their reading and/or writing deficit), so they stop going to school, they get in trouble (for not going to school and other things), they are ordered to go to school, and the whole cycle starts over again until they are “kicked out of school”. Since we are a residential school, we have purposed to develop a culture of reading and writing outside of the school day, whether it’s dialogue journals with counselors, reading for “pleasure” (30 minutes a night, every night), as well as staff and students sharing books and making recommendations about “good reads.” We find sometimes, students surprise themselves by awakening a reading and writing habit that they didn’t know they had.

You’re online work begins with learning more about African folktales, specifically working with proverbs.

After the classroom introduction you will be assigned to the group working on the geography project about Africa or the group working on literature.  Later in the period and during the week you will be switching roles so that we can use our computer resources effectively.

For your first task, follow the instructions on the following website: African Proverb Activity.

Remember: Asking questions to clarify instructions is helpful when starting any project!

My nurse practitioner says that I can reverse the effects of the blood pressure and blood sugar problems through diet and exercise.  Although I have been in this state for over a year now, I have not “followed the doctor’s orders”.  Why is that?  Why do you hear the information and then not follow it?  Better yet why have I not followed her well-informed recommendations?

Oh the first three months I was amazing, well not with exercise,  I lost about 15 pounds.  I maintained a diet of 75 carbohydrates and 1500 calories per day.  But then apathy and circumstances, a weakening of my resolve started to set in.  Stress and a hundred other excuses derailed both my diet and weight loss targets.  So now a new year is on the horizon.  The catastrophic events, as well as the tragedy and loss of the last two years have given me a sense of there just isn’t enough time left in my life to put off anything.

My hope is that if I blog about the ups and downs…I am hoping for mostly “downs” that it will motivate me to continue to do what I need to do most, which is make sensible choices and exercise.  Hopefully this writing will serve as a mirror for me to keep doing what is before me.

I think that the answer is more complex than “using my will power” (after 50 years of being told it just takes will power, I am not sure that this will be that simple).   We’ll see.

This morning I read the following: “Perhaps one of the best ways of reducing your risk of type 2 diabetes is by doing what doctors have been preaching for years. McLaughlin says the Diabetes Prevention Program, a major clinical study in the United States, found that by following just two healthy lifestyle habits can cut your diabetes risk by almost 60 percent:

• Exercise for at least 150 minutes a week
• Follow a reduced-fat and low-calorie diet that promotes modest weight loss of 5 to 7 percent.”
• From the link: http://www.everydayhealth.com/type-2-diabetes/can-coffee-ward-off-type-2-diabetes.aspx?xid=nl_EverydayHealthManagingDiabetes_20091227#continue

We’ll see…

Choose which region of Asia you would like to explore.  Check in with your teacher before you start because spots are limited.

Task 1 Description:  Summarize the information you discovered about the region that you have chosen using one of the following formats: paragraph, outline, bullet-list, bubble (semantic map).  Choose the graphic organizer provided or develop one of your own.

Task 1 Assessment: A. Clarity of the information, organization (4 points); B. Completeness of information (4 points). (8 points possible)

Task 1 Web Resource: Natural History on the Net: Asia

Task 2 Description: Label all of the countries in your region of Asia on the map provided.  Be neat.

Task 2 Assessment: A. Completeness (4 points); B. Neatness (4 points).  (8 points possible)

Task 2 Web Resource: National Geographic Map Machine

Task 3 Description:  Choose one or more countries from your region.  You will be preparing travel brochures (separate brochures for each country).  First, decide what criteria would be important for travelers to the country (countries) to know. Once your list of criteria is complete, review it with a teacher.  You must have a minimum of six (6) criteria you are including in your travel brochure.

Task 3 Assessment: Choice of criteria for the travel brochure (4 points possible).

Task 3 Web Resource:  National Geographic: Country Information

• Transitions to School or Employment

• Parents needs and wants

• Each advisor has 9 advisees in 7th and 8th grade

o Some advisors have limited time with students

• Sixth grade have homeroom as advisory
• Profile

o Name

o Grade

o Learning Strengths Profile

• Modality Strengths

• Multiple Intelligences Strengths

• Thinking Style

o Track Record

• Grade 5, 6, and 7 End of year information

o Already Acquired Abilities

• Organization
• Social Goals
• Academic
• Extra-curricular
• Goals

o For each goal set the following questions should be asked:

• Goal: What outcome could you achieve by a specified date?

• Rationale: How does your stated goal relate to Self-Worth, Active Engagement, or Purpose?

• Action: What immediate, practical steps can you take toward your goal?

• Evidence: How will you know when you have achieved your goal?

o Academic

• Performance goals captured from the following resources:

• MAPS: Set one RIT growth goal; review and set next goal at the testing term; send copy of goal to class teacher

o In the alternative: have the class teacher set one RIT goal with the student and have the student report the goal to the advisor and parents

• Literacy Skills:
• Math Skills:
• Disciplinary records
• Academic strengthening plan

• Independent work at home

• After school program

• Tutoring

o Socially (Self-worth: Belonging, Heroes, and Sense of Accomplishment)
o Physically (Active Engagement: Fun & Excitement, Curiosity & Creativity, Spirit of Adventure)
o Personally (Purpose: Leadership & Responsibility, Confidence to Take Action)

• Extended Learning Opportunities

o Career Exploration

o Service Learning

o Internship

Goal setting forms for Middle School Students and Parents
Goal setting strategies
Middle School Assessment using a goal setting model
Implementation of using MAPS data for student goal setting
An ERIC item that discusses goal setting for at-risk students called Project PASS
Goal setting notebooks developed by NMSA
Middle School Newsletter includes goal setting and other things to think about
A whole thing about goal setting
Example of web page with references to goal settingGoal setting pages
Parental involvement in setting goals