Guest Speaker on Sept. 11

Read Kyle's summary of the presentation we heard on Tuesday, Sept. 11, but clicking on this link to his blog:
http://vampirekyledungeon.blogspot.com/2012/09/stand-for-silent.html

Special Edition Post: HOMECOMING KICK-OFF!!! By Lauren O.

Special Edition Post:  HOMECOMING KICK-OFF!!!!!!  

We had a blast this year at homecoming kick-off, starting with the coronation of homecoming king and queen! As the candidates walked proudly up to the middle of the basketball court, OHS students were eager to hear who won.  Well, at least I was...... Tate L. was king and Brandi W. was queen.  Then, after the king and queen had been crowned, all of the fall sport team captains came down and talked about their plans for the future.

Next came the games, starting with “Iron Man” volleyball.  Now, you may get from the name that we had all of the volleyball players running around in big steel suits, but quite far from it.  We had a lot of the guys, grades 7-12, playing volleyball.  The Juniors placed first, with the Seniors in second, and finally the 7th grade in third. Our 8th grade team put out a pretty good effort, but we didn’t place due to losing to the Sophomores.  

Then came “Powder-Puff” football.   Most of the girls were playing, and we played pretty hard there too, but lost out in the first game.  Seniors took first, with juniors and sophomores behind.  

This week, we’ve got a LOT going on here at OHS.  We’ve got dress up days all this week, starting with polka dot day. Tuesday is Favorite Super hero day, then class colors, followed by Wild West and blue and white days.  Since this post is a day late, I can tell you who won for today’s dress up.  The gym was packed for judging, with SPECTATORS.  There were only five people who went to get judged, including Aurora G, Trevor D, and Jared P and me.  Of course, I’m clad in a bright yellow towel and have polka-dots drawn all over face, arms, and legs.  The towel came off, but the makeup didn’t.  Enough said.

What would happen if EVERYONE cared?

What would happen if everyone cared? This is a question posed when introducing Challenge Based Learning today. Mrs. Morrow stressed to students that even though we are 8th grade students in O'Neill, NE, we really can make a difference with our writing. Students will look for problems they see in our school, community, and society in general, then choose something they are passionate about to focus on. They will then try come up with solutions for how to use their writing to make a difference with this problem. This will be an ongoing project students will work on throughout the school year. Take a look at Mrs. Morrow's website for more information: http://www.challengebasedlearning.org/challenge/view/163 

In other news, it is Homecoming Week and today's dress up day is Polka Dot Day. We are so glad that Lauren CARED enough to show her school spirit and dress up today! She earned the 8th grade class 10 points that will go towards the Class Spirit Award.

Thursday, Sept. 6 by Esteban

Yesterday was a fun day for me in school. We started to read the story The tell-tale heart by Edgar Allan Poe It is really creepy and cool at the same time besides that school was pretty ok for me and for every one else i hope

Wednesday, Sept. 5 by Dillon B.

 
Today in English we worked on our drafts and revising; some people wrote some good stories and we can't wait to hear all of them. Also, everyone was dressed up for picture day today which was during English so my class didn't get much done. Last night was the JH's first football game at Pierce. We were off to a good start until lightning made us all sit in the school. Then we all came back and won thirty-seven to zero. That's the updates for the day of September 5th, 2012.

Tuesday, Sept. 4 by Cody W.

Everyone was back in school after a long 3-day Labor Day weekend.  Today the 8th graders worked really hard to get good grade.  Today in English we were working on drafting or writing our first drafts of our personal narratives.  It sounded very fun.  We especially liked using Inspiration for our idea webs in the prewriting stage. 

In math we were working on problem solving strategies.  It was fun. 

In Geography we took a quiz on longitude and latitude.  At lunch we had super nachos.  They were delicious. 

In reading we did vocabulary and in Technology  we worked on our web pages.

Good luck to the JH Eagle football teams tonight as they play in their season opener!

Thursday, Aug. 30 by Autumn

Hey everyone! In the 8th grade today we worked hard! As you can see in the above picture we have gotten the Apple Distinguished School Not one but TWO years in a row! In English we worked on subjects, predicates, infinitives, and something else that starts with a "p" but I can’t remember. :P  In Science class we looked at an interactive textbook. It was AWESOME! Mr. Morrow said that we will be making an iBook so I hope our class gets the iPads!:)  

  In Reading we are reading this Book called "The Outsiders" By: S.E. Hinton. Which reminds me I need to read some of it tonight! The beginning is pretty awesome. In Geo we are learning about time zones so if you're reading this, I can probably figure out what time it is there. 

   Here in the above picture is Mr. Jaques, our choir teacher, he is my favorite teacher.(sorry to all my other great teachers)He is playing our new Swahili song. Its pretty fun to sing!  

    Here is a picture of lunch. At our school our lunch consists of 7th graders, 8th graders (us), and 9th graders. The reason the 9th graders are with the junior high is so none of the seniors can bully the freshman.     In Algebra 1/2 we worked on expressions and equations. Pretty easy for me at least.       

In Technology we worked on making our own websites (awesome right?). And Finally in P.E. we worked on our football skills. An awesome way to spend your day.    

 Until Next Time,  Autumn Breeze      

Wednesday, August 29, 2012 by Alexis S.

Hey, it's the second week of school and we are working hard. To start off for English we did a work sheet that has subjects and predicates. For math we had a practice work sheet that works with adding, subtracting, and multiplying negative numbers. In geography we learned time zones like if you called to London from New York you would be five hours ahead. Throughout the day there were fall activity pictures. Like Jr. high and high school girls volleyball, Jr. high and high school boys football plus FCCLA and girls golf, and many fall sports at OHS. That is what the 8th graders were doing today.    

Friday, August 24, 2012

Today was an important day for our future as bloggers and general digital citizens! We confirmed that each one of us had a working blog linked to the sidebar of our class blog and that we each had 2 posts published and ready for commenting.  But more importantly, we had a great discussion about things we can and can't do in this digital space.  As we discussed each and every one of our blogging rules we all agreed to sign the contract and use our blogging power for good.  We talked particularly long about the ethics of using copyright friendly media-- images, audio, and video-- and all agreed that if ever we can create the original media by ourselves, that that would be the best option.  Beginning on Monday, we will have a rotation calendar of who will be each day's "Daily Blogger."  We will post our write-ups of the activities of the day, including English class and beyond, to our own personal blog as well as this space here.  So, now the true adventures begin!

Also-- if anyone wants to sign up for the Student Blogging Challenge, the sign up link is here.
Lots of additional great information on blogging can be found here: http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/challenges-2/blogging-with-students/

First week at OHS

The 8th graders at OHS started a new school year on Thursday, August 16, 2012. The first day we had a class meeting where we elected Deven Friz as president, Zeb O'Bryan as vice president, Jake Young as secretary/treasurer, and Bryce Heiser and Allison Ludwig as Student Council representatives. Then Mr. Brosz, the principal of OHS, talked to us. He explained some of the changes at school this year, including the disturbing news that we will no longer have peanut butter or bread in the lunchroom.

One of our many great classes that we will take this year is English. This first week we have created personal blogs, posted about ourselves, and started "I am from" poems. One of the coolest things we've done so far in English is to start a class blog. We are writing this first post as a class, but from here on out each of us will take a turn as the Daily Reporter on behalf of our class.

 Our other 8th grade classes are starting off strongly, as well. Some of the highlights include the Marshmallow Challenge in Science, learning about the current election in Social Studies, and starting fall sports in P.E. Speaking of fall sports, the Booster Club Kick-off was held last night, August 22. The high school football and volleyball teams had an inter-squad scrimmage and everyone enjoyed hamburgers, watermelon, and purchased T-shirts for the fall sports.