Today we took the math portion of the CAHSEE, which took up the whole morning. In the afternoon our team went to the park, and we partook in various ice breaker/team building activities. Tomorrow is International Happiness Day, and we will be celebrating this in the afternoon. We will have an hour/hour schedule in the morning (one period of each class) and in the afternoon we will have the choice of whether we want to stay inside and watch movies/relax, or go outside and possibly have a water balloon fight. Tomorrow's Spirit Day theme is Sports Day, which means you may come in comfortable sporting attire like T-shirts, sweatpants, and/or athletic shorts (no Spandex!). 

Homework:

• (Due Friday) Unit 6 assignments. If you would like to access this unit's cover sheet, worksheets, lab criteria for this unit's single lab, and/or the common ions reference sheet, go to the March 12th post on Andrew's Class Blog (on his DP) titled "Unit 6- Compounds and Reactions".http://alerario.weebly.com/5/post/2014/03/unit-6-compounds-and-reactions.html
• Make sure you work on your personal pursuits of happiness!

Today we spent the entire morning and part of the afternoon taking the English Language Arts portion of the CAHSEE. After examination, we spent the rest of the afternoon (as a team) at NTC Park. 

Tomorrow we will be taking the math portion of the CAHSEE. We will be doing a team building activity in the afternoon after taking the test.

Homework:

• (Due Friday) Unit 6 assignments. If you would like to access this unit's cover sheet, worksheets, lab criteria for this unit's single lab, and/or the common ions reference sheet, go to the March 12th post on Andrew's Class Blog (on his DP) titled "Unit 6- Compounds and Reactions".http://alerario.weebly.com/5/post/2014/03/unit-6-compounds-and-reactions.html
• Make sure you work on your personal pursuits of happiness!

Today was a very laid back day.  We spent the beginning of class watching the most recent episode of Cosmos, and the rest of class was spent in discussion over comments/questions/concerns/observations made over the episode. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• We will be taking CAHSEEs tomorrow (English Language Arts) and Wednesday (Math), and this will take up the entire morning. We will spend the afternoons doing team building activities outside.
• If you have work that needs to be completed, try to finish it now instead of pushing it back to spring break. If you do this, you will probably end up pushing it back until the night before we return to school, so just get it out of the way now.

Homework:

• (Due Friday) Unit 6 assignments. If you would like to access this unit's cover sheet, worksheets, lab criteria for this unit's single lab, and/or the common ions reference sheet, go to the March 12th post on Andrew's Class Blog (on his DP) titled "Unit 6- Compounds and Reactions".http://alerario.weebly.com/5/post/2014/03/unit-6-compounds-and-reactions.html
• Make sure you work on your personal pursuits of happiness!

I apologize for not being able to update the blog on March 13. I got home very late and was too tired to do so.

On Thursday, Andrew began class b going over reaction types. I do not have any pictures of the board because Andrew was constantly be erasing and writing new problems/examples, but here are a picture of my notes:

They might be a little confusing to understand, which is completely understandable. If you need extra assistance understanding these concepts, you may ask Andrew or myself and we will surely help you. The rest of class was open work time.

On Friday, we spent the first period of class discussing ways Andrew could change or improve his teaching procedures. An idea that came up which Andrew might take into consideration is making teaching stations at different tables subsequent to his lectures where he can help explain different worksheets for those that would like extra help. The last period of class was open work time.

Unit 7 will extend through next week. If you finish all of your unit assignments early, you can use the time to work on your personal pursuits of happiness. We will be watching Cosmos on Monday and we'll be partaking in team building activities on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons after CAHSEEs.

Homework:

• (Due next Friday) Unit 6 assignments. If you would like to access this unit's cover sheet, worksheets, lab criteria for this unit's single lab, and/or the common ions reference sheet, go to the March 12th post on Andrew's Class Blog (on his DP) titled "Unit 6- Compounds and Reactions".http://alerario.weebly.com/5/post/2014/03/unit-6-compounds-and-reactions.html
• Make sure you work on your personal pursuits of happiness!

We had open work time for all of class today.

Homework:

• (Due next Friday) Unit 6 assignments. If you would like to access this unit's cover sheet, worksheets, lab criteria for this unit's single lab, and/or the common ions reference sheet, go to the March 12th post on Andrew's Class Blog (on his DP) titled "Unit 6- Compounds and Reactions". http://alerario.weebly.com/5/post/2014/03/unit-6-compounds-and-reactions.html

Today we began Unit 6, which focuses on mono atomic ionic compounds. Here is a picture of the board and a picture of my notes (which is pretty much a copy of what's already written on the board):

What we learned is not necessarily easy, which is why there are plenty of worksheets we can complete for points (15 each) in this unit. Andrew recommends we do this unit's worksheets because they will help us understand the concepts he went over.

We received our weekly planners subsequent to the mini lecture/introduction to mono atomic ionic compounds, and we then had the remainder of class to plan our weeks and begin work. This unit will run through next week, meaning Unit 7 will not be introduced to us until we come back from spring break. This means we will receive about two weeks of work time. This may sound excessive considering most of this unit's assignments are worksheets (which can usually be completed fairly quickly), but keep in mind that:

• A) We will be taking the CAHSEEs next week on Tuesday and Wednesday, which will take up the entire morning. We will be doing team building activities in the afternoon.
• B) Cosmos Mondays!
• C) If you finish work early, you can spend time planning/doing your personal pursuits and updating your journals.

Homework:

• (Due next Friday) Unit 6 assignments. Andrew has not posted a "Unit 6" post on his Class Blog yet, but he should by tomorrow.

From now on (until the end of the semester), we will be spending our first hour in chemistry class watching the science television show Cosmos, which is hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Andrew is calling them "Cosmos Mondays."

We spent our first hour of class watching Cosmos, and then we spent about 30-40 minutes discussing/reflecting on the episode we watched, which was the first episode in the series (it aired last night). Andrew spent the remainder of class quickly and briefly going over everything we've learned in Units 4 & 5 (like review), because we will be beginning Unit 6 tomorrow in class and it is essential that we have a good understanding of the atom before diving into Unit 6. 

Here are pictures of the board and my notes (which are pretty much copied directly from the board):

We had open work time for all of class today.

Unit 5 assignments were due today and we begin Unit 6 on Monday, so we don't have homework this weekend. If you haven't finished all your work (from any unit, not just 5), then it is strongly recommended you get that completed asap because Unit 6 will be a big unit.

Andrew would like us to keep these following things in mind regarding our happiness project:

• Start it asap if you can.
• Plan times to pursue your happiness.
• Reflect/journal your experiences.

Have a good weekend! Go support the HTH girls' varsity soccer team as they take on Serra High School in their CIF Finals Championship match at Clairemont High School at 11:00 AM on Saturday!

We had a minimum day today, which meant we only received one hour/period of each class. Andrew gave us two options on how we could spend our class time today: we could either do open work or we could attempt to solve some riddles. It was a very laid back day.

Homework:

• (Due Friday) Unit 5 assignments. The Unit 5 Cover Sheet, Andrew's Unit 5 notes, both Unit 5 worksheets, the Unit 5 Journal Writing, lab criteria for the Flame Lab, and both Crystallization labs + reporting criteria for Crystallization Lab 2 are available in the February 25th post on Andrew's Class Blog on his DP titled "Unit 5." http://alerario.weebly.com/5/post/2014/02/unit-5.html

We had open work time for all of class today.  There is a new classroom rule regarding cellphones. Andrew believes we have been abusing the current cellphone rules, and has made them stricter. We may only have our phones out if we are going to be taking pictures or videos of anything class related. 

We have a minimum day tomorrow! We will be dismissed from school at 12:25 PM. Here are tomorrow's schedules:

Chewbaccas:
First period- Kolina
Second period- Kay
Third period- Andrew

Black Hairy Pears:
First period- Andrew
Second period- Kolina
Third period- Kay

If you finish all of your unit assignments for Andrew's class you may use class time tomorrow to work on your personal pursuits of happiness.

Homework:

• (Due Friday) Unit 5 assignments. The Unit 5 Cover Sheet, Andrew's Unit 5 notes, both Unit 5 worksheets, the Unit 5 Journal Writing, lab criteria for the Flame Lab, and both Crystallization labs + reporting criteria for Crystallization Lab 2 are available in the February 25th post on Andrew's Class Blog on his DP titled "Unit 5." http://alerario.weebly.com/5/post/2014/02/unit-5.html