Amira and I reviewed the concept of dominant and recessive alleles. We then demonstrated the way these alleles are passed down from parent to child by using pennies and potential traits of a pretend mammal. We used this information to figure out the genotypes and phenotypes of this mammal.

This was such an outstanding and riveting documentary about the tragedy and history of the Titanic. What happened to the Titanic in 1912 is symbol of many things that we can apply to our world today. Two of the most significant are: 1) when technology gets away from us or gets too "big" and out of the control of humans, we lose an understanding of what it is that's been created - in this case, it was Titanic's first voyage and its capabilities and limits were not truly known; 2) that the fate of the people on the Titanic is a microcosm of what happens to people in our world....the people in steerage (the lowest passenger class) likely suffered more than those of wealth and stature (those traveling in first class).

Amira asked if we could complete viewing this riveting documentary from National Geographic. We started it before she left school a few months ago and she reminded me we need to complete it, so that is what we did today.

Student was given background knowledge on live theatre and viewed videos demonstrating behind-the-scenes aspects of theatre, interviews of actors, and purposes of performance.

Amira followed up the previous lesson on descriptive writing. Elements covered were sensory details, concrete nouns, action verbs (as opposed to (to be) verbs), mood, imagery, and use of color.
Amira then began writing her descriptive paper, applying the techniques discussed.

Amira completed part of chapter in the text on, "adding integers". She then completed an exercise to reinforce what she had learned from the text.

Amira and I read "A Brief Moment in the Life of Angus Bethune" by Chris Crutcher. We took turns reading the story. Amira enjoyed the story. We unfortunately didn't have time to finish reading it.

Student Absent

Amira completed a practice sheet on opposites, number line, and absolute value. She scored a 96%!
I started to teach her about Adding Integers on the board, while she took notes. I used the visual model of positives and negatives cancelling each other out to introduce the topic.

Amira's Dad is going to Dubai for business this weekend. We focused on the unique look and layout of Dubai today. Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates known for luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture and a lively nightlife scene. Burj Khalifa, an 830m-tall tower, dominates the skyscraper-filled skyline. At its foot lies Dubai Fountain, with jets and lights choreographed to music. On artificial islands just offshore is Atlantis, The Palm, a resort with water and marine-animal parks. We also looked at aerial photos of Dubai's man-made chain of islands, Palm Islands. They form the shape of a palm tree as seen from the air.