Hope your weekend was relaxing! I admit that my goal to write comments at the end of the week and then again at the beginning of the week was too lofty for me. My apologies to those of you who expected a blog update on Friday. I am going to stick with once a week and see if I am any better!
Last week started feeling more like "school" is supposed to feel. I don't think I mentioned this before, but if your kids come home talking about So Emo, they are talking about our social emotional curriculum. This week in So Emo we talked about 8 to Great Highway 4: Feel All Your Feelings. This was a touchy subject for some since so often in our society we are told to suppress our feelings. I learned so much about my class this week and have so much empathy for the many things they are going through not only in the classroom but outside in the real world. I am grateful for the opportunity to be a mentor to them and provide a safe place for them for seven hours every day. Ask your son or daughter about Giraffe Language!!
Our language and math classes are going great. If your student is not in my class for either of those subjects and you would like to contact their teacher, please let me know. In my language class this week we have been reading Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass. The first line of the book begins... "My sweat smells like peanut butter." Obviously with a line like that, the kids were immediately engaged! We spent the week learning how to spot information while reading, listing character traits, and recapping what we read. Students were given tools on how to organize information using Venn diagrams and they wrote compare and contrast paragraphs about two of the main characters, Jeremy and Lizzy.
My math class still included the prealgebra, algebra and adv. algebra kids. We spent the week reviewing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of integers (positive and negative numbers) and learned about real numbers, rational and irrational numbers. On Monday the pre-algebra kids will officially start Direct Instruction with Christine. The algebra class will stay with me. Be ready to move fast! We have a lot to learn!
Our website project went on the back burner last week as I realized the snail pace we were going with it wouldn't change until we have computers in our room. As soon as this happens, we will continue the project. We are still working on the Rome vs US history project. Last week we compared Rome's downfall with some of the things happening in the United States today. This week we will work on creating a perfect world. We also started a nutrition science/math project. Part 1 of this project involves writing down what you eat for seven days. I sent the students home with a packet on Thursday that includes 7 counting calories logs to be filled out each day for everything they eat. Please remind your student to fill these out as their information is vital to completing the project. Last week we learned how all food, whether it is sugar, fat or protein gets stored as fat cells if it is not used up. This week we will investigate hands on what a cell looks like and how food travels to all of our body parts.
A quick thank you to Julian's mom who stepped in and is teaching an amazing cultural dance class as one of the Friday Experts. Those who got to experience it had a great time. Once you get to know me you will find I am quite clutzy. I now know how to fall with grace! Anyone else still sore from crab walking?
Along with their nutrition packets, I sent home another important paper that I hope your student showed you. If this isn't timely enough, it is an announcement of our schoolwide junk food policy. I personally have noticed a difference in the energy level of kids in my class who had sodas and sugary foods for breakfast and lunch. Please send your kids to school with healthy food and snacks. Sodas and candy in my class will be confiscated until after school.
Last but not least... I am looking for a room parent or two for our class. An email is going out this week with the specifics. If you are available I would truly appreciate it.
Looking forward to another great week!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
What a Week!
This week was full of many ups and a few downs.
It is good to finally be on our regular day to day schedule. Things are going smoothly as we learn to transition from place to place throughout the day. I can truly say as I left school on Friday that things are looking up.
Parents I would like to ask you to please talk to your child about what it means to be an effective student. There were quite a few times earlier this week when I was disheartened and frustrated because some of our class members caused distractions and inattention during class. I admit I focused more on those who were causing problems which in turn took away from my ability to teach to those who were ready to learn. On Wednesday, I publicy apologized to the kids who I had been neglecting. I knew I did not need to name names as they knew who they were. I am grateful for their good examples.
This week our DI (direct instruction) classes for language arts and math were put into place. Most of the students were placed in the correct ability level according to the assessments they took before school started. We are still shuffling a couple of students who may be moved to a different level.
In the coming weeks you will be able to view what your son or daughter is doing with regard to their project based service learning. This Thursday, I introduced the kids to Project Foundry in the computer lab. We took a look at how to input, revise, document and log in time spent on our projects. To begin the year, most of our projects are teacher guided. By the end of the year students will be designing and completing their projects on their own.
On Friday we started our community partnerships. This is definitely something kids outside of our school don't get to experience on a regular basis! Each course is ten weeks long. The rotations in which every student will get to participate in the next year are: Lego PlayTEK, Creative Movement, Drama Kids, Emerging Arts, Archeology and Drum Circle. Some of the sixth graders in our class went to DramaKids and Emerging Arts. The rest of the sixth, seventh and eighth graders were introduced to Archeology and Drum Circle. Very fun.
Happy Saturday
It is good to finally be on our regular day to day schedule. Things are going smoothly as we learn to transition from place to place throughout the day. I can truly say as I left school on Friday that things are looking up.
Parents I would like to ask you to please talk to your child about what it means to be an effective student. There were quite a few times earlier this week when I was disheartened and frustrated because some of our class members caused distractions and inattention during class. I admit I focused more on those who were causing problems which in turn took away from my ability to teach to those who were ready to learn. On Wednesday, I publicy apologized to the kids who I had been neglecting. I knew I did not need to name names as they knew who they were. I am grateful for their good examples.
This week our DI (direct instruction) classes for language arts and math were put into place. Most of the students were placed in the correct ability level according to the assessments they took before school started. We are still shuffling a couple of students who may be moved to a different level.
In the coming weeks you will be able to view what your son or daughter is doing with regard to their project based service learning. This Thursday, I introduced the kids to Project Foundry in the computer lab. We took a look at how to input, revise, document and log in time spent on our projects. To begin the year, most of our projects are teacher guided. By the end of the year students will be designing and completing their projects on their own.
On Friday we started our community partnerships. This is definitely something kids outside of our school don't get to experience on a regular basis! Each course is ten weeks long. The rotations in which every student will get to participate in the next year are: Lego PlayTEK, Creative Movement, Drama Kids, Emerging Arts, Archeology and Drum Circle. Some of the sixth graders in our class went to DramaKids and Emerging Arts. The rest of the sixth, seventh and eighth graders were introduced to Archeology and Drum Circle. Very fun.
Happy Saturday
Sunday, September 14, 2008
This Week: September 15-19
I hope you all had a great weekend!
This week, we will start off each day with 8 to Great Highway 3: Full Responsibility. During this time, we will focus on the importance of being responsible for our own actions. We will learn what it means to go from from B.C. to A.D.(Blaming and Complaing to Acting and Dreaming). We will be talking about "shoulds". Sometimes we are hard on ourselves (or on other people) because of the things we think we (or they) "should" do. We will discover how to turn a "should do" into a "want to".
Tomorrow we will get to break up into groups based on ability in Math and Language Arts. Students will switch classes during those times and may or may not be with their homeroom teacher (me) during those times.
This Monday after lunch we will not have community experts yet. During that time we will work on our first project - our class website. This site will be designed by the kids and will include fun info about our class. Hopefully we can even set up a link to include this blog on the site. Each student has a part in this project whether it be web design, gathering information from each student, incorporating graphics, audio and visual effects, editing, etc.
PE will be in the ping pong area this week! Dont forget we have PE every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
During the next two weeks our class will also be involved in a mini history project. I just read a fascinating book called Are We Rome? by Cullen Murphy. It compares the rise and fall of Rome to America today. We will look at some similar issues such as government infrastructure, our attitude toward our borders, citizenship, and the military. This project will cover the CA standards for all three grade levels in history as 6th graders learn about the Rise of Rome, 7th graders learn about the Fall of Rome and 8th graders learn about U.S. History. This project will lead us right into a fun math mini project I am designing to cover the upcoming presidential elections.
This Friday will be our first experience with our Community Partnerships. I will give you more information on that as I get it.
Looking forward to an awesome week. For your info...I will post every Sunday and Friday. Sundays note will take a look at the week ahead. Fridays note will tell you how the week went!
This week, we will start off each day with 8 to Great Highway 3: Full Responsibility. During this time, we will focus on the importance of being responsible for our own actions. We will learn what it means to go from from B.C. to A.D.(Blaming and Complaing to Acting and Dreaming). We will be talking about "shoulds". Sometimes we are hard on ourselves (or on other people) because of the things we think we (or they) "should" do. We will discover how to turn a "should do" into a "want to".
Tomorrow we will get to break up into groups based on ability in Math and Language Arts. Students will switch classes during those times and may or may not be with their homeroom teacher (me) during those times.
This Monday after lunch we will not have community experts yet. During that time we will work on our first project - our class website. This site will be designed by the kids and will include fun info about our class. Hopefully we can even set up a link to include this blog on the site. Each student has a part in this project whether it be web design, gathering information from each student, incorporating graphics, audio and visual effects, editing, etc.
PE will be in the ping pong area this week! Dont forget we have PE every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
During the next two weeks our class will also be involved in a mini history project. I just read a fascinating book called Are We Rome? by Cullen Murphy. It compares the rise and fall of Rome to America today. We will look at some similar issues such as government infrastructure, our attitude toward our borders, citizenship, and the military. This project will cover the CA standards for all three grade levels in history as 6th graders learn about the Rise of Rome, 7th graders learn about the Fall of Rome and 8th graders learn about U.S. History. This project will lead us right into a fun math mini project I am designing to cover the upcoming presidential elections.
This Friday will be our first experience with our Community Partnerships. I will give you more information on that as I get it.
Looking forward to an awesome week. For your info...I will post every Sunday and Friday. Sundays note will take a look at the week ahead. Fridays note will tell you how the week went!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
What A Great Day!
When you treat every day as a new experience, you will never be disappointed! Today is my first attempt at blogging. I am excited to have a place to share my thoughts and info about my awesome classroom at Innovations Academy. Check back often as I will try to keep you up to date with daily happenings in our class.
I want to thank those parents who supported our class today on our first field trip of the year. I could not have done it without you. You made a difference in the lives of quite a few kids today. Thank you, thank you!
To my amazing kids...I just want to share with you how great it is to spend my school days with you. We are going to go through a lot of "firsts" together this year. I give you my word that I will encourage and guide you as you discover for yourselves, the potential you have to make a difference in your life and in this world.
Happy Tuesday!
I want to thank those parents who supported our class today on our first field trip of the year. I could not have done it without you. You made a difference in the lives of quite a few kids today. Thank you, thank you!
To my amazing kids...I just want to share with you how great it is to spend my school days with you. We are going to go through a lot of "firsts" together this year. I give you my word that I will encourage and guide you as you discover for yourselves, the potential you have to make a difference in your life and in this world.
Happy Tuesday!
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