Week of May 8th

One of the traits that all of our fourth grade teachers look for in our students come Spring is independence. It is an important milestone for the kids to be able to gain some independence in their approach towards academics as the next stage of their education, Highcrest, offers more of it than an elementary setting. Actually, each move to a new school in District 39 and New Trier gives the kids added independence, by design. Of course, remote learning fostered the need for independence more than any of us wanted.

With that goal firmly in mind, the kids participated in an Immersion Day of research this week. By design, our research process throughout the year is one of a gradual release model (I do, we do, you do). We started the year researching the automobile by me telling the kids where to look for the information, reading it with them, and then me telling them exactly which notes to write down in their organizer (I do). The next phase was the kids working in small groups to research and inform on extreme weather events (we do). This week the kids spent all of Wednesday researching an innovation and then relating it to one of our social studies lenses (you do). This was not an easy task as the kids had to independently synthesize multiple resources and come to some conclusions about their lens of choice that were not clearly stated within the material. I was tremendously impressed with the majority of their slide presentations. They did a really nice job of focusing on the lens rather than the innovation, something that has not always occurred in the past. This coming week, we will share our presentations during our small group Zooms. We also spent part of the week drafting chapter 2 of our Informational Books, a closer look into our subtopic of choice of the Industrial Revolution,

We finished our math unit on data and probability. Our next unit is on measurement and conversion. I am going to start each day's math work with a WHOLE CLASS lesson on Zoom (the kids working with Mrs. Skutch will continue to do so) at 10:00. I expect all kids to join me for that lesson (please remind your child of this expectation). I will orient the kids to that day's goal and get the class started on an activity or worksheet that supports the goal. As kids get comfortable with the material, they can exit the Zoom and work independently, those that need a little extra hand-holding can stay on longer with me. The goal is to get everyone a little more comfortable converting between customary measurements and metric measurements.

I remind you that I put the kid's dollhouse furniture from our electricity houses in plastic bags at the front entrance of Central for you and your child to pick up. Please grab your materials and then leave the bags behind for the next kids to sift through. For those of you that made your way to the building yesterday affording me the opportunity to see my student, THANK YOU SO MUCH. I cannot begin to express the lift to my spirits seeing the kids gave me. It was exactly what this teacher needed to fill my bucket and rejuvenate my soul! My smile was exploding through my mask.

I want to take a quick moment and wish all the mom's a happy Mother's Day. I hope you are all treated like the amazing women you are. Who knew that 'home-school teacher' would be something that you could add to your resume. I sincerely appreciate all you have done to make these last seven weeks as successful and meaningful for your children as possible. Enjoy your day, sit back and make the kids do everything for you, you deserve it!!!

Lastly, I'd like to thank you all for a very nice Teacher Appreciation Week. Like everything else since March, it had to be adapted but it was none-the-less thoughtful and appreciated. The video brought tears to my eyes (truly, getting more emotional with each passing year), the lunch was tasty and it was so thoughtful to have mom's and dad's drive all over the North Shore and Chicago delivering both food and kindness, and I look forward to heading to Target for a little self indulgence. Thanks one and all for making me feel appreciated by my students and parents.

I hope everyone is able to enjoy the weekend, regardless of the weather.