Post date: Oct 01, 2016 12:52:56 AM
Dear Families.
I just did a little disappearing act from Taran's Saturday evening movie party so I could come to school and send out this email before the weekend gets away from me. I was only there for a small part of the gathering but is was nice to play and chat in a non-school environment.
In contradiction to the "coupla things" name of these newsletters, I have 10 things to write about this time.
1. Parent Work Shifts: The biggest event of the week for me was the onset of the parent work shifts. As I stated in my newsletter of last week, I was quite nervous about finding ways to best utilize the talents of parents in the classroom. But after spending a week together, those fears have completely gone away. I am lucky to have such a great set of parents helping out to make my job more effective and the experiences of the kids most beneficial. There were parents to help with various items on the to-do list, parents coming in as writing coaches to help kids 1:1 with essay improvement, and parents meeting with groups of kids to discuss reading pieces. More than anything, I want to make the most efficient and effective use of your (parents) time and talents, but I'm not exactly sure how to do that all the time. I'll try to have plans and procedures in place that make the best use of your time, but please help me by assuming that you don't need any type of approval from me in order to infuse your strengths into the schedule of activities, lessons, classroom organization, appearance, and/or atmosphere. Although my instructional style is sporadically overly autocratic, I am hoping to create a class atmosphere that is conducive to shared leadership and the 'village' style of collaborative work between all of us. How the rest of the world gets by in a teacher-only scenario is hard for me to imagine now -- we sure got it right in our little parent-involvement utopia that is DCS.
2. Science Packets: Your kid should have brought home for your review their packet of work from our first unit in science. Please take some time browsing the stuff with your kid and asking them what they did/learned. We'll make 4 or 5 more of those packets this year in science. Although just browsing the assignments do not completely capture (or comprise) the learning attained, reviewing the packets together is one way of keeping the teacher-student-parent triad of communication and performance awareness open.
3. Fall Science Experiments: This week I asked each kid to embark on a science project that will get them to set up an experiment that tests "the effect of ____ on ____". This page on my site has details and the timeline, but please take time to ask your kid about theirs. I'm trying to make sure that they keep their variables measurable, but many kids are proposing experiments that have a strong social-science slant and involve scenarios with too many uncontrollable variables and outcomes that are hard to measure. Hopefully, during next week you received an email from your kid giving you access to their Google doc "Science Experiment Control Sheet" (blank sample here). This document will provide you and I with a way to be aware of their progress as they complete the many steps of their experiments. The kids should have the materials and procedures sections done soon and by next weekend they should deep into performing the experiments and collecting data. After that, the next steps will include data analysis and display as well as the formation of some conclusions and the publishing of their work on the science page of their online portfolio (more on that later). I'd like to have this whole endeavor completed by the time we have parent conferences at the end of October.
4. Science Textbook Reading at Home, Discussion/Quiz/Experiment at School: As I mentioned to the kids last week, I’m giving them the responsibility of learning the basic content of the chapters of each topic, and using class time for the experiences that do best in an interactive environments – demos, labs, explanations, and debate. “Digesting” the material from the chapter may take a variety of forms, and we’re discussing and evaluating the options (not taking, diagrams, etc) during class. Knowing what I do about my own planning habits and intentions, it is very likely that I will be writing to you on some late evenings or early mornings asking for your help in getting supplies for our experiments. Physical science is best taught in the crowded workshop of a pack-rat tinkerer, but with the available space and supplies at DCS, I’ll have to tap into the goodwill of you families quite often to accomplish the same goals. Every time I’ve needed something, parents (and/or students) have stepped up and pitched in – further evidence that DCS is a great community that empowers us teachers to do our best work.
5. Book Clubs: It was great having the facilitators in class Wednesday and watching them establish working relationships with the kids. There is abundant experience in this group and I am certain that we can be ambitious in our goals and deep in the discussions. The first piece of literature that they covered together is a short story called “Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Hughes. Here is a link to the story. This coming Tuesday we will be choosing books and groups from the list of student suggestions.
6. Next Essay: We are in our third essay now (theme-evidence) and honing in on the eventual target: each kid being able to write in an eloquent, organized, and meaningful manner in a variety of scenarios and purposes. The writing coaches are working with kids 1 on 1, I'm modeling and requiring a relatively structured writing process, and the kids are doing daily exercises in grammar and editing. To me, writing is the most important skill at which they will improve this year.
7. Redwoods & Ropes Trip: Monday is the first class field trip. Mount Hermon's ropes course program isn't offering us the morning of team-building activities this year, but I've decided to do keep the trip a full-day experience so we'll be taking a hike that historically has been part of day 1 of the Walkabout overnight. The kids will do math first thing on Monday, then at 9:40 we'll head to Scotts Valley and hike a the Eagle Creek and San Lorenzo River trails in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park until noon, then head to the Mt Hermon Conference Center to do the amazing Sequoia Adventure Course -- their biggest high-in-the-trees facility and a really fun place to test your confidence, trust, and teamwork.
8. Walkabout: A few weeks ago I learned that this class went to Marin Headlands in sixth grade for science camp, so I've upgraded day 3 of this trip to include some nice trails and destinations on Mount Tamalpais and culminating with sunset at Stinson Beach. This delay will the arrival time back home a few hours (probably 8 PM) and I hope that later time doesn't cause inconvenience for you. If you can't pick 'em up, they can just crash out in room 25 and be even more groggy for school the next day. Oh, by the way, I may be attentive to trip planning, but I am not very good at checking/collecting things like medication forms, cloud501 signatures, and payment status. Gina has been sending out emails about those things and I hope that the responses have been timely and unanimous.
9. Homework: Please don't forget to check in with your kid each evening. This could/should involve a quick simultaneous glimpse at the homework sheet, and a discussion about the kid's progress on each.
10. Calendar: Please check the list below and let me know what events I may have left off.
-October 3 (Monday): Room 25 to Ropes Course
-October 7 (Friday): Movie Under the Stars 7-9 PM
-October 9 (Sunday): Aidan McCracken flamenco show 3 PM
-October 10, 11, 12: Room 25 Cal-Coast Walkabout
-October 14: Middle School Dance
-October 20: Anne Frank Exhibit arrives
-October 21 (Friday): Teacher Learning Day (no school for kids)
-October 24-28: Fall conferences
-October 29 (Saturday): Fall Festival
-November 1-4: Rm 29 in SF (changed intensive rotation)
-November 11 (Friday): Veteran's Day (no school)
-November 15 (Tuesday): Innovation Challenge at SJSU
November 17 & 18: Room 25 to Angel Island
November 21-25: Thanksgiving Break
December 3: Star Party
December 6: 8th Grade to The Exploratorium
December 16: Early dismissal & Christmas break starts