Post date: Oct 05, 2015 2:51:45 AM
Dear Room 25 Families
Weekend done, it is time for me to start planning another week of lessons and assignments. Although some lessons effectively teach the intended concepts, the best parts of each week are rarely the lessons I plan, but rather the impromptu interactions amongst the kids that are heart-filled, comical, insightful, or just simply loving. As I reiterate often, I feel very fortunate to be able to spend the year with these kids.
Science: Two science things should have kept the kids busy this week. First, the kids are in the data collection phase of their "effect of ___ on ___" experiment (link). There is a progress chart on the front wall of the room will be updated by the kids each day and by the end of this coming week, each should be organizing their data and drawing some initial conclusions. The second science task for this past week was to learn a measurement conversion process called dimensional analysis, but if the "knowledge separation device" (read quiz) is any indicator, the kids and I failed at that task. The skill I'm trying to teach is within the kids realm of possibility and we gave it quite a bit of class and homework time, but for a reason I/we have yet to discover, not one of the kids has mastered it. So, we'll try again next week.
Social Studies: The kids broke into three groups, each of which has been learning about one of the branches of government and building a poster that will serve as a visual aid as they teach two others (from the other branches) what they have learned. The posters look good but may be lacking in the hierarchical presentation of the content (important stuff most prominent). Tomorrow I'll give each group a set of concepts that their poster (and they) must teach. By the middle of the week, the kids will take a quiz, for which they each created a question, by the way.
English: The highlight of the week, for me, was meeting the book club facilitators 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 and here are the questions that the kids answered/created. 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.
October 9 (Friday): School Dance
October 16 (Friday): Teacher Learning Day (no school for kids)
October 17 (Saturday): Fall Festival
October 20: (Tuesday): Picture Make-Ups
October 26-30: Fall conferences
November 11: Veteran's Day (no school)
November 16 to 18: Cal Coast Walkabout
November 23-27: Thanksgiving Break
December 4 (Friday): Middle School Dance
December 18 (Friday): Early dismissal
December 21 - January 10: Winter Holiday
January 18 (Monday): No School, MLK day
January 26 (Tuesday):8th grade class photo
February 5 (Friday): Semester 1 ends