Post date: Feb 06, 2011 5:9:51 AM
Dear Parents and Students (kids, read this one),
This week had its ups and downs to it for me. I'll start with the ups. As usual, the generosity and kind spirt of the DCS community shone. Two tools for the woodshop class arrived anonymously on Friday, as did a contribution to the unofficial retroactive "Feed Me Friday" fund -- the year of the rabbit is starting off quite well. Additionally, I'm noticing some renewed focus on the part of some kids as they make a fresh start for second semester.
The 'downs' revolve around my disappointment that some students are not using their academic time and resources to their greatest advantage, nor are they being respectful of their peers or me when it comes to some aspects of classroom behavior and productivity. DCS is not immune to the age-old "games" that are characteristic of middle school: games where the social interactions can dominate the academic endeavors; where the locus of control oscillates between internal and external; and the stereotypically timeless (and therefor almost comical) games of "whose responsibility is it anyway" continue to play out. These issues are not affecting everyone, and those students that concern me are "slipping" to varying degrees, at various times, and for varying durations. Overall, though, I think that it is time for me to impose some progressive levels of consequences that relate directly to counter-productive behaviors. I assume and expect that any "other school" discipline policies I implement will have their effect quickly -- my faith in the tenets of internal control and the DCS philosophy runs deep.
Recap of the Week:
English: Grammar ad nauseum. Daily Edit exercises, pronoun-antecedent agreement, suffix spellings, and adults' favorite words... whew. None of these, I hope, turned the kids off to grammar, and I'm hoping that their increased knowledge and skills will show up in their writings. I was glad to see so many students settle into their Steinbeck books. He is quite a far cry from many of the pure-enjoyment books that kids read these days. Steinbeck invests heavily in scene description, character development, and subtle humor -- all of which take getting used to but I'm hoping to elicit some appreciation for the genre as well. It takes w hile to digest raw grains when one has been downing processed foods for a while, but the health benefits are certainly there. Lastly, the students wrote thank-you cards on Friday to the founding parents of DCS. Those will be presented during the 5th birthday celebration and I think the students wrote sincere and articulate messages. My thanks to Debby Perry for coming in to class on Friday to set the stage and give some history of DCS to the kids and myself.
Science: Chemistry begins. For two days the kids and I learned about the structure of the atom as well as the progression of O.R.W.G. discoveries that got us to where we are today (just seeing who is paying attention). The kids created questions based on the Kids Discover magazine issue on Atoms and I assembled them into an online jeopardy game that we all played on Wednesday. Thursday was worksheet/notes day, and then on Friday the kids worked through a review assessment designed (as all assessments should be) to separate the "what I know well" from the "what I still need to learn". We'll take the next steps with those on Monday.
Coming Up:
English: On Friday I gave out a six-sided "Caps Packet" that they should be working on independently. Those that finish by Monday will get extra points but it is due Tuesday. The packet teaches about the use of capitalization in a wide variety of situations, and again, I'm hopeful that the results will be evident in the students' upcoming writing assignments. Next week the students will present their "Evocative Speeches" to the class in the time slot that they chose. I've seen some excellent excerpts so far and am eager to see the kids speak/perform very well. I'll be putting these on FlipVideo for the kids to review and self-assess afterwards.
Science: The highlight of the week will surely be the energy expo on Tuesday afternoon, during which the CEO and president of PG&E will come to hear from the students themselves what they have done with the Kill-A-Watt power meters and what the grade-wide data collected can tell us about energy use and conservation. My (and all of our) thanks goes to Suds Jain for writing the Bright Ideas grant that purchased that equipment and much more.
One last thing: After writing report-card comments for my class (and a few in Mrs. Stuart's class) I began to think that such narrative feedback should not be limited to just the end of the semester, nor should it be a one way discussion. I propose, then, that I turn the comment sheets into collaborative Google-Docs, with the parent, teacher, and student as authors. The documents could be the vehicle through which an ongoing dialog occurs -- not a far cry from the current occasional email strands that are scattered throughout our in-boxes. If you would like me to start that process between us (teacher, parent, student) please email me a reply. If you already have a Google account, please give me the email address that is associated with it.
Thanks and enjoy the rest of the weekend. Watching sunset over the mountains and listening to the trickle of water in the pond is sure a nice way to spend the evening. My deepest appreciation to the one whose laptop is allowing me to do this email out here!
Chris