Almost there

Hello,

Well, we have a morning spelling test and math class, but then the afternoon should get much more relaxed.  Our WWF adoption competition is down to the final eight.  The blue whale and the red panda look like the two to beat at this point. 

We won't finish Gregor the Overlander by break time.  That's okay.  I'll leave it at a cliffhanger to keep them guessing.

We did a little topic sentence writing for paragraphs this morning.  That will be a big focus as we prepare to write animal reports in the new year. 

Any library books that aren't needed should be brought and returned tomorrow. 

I'm getting home while the roads are still wet and not icy.

I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday break.  I'll see you in the new year refreshed and raring to go.

Mr. Shea

Two more days until vacation

Hello,

We got into quite a discussion today.  We talked about molecules, (I brought in an old time molecule set), evolution, the first human beings, religion, extinction, why we have hair, what a milkshake is made from, why wind is cold, why we sweat... and on and on.  It was varied.  Ask your child about any or all of these things.  You have some very curious children.  Maybe not as interested in verbs, adjectives and multiplication as I would like, but we can meet somewhere in the middle on these things. 

Some parents have asked if we are having a party.  Not really.  Some parents have asked if they could bring in a treat.  Sure.  We'll do some fun stuff in the afternoon on Thursday.  We'll have some organized activities.  We may play some musical chairs because I love how that game teaches good sportsmanship and how to win and lose. 

I ask that if you feel the urge to get me a gift, please feel free to give to a local charity.  A parent last year donated to Curtis Memorial Library and I thought that was great.  It isn't that I will turn down gifts, it is just that I know that there are others that have more needs than I. 

Thanks,

Mr. Shea

Monday

Hello,

If you hadn't heard yet, we had quite an episode outside our door on Friday.  Please ask your child about it and if you have any further questions, I am available.

Our class has been voting on animals to see which one we will "adopt" through the WWF's adoption program.  Today the dugong, emerald hummingbird and the jaguar won over the cheetah, emporer penguin and koala.  Tomorrow we will vote on the macaw vs. Mexican gray wolf, polar bear vs. pygmy elephant, and the red panda vs. the snowy owl.  Any child that does some research is allowed to get up and speak on behalf of the animal that they researched.  Researched animals are undefeated thus far.  It pays to speak up.

We will have a short spelling test on Thursday.  I didn't want to kill the routine that it took so long to get into.  Students have a limited word list this week.  Homework will also be limited.  I'm trying to listen to the parents telling me how busy a season this is.  Take some time to enjoy it.

I believe the math classes decided to not give homework this week as well.  Since I am a rule breaker, I gave out a weekly challenge.  It is a repeat of a puzzle that we have done before, and it reinforces our study of arrays, multiplication and area.  I couldn't resist.

Have a good night.  I'm off to see the fifth grade band concert.  I don't get to see my students from last year very often, so I'm going to take advantage.

Thanks for reading,

Mr. Shea

sleepy

Hello,

I had a math curriculum meeting and a scheduling meeting tonight.  I chose the math curriculum.  We are trying to find a new math program for K-5.  I'll be doing a site visit in Scarborough sometime in January to check out a school that uses the Singapore Math program.  We are also looking into Investigations and Everyday Math.

I am still fighting off a cold.  My energy level is waning.  Real quick: Spelling test tomorrow.  Rock cycle review today.  Shea math: polygons.  Roald Dahl reading.  Mini-dioramas should get finished tomorrow.  Harry Potter tomorrow night.

Need a nap.  Have  a good night.

Mr. Shea

Sorting Day

Hello,

The sorting of the new class of Harry Potter Book club members went really well.  We had some over-excited kids, but on the whole I was pleased. 

Some of the lists that students came up with last night were fantastic.  Elements, army ranks, materials needed to build a house... I was impressed.  I also liked some of the suggestions that they made to make school a better place.  Many of them have already been suggested to management.  I appreciate the thought that went into these assignments.

After 2 days, we have read twenty Roald Dahl books as a class.  Is your child on the board yet?  The Enormous Crocodile is only thirty-two mostly illustrated pages.  No excuse to end the week with nothing checked off after your name. 

A couple months ago I invited parents to come in and join their kids for lunch in our new dining hall.  Now I'd like anyone interested to come in and enjoy a lunchtime recess.  We have a really nice new playground and a large amount of energetic children.  Any day from 11:15 to 11:40, the fourth grade is hard at play.  No appointment necessary.

We played a little Grammar Ninja this afternoon.  We are a lot better picking out nouns, verbs, and adjectives in isolation than in the context of real sentences.  It reminded me of a lot of math instruction.  We often teach things in isolation and then wonder why they don't recognize it in real world situations.  It is a good lesson to remind ourselves.

Library tomorrow.  Remember your books.

Have a good night,

Mr. Shea

Going home early

Hello,

I don't think that I have any meeting and I'm not going to search for any.  I'm going home early.  My nose ran a bit this afternoon, so I'm fighting off something.  Going to go get some vitamins and some soup and get some rest.

A quick rundown of the day: We worked on finding the properties of more minerals: streak, light, color, hardness, luster, etc.  We worked on the difference between it's and its the when to use then or than.  Our Roald Dahl readathon continued with a very public reading chart up on the board.  Students also worked on their mini dioramas. 

Students picked animal choices for my holiday gift to the class.  We will "adopt" an animal through the World Wildlife Fund.  We will get sent a stuffed animal version of the species that we choose.  We have seventeen choices from our twenty two students.  I will announce first round match ups tomorrow.  Students can speak in support of their animal and then we will vote on each match up.  Our final two will be voted on during the last day before vacation.

Reminder: P.E class tomorrow.  Don't forget sneakers.

Harry Potter Club members should wear their house colors.  New "first years" will be sorted over the lunch period.  A note went home regarding Friday night's wand making session.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Have a good night.

 

Pretty good

Hello,

We had a pretty good day.  Our Roald Dahl readathon begins tonight.  Three teams have been selected.  The idea is to read as many books as possible from the scrumdillyicious author.  The top team will get to choose a movie that has been made based on one of his books and we'll watch it during my available lunch times.  It is a two week competition, ending on our last day of school before the winter break, Thursday the 22nd. 

Our extended day numbers doubled this week.  Every Monday, class members are invited to stay after and get some extra help on homework and then do some fun science.  We continued our crystal growing this afternoon, but had some time for some other experiments which included dropping things down the stairwell.  I don't think we got all of the answers, but learned a bit about gravity and aerodynamics. 

Students are creating summaries to accompany mini paper dioramas of the beginning, middle, and end of their individual reading stories.  This should only take a couple of days and you should see them come home soon, due to a lack of display space in my room.  (Okay, I've already taken up that space with my stuff.) 

Half the library got reorganized as I am trying to prepare for the new classroom workforce.  Were going to review some of the rocks and minerals stuff that didn't quite get stuck in their heads the first time through, before moving on to jobs and government. 

Ask your child to use a word as a noun and then the same word as a verb.  We have spent a couple of sessions on it.  Let's see if they can come up with some on their own.

Have a good night,

Mr. Shea

Hello again.

Hello,

I'm sorry that I didn't blog last night.  Meetings kept me from my classroom until past eight.  I could barely remember the rest of the day by then. 

One of our stellar Bowdoin volunteers finished up for the semester today.  The class read stories that included Coral in them (along with sound effects) and then she treated them with a pipe cleaner craft session and cookies from Holland.  We will miss Coral and would love it if she can find time in her busy schedule to make it in sometime next semester.  I think she would make a great teacher one day.  She's intelligent and she cares, exactly the type of person that we need to go into this profession.  (She may be 80 before she pays off her Bowdoin loans, but...)

Our individual reading books are supposed to be finished by tomorrow.  I know some finished a week ago, but many are behind the eight ball on this.  Expect some calls home for the dreaded weekend homework, unless I see some big gains tonight. 

Our alum crystals that we started after school on Monday have bloomed incredibly well.  Some look like beautiful emerald cut diamonds.  The idea is to keep repeating the process and let them grow bigger and bigger.  Unfortunately, a couple of our big thumbnail sized gems were stolen today.  It is ridiculously sad.  We had another class talk about it.  A classroom is supposed to be a safe and welcoming environment.  I know that many of the kids are as frustrated as I am. 

On a brighter note, ask your child about their weavings that they have been working on in art class.  They are very impressive.  Ms. Moll has done a great job with them on these.  Most pieces stayed back at the art room to be displayed around the school.

Our fourth grade pot luck supper is tomorrow.  I plan on making it, but I don't think that my wife will get out of work in time.  I hope to see some of you there.  Otherwise, maybe I'll get to know one of the other 140+ fourth graders that I don't know so well.  That was one of the things that I noticed at the winter chorus concert.  Not only do I not know all of the fourth graders, I looked at some of them and thought, "I don't think I've ever seen them in my life."  It is very strange. 

Study those spelling words.  I should post the number of words missed as a class, then we can shoot for improvement together.  Less words missed also means an easier time for me correcting: double win! 

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Great curiosity!

Hello,

Maybe I've found their niche.  The class had me scrambling to answer questions about atoms, molecules, carbon dioxide, oxygen, splitting atoms, etc.  It wasn't that I didn't know the answers, but many of the answers are hard to give at a ten year old's comprehension level.  I know I was happy to see all of the hands.  We got to these topics via our solid, liquid, gas discussion.  Great questions, great interest.  I told them that I'll have to add extra science to our schedule whenever a special is cancelled.

Last night we had three students take part in the extended school day.  It went pretty well.  My plan is to have them do their homework, have a little one on one time with me, and then we'll do some fun science related to what we are studying in class.  Last night we tried to make crystals.  Nothing has sprouted yet, but two of them claim to need to days before any results will show.

Nice job to all of the chorus members.  They put on a great show last night.

Early release tomorrow.  School ends at 1:00.

I'm sorry to say that I have to run.  Sorry so short.

Mr. Shea

Chorus concert

Hello,

It was the first extended school day in the classroom.  Three students took advantage of getting their homework done, having some one-on-one time with me to discuss their writing, and getting to help start three different crystal experiments.  We started some alum crystals, some salt and bluing crystals, and a salt, ammonia, distilled water and bluing concoction.  We will see.

It is chorus concert night and I am due to help with crowd control in just ten minutes, so this will be brief.  I gave limited homework due to the concert.  Most math teachers didn't give any, which will also help.

Ask your child how they did with their margins today.  Just another ingredient added to their mixing pot of writing skills.  We'll brew up something nice before too long.

A quick reminder: please go to the HBS home page to fill out a report card survey.  I'm going to do mine right now.

Thanks for reading,

Mr. Shea

I'll write more tomorrow.  Have a great night.

Spelling test tomorrow

Hello,

I have had two confirmations from students that they plan to take advantage of the after school extra session that I will be offering on Mondays.  I mention it now as a reminder because I generally do not blog on Friday after school.  (I slink out to my car like a zombie and try not to fall asleep on the way home.)  No one needs to sign up ahead of time, and I am not requiring consistent attendance.  Come one, come all, whenever you want, as long as it is on Monday after school and pick up is by 5:30. 

I'm hearing from a lot of people about last night's school board workshop.  Some of my fellow teachers and I got up and spoke on the merits of grouping math classes according to skill levels.  I felt like my colleagues did well.  I was glad to be at the podium when the question came up about whether or not the entire grade should be taught all of the skills on the new report card.  I was able to express my concern that we shouldn't try to push it on all students at all skill levels.  Some students just aren't ready for it.  We wouldn't give Shakespeare to someone just starting chapter books.

My classroom is currently a mess.  I had things pretty organized a few weeks ago, but now I'm back to stacks of stuff everywhere.  I need to clean house a bit before our government unit.

Students have one more week to complete their free choice reading book.  Tonight's homework is to explain how the author used description in a passage to help the readers visualize a scene or character.  I'm only giving the one question, so that students will have some extra time to study spelling words or work on their sound effects story (many have finished).

We tried another reader's theater today.  Natural acting ability abounds in the classroom.  Now to get the reading skills up to that level. 

We played Androscoggin this morning.  The object is to get as many words as possible using the letters of another word.  Today's word was metamorphic.  We got a class record 97 words.  I think we got three six letter words, including hammer. 

Have a good weekend.

Mr. Shea 

Sickness going around

Hello,

We had our highest number of absences today.  Four students were out.  Please make sure your kids are washing their hands before they eat and getting a good night's sleep.  It is tough to quantify what is missed during a school day, and since I am not a worksheet driven teacher, it is very hard for me to replicate something that can be done at home. 

We had a very busy day.  We got into the computer lab to finish our CREA letters.  I'll send them off later this week when I can get the last few to get done.  I was happy that the class was able to follow directions a lot better in the lab.  It is not a place to freelance.

I've started a new read aloud.  Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins is about a young boy who falls into a world of giant cockroaches, rats and bats.  Suzanne Collins is best known for her Hunger Games Trilogy, but her Overlander series is much more age appropriate. 

It looked like phys. ed. was quite exhausting today.  Many red faces came back to the classroom after their gym class.  They are playing a sort of hockey using giant Q-tip looking things.  It looked like fun.

Harry Potter club voted to meet after school on Friday, December 16 for our last meeting of the year.  We will have a Dursley gift exchange (of worthless gifts) and we will do some wand making.  One year I got a dirty sock.  Another year I got pencil shavings.  Fun stuff.

Keep asking your children about their multiplication facts.  My class is covering area as well.  Get it?  Covering area.  Okay, it must be late.  Ask them about adjectives, verbs and nouns too.  We'll be complicating things real soon on that front. 

I'm off to the school board workshop on homogeneous or heterogeneous grouping for math.  Should we group according to skill level?  I am all for it, having given both a try.  I strongly believe that you can learn the most when you are amongst others with a similar skill set.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

This just isn't going to happen by 5:00 this year.

Hello,

The main purpose of this blog has always been to keep you, the parent, more informed about what goes on in school so that you can have meaningful conversations with your child.  Most children will say "Nothing." when asked what they did in school.  I write to help dispel that notion.  Unfortunately, by the time I write this, it is often past dinner time.  I don't want to get into the reasons why that is happening, but just to make you aware that I realize it, and that it cannot be helped.  I know some parents now read this every morning and that works too.  I wish I could get it down sooner, but I half believe that this place has become a place to have meetings and that the kids and school day is the built-in break in the middle of it all.

Here's the rundown of the school day.  We are going to write stories that include sound effects.  I'd like them to include a Bowdoin volunteer as a character.  Two of our Bowdoin volunteers will be leaving us in the next week.  I thought that hearing their names during our writing share time might be something that they would enjoy.  I'm providing some packing bubbles to help with some of the sound effects.  I had to ban any gas-related sound effects.  We don't need any stories centered around that topic.

In math we are studying measurement in conjuction with area.  It was eye opening to see what some of their estimations were for an inch or a foot.  We did a lot of measuring today.  I'm trying to drum into their heads that lines are measured in distances, areas are measured in squares.  We'll get there. 

A student and parent brought in a fantastic volcanic rock from Iceland.  It was a great example of an igneous rock.  The class has seen some great rock and mineral samples lately.  I brought in a box from my attic that had a label in it that read "Anna Springer's box of minerals - 1850 approx."  She was a great, great, great relative of my wife.  She collected some really nice crystals.

We talked a bit about solid, liquids and gases this afternoon.  I boiled up some water and then we saw it recondense above the pan.  I was happy with some questions, even though they led us in another direction.  We ended up tossing in one of our giant crayola rock crayons and watching it melt in the bubbling water.  Their curiosity is growing, especially at science time.  It bodes well for our physics unit (motion, energy and simple machines).

Thanks for the feedback on yesterday's blog.  I feel like I've got to get my opinion out there a little more with some of these big issues that are going to be decided.  More to come.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

I'm back!

Hello,

I still need to make up four conferences due to the snow day, but so far, so good.  It is very motivating to meet with parents and be reminded about the importance of my job and what your children mean to all of you.  I take away a feeling of determination that I will do everything I can to make this year as successful as possible for your child.  Your continued feedback can only help with this.

I have decided to add an optional Monday after school help session.  You can look at it as homework help, if you like, but I'm hoping that it can be more than that.  Students can stay up to school for an hour or two (whenever pick-up is convenient) for some extra help.  I only ask that you send a permission slip and an extra snack for them.  Everyone is welcome.  My plan is to give some more one on one time than I am able to during the regular school day.

I also wanted to say a few things about the report cards.  By now most of you have seen that they weren’t a very good reflection of work done for the quarter.  I don’t think going to a standards based report card is a bad thing.  It would be nice for parents to know exactly what skills that their kids are supposed to learn and where they are for each skill.  Common assessments would make it so students from each grade level would be responsible for the same knowledge and would be graded on the same skills. These concepts have merit.

My biggest issue comes from the idea that everyone should be teaching the same concepts at the same time.  In math, we have nine different classes, teaching students with very different skill sets.  Teaching the same thing at the same time would have been very difficult under these circumstances.  It is near impossible when we have had nearly a third of the school year go by before being told that this is the goal.  The train has left the station.  Should the higher skilled classes now back pedal for the rest to gain?  Should the lower level blow through some things to catch up?  I feel that it is too late to ask us to do that now.  Personally, I don’t agree with it under any circumstances. 
I feel that it flies in the face of what assessments are for in the first place.  If I assess my class on a skill, and they don’t get it, it is a reflection of my ability to reach them.  I need to spend more time on it and I need to try something new.  I wouldn’t want my next day’s lesson to hinge on what some other class was or wasn’t able to do.  I also fear prearranged time-tables for how long something will take to teach, especially in math, where so many concepts build on each other. 

These are my opinions.  You will get a chance to give your opinions on an upcoming questionnaire.   

It’s late.  Thank you for reading.

Mr. Shea

Multiplication Days

Hello,

We had a decent day.  The book fair is set up in the lobby, which had a lot of kids in a bit of a frenzy.  We got to look around for a few minutes.  I gave them clipboards and had them write up the titles of their favorites as well as price and location.  Many in the class may not be overly excited about reading, but they sure like new books.

It's really late.  Here are some of the topics we covered today:

adjectives
compound words
prime numbers
square numbers
the danger of misplaced punctuation

We ended the day making sedimentary rocks.  It might be under your tree as a paperweight in a few weeks, so I'll skip the details.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

A few quick notes

Hello,

We had a rough day as a class.  We have a lot of students that are very concerned with other students not doing what they are supposed to be doing.  Between the perpertrators and the eyes of justice, were not getting as much accomplished as we should.  I got mad a few times.  I think I said the words, "I would like you to worry about what you're supposed to be doing." about ten times today.

We tried identifying more rocks this morning.  I am going to be occasionally moving science/ss to the morning to try to keep a different crowd from missing some of our content area due to afternoon pull outs.  We did get a chance to "cook" some igneous rocks this afternoon.  Crayons were the minerals, and they cooked nicely into rocks. 

Other main topics of the day were: common and proper nouns, quotation marks, and multiplication.

I've got to get back to report cards.  The system crashed last night, giving me more to do tonight. 

Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea

Tough week for blogging

Hello,

My apologies about last night.  I got out of Harry Potter Book Club and then went to the parent group meeting.  I wanted to hear how the report card was presented to the parent group.  I'm hoping that our conferences will be able to keep the focus on the children and not the new report card.  Conference slips went home tonight, but I can see next to me that four didn't make it home. 

I've made a poster of a giant football field to measure our multiplication successes.  Each student has an individual football with their name on it.  As students master a set of numbers (their fours, for example) they will move down the field toward a touchdown.  Students can opt for oral or written tests.  Each test includes questions from previous tests.  This means that just because a person is testing their five times tables doesn't mean that they won't see some fours, threes, twos or ones.  Help them practice at home please.

Students picked out areas of the country where they would like a penpal.  I will be taking their final draft letters and mailing them to schools across the country in those areas.  We had requests for fifteen different states and Washington D.C. 

We sang the Rock Cycle song for the second time today.  A couple more times and it will be memorized like the continent song.  Ask for either song tonight, although I'd be surprised if anyone has this one down yet.

Rock Cycle Song
(Sing to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat")

SEDIMENTARY rock
Has been formed in layers
Often found near water sources
With fossils from decayers

Then there's IGNEOUS rock
Here since Earth was born
Molten Lava, cooled and hardened
That's how it is formed

These two types of rocks
Can also be transformed
With pressure, heat and chemicals
METAMORPHIC they'll become.

I've got math grades to do, so I'm gonna call it a night.

Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea

Quotation marks

Hello,

We did a little quotation mark lesson today.  Some children ended up with quotation marks on their face.  That way everything they said would be surrounded by quotation marks.  I owe a few more quotation marks to the one table that I didn't get to.  It was Halloween face paint and it was optional.  Everyone was opting for them, but they had to show me a dialogue that they had written first.  They did pretty well in getting the spoken words in quotes, but need a lot more work on the other punctuation that goes with it, as well as the new speaker - new paragraph rule. 

The teachers had a meeting to address concerns with the superintendent after school.  We got to write ideas, worries, questions and positives on post-it notes and place them on poster board.  It wasn't the open forum that some were expecting.  We're hoping that he gets back to us relatively soon.

I have a letter for you that explains the new report card.  I'm glad that we will have a conference time to talk about it.  I'm hoping we can spend more time talking about your child than the report card. 

Students should be starting new chapter books.  Everyone has come to me and shown me the next book that they will be tackling.  Everyone will get individual assignments to complete each night.  They should be starting the book tonight, so they can begin to answer some questions tomorrow night. 

Spelling test tomorrow.  I only gave everyone five words due to the short week, and due to the fact that it takes two hours to correct a spelling test.  Wow, we need to study our words a little more.  Five words should be a piece of cake.

Have a great night.  Remember no school on Friday. 

Mr. Shea 

Please vote

Hello,

We went on a little impromptu jaunt down the street to the Jr. High to check out the voting process.  I think the class was a little upset that they missed recess, but they got their exercise.  We were treated to a mini-tour of how it works.  Voters stand in line alphabetically according to their last name.  They get their ballot(s).  You get two this year, a local ballot and a state referendum ballot.  We got to see the some finished ballots placed into the counting machine.  This was a good follow up to our morning discussion.  I handed out a copy of the state referendum ballot and we discussed the four issues on the ballot.  We held a class vote and tallied the results.  The class voted yes on number one to repeal the law that would make voters register at least two days before any election.  We were split on the casinos.  Number two, centered around Scarborough and Washington County casinos, won by one vote.  Number three, a casino in Lewiston, lost by one vote.  The class voted to not change the state constitution in number four. 

I tried to give both sides of the issues, without letting them know where I stand.  Please continue this dialogue.  Even better, I hope you have the chance to take them voting with you.  We will be studying government in a few weeks and I hope to draw on some of today's experience.

My math class made it into the computer lab this morning.  We went to two sites to help with our study of multiplication facts.  Math Magician is a good site that isolates certain problems and times you for one minute.  The goal is to finish 20 facts correctly that time.  The Baby stroller races is another multiplication review site.  In this one, you are in a race.  The more questions that you answer, the faster your stroller goes. 

I hope we can get those links up soon.  I heard our links page is coming soon.  In the meantime, we just did a search for math magician and for multiplication games.  The class had some other ideas for what they wanted to play, but some were more play than review.

The teachers get to meet with the superintendent tomorrow.  We're hoping that some of our concerns get addressed.  Tomorrow's blog may be late. 

Thank you for the responses that I got on homework on the weekends.  At least three of you are out there. 

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

   

Where did the sunlight go?

Hello,

I'm writing at 5:15 and it is dark out.  I'll pretend that my room looks out over the ocean. 

The field trip to CREA (Cathance River Education Alliance) in Topsham was fantastic, as usual.  They do a great job there.  If you haven't been, it is a perfect place for a fall hike.  It is the site of many trails, including one along the meandering river, and several feldspar quarries.  Some amazing amounts of biotite (black mica), muscovite (clear mica), feldspar, and quartz can still be found around many of the old quarry sites.  Our students were able to sluice a cup full of rocks and minerals to look for gemstones.  Every child found and got to take home some mica, quartz, tourmaline, black tourmaline, feldspar and garnet.  Some of the crystals were beautiful.  One boy found a pretty spectacular green tourmaline speciman.  He graciously donated it back to the Ecology Center.  I told him that I would bring him some nice crystals from my mineral collection in a show of thanks for his generosity.  Make sure to ask your child for a little show and tell session from the day.  They all took home some great stuff.  CREA makes this possible by buying buckets of material from another local mine.  Your child should be able to tell you the main ingredients in granite, as well as some common uses for quartz, mica, and feldspar.  If they can't do it yet, they will soon.

According to the substitute, Friday went extremely well.  That report, along with the one from the staff from CREA, calling us the most polite class yet, makes me very happy.  We show who we are through our actions.  It makes me proud of them to see such behavior, and hear positive feedback. 

We started writing a thank you note to CREA after we returned to school.  The rough draft should be finished tonight.  We talked about thanking them for: the samples, allowing us to come, and teaching us about so many things.

The other homework tonight comes from a program called The Great Mail Race.  We got a letter from a girl in Idaho asking us questions about our school, town and state.  Her class has written to all of the other 49 states and is hoping to hear from all of them.  I gave everyone a copy of the questionnaire.  We will fill one in together tomorrow.  Maybe the kids will be motivated to try this themselves.  We'll see.

On that note, we definitely need some pen pals.  I'll look into getting us some, maybe international ones.

Have a good night.  It feels like 6:30. 

Mr. Shea

By the way, I have heard zero responses on the weekend homework question.  Yea?  Nay?  Hello?  Don't make me email you.

Substitute tomorrow. Field trip Monday

Hello,

I'm trying to get this out while my meeting is at meet and greet status.  I will be at a professional development conference tomorrow.  Please fill in the permission slips tonight.  Bag lunches are available from the cafeteria for Monday's field trip, but I will need a count tomorrow. 

We worked with minerals today.  Ask your child about some of the properties of minerals: feel, color, streak, hardness, light, luster and shape.  Calcite, Galena, and Hematite proved some of the tougher minerals to identify based on these properties.  We will learn more tricks of the trade as we go.  I think everyone liked testing the streak (on ceramic tiles) and hardness (with fingernails, pennies and nails) best. 

Please remind your child that you expect the best from them tomorrow.  I did the same as they were leaving.  I'll leave some interesting stuff for them to do in my absence, but I won't be pleased with anything other than a good report from the sub.

Gotta run,

Mr. Shea

I am an idiot

Hello,

I forgot to hand out the permission slips for the field trip and the conference sign up slips.  Both are sitting right next to me.  My apologies.  Tomorrow maybe?

The scheduling meeting wasn't very exciting.  It didn't come to blows.  We'll hammer this out by January.

Today was the first day that Bowdoin students were here on the same day.  It is nice having an extra helper in the class.  We had two for the morning block and one for math.  Thank you to Coral, Madison and Pete.

Homework tonight is to write up sentences using their spelling words.  I don't want more than two spelling words per sentence.  I know that was many kids first thought.  "Can I put all the words in one sentence?" was immediately asked. 

"No," came the immediate reply.

"Two?"

I believe I let out a long sigh before answering.

Ms. D'Agostino said that today's physical education class was very rough.  She said that she didn't see much in the way of teamwork.  I guess some tempers flared and people weren't very nice to each other.  You might ask your child for their version and then talk about it.  It wasn't the type of report that I like to hear, but I can see it happening.  I'm not seeing as much teamwork and camaraderie as I would expect by now either.  Oftentimes it is easier to show that in a classroom, than in an athletic competition.  I have participated in a couple of our phys. ed. classes and I saw firsthand a lot of "win at all costs" attitudes.  Once one person got offended, things escalated quickly.  As with everything, we'll keep working on it.

On a brighter note, our custodian has been very impressed with our neater, cleaner classroom.  Students are taking more responsibility in getting their junk off the floor and their chair on their desk.  Thank you class!

Gotta run,

Mr. Shea

Meetings, meetings, meetings.

Hello,

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween.  Some of the students were pretty jacked up this morning.  Overall, we had a good day despite some afternoon weariness. 

It is a week full of meetings for me.  I just got out of a report card meeting.  This one was about how to enter grades into our new computerized system and then print them out.  I have a scheduling meeting tomorrow.  We are trying to fix our current school schedule.  Over 650 kids trying to get through the lobby at the same time is a bad idea.  Giving the second graders an afternoon of 3+ hours with no breaks for specials also was a bad idea.  We are working on fixing these major issues and more.  Thursday night is our interactive whiteboard meeting.  This is the first year that I have had an IWB and I definitely could use some more instruction on how to use it.  I just found out that document cameras are in for the rest of our grade.  I'm excited about that.  I think I'll use that more than the IWB. 

Conference sign up slips will go home tomorrow.  Wait until you see these report cards.  They are something else.  I'll reserve judgement on them until I have some more time to get acquaited with them. 

I have a question for all of you.  I was asked why many elementary school teachers don't give homework on weekends when that is the best time for many kids to do it.  It is a valid question.  I'd like some input from you.  Would you like weekend homework?  I have always felt like school is very similar to a kid's job and that most people don't take their job home on the weekends.  Believe me, I know plenty of us work on the weekends.  I guess I haven't thought about it too much, but I always thought the "no homework" weekends were the times when kids could go back to just being kids.  I'm open to thoughts and suggestions.

We have a substitute on Friday.  I am going to CREA for a teaching seminar on Earth studies: history and geology.  Luckily, CREA is paying for me to be there because there isn't money in the budget for us to go to professional development seminars.  I'm happy that it was approved and hope that I can get some good ideas.  We will be hearing from professional geologists and a gemologist.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Our class field trip to the Cathance River, which will also focus on geology, will be on Monday, November 7th.  We are asking that everyone bring a bag lunch.  Permission slips will go home tomorrow.  We will be going rain or shine.  Please make sure your child is prepared for the elements.

Have a great night.  Expect short posts the next two nights.  These meetings will be long.

Mr. Shea

Would they have done the homework anyway?

Hello,

There was a lot of excitement today.  I didn't give them any homework.  I don't think the excitement was school related.  I hope they have a great night tonight.  Please don't send them in with mounds of candy unless they are donating it to our Sweets for Soldiers program.  Ms. Smith, fourth grade teacher, got Coffin School involved with this program last year.  Any unwanted or excess candy can be brought in and will be sent to our overseas troops.  I think it is a great idea and am glad she shared it with us.  A orange note went home with the details.

During writing time, we focused on what makes a story scary.  The class came up with: suspense, a problem, stretching out the scary parts, strange noises, paranormal activity and caring about the characters.  They practically ran back to their desks to start their stories.  Most of them were including their classmates in their stories.  We only had time to share brief plot lines.  I'm hoping some will get read aloud as they get finished later on in the week.

Spelling words are back!  After a hiatus, our Sitton Spelling Program is back.  Students have ten words written in their assignment books that they will be tested on at the end of the week.

I just got an email letting us know that fourth graders will not be receiving letter grades until the end of the second quarter.  We have new report cards and now we need to make grades consistent across grade levels.  An A in my class has to mean the same as an A in another fourth grade class.  The first quarter report card will have 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s on specific skills to indicate whether or not a child is proficient in those skills.  All teachers will grade the exact same skills.  If a teacher has covered a skill that others in the grade have not, they are not allowed to fill in a ranking for that skill.  Every teacher at every grade level must fill in grades for the same skills.  We can talk about this during conferences.  I'll be sending out possible times this week. 

Happy Halloween.

Mr. Shea

Really late

Hello,

Sorry so late.  The big event of the day happened when we were sorting cuisenaire rods (colored blocks).  This turned into a real learning experience.  One person did things differently and was not treated very well by their classmates.  I felt like the task was a good reflection of most workplaces: there was a common goal, but many people had different ideas on how to get there.  We need to use our words to communicate our ideas before things escalate out of control.  There was a bit of escalation today.

We finished The City of Ember.  It is a fantastic book.  Ask your child about the ending, and why they are or aren't interested in the sequel.

I have been spending half the night sending apology emails to people who sent me emails earlier in the year that I never received.  I discovered a junk mailbox file this morning while trying to change my email settings.  I had over 20 emails in my junk box, and many of them were not junk.  I immediately notified the principal who then emailed the staff that we have a third folder that incoming emails can go into.  It is upsetting, and at the same time, ridiculous.  Three of the emails were from my home address.  I would send myself a link to my school email so I could use it on the interactive board, but then think that I had to wait for the blocked email update before I could get it.  By the time the updates came, I would forget what I had sent.  Now I know where they went.  AAAUUUGGH!

Picture day tomorrow.  Harry Potter Club is staying after school.  Ms. Thayer and I are putting together a memo for an upcoming Chess Club.  Details coming soon.

Have a great night.

Mr. Shea

Good day

Hello,

I think we had one of our better days.  We wrote some very entertaining book commercials.  Students were trying to "sell" their favorite picture books.  We heard some very energetic rants about how terrific some books were.  It was very funny and we had some great energy in the classroom.

I think some of that energy came out of another successful Harry Potter Club meeting.  The club decided to have to say a password to be granted entry to the classroom during meetings.  I can't tell you what the password is, but I can tell you that you'd never guess it in a million years.  The club discussed our after school meeting on Friday.  Twenty-one members have already turned in signed permission slips to stay after to create Hogwarts banners.  I am providing juice, fruit, and crackers, and two students have volunteered to make some special treats from the Harry Potter cookbook.

My math class is rolling along with multiplication.  I am excited about how far this group should be able to go.  We have a great energy in the class.  Some may say a little rambunctious, but I say, "Give me the energy, I'll channel it."  We were joined by Pete from Bowdoin College.  He will be helping out once or twice a week. 

In our continuing study of parts of speech, we took on the verb, be.  We focused on am, is and are.  These come very natural to a classroom of talkers.  Tonight's homework is about past tense.  I didn't get much of a chance to introduce the homework, (3:25 snuck up on me again), but I don't think it is too difficult.  Either way, we'll go over it tomorrow.

I introduced our rocks and minerals unit.  Full speed ahead tomorrow.

All for now.  Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Let's go back to rewards

Hello,

Reading log participation was underwhelming.  Everyone who passed in a reading log on time and fulfilled the minimum requirements (20 min per night for five nights) is getting some potting soil, a pot, and seeds.  They will get to grow some vegetables or flowers on their desk.  And hopefully motivate some others in the process.  I made this announcement this afternoon and immediately two more reading logs were found.  Thirteen is not an impressive total.  I'm not a huge proponent of getting kids to read based on rewards, but at this point I've got to get them reading and will do whatever it takes.

We are nearing the end of The City of Ember, our class read aloud.  Doon and Lina are trying to find a way out of the city.  It is exciting and most of the class isn't happy when I stop reading.  Ask your child to make a prediction or two on what they think will happen or what they would like to see happen.  I have multiple copies of the sequel.  I'm hoping for a lot of interest.

Picture notices went home last night.  Picture day is Friday.  I'll try not to make them cry before our picture time.  That was supposed to be a joke.  Probably not a good one.   Let me know if you need a new notice.  It looks like three students haven't emptied their mailboxes this week.  The packages aren't cheap, but I heard that the school gets a cut.  I think that's a bright side.

A bunch of book order forms went home.  Our online code is J36TM if you would like to order online at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs  Thank you to those of you ordering books.  They make great gifts as well.  If you want a book to be a secret, let me know and I'll hold it back when it comes in.

Many students completed a poster-sized map today.  We are winding down map skills and should start Rocks and Minerals tomorrow or Thursday.  We will finish up our geography unit tomorrow playing around with google earth.  We talked about the international date line today.  Ask your child if they can go back in time.  Hopefully it will jog their memory to talk about the bizarre phenomenon of crossing the date line.

Have a good night,

Mr. Shea

Multiplication

Hello,

I was pleased with the last math quiz on addition, subtraction, place value and rounding, so we are moving ahead to multiplication a week earlier than I had planned.  The math time has become the brightest spot of the day recently.  The class is energetic and ready to think.  The weekly challenge this week is to plan out the menu for a weekend getaway at Moosehead Lake.  Students have Shaw's Supermarket circulars and a pretend $250 gift card.  Unfortunately for them, they also have to write out the receipt.  They were excited to get to work on it when they left this afternoon, but it is a lot of work so I hope they get started before Thursday night.

We had a fire alarm with bus evacuation drill this morning.  Students boarded buses as they would if we had an actual emergency that required them to be taken offsite.  Today the buses never left the parking lot, but the bus drivers discussed various emergency procedures with them. 

In art, the class started a mini unit on Monet.  They painted today and I hear they will be using clay next week.  The class started the year doing artwork in the style of Van Gogh.  This is my first year sending kids to Ms. Moll, but she seems to be getting them to do some excellent work. 

In our parts of speech review, we watched a little School House Rock.  Nouns and verbs should be a breeze by fourth grade, so we should fly through those.  We will spend more time on the adjectives and adverbs this year. 

Islands are mostly graded.  I was disappointed not to get to more today.  It involves a one-on-one conversation with the island creator, so I can ask questions like, "Which way does the river flow?"  Unfortunately the class wasn't overly cooperative in giving me that one-on-one time with their classmates.  I would definitely put TO WORK INDEPENDENTLY as one of our class goals.  I don't like to be a taskmaster. 

The total count for picture books read last week is still a big question mark.  Many logs were left at home.  Let's get those in tomorrow!

Have a good night.

Steve

Late

Hello,

I'm really late with this so I'm going to make this quick.  We had a math curriculum meeting and it went really well.  Then I had to chat with old colleagues that now work at different schools.

We made our play dough islands this afternoon.  Thank you to Mr. Davis for coming in and helping out.  Thank you to all of you for coming through on the play dough making.  We had some extra that children were able to take home.  Tomorrow the class will work on their compass roses, keys, symbols and labels.  We will be using water color paints.  Even though I have a great set of aprons donated by Wild Oats, I still would recommend wearing something that wouldn't break anyone's heart if it turned rainbow colored. 

I forgot to mention yesterday that we had a visit by the school counselor, Mrs. Farrand.  She came in and talked to us about the dangers of smoking.  It went well and the kids were engaged.  You might ask them to tell you a bit about it. 

Picture book totals are at 364.  Other than math, reading is the only thing on tonight's homework docket. 

All for now.  Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Islands tomorrow

Hello,

We did a little antonym activity.  Please ask your child to give you a few examples of antonyms. 

Island making is tomorrow.  We reviewed the land forms today in a jeopardy like game.  Tomorrow is the "test."  If they only give me a couple mountains and a volcano, I'll be sorely disappointed.  Thank you for those of you who have made play dough or plan on it.  I will take some volunteers tomorrow after lunch if anyone would like to come in and help assist with the island making.  We should get started around 12:30.

My math class has a quiz tomorrow.  Subtraction and rounding will be the meat of the quiz, but I will throw in some addition and place value.  A couple questions will feature a number line where they need to estimate where certain numbers would be placed on it.  For example I may label the ends of a number line 0 and 100, and then ask them to approximate where 5, 75, and 90 would go.  A few are still struggling a little with this, but if they use their strategies and think a bit, they should do well.

Our picture book week continues.  We have read 277 books as a class.  Our goal of 750 may be tough to do, especially with other pesky homework getting in the way.  I still have faith.  Achieving difficult goals is a lot more rewarding.  Please ask your child about some of the books that they have read. 

Hoop night tonight for me.  I'll be making play dough with the rest of you after that. 

Have a great night.

Mr. Shea

The islands are coming!

Hello,

Picture book day two:  Many students have caught the fever.  They are sharing their favorites and stacking up the on deck books.  It is great to see.  I am hoping that our discussions will give us a good launching point for our reading for the rest of the year.  It is fun to talk about and discuss books with people with differing or shared opinions.  We all have our own unique perspective and it is great to hear students say, "Oh, I didn't notice that." or "I thought the same thing!" etc.

We did some map work today.  Students paired up with large laminated maps of Maine that we got from AAA.  I called out some coordinates like H-16 and students would try to find the town or city in Maine that was located in that section.  We looked at the scale, legend and symbols as well.  Students then went to their desk and drew an island.  Tonight's homework is to think about their play dough island and sketch that out.  What kind of symbols or shapes will they plan to use?  Working with playdough is a lot different than drawing.  They don't have to use tonight's plan as a blueprint, but some may want to go in that direction.

A couple more days before special services kick back in.  I know that things should run more smoothly after that.  I'll be contacting some of you about volunteer opportunities shortly.  Thanks for your patience. 

I went to the Parent Group meeting last night where parents were able to voice their concerns to the superintendent.  There was a lot of talk about too many rules in the new school, too little communication between teachers and parents, and too strict security at the front.  I appreciate that the superintendent faced the fire in an open forum.  If you have any concerns about anything at all related to the school, please feel free to email or call me.

Have a great night,

Mr. Shea

I can't believe I forgot to give out the play dough recipes.

Hello,

Before I get into our day, I forgot to give out the play dough recipes so here is a cut and paste of the sheet that was supposed to go home tonight:

Dear Parents,

We will be making islands in class this week to show off our knowledge of landforms.  I am hoping that some of you will be able to donate your time and effort (and some household supplies) to provide our class with the necessary playdough.  I am providing you with two different recipes.  They both have their merits.  Thank you for providing our class with a batch or two.  Don’t worry about adding color.  We will be painting our finished products.  You may send your dough to school in Ziploc bags starting on Tuesday.  We will begin our island making on Thursday.

Thanks in advance.  I know it is a bit of a pain.  I’ll be making some too. 

Mr. Shea

Traditional PlayDough Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups of baking soda
1 and a half cups of water
1 cup of corn starch

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together and boil over medium heat. Once doughy, remove from heat.  Takes about ten minutes.

Cream of Tartar Playdough Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups of plain flour
2 cups of coloured water
1 Tbsp. of cooking oil
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup of salt

Directions:

Place all of the ingredients in a medium size or large pan. Cook slowly on medium-high and stir it until the playdough thickens.  This recipe takes less than 10 minutes.

Okay, sorry about that.  I think the kids will revolt if they don't get to make their islands this week.  We will spend the next couple of days drawing maps of islands, creating map keys with symbols, talking about scale and reviewing our land forms.  We will create our islands of play dough on Thursday and paint them on Friday.  These will be graded.  Certain land forms will be mandatory, but I'll leave a lot of room for creativity and free choice.

Homework notices went out today.  A few students have been inconsistent passing in homework or reading logs.  It is a note that needs to be signed.  It is my attempt to get them to have a conversation with you about what is and isn't working in their homework rituals.  We need to develop some good working habits now, so that future years will be easier.

Picture book week started today.  The silent reading time had a terrific buzz of reading.  It was definitely the most reading that I have seen during our silent reading time, and I didn't have to redirect anyone on what they were supposed to be doing.  I hope we can make a habit of this.  Students will be logging picture books read all week.  You should have seen two come home in their backpack.

I had two impromptu meetings tonight, otherwise I would have gotten this out sooner.  I will make a habit of getting the homework calendar done immediately after school so that it is available more quickly.  I have to remind you, however, that this is not to be used by your child as a substitute for writing down their homework assignments in their assignment books.  This calendar is for you to know what should be written in your child's assignment book, what they need to do each night and to help on those occasional "oops" nights. 

All for now.  Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea

Back in the saddle

Hello,

It was nice to get our afternoon back.  A few students got called out to do make-ups, but it sure felt good to have a little time for reading, writing and science.  We are now going to try to wrap up some of the loose ends that are still dangling.  Geography picture dictionaries need to get finished by tomorrow.  Recipes for play dough will go home with the hope that we will get some brought in on Monday and Tuesday.  The goal is to give students the chance to show off what they know by creating islands with multiple landforms.  I realize that not every family will be able to, but I would appreciate it if you could help make a batch or two of the dough. 

We did a pass it on writing game this morning to get our pencils moving across the paper.  Students wrote a sentence of a story and then passed on the story to someone else.  I was impressed with our first attempt at this.  Often I have story "hijackers" who try to turn every story that passes their eyes into an intergalactic shoot out.  That didn't happen.  I also usually have a lot of bathroom humor or graphic violence.  Also not a problem today.  They did a good job coming up with topics, staying on topic, and interjecting the stories with some type of problem to make the story more interesting.  Bravo!  We'll do it again from time to time, and it is fun to see the improvement, but this was a very good launching point. 

My math class got into rounding numbers to the nearest ten, hundred or thousand.  I played a squirrel crossing a highway to illustrate this.  On one side is the the next highest ten (or hundred or a thousand).  On the other side is the nearest lower ten.  Students had to decide whether the squirrel should round up, (continue to cross the road) or round down, (turn around and go back.)  If the squirrel chooses wrong, he turns into roadkill.  We took volunteers to play the signs on the side of the road holding up the nearest tens, hundreds or thousands.  I only played the squirrel once before getting volunteers for that position.  We only had one roadkill incident.  Luckily the oncoming traffic was imaginary.

Math continues to be a bit of poking and prodding to see what they know.  We are currently doing a combination of subtraction, time and rounding.  We begin each day with Rocket Math which is an individualized program that I really like that measures when students have their facts down.  Each student gets two minutes to study their facts and then takes their daily one minute test.  Their goal is based on how fast they can write.  They should be able to answer math facts (like 3 + 7) as fast as they can write.  If not, then the fact isn't automatic yet.  As they pass each test, the next one adds a few more facts.  I handed out thirteen different tests today for my twenty math students.  It is a bit more of a pain to grade, but I find that it is definitely worth the extra time.  Multiplication Rocket math will start at the end of the month, regardless of where they are in their addition and subtraction facts.  We will return to those after they have their multiplication facts down.

I can't believe that it is almost Friday.  The week and the year are going too fast and I'm feeling inadequate.  We have some work to do.  I'm going to have to get them to buckle down to get to where we need to go.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Testing is done! Well, sort of...

Hello,

We finished the math portion of our NECAPs this afternoon.  I was able to squeeze in the school questionnaire right at the end of the day as well.  The questionnaire is a portion of the test where the students answer what they do and how often they do it during a normal school day.  There are no wrong or right answers, only opinions.  By finishing this, we can attempt to have a more normalized day tomorrow with a full literacy block and science class.  Unfortunately the rest of the school has seven more days of testing.  Special education services won't kick back in until after next week.  We will do our best to differentiate and challenge everyone, but we won't be back to our regular schedule, which the kids have hardly seen anyway, until the week of October 24.

We had our first staff meeting tonight.  I have joined a scheduling committee to try to make our schedule fit the building a bit better and to try to give the younger students easier afternoons.  We discussed the lunchroom and the playground.  More changes for the better should be coming soon there as well. 

Please don't panic if you don't see anything written in your child's assignment book tonight.  We finished the questionnaire with about two minutes to spare.  The kids got ready to go as I collected the books.  It would be a good night for them to get in their reading log minutes.  Other than that, the only homework is for specific math classes. 

We got a new student today.  I hope your child can tell you something about her.  At the very least, they should be able to tell you her name and where she is from. 

I read a story called The Character in the Book by Kaethe Zemach this morning.  I am trying to get them to embrace all of the freedom that they have during writing time to create whatever they want, like zany characters with ridiculous quirks that live in faraway places.  I'm anxious to get back to our regular schedule so they can get their free reading and writing times in. 

All for now.  Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea

A couple more days of testing

Hello,

I'm ready to get back on track, but we have a couple more days of testing to get through.  I think the kids are giving their best effort.  I'm just trying to get them to see that what they call their best effort, can be better.  Our testing time is a full ninety minutes.  Most students can easily finish in forty-five.  I would really love to see them take advantage of that extra time to read through all of the questions slowly, just to make sure they didn't miss anything and to see that their answer makes sense.  Some have made some big improvements with this over the past five testing days.  Some would rather finish quickly.  We'll keep working on it.

I read quite a bit of Rafe Esquith's There Are No Shortcuts this weekend.  Rafe is a California teacher and the author of one of my favorite books on teaching, called Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire.  I agree with him on a lot of issues, including that our teaching time per day is too short, and that our teaching year is too short.  I feel like I don't have time to teach everything that I need to teach.  Starting off the year with assessment after assessment doesn't help either.  I don't know the answer, but am starting to think that I need to offer some optional instruction times either before or after school.  When you add in the fact that many students are behind the norm already, school will never get better for them until they can catch up.  I'm throwing this out there to see the reaction.  So give me some feedback.

I plan on following quite a bit of Mr. Esquith's classroom responsibilities plan.  I run a similar program during my government unit, but he takes it to another level.  We will elect a president, senators, representatives and a sheriff.  Judges will be appointed.  We will draft a constitution.  I've done all of this in the past, in what is generally a very popular unit, but this year the jobs will be paid.  (Fake money, of course, but students will be able to buy real priveleges and items with it.)  I'm excited about it already.  I'll start that in November, but stay tuned for further details.

I've got to run to a dinner.  Best turn out so far for reading logs.  Way to go folks!

All for now,

Mr. Shea

Have a good mini-break

Hello,

I wanted to remind you that Friday is a no school day.  It is a furlough day for the staff.  As long as we were going to get unpaid days off, I would rather have had it during the summer. 

Monday is also a no school day, in observance of Columbus Day.  I've asked the class to ask their parents about Columbus.  I tried to provide them with some different perspectives.  Now I want them to hear your opinion. 

The first day of the math test is always a tough one.  Unlike the reading, kids tend to decide whether they "get" the question or not rather quickly, and then either rush through it or take their best guess.  I think we'll see the same jump in their ability to check their work over the next couple of days, as we did during the reading tests.

I hope everyone has a good mini-break. 

Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea

Schadenfreude?

"What in the world is the teacher wasting everyone's time teaching them a German word?  Doesn't he know that were in the middle of testing?"

That is what I imagine some of you might have been saying last night.  The word, schadenfreude, was highlighted in the picture book that I read to them titled That's Not Funny by Adrian Johnson.  The main character is a boy who laughs at the misfortune of others.  At the end of the story, a mishap occurs and he ends up being sat on by an elephant.  He didn't think it was so funny then.  The postscript of the book explains that we don't have a word for this in the English language.  Pronounced "shah-den-froy-duh," it is laughing or taking delight in the bad luck of others.  This is one of those books where the postscript is essential in making the book worthy of reading.  Otherwise it is just a book where a little boy gets his comeuppance.  I thought it would be nice, light reading for the class after another hard day of testing.  The little lesson at the end intrigued enough of them for me to give them a quick assignment to show me that they understood the word.  I got some funny stories.  They understand.

I read the last few pages of Morning Girl by Michael Dorris today along with some excerpts from the journal of Christopher Columbus.  Columbus gives his initial impressions of the native Taino that he met: "... it seemed to me that they were a people very poor in everything...  They should be good and intelligent servants, for I see that they say very quickly everything that is said to them; and I believe that they would become Christians very easily, for it seems to me that they have no religion... I will take six of them (back to Europe) to your highness when I depart, in order that they may learn to speak (our language)."

Morning Girl is written from a Taino girl's perspective.  She thinks the white men that come to visit are "fat" and "dressed silly."  They stare at her "like babies: wide eyed, with their mouths open." 

These excerpts are just part of what I read this morning.  It sparked some lively conversation.  Some students were calling Columbus a jerk.  I reminded them of our tribes yesterday.  It must have been extremely difficult for both "tribes" - in this case the Europeans and Taino.  I asked the class to look at all the incorrect assumptions that both sides were making.  I drew some more parallels to yesterday.  I think some were making the connections, many will take another day. 

We'll read Encounter by Jane Yolen tomorrow.  It is a picture book.  It is also a "guessed at" history from the Taino's perspective.  Which brings me to another lesson: Who gets to write history?  I touched on that a bit today, but am hoping that there are so many hands in the air tomorrow wanting to give their two cents, that we may have to leave that for another day. 

Harry Potter Book Club started today.  I opened it up to all classes, but capped it at 30 kids.  I had 43 kids two years ago and it was just too much.  We split the group and met twice a week.  We needed twice the after school meetings.  I won't do that again.  Thirty is enough.  If we have some drop outs, we'll add some from the waiting list.  Today's meeting took place during lunch time.  I handed out a Sorting Quiz to help sort them into a house.  If they don't like the results of the quiz, I will give them a one time chance to be sorted by the Sorting Hat on my IPhone app.  But then, it's whatever the hat says, goes.

Some activities that the kids seemed enthusiastic to do this year include: quill making, Quidditch, movie watching, wand making, Harry Potter Jeopardy Challenges and tea leaf reading. 

Wow, it's late.  I'll stop.

Good night.

Mr. Shea

We got outside for ten minutes today!

Hello,

The effort on the NECAPs was strong today.  I appreciate some of the talks that I assume went on at home.  No questions skipped.  Students were ready for me when I came by to collect them.  They took some pride in saying, "I checked everything."  Bravo.  Great improvement in just one day.

We did a fun activity this morning that ties into our mini-study of Christopher Columbus.  I separated the class into four "tribes."  The Bambams, the Funfuns, the Haphaps, and the Jubjubs (not fruminous) each had their own language and goals.  The initial point of all of this is to see if people can communicate when they have totally different languages.  You can ask your child for the details.  Two of the tribes were all about fun and happiness.  Their goals were to get members of the other tribes to do different actions that would mean that they wanted to be friends.  The other two tribes had goals that were a little less admirable.  The Bambams were trying to get people to touch the sink, which obviously was a sign that somebody was agreeing to do all of your cleaning for you.  The Jubjubs were trying to get classmates to touch their feet, which was a sign that the person felt beneath you and was willing to be your servant.  All goals were kept secret from the other tribes, but each tribe knew that the others also had goals.

As expected, there was a ridiculous amount of gesturing and frustration.  It was fantastic.  In the end The Funfuns and Haphaps were much more willing to go along with the requests of the other two tribes because they were less suspicious of their intentions.  These two tribes had a lot more trouble getting others to go along with their requests, however.  The Bambams and and Jubjubs were much more suspicious and tended to ignore other tribes requests. 

We discussed this a bit, but I don't think all of it will sink in until I can relate it to the Europeans and Native Americans.  They had different languages, different expectations, and very different suspicions.  I'm sure the kids aren't going to like to see that Columbus wrote in his journal that the people of the "Indies" would make "good and intelligent servants."  But I'm hoping I can put this in a little better context by pointing out the culture that Columbus came from.  He thought like a European.  He wasn't a "bad" one.  He did and thought what most any European would have done and thought at the time.  He didn't believe that the Natives had language.  He believed they didn't have religion.  He believed that they were very poor.

Every tribe in class today thought the others were behaving ridiculously.  They made a lot of assumptions.  Columbus also made a lot of assumptions.  Columbus thought that they were basically agreeing to become slaves by their actions.  Kind of like today. 

I thought this activity up two years ago, and I've expanded on it a bit.  I like it and I think it works.  They understand a bit better how ridiculous those first few meetings of new cultures must have been.  Some kids will still dislike Columbus quite a bit for what he did, and I can't blame them too much for that, but I think I can present it in a balanced way by showing them that his thoughts and actions were a product of his culture.  No one in the Bambams thought any of their own tribesmembers were out of line today.  Their new servants might think differently.

I have more to say, but I'll update you tomorrow on where we go from here.  Half of the connections that I made here, we haven't done in class yet.  So you might hold off talking to your child much beyond asking what tribe they were in and what they thought of it.  It will all come together in the next two days.

Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea

Steve  

NECAP testing day one

Hello,

I thought the class did fairly well on their first day of NECAP testing.  They still need a little more practice on what checking their work means.  Four times I had this conversation:

Student: I'm done.

Me: Did you check your work, make sure everything made sense, finish everything?

Student: Yes.

Me: (after perusing the handed in booklet) What about this one?

Student: Oh, I guess I didn't see that one.

Me: (to myself)  AAAAUUUUGH!!


I don't think that they are all lying to me when they say that they have checked their work.  I don't think that many of them know what it means to check their work.  We'll go over that a lot this year.  Then again, and there is no way around this, some are just lazy.  The test isn't overly exciting for them and they don't feel like it is important.  You can see why they might want to finish ASAP.  Unfortunately it is important to the teachers and the school.  What is most frustrating about it is that it makes it so the test doesn't necessarily register what they know, but rather how poor their test taking skills are.  So the test may say that a student is weak in say, parts of speech, when really the student just skips portions of the test in their haste to get it done. 

The teachers agreed to go light on the homework this week.  My math class has their first weekly challenge of the year.  It is meant to be challenging and is not due until the end of the week.  The idea is that they should be pecking away at it all week.  They can ask me questions about it all week.  They are not graded on whether or not they got the right answer, but by how hard they worked on it.  I think that it is important to give them some problems that are unfamiliar.  American children rank high in how quickly they give up when they see something unfamiliar.  So please don't help your children on these.  Let them struggle.  Let them come in with their questions.  As long as they can show the work of their attempts, they will get the highest marks.  At the end of every week we will discuss the different strategies that we found out.  This weeks challenge are Numbrix puzzles from Parade magazine in the Sunday paper.  We did about 25% of the first one in class.  Let's see if they can finish the rest.

These testing days don't leave a whole lot of time for work.  Our afternoons for the next six days will include a special and a ninety minute test.  My day of teaching is practically over at 11:15.  Not my favorite days, to say the least. 

Thank you for signing the reading logs this week.  We are down to five "forgetful ones."

All for now.  Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea

Quite a day

Hello,

I had a rough one.  It wasn't because of the kids.  Today the adults were wearing me down.  I think we had a pretty good day in the classroom.  The classroom was my sanctuary. 

We finished my erosion slides.  (Can they define it for you now?)  I got one email saying that her son was ready for a little trip out west.  I'd love it if more of you are hearing that.  My dream summer job is to take Maine kids out west on ten day camping and adventure trips.  I think it would be so great to open up their horizons to a whole new landscape and environment.

The continent test went pretty well.  I won't know for sure until I grade it, but a quick glance as I collected them made me feel pretty good. 

We will try to wrap up our geography picture dictionaries tomorrow and think about creating some play dough islands.  We also have a bit more map skill study to go through before jumping into rocks and minerals.  That is a fantastic topic to teach: lots of investigation and exploration.

Our picture book of the day was The Story of the Little Mole Who Went in Search of Whodunit by Werner Holzwarth.  You might want to ask about that one after you have eaten.

Sorry so late tonight.  A parent meeting went long, mainly because I'm a talker. 

Spelling test tomorrow. 

Have a good night,

Mr. Shea  

NECAPs are coming

Hello,

We had a staff meeting pop up at the end of the day to discuss the upcoming NECAPs.  This is the federally mandated test that took the place of the MEAs a couple years ago.  We will have ninety minutes of testing every afternoon for the next week and a half.  The testing will start on Monday.  Please have your child rested and well fed.  You might want to send them in with an extra snack. 

The testing schedule is going to interfere with our regular day.  It looks like a majority of the time taken will come out of our literacy blocks.  The fourth grade team will meet to see if we want to spread the pain and maybe drop a math class or two. 

A reminder that we have no school on Friday the 7th of October and Monday the 10th of October.  Friday is one of the furlough days that was built into the schedule to save taxpayers money.  Monday is Columbus Day.  We will do a few neat activities on Columbus before the holiday.  So plan ahead now: you will have your child(ren) for a four day weekend.

I read the picture book Why Do You Cry? by Kate Klise this afternoon.  This led to a discussion about when and why we cry.  Ask your child about it. 

In our continuing study of erosion, (Can they define it for you yet? The changing of the surface of the earth caused by wind and water) I showed the class some of my slides from the western U.S.  Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion, White Sands, Arches, Canyonlands and Death Valley were featured to show some of the more dramatic results of erosion that we have in our country.  It probably doesn't hurt that I have some funny little stories that go with some of the slides.  We should finish up the slides tomorrow with a little erosion or not erosion section. 

Thanks for reading tonight.  And thank you for reading this and discussing the school day with your child.  It is great reinforcement of their learning and of your caring about the importance of them and their education.

Mr. Shea

A little better...

Hello,

Well, we are continuing the climb.  Six didn't bring in their homework today.  Improvement. 

I got some nice feedback on yesterday's blog, including from some of teachers.  I'm always wary of being too preachy and sometimes my emotions get the better of me, but apparently I didn't cross any lines last night.  Thank you for the feedback.  It is nice to hear from all of you.  There is no such thing as too much communication between a parent and teacher.  I jokingly wrote an email last year to a parent at the beginning of June that said, "Are you okay?  It's almost noon and I haven't got an email from you yet."  So if you have something on your mind, please share.

We started a new procedure today.  We are filling out our assignment books with an hour still left in the day.  I think I may move it up right before afternoon recess tomorrow.  That will be motivating.  It is amazing how long it takes to get an assignment book out near the end of the day.  It was much quicker today, but I think the pre-recess idea will work even better.  I signed everyone's assignment book today once they got the correct info.  I think I missed a few spelling lists though.  You may want to check your child's list before they start studying. 

We went down to the dining room today and talked about the anxiety that can go along with finding a place to sit, finding a friendly face, sitting alone, etc.  It is a problem that they didn't have to deal with nearly as much at their old schools.  Here, most everyone is still unfamiliar.  The cafeteria seats are built so kids can just "move down."  Kids often feel left out.  We did a little brainstorming on what we can do to help alleviate some of the issues.

I have volunteered to take on two Bowdoin students this year.  They generally will be in our classroom three hours a week.  Coral came in this morning.  She was a Red Riot from South Portland before going to Bowdoin.  She will do a lot of observing and then will hopefully lend a hand on some our projects as we move forward. 

I read Gleam and Glow by Eve Bunting to the class.  This is a continuation of my ongoing efforts to show them what they can get out of picture books.  Gleam and Glow is a fantastic picture book about a family that has to leave their home by foot because of oncoming soldiers.  They throw their two gold fish in the pond by their house before they go, saying, "A couple of extra days of life is important, even for a fish."  They walk a long, long way to cross the Bosnian border to live in a peace camp.  Years later, upon their return home, they find their house burned and the landscape "looking like the surface of the moon."  Then they see their pond, teeming with life.  Hundreds of gold fish make the water a dazzling display of color in a gray, bleak world.  It is based on the true story of the village of Jezero in Bosnia-Herzegovina.  The fish helped rebuild the town because of all the tourism that it brought to the village. 

I finished and asked, "Isn't that a great story?  See what you can find out from a picture book?" 

One student raised his hand and said, "That's the best picture book I've ever heard."  Music to my ears.

This reading lead to a much longer discussion than I had anticipated.  I relayed a couple stories of students' families that I had taught in Portland that had escaped from Somalia to live in UN camps.  We talked about how lucky we are to live in the U.S. and not have to worry about that.  Someone brought up 9/11, saying that we can be attacked.  This led to more questions and discussion. 

Tonight's homework is not what I had originally planned, but I didn't think Gleam and Glow would take up my whole literacy block.  The question that I want them to answer is: What would you take if you had to leave your house and walk to freedom and safety?  (and why, of course)  It all has to be small enough that you could carry it in a backpack, but you can assume that there would be no electricity in the camp that you were headed to. 

I think we'll have some more interesting conversation tomorrow. 

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea