Time for spring

Hello,

If we have no more snow days then the kids will get out on the 14th of June.  One more snow day and they'll have to come back for Monday the 17th.  It's like a three for one raw deal.  One more snow day costs the kids three days of summer vacation.  So I'm hoping we've seen the end of big snow. 

Auditions for the Stowe School Variety Show are after school tomorrow.  Acts should take approximately two minutes.  A parent or guardian must come to auditions and rehearsals.  The actual show is scheduled for Friday, March 29.

We have been working hard on our paragraphing.  I know some students got frustrated today cutting and pasting sentences to fit inside margins.  I will have them do the activity again if they have trouble writing with margins. 

I read the tall tale of John Henry, famous railroad worker, this afternoon.  I gave them some questions to answer afterwards, checking on vocabulary.  Tomorrow they will have stories to read where they can go back and look to and answer comprehension questions.  Report cards are two weeks away, so the testing is upon us. 

We have to set up conferences for the week of March 11-15.  Most teachers are making Friday the 15th an all day conference day.  I'll offer some afterschool and before school times earlier in the week as well.  I'll send home a sheet on Monday where you can give me your preferences. 

We had a visitor from Bowdoin College, Matthew, observe our classroom for the half day yesterday.  I wish he got to see a little more instructing, but I think he got a sense of our class and school routines.  He watched my math class go over homework and take a quiz.  He then got to see our class start a basketball unit with Ms. D'Agostino in the gym.  It being a half day, I pointed out how little academic instructional time that the students got, even though the day counts as a full day.  As long as the kids eat lunch, the day counts as one of our 175 school days. 

Sorry I didn't get the blog done yesterday.  The fourth grade teachers met and then we got out of here to beat the storm. 

Thanks for understanding.  Have a good night.

Mr. Shea