Conference sign up link

Hello,

I just created a page to let you sign up for conferences on line.  I'll send a letter home on Monday for those without internet access.  My schedule is tight this year.  I have to go late on a Friday and had to offer lots of early slots.  If you are flexible, I'd ask you to go for the 25th or 26th. That would just give me a little more time to get my stuff together.  Thanks so much. Here is the info:

Dear Parent,

You are invited to sign up for Parent / Teacher Conference with Mr. Shea.

            DATE:  November 20, November 21, November 24, November 25 and November 26.
            PLACE:  Room 120. 
            REGISTRATION DEADLINE:  End of day before each conference day

To pick a time slot, enter this link in your internet browser:

             www.ptcfast.com/reg1

At that link, you will be asked for your Entry Code, where you should
enter P6L182450

I look forward to meeting with you.

Best Regards,


Mr. Shea

If you are having any trouble with the above directions, here are the time slots available. You can give me a couple options and send a note in with your child.

Time Blocks     Thursday, Nov 20, 2014        5:00 PM - 7:00 PM       30 minutes         Friday, Nov 21, 2014        7:00 AM - 8:30 AM       30 minutes                  3:30 PM - 8:00 PM       30 minutes         Monday, Nov 24, 2014        7:00 AM - 8:30 AM       30 minutes         Tuesday, Nov 25, 2014        7:00 AM - 8:30 AM       30 minutes                  1:30 PM - 2:30 PM       30 minutes         Wednesday, Nov 26, 2014        7:00 AM - 6:00 PM       30 minutes

Have a great weekend.  I'm off to Maine Maritime in the morning, back Sunday night at 8:00.  I'm going to attempt to come in to class as soon as I get back to campus, but I might just go with a 6:00 am start on Monday.  Staying late on Friday has never been my thing, but there's a lot of changes this year. Long bus rides should mean more correcting done, so that should be good.   

Good night,

Mr. Shea

Hoop practice again

Hello,

I've got to figure out when I can do this blog thing.  Right now I just don't have time.  I'm running from school to practice. All of my school meetings are scheduled around my practice times, so I usually don't get a chance to blog until after 7:00 or sometimes 9:00.  I think I'll just get the homework on the homework calendar during the day and then shoot a quick blog out when I can. It may be at night sometimes, but at least you'll get some updates so you can choose what to mention or discuss with your child at a later time.  Sorry. New schedule. New challenges.  We'll make it through as best we can.

Thanks,

I'm off to practice again.

Mr. Shea

New government and panning for gold.

Hello,

I'm sure if the big Harry Potter event wasn't lurking, your kids would either have come home and talked about our new government, or what their assignment is for the class paper, or that they got to try panning for gold.

I bought some bags of sand from a retired geology professor. He buys them from a mine in Georgia and usually about half of them have a small piece of real gold in them. He demonstrated to me how to pan for the gold and has always given me free bags of sand if I don't find gold in at least half of them. It takes a lot of patience and a steady hand to do correctly, so despite not finding any of the three bags that we emptied, I'm not going to try to get a free bag. I thought it would be a nice thing to try as we wind down our rocks and minerals unit. We might try again during chemistry next year. Another year to mature may be the trick to finding the gold.

The president signed a law today granting me the power to fine anyone interrupting a class discussion two dollars from their weekly paycheck. I like it. The law yesterday about blurting out being a ten dollar fine lasted less than two minutes. I collected forty bucks from one senator though.  We'll see if this new law works or if it will even last the week.

Okay, I've got the sorting on my mind. Thanks for all of the help so far. We still have work to do.  I really need to have volunteers for:

Putting up banners in the music room
Stringing and hanging the floating candles
Ordering and picking up pizza around five.
Making a river out of desks in the hallway
Helping me with the sound system
Helping with the lighting
Assisting in the creation of a cardboard boat or two
Keeping our kids calm enough to pull this off.
Hanging up the stone walls of the castle and the brick wall of the train station.

Plenty to go around. If anyone has any battery operated lanterns, we could use those as well.

I hope to see some of you after 3:30 tomorrow.  I'm off to get some more tea lights.

Thanks,

Mr. Shea

Busy busy

Hello,

Sorry for no blog last night.  We had homework club until five.  The last pick-up was at 5:30 and I had to race over to Bowdoin for a basketball practice that went until 8.  The Bowdoin practice schedule is the reason I'm switching over our homework club nights to Thursdays starting next week.

The Harry Potter Sorting Ceremony is in the music room on Friday at 6:30. We still have a lot to do. I hot-glued some tea lights onto tubes after school for our floating candles. Big thanks to Pat for making the tubes look like melted wax has dripped down the sides. Pat is also tackling the chocolate frog production.

With so much still to do, kids can stay after tomorrow (Thursday) until 5:00 to help with prep. It is a bit of a homework club, but I'll have real tasks to get accomplished after the homework is complete. Parents are welcome to come help. Same drill on Friday. Students can stay after, parents are welcome too. I'm hoping to get a volunteer to go on a pizza run around five fifteenish so the kids don't drop before the ceremony.

We had a nice walk to the polls yesterday. I've never seen such a long line to cast ballots. Good for Brunswick. We had our own class elections. We have a new congress and a new president and vice. Ask your child if they ran for office and bravo to them if they did.

We've moved our seating around to get the house, senate, and white house officials together.  All remaining citizens are gainfully employed by the class newspaper.  An editor in chief and an assistant was chosen to lead our reporters and writers.

I've got to run.  Thanks for reading.  And thanks for pushing the blog over the 16,000 page view mark! We've come a long way from my first year of class blogging where I hardly got anyone to read it. I stopped typing it that year after I requested anyone who read a post to email me to let me know if it was worth my time.  I got one email... and it was from a teacher.

Have a good night,

Mr. Shea

Election Day tomorrow

Hello,

We talked about the election. We will have our own elections tomorrow afternoon after we visit the polls at the Jr. High and hear from our candidates.  We will be electing a president, three senators and five representatives. There was lots of buzz about this at bus time.

I think the first referendum vote drew the most comments. I stayed as neutral as I could on the bear hunt regulations vote, but had to cut their comments short. It seems everyone in the class has an opinion on hunting and whether or not #1 should pass. The other items on the ballot are all about whether or not to spend money. I explained how these votes have a direct correlation with our tax bills. Research, clean water, help for businesses etc. all sound great, but voters always have to think about the increase in their taxes. It often makes for tough decisions.

I asked the class to speak to you about the election. I don't want to know who or what anyone is voting for, but it may lead to some good discussions with your child.  Maybe you can explain an issue to your child so they could bring back some more info for us tomorrow.

We ended the day working on posters explaining the rock cycle.  Ask your child what that is tonight. They should know.

Tomorrow is the last Tuesday homework club.  We will start on Thursdays next week.

Have a great night.  I have Bowdoin Women's Hoop practice.

Mr. Shea