First Day of School

Hello and welcome to my blog,

I hope your child came home excited about our year of learning that we will have together.  I'm enthused by the class energy.  Some was a little misdirected, but that is my job.  I would rather have energy than a bunch of bumps on a log.

I look forward to meeting all of you.  My name is Steve Shea and this is my seventh year teaching in Brunswick.  I live in Woolwich with my wife, Erika.  And to date myself...  I went to Bates College before the internet hit.  I think you could say that my area of expertise is math, but I love teaching children because elementary teachers get to teach all subjects.

This blog is the best tool that I have found to keep you updated on the happenings at school.  Please contact me if you ever have any questions or suggestions that might make it better.  My hope is that it will give you some common ground to start conversations with your child.

The first big change for the year is that we are no longer using lunch cards.  Students will be lining up for lunch according to classroom teacher.  As they pass through the line, they will give their name.  A food service worker will immediately debit the student's account.  This will speed up much of the classroom procedure.  Hopefully it will be quicker for our lunch workers as well.

I gave the class a quick rundown of where we are headed in the next couple weeks.  We are going to create a class government.  I want them to make our class laws.  HBS school rules will be our constitution.  We are also going to start a classroom economy.  The students will have jobs.  They will be renting their desks.  My hope is that most of them will come to buy their own desks and thus avoid the hefty rent payment every month.  Jobs range from bankers to sanitation engineers, postmasters to librarians, line engineers to administative assistants.  My inspiration for the classroom economy is Rafe Esquith, author of Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire, and Ms. Thayer, fellow reader and fourth grade teacher.  Please ask your child what jobs they are applying for and who they used for a reference. 

We will be jumping into the new math program, Math in Focus, tomorrow.  Unless your child goes to Mr. Steven's gifted program, I will be your child's math teacher for the forseeable future.  There is a moratorium on math grouping which was imposed on Thursday of last week. 

I wanted to get this done before 5:30 so I need to wrap up.  Our special tomorrow is Physical Education.  Please remind your child to wear or bring sneakers.  I promise to get our class schedule out to you tomorrow or Thursday.  I think we worked out some kinks today, but I'm going to look at that now. 

Have a great night.  Thank you so much for reading.  My cell is 841-2599 if you want to talk to me.  My email is sshea@brunswick.k12.me.us . 

Mr. Shea