Sorry so late

Hello,

It is after 7:00 and I just got back to my room after meeting with team members about math.  I'll make this quick.  We passed out mystery books today.  Ask your child what they are reading.  I made a lot of the choices low level readers.  We should be able to read these easily, but take in more of the big picture of what makes a mystery.  I hope many kids will step up and read more than one during the unit.

We did some Grammar Ninja this afternoon.  Many kids struggled to pay attention.  It doesn't matter how it is presented, if kids aren't confident in their ability on a subject, many of them try their best to tune out.  It is more socially acceptable for them to not be paying attention than to not know the answer.  I got very frustrated.  I gave them a little lecture on being present and attentive.  Then I asked how many of them were tired of me giving this message to them repeatedly.  Many raised their hands.  I passed the clicker to one of the children raising their hands and asked them to finish the problem on the screen that the last child was struggling with.  The student had no idea what the problem was even asking.  So they heard me ask them to pay attention and were tired of that message, but they had no idea what we were working on.  Yeah, that's frustrating.

Continents quiz on Friday.  Students must know the seven continents, the four oceans, the equator, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, and the Ural Mountains designating the split between Europe and Asia.  We've filled in quite a few maps.  We've spent some time on these things.  I was quite disheartened to hear that we live in the continent of Brazil today. 

Some days teachers feel like we are doing a lot of things well.  Some days are like today. 

Alphabetization homework tonight. 

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea