The blog is back

Hello,

Thanks to all of you for coming in and meeting with me.  Our conferences are very important, but please don't limit yourself to those designated times.  I'm available for meetings on most every night.  If you ever have a comment or question that needs to be expressed, just come on in. 

We got into some persuasive writing today.  Tonight's homework is to write a paragraph that attempts to convince someone of something.  We talked a lot about persuasion in class and wrote an example on the white board.  I heard a lot of their personal favorite forms of persuasion, especially when dealing with parents.  The "pester them until you get it" strategy was very popular.  Promising good behavior, acting cute, embarrassing them with a tantrum, and playing one parent off another were also strategies that they said have seen some success.  I was impressed how they were able to talk about it, but I was particularly amazed at how quickly they shift strategies when one isn't working.  Student after student expressed how versatile they were when one strategy wasn't working.  They talked like master teachers: "You have to constantly assess the performance of your strategy and be ready to jump ship at a moments notice."  Wow! 

Looks like there is a lot of snow on the horizon.  I'm hoping that we have school tomorrow, but the forecast doesn't look good.

We had a class session with our school counselor, Mrs. Farrand, last week.  I wanted to mention it because they watch a video on personal space.  It is an uncomfortable topic.  A note went home, but if you have any questions, please ask your son or daughter or me anytime. 

Our artist in residence, Judy Segal, from Arts are Elementary will be spending two more days with us this week.  We learned about Maine birds in the first session and painted them with acrylics in session two.  Session three promises a focus on poetry.  The last session is a mystery to me.

Our math classes are going to focus on bar modeling over the next couple of weeks.  My class has a mean, median, mode assessment tomorrow and then we'll begin.  Fractions are on the horizon.

I was very sad to hear that two pieces of furniture that our art teacher, Ms. Moll, had turned into works of art had to leave the building.  Many of you probably saw the small couch that she had painted waterlillies on in the style of Monet.  It was in the front lobby for quite a while.  That piece, as well as the "Starry Night" chair, were deemed fire hazards in the latest building inspection walk through.  My personal opinion is that when we someday change over to Kindles, it will be based on the fire department's decision that the books are too dangerous. 

On that note, I thank you for reading.

Mr. Shea