Ms. Hill's lead teaching

Hello,

Ms. Hill was lead teacher for the entire day.  I felt that it went well.  She had them doing a variety of activities throughout the day.

In math, I took our new students from Miss Feigner's class and worked on number lines and estimation.  Miss Feigner had taken her class in a different direction when we worked on this in our homeroom.  Miss Hill worked with the rest of the students on using a T-model to find factors.  Miss Feigner's class had already covered this.  Tomorrow we will split them up again.  This allows Miss Hill to lead teach, and at the same time we can try to get all of our math students on the same page.

After phys. ed, recess and lunch, our class had our 90 minute literacy block.  Miss Hill has been working with them on writing personal narratives.  It is nice to see how much more understanding that they have in just a few short days.  Their writing stamina has also increased.  While we still have a few stallers and pretenders, it is getting better every day.

Despite being interrupted by a fire alarm, Miss Hill's afternoon lesson on artist Andy Goldsworthy was still successful.  Mr. Goldsworthy is an artist who uses the natural world as his canvas and materials.  Miss Hill showed a couple of clips of his work and some pictures from one of his beautiful books.  I tried to cut and paste the clips here, but it isn't working.  They paste, they just don't work. Sorry.  Here are some images.

 

 

The kids went out and tried their hand at art with nature.  I'm hoping that they will try this at home too.  We had some really cool ideas and results.

I like introducing the class to Andy Goldsworthy before taking our annual fall field trip to the Cathance River. That would be a great place to do some work inspired by Mr. Goldsworthy.  Our field trip is next Tuesday. A permission slip went home tonight.  Two parents have already asked if they could chaperone.  I'll try to give everyone a chance before the year is out.

Finally, I sent a note home to students staying with me for math, or new students coming to us from Miss Feigner's class.  It is cut and paste below.

Thanks for reading.  Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Hello,

          My name is Mr. Shea and I am your child’s math teacher.   The fourth grade team did our best to place your child in a math class where they will be challenged and yet have a good chance for success.  Changes can be made, and if we feel there may be a better fit at a later time, we won’t hesitate to make those changes.  You are welcome to provide input at any time for this process.  I’m hoping to start some math procedures that will become regular habit for both you and your child.

          Fourth grade has always been a year where the math work is ratcheted up a few notches.  This is especially true since we have started the Math in Focus program.  It goes at a quicker pace than our old program.  For example, the program includes long division and multiple digit multiplication in the first couple of chapters.  Many fourth graders don’t have their facts down, let alone have a solid concept of what multiplication and division means. 

Because many students are not automatic on their basic facts, we will be doing Rocket Math every morning.  We are currently working on our multiplication facts, but will be hitting division, addition, and subtraction before the year is out.  I like Rocket Math because everyone can be learning at their own level.  Each child has their own test, with their own goals, based on their writing speed.  You’ve probably seen some of these come home.  It is important that they learn these basic skills before heading to fifth grade.

We will have math homework every night, except on weekends.  The homework will be a review of what we have done in class.  That said, your child should always have a good idea of what to do, and shouldn’t need too much assistance from you.  Your child is responsible for bringing work home, completing it, and then bringing it back to class the next day.  You may want to review with your child how they plan on making this happen.

          Each Monday I will also give out a weekly challenge.  This isn’t due until Friday, and this will be work that they may be a bit unfamiliar with.  I will introduce the challenges to get them started, but they are designed so that most students will struggle a bit on them.  These challenges are graded on effort only.  I am much less concerned in the right answer than I am in how students react when they don’t immediately find the solution.  I want students to come in on Tues, Wed, and Thursday and keep asking questions.  I will gladly help those who are putting in the effort.

          I hope you will help them as well, but please don’t just give answers.  Allow them to try different methods.  Allow them to struggle a bit.  Ask what they have tried out so far.  If they can show you what they have tried, then you can help, but “I don’t know what to do!” or “I don’t get it!” shouldn’t cut it.  Judging from the first couple months of school, these challenges are sorely needed.  Many students have learned to yell help at the first sign of confusion, often before reading any directions.    

         

          I give these challenges for a reason.  I subscribe, in part, to Malcolm Gladwell’s assertion that this is largely cultural.  He states, “Asian culture has a profoundly different relationship to work. It rewards people who are persistent. If you take a random group of 8-year-old American and Japanese kids, give them all a really, really hard math problem, and start a stopwatch, the American kids will give up after 30, 40 seconds. If you let the test run for 15 minutes, the Japanese kids will not have given up. You have to take it away.” 

          Research shows that there is validity to Gladwell’s tests.  A more recent test showed that American ten year olds give up within ten seconds!  This is a major problem.  A country’s math ability ranking so closely correlates with the time its students will give to a problem before giving up, that the assessment tests are hardly needed.    

          So what can we do to get them to be more persistent?  I think that many kids are never allowed to struggle.  Many American adults, including teachers, do what they can so their children are never uncomfortable.  I’m asking you to let them be uncomfortable on these challenges.  Make them come in and ask for help.  If we can get them to achieve a bit of success after struggling, they won’t be so averse to it the next time. 

          One last thing that you can do is play games with your kids.  Dice games and Card games are great for their addition skills and number familiarity.  I am always surprised at how many fourth graders have to count the dots on dice.  I will be introducing games throughout the year and will send directions home.  So please, have fun and help them learn at the same time. 

          I promise to do my best to prepare your child for the math challenges of fifth grade and beyond.  I post the homework every night on my daily blog at www.mrsheasclassblog.blogspot.com.  Please email me at sshea@brunswick.k12.me.us , call 841-2599, or drop in if you’d like to speak to me about anything.

Thanks,

Mr. Shea