Diorama day

Hello,

We spent lots of time on our biome dioramas today.  We should see more of that tomorrow and Thursday, although the teams need to focus on the poster-diorama duo.  I think the dioramas are more fun, so they gained the early attention from most of the groups.

MEA testing started in the school today.  The computer lab and laptop carts are unavailable for the foreseeable future. Since we start NWEA testing just after the MEA testing, the computer lab will be out until June 19.  That throws a wrench into our research papers that we have yet to do, but maybe we'll go with hand written reports based on traditional book research. Our generation lived through those, right? Maybe I'll break out some encyclopedias.

All kidding aside, our tech department deserves a ridiculous amount of credit for setting up multiple rooms for these MEA tests.  Laptops are hardwired throughout the school to give our kids the best chance to do well. Most of this work occurred over the April break, and these unsung individuals deserve a pat on the back.

Math homework tonight is more work from Count Zoid's castle.  Last night's work wasn't as easy as many kids thought.  There were a lot of "oh's" and "ah's" in class today as kids recognized shapes that they missed.  I steered the reactions from ones of disappointment for missing, to ones of discovery.  I heard a lot more positive noises once we talked about not beating ourselves up for missing something.  They get another chance tonight to be more observant.

Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea