Day One

Hello,

We had a pretty easy day. It probably wasn't as exciting as some of them hoped, but we set up the playbook. It was really great to see everyone again. I'm confident that we will have a great year.

We completed an assignment notebook scavenger hunt to get them acclimated to the new version. We also figured out the classroom jobs which will get filled tomorrow. We are going to take a page from The City of Ember (a read aloud last year) and have an assignment day. Students will draw for their jobs. Each job will be written on a sliver of paper. Trades will be allowed.

Our silent reading time was great, just like last year. I'm happy with the number of kids who kept up their reading over the summer.

I gave them a little motivation quiz this afternoon. This will confirm my thoughts on most of the kids, but I may learn something new. The quiz is supposed to let me know what motivates each student - praise, power, projects, prestige, prizes or people.  Each category has an explanation that I'll gladly explain if you are interested. I'll let you know where your child fell as well.

One of my favorite moments of the day came when our new secretary delivered part of my budget order in the middle of class. "Excuse me," she asked. "Did you order a bunch of metals?"

I did. I ordered some elemental metals for our first unit, chemistry. I like that she had the same reaction to my budget orders as our recently retired secretary, Mary.

We'll get going strong tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Mr. Shea