Hello,
No blog tonight. Happy Halloween. No homework tonight, although they are still responsible for their reading logs (5 of 7 nights of the week).
Thanks,
Mr. Shea
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Really short one
Hello,
I am going to make this really short. Topics of discussion: Intro to rocks and minerals, lava and magma, earth's plates, the forming of the islands of Hawaii, compound words, factors, products, taking responsibility, not pretending that you know something you don't, (Twice in math today I got the "OOHHHHHHHHH!" that you would expect to hear when someone just realized something that they didn't know before. Each time I heard it, the person was 100% pretending that they knew something, just so I wouldn't ask them. I called on each person that said it. Neither had a clue what they were doing, but were doing their best to mask it. Sad that it is this late in the year and they don't feel safe. Also sad that they don't think I'll sniff it out. I must admit though that they must get away with it more than I know.)
Alright. Here's hoping I have power at home.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
I am going to make this really short. Topics of discussion: Intro to rocks and minerals, lava and magma, earth's plates, the forming of the islands of Hawaii, compound words, factors, products, taking responsibility, not pretending that you know something you don't, (Twice in math today I got the "OOHHHHHHHHH!" that you would expect to hear when someone just realized something that they didn't know before. Each time I heard it, the person was 100% pretending that they knew something, just so I wouldn't ask them. I called on each person that said it. Neither had a clue what they were doing, but were doing their best to mask it. Sad that it is this late in the year and they don't feel safe. Also sad that they don't think I'll sniff it out. I must admit though that they must get away with it more than I know.)
Alright. Here's hoping I have power at home.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
Monday, October 29, 2012
Good luck
Hello,
Our field trip for tomorrow is cancelled. I just realized that I never put it on the calendar in the first place. With high winds, lots of rain, and many power outages expected, we decided to reschedule for early November. More details to follow.
I'm sure you have heard, but there is quite a storm blowing in. Make sure you have some water stocked up. Charge your phone. Keep flashlights on hand. I lost power for six days just two years ago. At least now I work in a school that has showers in the locker room.
We extended our Friday talk about atoms and molecules today. Friday's discussion wasn't planned, but came out of questions from the class. I decided to build off of that discussion to jumpstart our rocks and minerals unit. I started from the solid/liquid/gas perspective. We talked about vibrating molecules, temperature, temperature scales, etc. The kids bounced around the room as nine and ten year old molecules. When some our fourth grade molecules didn't follow the laws of physics, (like retaliatory bumping) they found themselves sitting on the sidelines. This is one of my favorite units with a lot of hands on learning. We will be alternating between geology and geography since they are so closely related.
Our government unit is by no means over, because we will run our class government all year long, but I don't give them a big test or anything until later in the year. I will wait until we implement the executive and judicial branches into our class government before I will expect them to understand it too deeply.
I've been trying very hard to make sure kids that are pulled for GT, special education, RTI, etc don't miss too much. That is going to be near impossible as we start overlapping units. I need to cover social studies and science content within our writing and reading times. I can't guarantee that some things won't be missed. I'll do my best to keep the most important content area activities at times when we have most everyone. (We have no time of more than 20 minutes during the day when we do have everyone.) Pull-outs are a reality of today's education. With each pull out, there are positives and negatives. Missing stuff is also a reality.
Gotta run. We will have homework club tomorrow. I figure if you don't have power, you probably would rather have your kids at school.
Lego club is going to start on Thursday nights. I'll write more on that tomorrow.
Have a good night. Stay warm, safe and dry.
Mr. Shea
Our field trip for tomorrow is cancelled. I just realized that I never put it on the calendar in the first place. With high winds, lots of rain, and many power outages expected, we decided to reschedule for early November. More details to follow.
I'm sure you have heard, but there is quite a storm blowing in. Make sure you have some water stocked up. Charge your phone. Keep flashlights on hand. I lost power for six days just two years ago. At least now I work in a school that has showers in the locker room.
We extended our Friday talk about atoms and molecules today. Friday's discussion wasn't planned, but came out of questions from the class. I decided to build off of that discussion to jumpstart our rocks and minerals unit. I started from the solid/liquid/gas perspective. We talked about vibrating molecules, temperature, temperature scales, etc. The kids bounced around the room as nine and ten year old molecules. When some our fourth grade molecules didn't follow the laws of physics, (like retaliatory bumping) they found themselves sitting on the sidelines. This is one of my favorite units with a lot of hands on learning. We will be alternating between geology and geography since they are so closely related.
Our government unit is by no means over, because we will run our class government all year long, but I don't give them a big test or anything until later in the year. I will wait until we implement the executive and judicial branches into our class government before I will expect them to understand it too deeply.
I've been trying very hard to make sure kids that are pulled for GT, special education, RTI, etc don't miss too much. That is going to be near impossible as we start overlapping units. I need to cover social studies and science content within our writing and reading times. I can't guarantee that some things won't be missed. I'll do my best to keep the most important content area activities at times when we have most everyone. (We have no time of more than 20 minutes during the day when we do have everyone.) Pull-outs are a reality of today's education. With each pull out, there are positives and negatives. Missing stuff is also a reality.
Gotta run. We will have homework club tomorrow. I figure if you don't have power, you probably would rather have your kids at school.
Lego club is going to start on Thursday nights. I'll write more on that tomorrow.
Have a good night. Stay warm, safe and dry.
Mr. Shea
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Interesting logic
Hello,
I read The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens to the class this morning. We had a very interesting, but quite shocking discussion afterwards. The book is about a bunch of prairie dogs who discover a tennis ball that has fallen into their burrow. They have a great time peeling off the fuzz and dancing around until they realize that all of the fuzz is off the tennis ball. Then it becomes a free-for-all as they fight one another to get more fuzz for themselves. At some point, they become exhausted and fall asleep. The big bully of the group goes around and steals all the fuzz. In the morning, while the bully is gloating over his new found fuzzy riches, he is scooped up by an eagle. The prairie dogs first celebrate the loss of the bully, but then come to the realization that he is one of their own, and help save him.
It is a very entertaining story with great illustrations. The kids definitely enjoyed it. So my first question afterwards was about the prairie dog that took the fuzz. There wasn't the negative response that I expected, so I broadened the question to put themselves in the dog's position. I said, "Let's pretend it is Christmas day. All the gifts have been opened. If you had a button that would make all of the gifts that everyone in this class received, immediately disappear, but appear in your house, would you press it?" The answer was yes, by about a two to one margin! Some wanted to know if the others in the class would know where the presents went. When I said "no," more hands went up to say they would press the button. A boy said they wouldn't do it because they wouldn't want the "girl gifts." Someone pointed out that they could sell the girly stuff. Two more hands went up. I was in shock.
I explored deeper with this... "Are you telling me that if you found a five dollar bill under your foot, right now, (they were sitting on the floor/rug) that you would quietly slip it into your pocket? Yes by a 3-1 margin! The greater the value of the bill the greater the number of kids who would discreetly pocket the bill. One child said proudly, to show that he was honorable, "If it was a dime, I'd ask who lost it."
I explained that "it could be lost lunch money, a classmate could end up getting in deep trouble for losing it, your own friend might be sulking all day, all because of you," but to no avail. The kids were adamant about one thing: If the other kids knew they took it, they would think differently. As long as it was anonymous, they had no problem with it.
At this point, we had to break for lunch. Wow. I was flabbergasted. These are good kids. Great kids. I cannot believe the "if you don't get caught, what's wrong with it?" philosophy. It certainly explains why so many students (from other classes, of course) still run in the halls.
We will be talking a lot about perspective in writing this year. It will be an easy tie-in to try to get them to see other people's perspectives on some of these behavioral issues as well. Fourth grade is a big year for many kids to come to appreciate things from a perspective other than their own. Until then, I hope they keep their valuables locked up tight.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
PS. Please return CREA field trip slips before our trip on Tuesday. You may check off if you want to chaperone, but we don't really need any. CREA has their own staff of adults. I can have one or two, but we will have greater need during later field trips.
I read The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens to the class this morning. We had a very interesting, but quite shocking discussion afterwards. The book is about a bunch of prairie dogs who discover a tennis ball that has fallen into their burrow. They have a great time peeling off the fuzz and dancing around until they realize that all of the fuzz is off the tennis ball. Then it becomes a free-for-all as they fight one another to get more fuzz for themselves. At some point, they become exhausted and fall asleep. The big bully of the group goes around and steals all the fuzz. In the morning, while the bully is gloating over his new found fuzzy riches, he is scooped up by an eagle. The prairie dogs first celebrate the loss of the bully, but then come to the realization that he is one of their own, and help save him.
It is a very entertaining story with great illustrations. The kids definitely enjoyed it. So my first question afterwards was about the prairie dog that took the fuzz. There wasn't the negative response that I expected, so I broadened the question to put themselves in the dog's position. I said, "Let's pretend it is Christmas day. All the gifts have been opened. If you had a button that would make all of the gifts that everyone in this class received, immediately disappear, but appear in your house, would you press it?" The answer was yes, by about a two to one margin! Some wanted to know if the others in the class would know where the presents went. When I said "no," more hands went up to say they would press the button. A boy said they wouldn't do it because they wouldn't want the "girl gifts." Someone pointed out that they could sell the girly stuff. Two more hands went up. I was in shock.
I explored deeper with this... "Are you telling me that if you found a five dollar bill under your foot, right now, (they were sitting on the floor/rug) that you would quietly slip it into your pocket? Yes by a 3-1 margin! The greater the value of the bill the greater the number of kids who would discreetly pocket the bill. One child said proudly, to show that he was honorable, "If it was a dime, I'd ask who lost it."
I explained that "it could be lost lunch money, a classmate could end up getting in deep trouble for losing it, your own friend might be sulking all day, all because of you," but to no avail. The kids were adamant about one thing: If the other kids knew they took it, they would think differently. As long as it was anonymous, they had no problem with it.
At this point, we had to break for lunch. Wow. I was flabbergasted. These are good kids. Great kids. I cannot believe the "if you don't get caught, what's wrong with it?" philosophy. It certainly explains why so many students (from other classes, of course) still run in the halls.
We will be talking a lot about perspective in writing this year. It will be an easy tie-in to try to get them to see other people's perspectives on some of these behavioral issues as well. Fourth grade is a big year for many kids to come to appreciate things from a perspective other than their own. Until then, I hope they keep their valuables locked up tight.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
PS. Please return CREA field trip slips before our trip on Tuesday. You may check off if you want to chaperone, but we don't really need any. CREA has their own staff of adults. I can have one or two, but we will have greater need during later field trips.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Favorite books
Hello,
The fourth grade was put in charge of putting together a school wide election in conjunction with this year's national presidential election. We decided to make it about books instead of Obama vs. Romney. We decided that we would have the school vote on favorite picture books, since many of the younger students aren't into chapter books yet. We split non-fiction and fiction books into their own political parties (the Chickadees and the Pinecones). Each class had up until today to make a nomination for favorite picture book in each category. Our class nominees were: The Giving Tree, If I Built a Car, Dooby Dooby Moo, Bad Day at Riverbend, Calvin and Hobbes, The Gardener, The Dumb Bunnies, The Polar Express, Gleam and Glow, Betty Doll, and Tsunami! The Dumb Bunnies won the Chickadee nomination from our class. Tsunami! won the Pinecone nomination. We will find out the candidates from the other classes, and then later next week have primary elections. Once we have narrowed it down to two candidates, we will have our school-wide elections. Ask your child which "candidates" they supported today.
This blog is going to be very short tonight. I just finished a fourth grade team meeting, and now I am overdue for a retirement party.
Our class will be putting together a class newspaper. Either your child is on the newspaper staff or they were elected to our new congress. Either way, they have new important jobs.
I've really got to run. Drop me a line if you have a question.
Mr. Shea
The fourth grade was put in charge of putting together a school wide election in conjunction with this year's national presidential election. We decided to make it about books instead of Obama vs. Romney. We decided that we would have the school vote on favorite picture books, since many of the younger students aren't into chapter books yet. We split non-fiction and fiction books into their own political parties (the Chickadees and the Pinecones). Each class had up until today to make a nomination for favorite picture book in each category. Our class nominees were: The Giving Tree, If I Built a Car, Dooby Dooby Moo, Bad Day at Riverbend, Calvin and Hobbes, The Gardener, The Dumb Bunnies, The Polar Express, Gleam and Glow, Betty Doll, and Tsunami! The Dumb Bunnies won the Chickadee nomination from our class. Tsunami! won the Pinecone nomination. We will find out the candidates from the other classes, and then later next week have primary elections. Once we have narrowed it down to two candidates, we will have our school-wide elections. Ask your child which "candidates" they supported today.
This blog is going to be very short tonight. I just finished a fourth grade team meeting, and now I am overdue for a retirement party.
Our class will be putting together a class newspaper. Either your child is on the newspaper staff or they were elected to our new congress. Either way, they have new important jobs.
I've really got to run. Drop me a line if you have a question.
Mr. Shea
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Hello again
Hello,
We had homework club tonight. I could see that the math took much longer than I expected. They were supposed to find out the cost of a page of books from the book order. I wanted them to do seven pages. I showed them quick ways to handle adding up multiple .99s, but seeing the students in the homework club constantly writing 99 over and over again was tough to bear. It illustrates the need for more problem solving education. The effort was there, but the efficiency was not good. I repeated what I have said earlier in the year: If math homework is taking you more than 20 minutes, you have my permission to stop. You are either doing the wrong assignment, doing something the wrong way, or you need more instruction. Stop and live to fight another day.
I did appreciate the effort.
Thank you for ordering books. I have already seen some online book orders go through. I have also been seeing when your child has gotten online to do IXL math. I plan on setting some class goals. I like IXL for practice, but there are some limitations to it. I saw today that one boy spent a half an hour on odd and even problems. They give sample math problems and then ask if the answer is odd or even. The boy had got half of them right. That is an example of one of the limitations.
Our read aloud is going to lead to some serious discussion. We will surely get into some talks on racism in the next few days. Philip, the narrator and main character in The Cay, makes some pretty brutal assumptions about his fellow castaway. Timothy is a big, old man with dark skin. Philip is a twelve year old boy. I'll keep you posted. You might want to inquire about the story up until now. Yesterday, well over half the class said that they thought Timothy was "mean."
It's late. I'm going home.
Thanks for reading,
Mr. Shea
We had homework club tonight. I could see that the math took much longer than I expected. They were supposed to find out the cost of a page of books from the book order. I wanted them to do seven pages. I showed them quick ways to handle adding up multiple .99s, but seeing the students in the homework club constantly writing 99 over and over again was tough to bear. It illustrates the need for more problem solving education. The effort was there, but the efficiency was not good. I repeated what I have said earlier in the year: If math homework is taking you more than 20 minutes, you have my permission to stop. You are either doing the wrong assignment, doing something the wrong way, or you need more instruction. Stop and live to fight another day.
I did appreciate the effort.
Thank you for ordering books. I have already seen some online book orders go through. I have also been seeing when your child has gotten online to do IXL math. I plan on setting some class goals. I like IXL for practice, but there are some limitations to it. I saw today that one boy spent a half an hour on odd and even problems. They give sample math problems and then ask if the answer is odd or even. The boy had got half of them right. That is an example of one of the limitations.
Our read aloud is going to lead to some serious discussion. We will surely get into some talks on racism in the next few days. Philip, the narrator and main character in The Cay, makes some pretty brutal assumptions about his fellow castaway. Timothy is a big, old man with dark skin. Philip is a twelve year old boy. I'll keep you posted. You might want to inquire about the story up until now. Yesterday, well over half the class said that they thought Timothy was "mean."
It's late. I'm going home.
Thanks for reading,
Mr. Shea
Monday, October 22, 2012
Rough math class
Hello,
Math was rough today. I had many heads nodding up and down that they understood, but when I would give them the dry-erase marker to come to the board, I saw immediate panic in many eyes. Auugghhh! I implored them to STOP PRETENDING! It is impossible to teach someone when they think that they already know. I am really thankful that we had a Bowdoin College volunteer who was able to take some of the kids who are already comfortable with regrouping.
Okay, a bit about the new math program... I like it. It was my top choice out of all the programs we looked at. It is conceptual. It emphasizes thinking and problem solving. Another great thing that I like about it is the pace. It is supposed to be slow. It is supposed to go deep. We are not supposed to move on to the next topic unless the kids understand the prior one. That is how I've always tried to teach math. At each grade level, more is expected of our children than we have expected in the past. These first couple years are going to be tougher because we need to allow ourselves to go at a pace that allows time for understanding of steps 1, 2 and 3, before rushing to step 4. The old program was criticized for going a mile wide and an inch deep. This program is about conceptual understanding. You can't rush that.
New topic: descriptive writing. Ask your child how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Some key details were left out of the descriptions today and left me smearing jelly all over my table, putting a whole jar between two slices of bread, and a bunch of other things you wouldn't want to see done with your sandwich supplies. The major lessons were: reread your work carefully before passing it in, and pay attention to details.
The first book orders of the year went home tonight. Don't worry about due dates. I'll order every two weeks. If you order online, scholastic will give you a five dollar credit for your next order. The online ordering has many more options than the flyers. Let me know if you want access to older or younger grade level books. The books usually take about a week to arrive, once I put in the order. I pass out the books to the kids when they arrive. I can hold back any books and give them to you personally if you want them to be a surprise.
Homework club tomorrow until 5:00. I'm hoping they can wrap up the big Risk game so I can introduce them to some new games.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
Math was rough today. I had many heads nodding up and down that they understood, but when I would give them the dry-erase marker to come to the board, I saw immediate panic in many eyes. Auugghhh! I implored them to STOP PRETENDING! It is impossible to teach someone when they think that they already know. I am really thankful that we had a Bowdoin College volunteer who was able to take some of the kids who are already comfortable with regrouping.
Okay, a bit about the new math program... I like it. It was my top choice out of all the programs we looked at. It is conceptual. It emphasizes thinking and problem solving. Another great thing that I like about it is the pace. It is supposed to be slow. It is supposed to go deep. We are not supposed to move on to the next topic unless the kids understand the prior one. That is how I've always tried to teach math. At each grade level, more is expected of our children than we have expected in the past. These first couple years are going to be tougher because we need to allow ourselves to go at a pace that allows time for understanding of steps 1, 2 and 3, before rushing to step 4. The old program was criticized for going a mile wide and an inch deep. This program is about conceptual understanding. You can't rush that.
New topic: descriptive writing. Ask your child how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Some key details were left out of the descriptions today and left me smearing jelly all over my table, putting a whole jar between two slices of bread, and a bunch of other things you wouldn't want to see done with your sandwich supplies. The major lessons were: reread your work carefully before passing it in, and pay attention to details.
The first book orders of the year went home tonight. Don't worry about due dates. I'll order every two weeks. If you order online, scholastic will give you a five dollar credit for your next order. The online ordering has many more options than the flyers. Let me know if you want access to older or younger grade level books. The books usually take about a week to arrive, once I put in the order. I pass out the books to the kids when they arrive. I can hold back any books and give them to you personally if you want them to be a surprise.
Homework club tomorrow until 5:00. I'm hoping they can wrap up the big Risk game so I can introduce them to some new games.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
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