Discovering the Secret to a Character's Emotions

We had a fantastic writing lesson today.  I hope you had a chance to talk to your student about it tonight.  We started off the lesson by looking at some student example work that was very good.  After that we started talking about character action.  We made lists of words to describe how characters moved from one place to another, what characters could do with their hands, and what characters did with their face.  I was going to have them write after this, but the lesson evolved into a lesson on non-verbal clues to a character's feelings.

During the course of making the list a student shared "raised an eyebrow" for something that a character could do with their face.  I stopped to ask them what the character was feeling by knowing that they raised their eyebrows.  We then went into some practice of trying to describe how the character was feeling by just using a description sentence.  I was blown away by the examples that they gave.

These kids are great writers.  They need to refine their thought process, but when they set out to craft a really good sentence they will blow you away.  We will be working to highlight these successes and encourage students to work harder to naturally add this kind of detail into their writing.

I was very excited by the writing lesson and I think it is our best writing lesson in a couple of weeks.  It was awesome to see everyone captivated and working hard.  It can be difficult for students to understand how to make their writing better, but today was a great stepping stone towards more exciting description in their writing.  I can't wait to build on this tomorrow.

Counting Our Way to Success

We like to think of all the ways schools have changed since we were kids.  Some of those changes are for the better and some of them are for the worse.  One of the most dramatic things that has changed for early elementary children is the difficulty in learning to identify coins.  There are two main factors that make identifying coins more difficult.  The first factor is that many adults have gone to a cashless existence and use credit/debit cards for all of their purchases.  The other factor is that the American mint is constantly changing the reverse of the coins including over fifty different quarters.

As we look for ways to save time in math to spend on difficult concepts like fractions and division, I am going to task you with some simple practice at home until your student is able to identify the penny, nickel, dime, quarter, and half dollar along with knowing their value.  It would also be helpful to help them learn to count coins by both having them count the value of a pile of coins that your make and by having them count out coins to match a value that you name.  It would be helpful to have a jar of coins that you can use to practice for a few minutes at the dinner table.  You can even leave them a sheet with a couple values that they can count out and you can check later.

Learning to count coins also helps students with number concept and can lead to improvements in multiplication down the road by learning to count by 5's, 10's, and 25's.  I work the kids hard while they are at school and I believe they need time at home for play, family, and enrichment activities, but if you have some spare time around dinner a quick money lesson would help us in the long run.  Another fun way to enrich a lesson about money is to do some research on the US Mint or on the presidents that are on the coins.  This site is a great resource for information about our monetary system.

http://www.usmint.gov/kids/

The Pretty Refrigerator

I will be brutally honest with you parents.  I am not in the pretty refrigerator business.  If I were, I would highly recommend this beautiful piece of art for your refrigerator.  I will probably talk to many of you about my philosophies about education and refrigerators at conferences, but I wanted to take some time to write about it.  

This class is about challenging some of the brightest students that Davison has to offer and all of my class was chosen due to their intellectual capabilities and academic work ethic.  I treat all of my students the same and I hold them to incredibly high standards.  I believe that students held to high standards will achieve them and push beyond those standards.

I believe that the report card is a horrible tool to measure the accomplishments of the students in this class and that is why I spent nearly 4,800 words in the comments describing what your children accomplished and what I see as the next step in their development.  I will tell you up front that I am not someone who passes out a bunch of fours on report cards that will look pretty on your refrigerator.  I see report card descriptors as hurdles that we need to jump over on the track, but the real education happens when the race is over and we can go train on the trails in the woods.

I don't give out fours in math.  I have seen people do extra assessments to see whether kids are threes or fours in math, but I prefer to spend that time and energy teaching your students the next steps.  One of our top math students was working on three digit by two digit multiplication today.  Others were working on aligning problems using a decimal point instead of just lining them up by the right-most number.  These skills stray from the marking period's objectives but they will lead to greater math growth in the future.  I will share things that you can hang on the refrigerator that you can be far prouder of than whether or not your child got a three or a four.

I hope that we can both measure the success of this year based on the confidence of your child, their excitement for learning new things, and their ability to set goals and achieve them.  We will jump through the hoops and mark off the things that we need to teach, but on the way we will spend our extra time chasing the things that interest us and challenge us.  I will always meet with you or talk to you about your child's strengths and goals for improvement.  I can help you see their development in a much deeper way than a silly number can express.  

I will always ask my former students about their goals and accomplishments before I would ever ask them what grades they are getting.  I think scholastic achievement is important, but the chase for it often leads to counterproductive behavior.  I would prefer to see someone who is becoming a lifelong learner because they are fascinated by learning over someone who is always trying to get another A on a test by memorizing information.

Five For Friday 11-6-15

5.  Marking period one is done.  I am never satisfied with what we have accomplished or how much I have given my kids.  I am very proud of them but that doesn't satisfy me.  I am always pushing to see how far I can get students to believe they can go.  Success follows belief and hard work in the vehicle that gets them from one place to another.  It is nice to be done and have the weekend to reflect on the many great things we have done.  Monday starts with ambition to be a better teacher and to get greater things from every student.

4.  We finished off our writing project today with a rubric self assessment.  I asked students to get tough on themselves and grade their own papers.  I want them to look at their writing and set goals with how it can improve.  We have many good writers, but great writers only come from people who are self motivated and push themselves to be great.  I am trying to instill this desire in my students to never be satisfied with their writing.  It is very easy to say, "I am just done."  I was proud of the few that re-drafted their entire piece in search of something better.

3.  The assembly last Thursday was amazing.  I want to spend some more time writing about it.  The kids had fun and came back excited to talk about nutrition.  I know it is sometimes easier to grab junk food or to give in to the desire to let kids have junk food than to enforce healthy eating, but I wish someone had been more strict with me.  Our bodies crave these things when we give in to these desires.  Great brains are fueled by great nutrition.  If you want to get a jump on checking out the assembly you can read up on Jump with Jill.

2.  Another math assessment down with another great result.  Even our students who aren't as strong in math are working hard and when assessments role in they are doing awesome.  I had a couple students who were on my watch list get 100% on the assessment.  I credit this to their hard work and a commitment to spiral education where we continue to review the things that we have learned.  I am getting ready to enter a new period of challenge to see what they can do with some new information.

1.  As you can see above despite our poor day on Thursday, room 106 won the Cardinal Code trophy for the first marking period in P.E.  It was fun to see the kids each touch the trophy and be excited that they had never won the trophy before.  I told them that my class won the trophy for three marking periods last year which they replied that they were going to be the first class to keep it all year.  When you expect greatness it has a way of finding its way to you.  I am very proud of this class and I will do all I can to reinforce good sportsmanship and teamwork while in gym, music, and computers.