It has been quite an emotional roller coaster for me this week. Monday was a great day with the celebration of my birthday with the students. I cannot begin to say how special it was. Roses with words from each student was a great way to celebrate my 56th birthday. Thank-you to everyone.
However, on Wed I recieved word that a student I taught in Grade 5 at HKIS, who is a Senior this year, passed away from injuries sustained in a car accident while on Holiday over the Chinese New Year. His name was Griffin Lee. I do not handle death well and was mostly an emotional blob for the whole day. I was able to get through and will be part of a honor in his name when there is a memorial at HKIS sometime in the future. Please remember to continually tell your student how much they mean to you as these kinds of disasters do happen - thankfully not very often.
We are in full swing preparing for our final project in the Human Body unit. Students have completed selecting a condition of the body and a minimum of 4 guiding questions to help them through the research process. They have two more weeks to complete their presentation at which time they will present it to the entire class. This is the first time they have had to do this. They have a copy of the assignment, rubric and list of some conditions on their Ondrive which is available at home through the internet. If they have time, they can certainly do some research at home.
We are also preparing for our Student Led Conferences which happen the week we return from Spring Break. There will be more coming on this in the near future from the ES office so watch for it. I do expect everyone to be involved and present. As much as possible I would like both parents to attend the conference please.
Students have completed their first round of book clubs, chosen their books, and now are on their second round. They choose the books from a selection I have in the class and they are responsible for reading the assigned pages (chosen by the group) in time for the book club meetings every Wed and Fri. So far it has gone fairly well but I still want a deeper understanding of the reading they are doing. I model it in class, we have lesssons (currently about inferring) and they have time to practice it so I expect to see continued improvement as we do this for the remainder of the year.
I have placed more photos from the class in my FLICKR account which you can access here. feel free to copy any you wish to keep.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns please let me know and I will arrange to meet with you.
Have a great weekend,
Harold Daw
