daw.com - August 31

We have had another great week of learning in all the units of study as well as in some areas we just started to explore.  I have to admit that I am very proud of what is happening in class and how far we have come already.

First off, let’s remember it is MAP testing on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of next week.  All I ask of you is that students get a good night’s sleep and have a hearty, but not too filling, breakfast.  All tests are done first thing in the morning right after our morning meeting activities.  I think we are doing the Reading Test on Monday, the Language Usage on Wednesday and the Math test on Friday but this still might change.  I expect that you will have the results about 3-4 weeks after the tests are over.

I want to thank everyone who came to Back to School Night.  As always, it was great to see you there and I hope you found the evening informative and worthwhile.  For some of you, it is the last one in the Elementary School.  I did have several parents ask me to share my blog of past teaching so here is the link.  It is a Google blog so you might need a VPN or link outside of China to view it.

https://dawcom-newsletters.blogspot.com/

You will find that it goes all the way back to 2009 when I was teaching grade 5 at HKIS.

I also want to thank Anica’s mom for volunteering to be the classroom mom.  She will be in touch with you in the next month for the activities and events of the year.  There were also two moms who volunteered to assist and I will pass these names on to Anica’s mom as needed.  Once again, thanks to everyone who can help out.  It does make the class just that much better.

 I have had to answer a few questions this week about my home-learning program.  I thought I would take the time to do it in writing for everyone.  Each Monday (or first day of the week) a home-learning booklet goes home with the week’s activities.  There will be one problem and one reading learning sheet per night.  Please do not let anyone work on these for more than 40 minutes as that is what I think they should take.  Every morning we mark the home-learning as a class so that even if someone did not get it done, they can still learn from the answer shared with the class.  There is a challenge question that is optional but recommended.  Added to this will be the nightly Chinese homework and some reading to be done.  I do not assign a time to reading but I do ask all students to keep track of their reading in their reading journal.  I ask a parent to sign this once a week, so you can also keep track of your students reading at home.  I have talked with my students about this and feel that they should be able to do this all seven nights of the week.  That being said, I do realize it may not always be possible and that is OK.

Next Thursday at 2:45pm in gym 1 all the grade 5 students will be doing their first performance – the sword dance.  They have worked hard on this and I know they would love an audience if you can make it.  Please note that due to the large number of students, it is standing only around the edge of the gym.  There are no seats.  You are welcome to bring you camera to photo or video the event, but we do ask that you do not move among the students as this would distract them from their performance.

That is all I have for this week.  Enjoy the pics I have added to this announcement.  If anyone needs to meet with me, just send me an email I and I will arrange a time for us to meet.  Have a great weekend.