daw.com - November 10

We had a great week of learning and reflecting on our learning.  This was a week to complete design projects for our Science Unit and also our current writing unit.  We also looked at Student as a Learner and updated our goals.  We have also just about completed our math unit on Multiplication and Division of Whole Numbers and Decimals.

Next week is a short week with the students in school just three days. Teachers will be in a PD day on Thursday and Friday is a much deserved school holiday.  Hopefully the weather and air quality will be good for the weekend and students will be able to get out and enjoy the time off. We will also be supporting spirit week next week with Crazy Hair day on Monday, dress as a career day on Tuesday and House Color day on Wednesday.  I am hoping everyone wants to participate - you can ask your student about me growing up to be a Hockey Player - quite a funny event in my class.

We will begin our new unit at this time with a look a Historical Events and People.  Students will be completing a time line and also a couple of videos on these subjects.  AS these are completed you will see them show up on Seesaw.  I am trying something new on Seesaw by having students show their math learning.  So far this has been a little rocky but as we do more and more I expect it will be smoother and better quality.  Please bear with me during this but do let me know where you see glaring problems.  You can always comment on your students work on Seesaw.  Remember to be critical but in a constructive manner - this is how I teach students to comment and help other students.

I want to remind everyone that your students should be reading every night of the week.  There is no time set as that is dependent on too many variables but reading every night has amazing rewards.  Those students who have been faithful to this I am seeing good gains in their vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. It is also important that students read books at their reading level to learn from the reading both about reading in general and also about what the text is trying to say.  Reading a variety of materials is also a good idea - magazines, fiction stories, non-fiction (factual) books and newspapers are ways that students begin to see that there is more to reading than just a class in grade 5.  I am very appreciative of your assistance with this.

I want to relay a message to you about a conversation I had with a parent this week as I want to make sure it does not happen to others.  It revolves around homework and home learning.  I know that many students are considered independent with the work they do at home.  This does not mean you should not be checking in with them every so often.  Please remember that we are talking about 10-11 year old students and they still need the guidance and support from parents.  Asking what they learned from doing the homework is a good way of checking in with them as you look over their work.  This all stemmed from a student not completing the homework even though the parents thought it was being done.  It remains a good idea for all parents to check in with their student no

matter how independent you think they are. I do see students doing "last minute" work on their homework every morning which means I know it is not getting done at home. Luckily, at the moment, it is not the same students every morning so I am not too worried.  I also know that there are lots of things happening at home that may prevent homework from getting done - but not on a regular basis.  Last word, I do not want home learning to be oppressive but it is an important skill to start learning as it is a definite part of school in both Middle and High School for students to be successful.  I do not use homework for grades at all - just extension learning and pre-learning for the next day.

That is it for this week.  As always, please let me know if you have questions or concerns.  I will gladly set up a time to meet with you.