daw.com - October 26

I want to thank all the parents I met with over the last 10 days or so.  I hope the conference was meaningful and will help as we continue to move forward.  I am very proud of all you students  and feel lucky to have them in my class.

We have now completed the first steps in our writing a persuasive essay.  Students have learned how to collect evidence to prove their positions as well as have quotes, short anecdotes and use opposite opinions to help.  This last one is very difficult and I expect it will take much longer to really become proficient at it.

We are now about 2/3 complete our first book-club book called Pedro’s Journal.  While the subject matter is not the easiest, I have been stoked by how the students have attacked it and really learned more about the reading and the subject at the same time.  We have about 7 more days of this and along the way I am having them pretend they are Pedro writing home to his mom on a post card. I find it interesting to see what they deem important enough to write home about.

Out math unit is moving along at a very steady pace.  We are amidst the multiplication of 3 digit by 4 digit whole numbers and next week will move on to multi-digit whole number division next week.  We have learned how to prove our work with both tape diagrams and also area models.  With this has also come the learning about what area is and how it works.  I find that the two are very easy to link together and an important part of what is needed to fully understand.

One suggestion I would like to make is that students memorize the times tables from 0x0 to 10x10.  While not a part of our math curriculum, the amount of multiplication done in all our units this means that if this basic work is in the memory, it takes away from the grunt of getting small calculations done.  This is best accomplished by verbally saying it out loud while reading it from a paper.

This week we are pleased to have a visiting storyteller at ISB who specializes in stories from West Africa.  We will be listening to him at an assembly on Tuesday and again in our next couple of library periods in the coming weeks.  This is a great way for students to learn about putting their own voice into their writing. This makes it more interesting for the reader.

daw.com - October 19

Due to holiday week, camp week and international day, it has been three weeks since I last sent you an update.  That could mean this one is a little longer than normal.

Camp was very successful even though it was also very unusual.  It is true that it started snowing within the first hour after we arrived and did not stop until around 2:00pm.  Do not get me wrong, this is not snow as in drifts of snow but rather light flakes falling. 

The wind also caused the cold factor to increase so we had to make some last minute changes to the design for camp.  I do want to state for the record how proud I was of all the students given the changes that were all last minute and also the weather changes.  The were true outdoors people and just went with the flow.

Then on Friday of the same week we had international day and WOW did the class go to town over this.  Great national costumes or clothes to represent their own country and nationality.  We also had Mrs. Rane come in and talk about some of the customs of India.  Students then shared their own customs of both their family and also from their home country.  It was a great day and we all give our thanks to Mrs. Rane for organizing a great start to the day.  I really liked that I had incense smell in my room for the next 4-5 days.

This week we started our new unit on Globalization.  With this note there is a picture of the essential questions for this unit in case you want to know what we are going to study.  We started off the week by playing an altered version of Settlers of Catan where students learned how to trade and why it is so important to countries.  In the game they were to act like they were a country to them-selves.  The we spent some time looking at Good and Services and Producers and Consumers.  As we continue with this there are a number of simulations I will use to drive home the point of why globalization happened and both the positive and negative consequences.

We have started our next math unit on Multiplication and Division of Whole Numbers and Decimals.  So far we have covered how to look at multiplication in both the regular algorithm and also in model form.  I have taught them about ribbon models and will start with area models next.  We are also doing a project called the Math Market that is part of this unit.

Our writing unit is looking at gathering evidence to use as part of a persuasive argument.  The entire class is using the idea of whether or not Chocolate Milk should be in schools as a subject and later on will choose a topic of their own to research and write about.  This is not a long unit but does pave the way to future essay writing in both grade 5 and for the rest of my students educational career.  It is an important start to this kind of writing.

I am really looking forward to meeting with all of you during Parent Teacher conferences next week.  It is a time when I can catch you up and also try to answer any burning questions you might have.  One thing I will ask is that you have your cell phones turned off during the time of our conference.  I really do not want any interruptions.  Please note that students are not to attend these conferences.  The student led conference will be later this year.

Please note that due to parent teacher conferences, there is no school for students on Monday and Tuesday.

We have had to put our elections on hold as we cannot break a tie without the one student who was absent on Friday.  As soon as I know I will be sure to let you know as well.

If you have any questions or concerns please let me know right away.  I will gladly set up a time for us to meet.

daw.com - October 5

I do hope everyone has had a great break and that it was filled with fun and rest.  Now we are into our longest stretch of school - all the way to winter break.

This coming week’s big event is camp.  Here are some last minute reminders for everyone;

1.  Each student should have his passport brought to school on Monday.  In the case of students from Hong Kong, the HKID card is fine.  These will be returned to the students as they get off the bus upon returning to ISB on Wednesday.  

2.  We will be back in time for the 2:35 bus departure on Wednesday.

3. Each student needs to have two packs with them.  A day pack with their lunch, snack, water bottle, hat, and raincoat in it.  We will cover all this in our final meeting with the class on Monday.  The other pack is for the rest of their gear.  Please help me remind students that we are only one for one night so all bags should be kept small.

4.  Students are not allowed to bring electronics with them.  Every year we have them go missing, broken, get wet etc., and all this does if bring unnecessary frustration and panic to the students.  Please leave them at home for the one night.

5.  Camp may be cancelled if the AQI is too high.  If this happens then the school will let parents know.  Unfortunately there is no way we can reschedule camp.

International day is on Friday and I would love to see everyone wear something that is representative of their home country.  If it is a special costume just for the parade in the afternoon, I will give students time to change before this event.  If any student is staying after school they must be accompanied by an adult.  They can be picked up at my room - 3504.  We have a bunch of cool things happening that day.

This week we will begin new units across the board.  Our unit of inquiry is Globalization where we will look at how trade and development have affected us and others around the globe.  Our writing unit is a research based argument/advocacy essay leading to a debate and our math unit is Multi-Digit Whole Number and Decimal Fractions Operations.  You can expect to start hearing about these as the week progresses.  I will have more information about these as we progress through them.

Students start swimming on Friday so they will need their swim suits and other things for this.   All these will be stored at the school until the end of the unit.

Please make sure you have signed up for Parent Teacher Conferences.  It is my only time this year that I get t meet with you and I really look forward to this.  There is no school for students on these two days.

Later in the week I will be sending home the assessment rubrics for the units on Global Citizenship, Math Unit 1 and Narrative Writing.  I am pleased with the outcomes but have noticed that deep thinking about a subject is something still missing.  We will continue to work on this throughout the year.

Please let me know if you have any questions.