daw.com - February 19

Exhibition is here and the students are in the final stages of completing their Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry.  Most of them have a complete plan of action and an idea for a presentation.  These are the three main components of Exhibition.  We will spend the next 5-6 weeks looking at research and how to use original sources, multimedia, personal information and print media to research the topic and create a report.  There is a lot going on with this and everyone seems excited.

We are also working on our design unit and bringing it to a close later this week.  It is a very short unit to show students the process of design as defined by SFS.  They work with each other as clients to direct the design through to prototype only.  It has been a fun unit that will lead directly into Exhibition.

Our reading and writing units are also leading to exhibition as students prepare for a mini-debate this week on the use of bottled water and write a letter about sugared drinks (chocolate milk) being served at schools.  They will then choose a topic from a list I have to complete the second part of the reading and writing units.  I expect these to be completed in the next two weeks.

We had a meeting for Dongdaewong yesterday in which students were introduced to the idea of creating their own businesses.  I hope everyone participates in this wonderful fund raising activity.  A couple of changes this year are no food or drinks at all and parents will nit be allowed to participate at the school.  You can still give your student all the help they need.  They do get to keep 50% of the profits they make at their business.  The DDW fair is on March 6th.

There is also a Why I Love My School contest on (see attached poster) that I would hope many of the students would enter.  We have talked about school culture being all about the students and this is one way to show it.  Contest entries close on Feb 28th.

The math assessment for Chapter 8 went home yesterday so please ask your student for it if you have not seen it.  Our next unit is on multiplying and dividing decimals.  It is a short unit and I expect to be completed by next Friday, February 28th.

We will be taking two trips to the Middle School to look at the various music options for grade 6 next year.  These have been set up by our own music department and will help when students have to make a final choice.  We are also in process of completing the dates and times for all the other transition to middle school topics over the next several months.

You should have received your packet about returning to SFS next year last Friday.  If you did not, please ask your student about this.  They all got one.  This is important and we begin to plan for the future and next year at SFS.

We continue to monitor and react to the virus situation here in Korea and I happy that we are healthy.  I hope we can remain at school so please keep everyone happy and healthy.  If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

daw.com - February 9

Last week was a great week to wrap things up and start new projects.

We finished our unit on Poetry and invited the grade 4 classes to come up, share some hot chocolate, and listen and learn about poetry.  It was our first poetry cafe.  Everyone did an excellent job and it was a lot of fun to watch the class show their poetry skills to a younger audience.

Then on Thursday was our Share your experience activity.  There were 15 guest speakers who spent 10 minutes talking to small groups of 6-7 students.  The were activities from within the British School, High School, and guests in the fields of Art, Community Service, Physical Activity, Creativity, Family and Community and the Christian Ministries office.  I was very impressed by the students learning as we move into selecting our topic for Exhibition.

That will be a big part of this week.  There are already 8 students in line to conference with me and the rest will happen throughout the week.  It is an exciting time in students learning.

We will complete part 1 of the Decimals unit this week and immediately move into part 2 - operations with decimals.  So far things have gone smoothly and students have shown good learning.  I will be sending the first work book home with students on Monday.  There are lots of things in there we never did or only partly did - if they are looking to practice some more.

We also started our writing unit on the argumentative essay.  Our classroom learning topic is the question of whether or not Chocolate milk should be served in school.  We looked at two articles and decided they were very biased toward the subject, so the information collected was a little suspect.  A flash draft to write this week and then more research needed.  This is an assigned topic to learn with and then students will be able to select from about 7-8 others when it comes time to do their own essay.  Right in line with our prep for Exhibition.

Our reading unit is similar having to do with Argument and Advocacy.  Our topic for this is the use of plastic bottles.  Like the writing unit, this is an assigned unit to learn from and then students will be able to select from 7-8 topics for themselves.

Please stay healthy, I believe it is now 24 confirmed cases of the virus here in South Korea.  Keep well hydrated, wash very often and try to avoid large groups.  This is the advice of the school, WHO and CDC-Korea.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

daw.com - February 2

As we start a new month it is also once again time to start with fresh new ideas and concepts.  This is the everlasting story of grade 5.  

Last week we competed our math unit on Ratios and the unit assessment will go home on Monday.  I must admit that all the work on problems solving seems to finally be coming a reality.  While not perfect, this was the best assessment for problem solving I have seen so far.  I plan on keeping this going for two reasons.  The first is math - problem solving is what math is all about.  How can we use numbers to solve a problem. Sometimes it is very easy while other times it can be quite complex.  The second reason is not even math related.  Reading the problems too understand us exactly what all the reading lessons this year are about - reading for a deeper meaning.  As I have mentioned before, everyone in the room has shown me they can read but reading for a deeper understanding is something new to this age group and takes many years to become good at.  Starting now helps on this journey.

Speaking of reading, our new unit is on Argument and Advocacy.  Students will be reading articles, books and websites to develop an understanding of an issue and then from there develop either an argument or advocacy on the issue.  Having a personal stake in the issue is good, but all personal opinions must be supported with facts.  Determining what is fact and ‘fantasy’ can be a hard road to ride and this unit will look at ways to do this.  We will also be doing several lessons on how to properly search the internet as I have noticed this is a skill that is lacking in the class.

To accomplish this reading unit, the writing unit is on writing essays that persuade.  Once again, having a deep understanding of an issue is what it is all about.  Making sure that the writer sees, and writes about both sides of an issue is what we will specialize on.  It will also help students as they prepare for their exhibition report since it will most likely fit this category of writing.

Speaking of exhibition, we are right in line with selecting topics of study, central ideas, and guiding questions.  We looked at how to narrow the focus of a topic last week and this week there were be several times when this is put into practice.  We will also complete our look at the Approaches to Learning and Action Plans.  On Thursday students will have an opportunity to see action in practice here at SFS with a speed dating time around various action groups both here on Campus and within our parent community.

Our next math unit is a short unit on Decimals to the thousandths.  Very quick and I expect to finish the teaching this week with the assessment next week.  After this is more on operations involving decimals.

On Friday I sent home a permission sheet for a field trip later in February.  Due to the health restrictions currently in place, this trip will have to be postponed too sometime in the future - date not set yet.  Please destroy the permission slip.  I will send an update home later when it has been reset.

Please stay healthy - we live in interesting times.