A Great Refresher for all..

Interview Day has come and gone. I was very grateful to get the chance to meet with most of the parents of my students. In more than a few cases, we were able to clarify expectations for the children about their homework responsibilities.

Just because I'm not specifically assigning "homework" in the agenda, by sending home a textbook or a worksheet, doesn't mean the kids don't have something to do. Our school board's homework policy states that about 15 minutes per grade is a reasonable time to invest at home on "school work". (So, for grade 2, 30 minutes is the number.) It also states that work done at home should be for practice or review, and that the student should be able to do it on their own. It is for consolidation of skill, not acquiring skill.

Parents can help by making sure there is a time and a place for it to happen.

In our case, homework is "Home Reading." The students are to bring home their reading book, at their "Learning Level" every day. It is my hope that they will have a time, a place, and a person to read their book to. Every day.

If this has not been happening, set a reasonable starting goal of, say, 3 days a week.

Thank-you again for all your support in your child's learning!

G. Brown

Some Pictures Around the Room

This is "The Word Wall"

Morning message. A friendly letter.

The performance wall has student ideas about what makes work "good."

Our morning routine. Main objective: student organization and to avoid congestion in our tiny coat room!

Each morning, students show me their green "Snuggle Up and Read" tracking sheet, and they get a check mark towards the Friday book draw for each day they have read at home.

Home Reading Incentive

If you want to know why I'm beginning this incentive, read here.

Every day a student comes to school with their home reading book bag, and a signed tracking sheet with an adult's initials on it, I will enter them in a draw for a weekly prize. This will begin on the week of November 2, with the first draw being on Friday, November 6.

Let's get reading!

Things We Need to Work On

As adults who are partners in our children's learning (I speak as a parent with 3 children of my own), we need to be vigilant in supervising certain aspects of their daily activity, especially their school work.

Are the kids in Room 9 supposed to be reading at home every day?

YES

Are the kids supposed to be bringing home a black, zippered, home reading bag every day?

YES

Should it contain a new book every day, that the students (or the teacher and the student) have chosen to read?

YES

Should someone take time to enjoy the book with the child at home, every day?

YES

Will any of this happen if the adults at both ends are partners with the child in making it happen?

NO !

And that is what I'm seeing. Our home reading bags have stopped being used. I think they have been forgotten. Fellow adults, we need to pull up our socks. Read the next news post to find out what I'm going to do about it.

Wild Rompus

Every day for the past 3 weeks, the entire school has been doing daily physical activity, or DPA for short. DPA is mandated by the Ministry of Education: each day students are to engage in vigorous physical activity for at least 15 minutes, in order to attain and maintain an acceptable level of physical fitness. I think it's a great idea. And, the students really enjoy it.

We organized a 3 week school wide DPA, with much assistance from our P.E. teacher, Miss M. We used the story Where the Wild Things Are, which is a current movie and a classic children's book. Look on the Parkdale School News web site for some pictures of our activities.

Where the Wild Things Are

Our Wild Things...

Family Book Bags

Family book bags are exchanged every Wednesday.

You should expect a new bag to come home, if you have given signed permission, about every second week.

Family book bags are a great enrichment experience, and a good to share with the whole family. The book is meant to be read with and to your child, and the other activities included will need your input and assistance so that you'll get the most out of it.

What makes an effective teacher?

The only way to have an effective school is to have effective teachers.

- Harry Wong

The genius of effective teachers is described in various ways:

They watch all, but only steal from the best.

Always thinking, dreaming and planning.

They have high expectations that all of their students will succeed.

They are extremely good classroom managers.

They know how to design lessons to help students reach mastery.

Teachers who have become ineffective, have become that way because they have lost their habit of continually learning. Good habits are the key to all success.

What is a habit? It is something you do over and over again, without thinking about it. For example, fold your hands together. Which thumb is on top? That is something you do without thinking... it's a habit.

What do successful students do by habit? Think about this for a moment...

Did you think of things like:

• bring everything they need to school
• sit near the front
• ask questions

Even in grade two, students are developing habits. You, as a parent, have a very significant role to play in the development of those habits. So do I, as their teacher. The most significant habit that I aim to pass on to my students is my continual desire to learn.

A person can only learn when they have learned to listen. Rather than saying, "This doesn't apply to me," and tuning out, I am always trying to take everything in, just in case an "Aha" moment may come along.

An effective teacher will help their students connect learning to the great ideas within the modern world. That is my role.

The message must fit the student. The learning activity must fit the student. Students must experience success and know what they are responsible for learning.

"Successful classrooms are structured and businesslike, but they have a very warm and loving environment." It is who I am as a teacher, the principles by which I live, that will make the difference for my students.

Settling In...

So, as we move through October and Thanksgiving, I'm happy to say that our class is settling into a sense of routine and the students are generally feeling at ease. I'm getting a grasp of where each child is at in their reading and writing development, and now am able to start pinpointing the types of activities that will bring the required learning.

Thank you, parents, for your overwhelming support of our Family Reading Bag program. Each reading kit can be kept for a week. The kits that came home today will be due next Wednesday, October 14. There are neat activities that are built around the story. I hope you enjoy having some fun time with your child over these stories!

GB

Crazy but True

Our writing theme today was: What is a Crazy but True thing that happened in your life? As the students listen to each other's ideas, their memories get jogged and it's very interesting what rich experiences they have had!

One of the forms of writing that we learn in grade 2 is "the recount." A recount is a telling of a story. Some of the elements of recount that we will learn and practice in our writing workshop are:

• main idea
• important details
• connecting and sequencing words (e. g. then, next, after that, finally) which help the story make sense
• adjectives
• words that "show" the reader what happened instead of just telling (e. g. the blue paint was in huge blobs like giant spiders on the wall, instead of the blue paint was everywhere)

And, the usual suspects:

• letter formation
• spacing between words
• when to use capitals
• periods, commas, exclamation marks

Ask your child to tell you their "Crazy but True" story! Some day soon I might tell you mine!

Terry Fox Event reminder

Hello everyone,

Just a friendly reminder to send sponsor money to school with your child, so that their participation in our Terry Fox Day fund-raising walk will be worthwhile. Blue permission forms were sent home last week. The students begin walking at 2PM Thursday September 24, and will be travelling through the neighbourhood, returning to the school at 3.

Feel free to join us and help raise money for cancer research.

G.B.

Movement: Using a Pulley

We began a science project today. The board provided my classroom with a set of pulleys for students to experiment with. Pulleys are one of the basic "simple machines" which are defined by the following:

• they use human force
• they make work easier

The simple machines are: lever, ramp (inclined plane), wedge (two ramps back to back), and pulley.

Working with a partner, students will design a way to hold their pulley up off of their desk. Their design must be strong enough to hold the pulley firm while it lifts a load. As part of the learning, the students will experiment with different materials and methods of holding up the pulley.

You can support this project by providing some simple construction materials such as a cereal box that your child can bring to school. We will need these materials on Wednesday, Sept. 23 for our construction session.

For more information and interactive computer learning, check out http://www.edheads.org/activities/simple-machines/

Mr. B.

Home Reading - Part of Literacy Growth, (but not all of it)

Hi everyone,

An important part of a child's reading growth is just the enjoyment of books, pure and simple.

Too often we try to push our kids too hard with reading, and we forget why the books were written in the first place! If your child isn't enjoying home reading, then something's wrong, and it's probably not the kid's fault.

In our home reading collection, many of the books are slightly above our students' reading levels, but they are (hopefully!) stories or topics of interest. So it makes sense that an interested family member (a parent, grandparent or caring older sibling) has to sit with the student so the two can share the book together. The purpose is to enjoy the content, mostly by talking about it together or having a conversation about a related idea that pops up.

I should emphasize that book time at home shouldn't be about trying to read every word in the book! This approach will lead to discouragement and perhaps even conflict with your child.

Feel free to talk about the pictures and the content. There's no problem with you reading the text to your child; after all, kids will follow a good role model! Sometimes a child will be glad to find words they know on the page, or just read the headings or the labels on the pictures, and then an adult read the details.

My three kids are now between 9 and 16. Our upstairs bookshelf is clogged with hundreds of books that we used to read together at bedtime. Often I was more tired at that point in the day than my kid! I sometimes found myself nodding off in the middle of "Snow White" or something. ("Dad!...Dad!...Wake up!") So, to help get it done faster, I would try to leave parts of the story out (I hate to admit it). My kids had heard some of those stories so many times that they had memorized every word, and they would always say, "Dad! It doesn't go like that! Read it right!"

Lesson: don't think for a second that they don't listen to you and appreciate the book when you read to them.

Could my kids read every word of those books? Hardly!
Did they learn and enjoy hundreds of stories? Yes!
Were they becoming literate? Absolutely!

Take the pressure off yourself.
Home reading is not, "Time to do your homework!"
It is, "Hey, what book can we enjoy together today?"

Thanks for Taking the Time

Thank you parents for dropping in last evening to meet me and chat. I look forward to seeing you again, most likely at interview time. Until then, watch for word lists in your child's agenda, starting in early October.

The home reading time is a daily opportunity to share a good book with your child. They will likely need your support in reading the book they have chosen.

Our Science Unit

Science is one of my favourite subjects. I like the way it gives everyone an opportunity to explore the world and the way it works. Our first science unit is on "Movement" and it touches on concepts of simple machines, mechanisms, how toys work, and also some aspects of how things operate and move to help us.

Our classroom has a science kit called Gadgets, Gears and Gizmos to help support this unit. Look for some pictures in the days to come.

Vocabulary building ideas:

1. lever
2. wedge
3. screw
4. ramp
5. fulcrum
6. effort
7. force
   
8. load
9. push
10. pull
11. turn
    

What's in the Bag

Here is what was sent home this week. Did you get it?

• Scouts Canada information pamphlet
• Insurance pamphlet
• Blue sheet - permission form for home reading kit
• White permission form bundle (stapled), containing "walk around the neighbourhood" trip permission forms, medical information, emergency contact information, permission to photograph
• Notice about this web site, www.room9parents.blogspot.com
  

A Neat Thing Happened Today...

We were having our sharing time at the carpet. I had invited one student to read his writing to the class, and he agreed. This boy had been working hard to make some fixes to his work. When he read it to me out loud he had to stop and think - there were some words missing, so he added them in so it made sense.

After he read his piece, the students were asked, "What did you hear him read, and what do you see?"

Immediately the boy realized that his picture needed to have some changes made. Then another student asked, "What kind of toys does the animal play with?"

He very seriously explained what he meant, and the whole class listened respectfully.

What is neat about this is how quickly the student took ownership for his work, and how willing and ready he was to make it better. I believe that all of our students want their writing to be as good as possible, as long as they can find their topic meaningful to them, and provided that they have enough time and help to fix it up.

We really can't expect students to jump in and write perfectly on the first try. But with time, they will get the hang of it!

If you come into our room on Meet the Teacher Day (September 16), you will be able to look at all the writing we've done.

Mr. Brown

Second Day

Writing Workshop:
Our young writers are learning to make decisions about their writing.

There are 3 options for writing, left up to the student to choose:

1. Add more to work done before.
2. Fix up (edit) some work that was done before.
3. Start some new writing.

The work of writing is very satisfying. There is something magical and important about being able to put your ideas onto paper! It's one of our basic, essential skills in grade two this year.

Mr. B

Our First Day

Well, I had a great first day today! I feel really good about our class and how we will get along with each other. I think the students feel pretty good, too. We read two books together, the first one being "First Day Jitters" and the second being "Chrysanthemum."

We had time to choose our own books to read, and we each wrote about something that is very important to us.

We had gym today. Our gym days are Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Those are the days to bring running shoes to school. (Some parents like to have an extra pair of shoes to leave at school, especially when the weather gets wet and snowy!)

We are going to try to remember the different ways we can read a book:

1. We can read the words out loud.
2. We can whisper the words.
3. We can read the words in our head, silently.
4. We can tell the story in our own words using the pictures.

As time goes by, we will more and more be able to read all of the words on the page!

Here's Our Classroom

Our computer centre is ready to go.

Desks in pairs for the first day.

Our story carpet and sharing area.

98.3% - Hamilton's highest High School average

Wow! A 98.3% average in high school is great. Congratulations to Hamilton's Katrina Shepp, graduate of Delta Secondary. Aren't we lucky that she wants to be an Educational Assistant!

Getting the Bigger picture on Education Issues

People for Education has many interesting discussions about schools. Here's an example of one discussion thread.

http://schools-at-the-centre.ning.com/group/schoolscentre/forum/topic/show?id=2468495%3ATopic%3A5543

http://schools-at-the-centre.ning.com/ is the public discussion board home page of People for Education.

Should kids ride on the road?

I was concerned when the presenters of our cycling safety session spoke about bicycles as vehicles, and that they should be ridden on the road, not on the sidewalk.

This is an issue that I'm struggling with from a safety standpoint. Should kids on small (I mean those who have bike wheels of size 12", 16", or 20") be riding on the street, as they are advised by the police safety presenters?

The law says that a bicycle on two wheels is a vehicle, and belongs on the street, and is subject to the rules of the street. Sidewalks are for walkers, they told us.

Sidewalk bikes, they explained, have training wheels. But what about those "gray-areas" where a child is learning to ride a bike? There is a period of several months where they're not so stable, and their attention is totally on controlling the bike, and yet, they feel very confident in their new -found ability. They don't have the presence of mind to consider the rules of the road...

The place where we have to make a judgment call is in what is safest? I say keep them on the sidewalk, or on a nice, big driveway. Or at a big piece of pavement, like the schoolyard, or a park pathway. We shouldn't be turning them loose on the front street.

I don't know about you, but cars rip up and down my street, even though there is a stop sign at the end of each block!

I wish we all could live on a cul-de-sac...

Helmet Safety - It's all in the head

It really bothers me to see kids riding around without helmets. It's not just my neighbourhood, and it's not just my own kids who forget. We were recently at a provincial campground where tons of people bring bikes... same thing - kids and adults without helmets.

"The pavement or the hood of a car is just as hard whether you're at camp or in the city," I said to my kids, who are actually more likely to have a spill when they're at a new, unfamiliar place.

We had two excellent presentations at the school last spring about cycling safety, one by the Brain Injury medical group, and the other by the Police. If you ask my grade twos why they should wear a helmet, they will all answer, "To protect your brain."

Unfortunately, our brains too often talk us out of wearing one.
Parents, don't forget who is the adult, and who has the older/wiser brain.
There, I said it!

Edmonton cyclist run over

The swelling in his head has gone down and antibiotics are working to take care of a case of pneumonia, she said. "They said it might take hours or it might take days before he comes around," said the woman, who asked not to be identified. "I try to talk to him or hold him.

"There's not much you can do except send good vibes."

She declined to reveal her boyfriend's name and age, but said he is an IT specialist who was out for a bike ride when he was hit.

"It was just wrong place, wrong time," she said.

He was wearing a helmet, contrary to a previous report on edmontonjournal.com."He always wears a helmet when he goes out. He's so meticulous like that. So organized," his girlfriend said. The force of the crash split the helmet in two, police said.

The man was crossing 170th Street in the crosswalk at 95th Avenue when a vehicle allegedly ran a red light and collided with another car.

The force of the crash sent both cars into the bicyclist.

The Purpose of Room 9 Parents

Hi,
My name is Glen Brown. I teach grade one and two. Your children may be in my class, or I may have taught them in the past, or will teach them in the future. Perhaps I will talk to them sometime at school, or our paths will cross in public. I want to keep in touch through this public news board by posting information that is relevant to you and your kids. It's a place where I can report some of what is going on in my life as a teacher that is of common interest to all adults and caregivers. After all, we are in this together, aren't we?

Much of this will be news about what's going on in our classroom, in general terms. I hope that my news will give you ideas about what to talk to your child about when you ask "what did you do in school today?"

Some of the items are to do with safety, others relate to our community and our school. A few will relate to general topics of parenting and relationships.

It is all shared in good faith, hoping that you will consider what I post as food for thought, that is shared with the purpose of being a partner in your child's growth and learning.

Enjoy!