September 23, 2011

I've started something new this week that, should it continue to work as well as it did this week, will make it so I have a post on the blog every week no matter how short. I brought in a new little white board that is now our homework board. I have set the board up exactly as their planner is set up so there should be no problems figuring out how to fill in their planner. It also means that whether they fill in their planner or not, every Friday you will be able to see exactly what they did throughout the week. It is a little bit more work on my behalf, but I'm more than happy to do it if it makes the students more successful. Please give me your feedback letting me know how well you think it works."In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves … self discipline with all of them came first." ~ Harry S Truman, U.S. President

Character Matters Part List

This will be one of two blog posts I make this weekend, but I promised the students I'd get it up as soon as possible. We have been learning the songs for Character Matters, which is our class play for this year. Earlier in the week I had the students select the parts from a list that they would want to be in our show. Today, we auditioned. Based on the audition and the part selections, I made the list. I tried to get everyone one of the three parts they selected, but not everybody has been a given a part of their choosing.

Parents, I need your help getting the students who didn't get their first choice to understand that there are lots of parts in the show and when everyone wants the same parts, there are going to be disappointments. It is a lesson I learned early growing up in the theatre. It took me countless auditions before I was even given a part, and then had to work my way into the larger parts. They get the fortunate benefit that there are no cuts. Everyone gets a part in the show, it just might not be the part they wanted.

With that said, and with no further adieu, here is our part list:

Friday, September 16, 2011

There's certain unit I teach this time of year each year that really pleases me. The unit is a Heroes vs. Celebrities unit wrapped around a 9-11 theme. It always seems to really hit the kids exactly as I mean it to. I don't know if it's because I lived through 9-11 that my emotion conveys through the message or what, but it always has such an impact on the kids.

We start with the definition of a hero being a man or woman of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his or her brave deeds and noble qualities. They then draw a picture of a hero in action with a sentence explaining the picture. The next day, after a short 9-11 tribute video, we discuss the many different things that will need to be done in their lifetime that would be considered heroic. They come up with such answers as curing cancer, serving in the military, donating money for charities, etc. They then create the cover of Time Magazine's Person of the Year Issue. Here's a picture of some of those: The final day I bring in a special guest. A good friend of mine from Syracuse City Fire Department has been coming to my class since I taught his daughter two years ago. He gives a firefighters perspective on 9-11 telling the students how firefighters are a close knit family and how traumatic it was losing 343 of their brothers and sisters on that day. I then present to the firemen a bound book of the pictures we drew on the first day with a letter in it signed by all the kids thanking them for their service and honoring them as our hometown heroes. Thanks again Brad for coming in and delivering this message. It really teaches these kids in a way that I couldn't without you! Beyond that, the classroom is moving along as normal. I believe they took their first quiz in science class this week and their first social studies quiz is Monday. Mrs. McGuire also handed out a packet in Arts and Tech. Cultural Fair is their first larger project of the year. The directions should have come home in a note that you had to sign. I also have assigned our first of four book reports this year. The presentations of those will be the week of October 10-14.

Be sure to keep an eye on grades: https://syracuse.usoe-dcs.org/Login/Default.aspx. It might seem early, but with as quick paced as everything is going, Term 1 will be over before we know it!

"The hero is commonly the simplest and obscurest of men." ~Henry David Thoreau

September 2, 2011

There's not a whole lot of new information to share this week. Things are cruising along pretty smooth. I'm going to post videos this week instead of pictures. Our story this week was called "Yang the Eldest and His Odd Jobs". It's a story about a boy who uses his violin talents to earn himself money at a street fair. Usually, I play the students a violin piece from my I-pod, but this year, I happened to know that we had two students who had been taking violin lessons. I asked
the two of them to come and play for the class:

I am so proud of the both of them for having the guts to stand up in front of their peers and play like this, but I am especially proud of this second one. She told me after the fact that this was the first time she had ever played in front of people outside of her lessons. They both did a fantastic job!

All in all, things are moving along at a fairly normal rate. Because of the change in math core this year, I feel that the material we are covering hits harder sooner, but for the most part the kids seem to be handling it okay, and those that are struggling don't seem to be afraid to ask questions. If we keep this attitude all year long, I have no doubt we'll be successful.

We ended this week with a short character lesson based around the book, "The English Roses," by Madonna. It's the story of the a group of girls who don't befriend another girl simply because of how pretty she is and how much better that must make her life. They come to find that her mother died when she was young and so outside of school, she has no friends, and is always at home helping her dad out around the house. The lesson to be learned is that we all have what I call "baggage". We are all dealing with something that no one else knows about, and you never know hot heavy that something is. As students in this class, we are all a family for the next 35 weeks and we will take care of each other as if this were so. We will be there to root for each other when things are great, and we will be there to pick each other up when things aren't going so well. No matter what, we will be there for each other!

"To the world you may just be one person, but to one person you may be the world!" - Brandi Snyder