Can you believe first term is already behind us? For some reason, this first transition in terms has thrown me off! Between teaching, our play, tech club, my involvement with the additions to our auditorium, the new grading system, and, oh yeah, life away from school, it's been a busy couple of weeks. Needless to say, I'm finally getting on top of it.
Tuesday will be our first rehearsal in the auditorium where we will be script free! Talk with your students, ask them how they feel about their lines and songs, and if they seem unsure, work with them on it. I think we are going to have a fantastic performance. I am super excited for it. Remember, the calendar below, the performance for parents is going to be Thrusday, December 1, at 2:45. It will be a show you won't want to miss!
This week I will be sending home the assignment for Term 2 book report. They will not be presented until someone after Christmas Break, but it's never to soon to start thinking about it. Also, this week, we will be resuming the at-home reading of our story. This week, it's "Trapped by the Ice." Remember I'm only asking for it to be read at home one time, and it can be counted as that night's 20 reading minutes. Please make sure your students are keeping up on that as well. They should be reading 100 minutes a week, averaging 20 minutes a night.
A bit of down news, we've taken a couple of term tests in the past few weeks, and the average scores have been less than I'd thought they'd have been. I've come to the conclusion that maybe I need change some things about how I am here at school. I do like to joke around and have fun while we learn, but if the fun gets in the way of the students taking school seriously, I need to quit it. Grades are updated online. You can see how your student has done on the Term 1 Math test and the Term 1 Language test. Please have a talk with your students about these tests and see how they felt about it. I know one aspect with the math was the test was just too long. It was 50 questions in two parts and I feel it was just too much, but that's no excuse. I know we're going to struggle a bit with the change in math core this year, but that means we, including myself, have to work at things a little bit harder to get everyone to be as successful as possible. With that said, we went over the math test on Friday. I will be sending them home with a new copy this week and over the course of the week, part of their homework is going to be to redo this test as an assignment. You are allowed to help them and they are allowed to ask me any questions necessary so they understand the material that was covered throughout the term. Please be available to help them on this so we can sure they know all they need to know.
With that being said, we will truck on with term 2. Here's to another 130 or so school days together! Let's make them great!
"He who has imagination without learning has wings and no feet." ~Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
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