February 3, 2012

There never seems to be a dull moment here at Syracuse Arts Academy! With everything else going on: the Reading Contest, Science Fair, prepping for a field trip, etc; crazy things have to happen, like the lights have to go out on us. It made for an interesting day yesterday. I'm just glad they came back on so we didn't end up with a school day we'd have to make up somewhere along the way.

There are lots of things up and coming:

*Please make sure your students are staying on top of the Science Fair.

*Please make sure your students continue reading their little hearts out! We need to get about 6000 minutes over this weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) to be on pace to break our goal of 72,000 minutes for our class. That's not so far fetched a goal. I have brought in three prizes for the top three students in the class. We have a definite front runner for top student right now, but things can happen. That doesn't mean anything so keep it up! Keep reading!

* We are going on a field trip Tuesday, February 14. We need to have the permission slips and money turned in no later than February 7. Our class has the two designated chaperones and we're still waiting to hear back from the Planetarium to see if we can have additional adults come. If we are allowed more, I will realy that to those parents who were interested, who were not one of the two original chaperones.

I'm sure a lot of you have heard from your students that Mr. Pratt is a hater of Valentine's Day. It is true. I do not like the holiday for many reasons:

· It’s a holiday created by the retail industry to get people to spend money.
· Why do I need a special day of the year to tell people I love them?
· Most 6th graders are too old for the cutesy Valentine’s but too young for what Valentine’s will turn into
· Too many families cannot afford the expensive Valentine’s that some bring and so those children end up feeling bad about themselves
· Kids can get hurt if feelings aren’t reciprocated
· My first year teaching I had so many “relationships” verging on inappropriate that I had to cancel it all together and really don’t want a repeat experience of that, because that talk should come from the parents and not the teacher.

At any rate, I have given the students the opportunity to write a persuasive paper convincing me we need to celebrate Valentine's Day. This paper should be submitted through Utah Write (http://www.utahwrite.com/) no later than Monday. I gave out the Utah Write assignment on Thursday and am still missing about half of them. I did give them until Monday though, so please make sure that they get to the website and get it finished. The one's who didn't have a strong opinion about Valentine's were to write following the prompt titled "Genie's Lamp".

Also, please keep Science Fair on the forefront of your brains. The students should be consistantly working on that, working toward their finished product. I know that several pieces of the packet have been turned in already, so please keep an eye on the gradebook to make sure they are keeping on top of it.

At any rate, school will truck along as normal. There will be a math test coming up this week. DARE with Officer Penrod will also begin this Friday. So we'll take it as it comes and enjoy as much of it as possible!

“Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." ~Christopher Robin