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

August 27, 2011

We did it! We survived the first full week of school. It seemed to be a bit of a long week trying to get back into the swing of things, but here we are, moving forward and ready to go! I have a couple of pictures that I promised this week. First off, on Monday, we finished up our watercolor flowers:

We ended up using these flowers as a lesson on perspective. Each student started with the exact same picture, the exact same view finder, the same paper, and the same paints, but there wasn't a single picture that turned out looking the same. There is not one picture up there that is the "correct" picture. This is because we all see things differently and need to learn to respect that, though other people may see things a little differently, it does not make their way wrong.

The other picture I promised was what we used the cans for. Here it is:

The words "I can't" are not allowed in my classroom. Especially not now that we've made a physical representation of an "I can". I'm going to be putting a shelf up in the room and these are going to remain up for the whole year. If I ever hear somebody use the words "I can't", I will simply refer back up to the cans and say, "I know you can. There's proof right there."

I want to make sure you're aware that the state is slowly transitioning into what is called the "Common Core". This is a fantastic thing for several reasons. First off, the Common Core raises the standards. I am a firm believer that children will reach whatever bar you set for them, so this raises the bar a bit and pushes them to excel. Also, the word common in it refers to the fact that it is the same thing across the nation, or at least it will be, right now I believe it's 46 states that have adopted the Common Core. This is great! Especially for the military in the area. They're children will be able to move from school to school and not be completely lost. This year, the state has decided to have sixth grade adopt the new math core, so if you've had other students come through the sixth grade and things seem a little different, this is why. I believe 2015 is the deadline for the entire state to have adopted the Common Core through all content areas and within all grades, k-12.

Here's our week at a glance:

* In math this week, we've started into our unit on ratios and proportions.

* Our first reading story is "The Best School Year Ever".

* In science, they began diving into the Scientific Method: Question, Research, Hypothesize, Experiment, Analyze, Conclude, and Report.

* Arts and Technology has started right into the beginnings of I-Movie, which they will use to edit the newscasts and other videos they produce throughout the year.

* Social studies has started the year by teaching them about different personality types and having them figure out which personality type they were.

* In Writing and Grammar we have been learning about how to construct a complete sentence, the four sentence types, and the 6(+1) Traits of Good Writing: Ideas, Organization, Voice, Sentence Fluency, Word Choice, Conventions, and the (+1) Presentation.

All in all, I'd say it's been a pretty productive week. These kids have taken on each project with class. I truly am blessed to be teaching your students this year!

"Always shoot for the moon because then, even if you miss, you still land amonst the stars."

August 19, 2011

Well, we survived our first week! I don't know if the students felt it, but let me tell you something, we have an incredible class this year! Lots of amazing, sweet, wonderful kids waiting to have a wonderful 6th grade year. I'm right there with them. I hope this ends up being my best year yet!

Our picture from this week comes from the 6th grade team building activity we did. The classes were each given a scooter and a line of rope and told they had to cross the "crocidile infested waters", the width of a basketball court, without touching the "water". We did the activity two different days and it was truly amazing to see how much more team talking was going on the second day. They're well on their way to making our class a family.
We also started an art lesson on perspective. It won't be completed until Monday though, so more details on it will come. The rest of the week was spent learning policies and procedures, getting to know the students, and taking beginning of the year pre-assessments. You know, all of the boring, formality stuff that has to take place at the start of every year. But it's all done and I think we're ready to move forward and really see what this year has to offer!

All in all, I think if you were to ask the Magic 8 Ball, "Are we going to have a good year?" I'm positive this is what you'd see:

WELCOME TO SIXTH GRADE!

Hello Parents!

It's that time of year again! Time to fly our dragons into the 2011-2012 school year! I would like to start by welcoming us all together for what I hope will be one of your student's greatest years yet! Yes, welcome to the sixth grade. My name is Aaron Pratt and I will be your child's teacher, mentor, and confidante throughout this next year.

I am excited to be teaching here at Syracuse Arts Academy! I am more than proud to deliver what SAA has written as their charter. In my opinion, to teach the core through the arts is not doing anything special, it is just good teaching. It helps to get all corners of the child's mind into what is being learned.

I plan on being available to you and your student as much as possible. I am usually available at least an hour before and after school if either of you have questions. I am also available by e-mail or phone. My e-mail address is apratt@syracuseartsacademy.org and of course the school number is (801)779-2066. If I am unavailable to answer, please leave me a message as to what your call was regarding. I will return your calls and e-mails within 24 hours.

If you have any questions throughout the school year, please feel free to contact me. Also, keep an eye on this blog. I will be updating it at least a couple times a month.

I am looking forward to having a wonderful year together!

With warm regards,

Aaron Pratt