Happy Monday!
I hope you are all feeling ready for your second week of school! I am looking forward to seeing all of you at PEC on Wednesday. I wanted to take a minute to go into some detail on what I am expecting from Work Samples this year. You are required to turn in 6 work samples for each Work Journal (2 Reading, 2 Writing, and 2 Math). All work samples must be labeled clearly with the student’s name, the date the activity was completed on and whether it is a reading, writing, or math sample. Each work sample needs to have a short reflection written by the parent on the work sample. You can choose to write these reflections on a post it, and stick it on the work sample, or you can write directly on the sample itself. The reflection can be anything that helps me understand how you came to do the lesson, how the lesson went, or what you would do differently next time. Here are 2 different examples of useful reflections: This research report on cheetahs is the culmination of many activities where we collected and organized information from a variety of sources. Joshua struggled to take the research info and turn it into a final product. I ended up breaking the work into chunks in order to help him be successful. This is an example of the types of math word problems we have been doing at home lately. I have really been focusing on getting Joshua to explain his thinking more, which you can see in the work he has done on word problem #2. I plan on continuing this type of word problem, as it seems to be a good fit for Joshua. You will notice that these reflections help me get a better context for the work itself, and the process that you went through with your child. Please let me know if you have any questions about work samples! Dear Core 2 Families, First of all THANK YOU!! Thank you for all of the school supplies and the tables and chairs for our outside eating area! You are awesome! Thank you for letting me teach your wonderful kiddos and for beign so thoughtful in our afterschool meetings! I cannot tell you how much I truly love my job, and that comes for getting to work with all of you! We had a wonderful first day(s) of school! We started getting to know each other and our classroom. Both cohorts seemed to be coming together in a really beautiful way by the end of the day. I love getting to know all of my new students, and as usual I am beyond impressed by their kindness and curiosity towards the world and each other! This next week is going to be spent getting to know our first project. Please check out the project overview if you have not already. Among other things, you will find some ideas for project home extensions. I would also love if you would take a minute to go check out the Story Corps website: Please spend some time checking out the different resources the sight has to offer! A big piece of our project is going to be getting to know new friends in class and building community as a whole. We will be doing a lot of fun activities in order to find out new things about each other, and to have goofy fun together (the best icebreaker!) Starting on Thursday/ Friday we should be settling into our usual daily schedule. Students will get a chance to meet Patrick this week, and by next week will begin writing with him on a daily basis. We will dive into some math word problems in class, and begin the work of learning how to talk and think about numbers. ST Math will come into play in the next few weeks (thank you for being patient!). On Thursday/ Friday I will begin showing the kids how to find a “just right book.” Some of you are already familiar with this strategy, but if you are not, it is a strategy that students can use to find a book that is right at their reading level. It can be difficult for students to find books that are interesting to them and also the right difficulty level, and so we learn some specific steps to take in order to find a “just right book.” Here is a website with more information on just right books: Here is the poster that we use in class to learn the steps to choosing a “just right book”: I would highly suggest printing out these steps and hanging them up near your child’s homeschooling area. That way they start to build confidence in their ability to pick books for themselves both at home and at school!
I hope you are all having a wonderful first week of homeschooling! Please reach out with any questions you may have! Robin Dear Core 2 Families,
Well, we are almost there…the first day of school! I cannot wait to see all of your kiddos on Monday or Tuesday! I am going to try to give you more info this year through email/ blog, and free up our Work Journal Meeting/ PEC time for workshops to support you. Important Beginning of the Year Info: · Any families that are new to DVIA, or new to my class (incoming 1st graders), are invited to meet with me after class on the first day of school so that I can go over a few things and answer any questions that you might have. We will meet in my space from 3:20- 4:15. If there are any returning families that feel like you need a Work Journal refresher, or have questions about classroom policies, please feel free to join us but you do not have to. · All parent educators are encouraged to attend the first Parent Educator Conference which will be held on August 26th, 9:15-2:15 at Hawthorne Memorial Center. This is a great chance to get new strategies/ inspiration/ resources for the new school year. · I sent out a classroom supplies sign up genius and an outdoor eating area furniture sign up genius: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d48a8a729abfe3-robins4 http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d48a8a729abfe3-core · Please make sure to send your kiddo with a water bottle and a lunch with enough food to get them through the day. Keep in mind that in addition to lunch they also have a morning and afternoon body break, so make sure to pack them a lot of good healthy food to keep them going all day J · Here is my first thinking around what our daily schedule will be. This will definitely shift as I learn the needs of the students and is likely to change even on a day to day basis depending on what we are doing that day. Please note that lunch is a bit on the early side, so I have chosen to make our morning break a bit shorter, and our afternoon break longer to make sure kiddos have plenty of time to eat and play in the afternoon. We tend to take a lot of shorter body breaks throughout the day, but these will be our big outdoor breaks. Morning Meeting (9:15-9:35) Math (9:35-10:25) Body Break (10:25-10:35) Art/ Project Time (10:35-11:35) Lunch (11:35-12:20) Writing with Patrick (12:20-1:10) Reading (1:10-2:00) Body Break (2:00-2:20) Mindfulness (2:20-2:30) Project Time (2:30-3:00) Clean up/ Closing Meeting (3:00-3:15) · Students will spend 50 minutes a day (after lunch) in Writing with Patrick. During this time his class comes to my classroom and my class goes to his classroom. · DVIA has a dress code. Please refer to the handbook for specifics: http://davincik8.org/wp/dvia-docs/or/2014-2015DVIAFamilyHandbook.pdf · I have a no treats policy in class. There are a lot of kids with food allergies and sensitivities and I find it is better for everyone if we just don’t go there. There is an option for parents to come and read a book to the class on or near a student’s birthday, and we always sing a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to celebrate birthdays. Please email me near your child’s birthday if you want to come in and read a book. · I update my DP fairly regularly (usually on Wednesdays) , I would recommend that you subscribe or check in regularly in order to stay up to date on what is going on in Core 2: robindigitalportfolio.weebly.com Thank you for making it through that long list of information! I will be sending out another email with the Work Journal/ Project Plan/ Math info/ and anticipated science and social studies content for the year. Sorry to bombard you, and please reach out with any questions that you have, I know this is a lot to take in. This is going to be an awesome year! Robin Welcome to Robin’s Core 2 Blog!
This is where you will find all of the documents and updates that you will need throughout the 2015-16 school year. I am in the process of updating the Work Journals and Project Pages for the upcoming school year. Feel free to subscribe or check in regularly for updates. |
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February 2017
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