Wednesday, 12 December

 Math lesson notes:

Kira's Advent calendar

Hannah's Advent calendar

Braedon's Advent calendar

Mia's Advent calendar

Noah's Advent calendar

We began with a planning meeting to organize our Christmas concert presentation; Kiah acted as facilitator.  If you were away, see her to find out what is your assignment.  Next, we worked to finish our outstanding art assignments.  I was pleased with the general focus in class; few students had to be redirected to their work.

After recess we read for 15 minutes and then did math.  The 7s had a very productive lesson on decimal fractions and were reintroduced to the notion of terminating and repeating decimal fractions.  I was impressed with the improved tone of the class today.  Everyone was engaged and responded to questions/shared ideas in a respectful and courteous manner.  We used the document camera instead of the interactive board.  The advantages were (1) it was new and thus engaging because it wasn't the same old thing; and, (2) I was facing the class for the whole lesson.  Please complete pp. 86-87 #1-6 for homework.  We'll have the retest tomorrow at lunch.

After lunch we read for 15 minutes and then had what I thought was an engaging socials lesson.  I was most pleased with the way the students worked/listened/discussed during this lesson.  I introduced the idea of "genuine inquiry," something I am personally doing in my teaching practice around the question of how can video scribing improve student learning.  As far as Egypt is concerned, I wonder which of the many theories about how the Egyptians got those stone blocks on top of those pyramids is the most plausible. I felt that today's lesson was comparable with any secondary-level lesson I've taught and the class responded marvelously. There is no socials homework: have you finished yesterday's science assignment (see yesterday's blog post).


We ended the day with p.e. and there were some definite improvements today.  The transition time to p.e. was somewhat better but the class moved up to the gym almost silently.  The students at the head of the line, chose very appropriately to wait at the door while the kindergarten students finished their class period.  Wow: the choice to wait quietly outside was a display of real leadership and made me proud to be your teacher.  I hope you all learned that there can be no time-wasting or talking during the testing.  Only six in the group got it together in a reasonable time, and the others sat on the bench and watched.  After those six were done, the next round started much faster and more orderly.  I am hopeful that tomorrow will be even better.  Thanks for being such a wonderful group today.

This Tuesday is Sports Dress-up Day: In celebration of Mr. Richey's retirement, we are all going to wear sports uniforms/outfits/jerseys (please leave the skates at home).  
On Tuesday at lunch we will also be having a fun soccer game between staff and grade seven students.

We have had a wonderful response to the Elves' Club hamper in our classroom.  THANK YOU for your generosity.