Immigration/Culture Celebration- Monday, February 11th

Team 16 Families,

The students are working very hard on completing their immigration projects.  It is exciting to watch them learn new things and share interesting facts with their classmates.  This is a reminder that our celebration is next week on Monday, February 11th from 5:00-6:00pm.  Click on the link below and read the family letter.

Immigration- Culture Project

Students can start bringing in artifacts from home or actual photographs.  We will start putting the posters together tomorrow.  Food is also allowed since our celebration is at night.  Please provide a recipe and/or ingredient list for any food item that is brought in.  We have some students with food allergies.  Thank you for your help with this.

Please call, email, or write me a note with any questions.

We hope to see all families on Monday!

The Future Will Not Be Multiple Choice- Great Video and Article

The Future Will NOT Be Multiple Choice

Click the link above to watch the video and read the entire article.  Here is a brief summary:

"Educator Jaime McGrath and designer Drew Davies explain how to create a “classroom of imagination” by turning lessons into design problems and giving students space to be creative in this Tedx video. In a New York Times op-ed The MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Competition’s co-director Cathy Davidson said she thinks it’s possible that 65 percent of students today will end up doing jobs that haven’t been created yet.

McGrath and Davies argue that school needs to keep up with the times by promoting creativity, entrepreneurship, design thinking and hands on skills. McGrath’s experience teaching design problems has convinced him that the approach includes all learning styles, brings the best of project-based learning, encourages cooperation and integrates subject matter horizontally. But mostly, McGrath and Davies are impressed at the cool stuff kids design."

Math Update

Team 16 is ALMOST done with unit 4.  It seems to be dragging on due to alternate assessments that keep popping up.  We started the GMADE today which is a math assessment that focuses on computation, process and application, and vocabulary.  The students took a similar test in the Fall.  We have 1 section left to complete.

Also, Mr. McCann, our math coach started coming in every other Wednesday to model and coach the students on how to tackle solving a word problem.  Tomorrow will be his 2nd day with us.  This is great practice for the students to learn different strategies on how to solve word problems.  We practice reading the word problem 3 times, the students work independently for 10 minutes, then with a partner for about 10 minutes.  We wrap up the lesson by having several kids share how they solved the problem.  It's very interesting to see the various ways students go about solving the problems.  This is great practice for the MCAS.  We have enrichment questions ready for the students who solved the problem quickly and accurately.  In addition, starting after vacation, we will focus on the explaining your thinking piece to the word problems.

Math RTI is going well.  New groups will be starting next week.  Ask your child what he/ she has been working on in RTI.  My groups have been doing several challenging math puzzles, logic problems, brain games, etc...Students can work alone or with a partner.  They seem to enjoy the challenges.  We started off with many students saying, "I can't do this!" and "This is too hard!"  Now, they have learned to say, "I'm trying my best." or "I can't do it YET, but I'm working on it."  The students are working hard and staying positive.  The smiles on their faces say it all when they get a problem correct!

Please remember that the math videos/ songs I have posted in the past are still here on the blog.  There is a link at the top next to the homework section.  Click the link and you can scroll through older videos if you come across a problem we haven't done in a while.  It came to my attention when we started adding/ subtracting decimals.  Some students had forgotten how to regroup and borrow.  This is a great opportunity to watch a quick video as a refresher.

Valentine's Day Options- Feedback welcome

Valentine's Day Options:

Here is the email staff received from Mr. Lee:

"In the spirit of keeping all things fun and child-centered, we need to keep Valentine's Day intact. Last year, we said that students may bring in Valentines with the candy treats as long as they all go home UNEATEN. That means you could choose to do one of three things and still be within the state guidelines by which we are bound:

1. Students may swap Valentine's greetings and put them in sealed envelopes/mailboxes to be opened at home so all parents decide what is appropriate and what is not.

2. Students have two envelopes, one for the greetings and one for candy treats. All candy goes into a sealed envelope and is taken home for parent discretion in what is appropriate and what is not. Greetings can then be read in class. 

3. Ban candy and have only greetings which can be read any time.

IMPORTANT: If you decide to allow the swap of candy ~ please notify your families that this is student to student and not something given out by the school in any way. It is also not to be eaten during the school hours at all and parents and students are to be told that the final decision will remain with each parent and each family according to their values. These are gifts from students to students, families to families. ~ Do this by notice, on your webpages, blogs or any way but please make certain that this is addressed sooner than later in case there are families with questions and/or concerns. If families in your room feel strongly that it should not be served, we are obligated to honor this and ban it. "

Team 16 talked about this a little bit today.  The majority wanted to do option #2.  I asked the students to go home and discuss these options with families.  I welcome any and all feedback.  

Please email me or comment on this post what choice you prefer the most.  Thanks!

susan_cherwinski@wayland.k12.ma.us

New Challenges/ Games on Mangahigh and Power My Learning

Team 16,

Check out the new challenges on Mangahigh.  I tried to add a variety of challenges to meet every students needs.  We are all working on different math skills.  The optional math enrichment this week is online at Mangahigh.  Try your best to earn a bronze, silver, or gold medal!  I will check the results on Friday!

I added a new playlist on Power My Learning called Fractions/ Decimals.  Try out a new game.  Let me know what you think.

Happy problem solving!!!

Sketch- Projects- Students first attempt at Screencasting

Check out Sophia and Jocelyn's 3D projects. Jocelyn created her dream house from the inside out. Sophia created a town with houses a pool, sports field, restaurants, etc...This was their 1st time screencasting. This will be a work in progress and next week, we will learn how to include audio. Great job girls!

Report Cards...

Families,

Report cards went home today.  I had forgotten about sending them home so many of the bus students left without them.  I apologize about this.  I put the report cards in their mailboxes.  You can view your child's report card online using I-Pass.

Thank you for understanding!