Good Morning Friends,
I hope you are all having a wonderful week. It has been nice to see the sun and it certainly helps being able to get outside with the kids (during recess). This week, the students have been illustrating their narratives and finishing up a writing prompt about a time they were scared. A couple of kids informed me that they had never been scared in their whole life. So, they created fictional stories about a time they were scared. This is a prompt that our lower unit team came up with last year. We will have our classes respond to it, and then we will use this common piece to look at student work. Overall, I have been very pleased with the students' narratives.
Below is the Read to Feed video. The thought being that it can be shared with your family, friends, and anyone else that your child might ask to have sponsor their reading during the month of February. Remember, I will be sending home a packet (on Thursday) with the reading logs and sponsorship sheets. Any checks can be made out to the Waitsfield Elementary School. Once all of the money has been turned in (after February break), the school will write one check to Hiefer International.
The video is a little long (7:22) but I wanted to make sure that each student was able to share their poster. I have to say, they are really psyched about this. One of the best lines was, "Mr. Young, Will you let us do weekend reading?" My response: "Only if you really want to!"
The link to this video (in case you want to email it) is: http://youtu.be/q_OeWNlSerY
I have also made a shortened version of the video. I will be using this as part of my presentation, in DC, next week.
Notes:
*I will be leaving school early on Friday (after the kids go to art). I am headed to DC for the Master Teacher project that I am involved in. The people in charge of this project have been quite impressed with the students involved in my math class. They have used some of the classroom clips for presentations and the feedback has been complimentary. Nora, will dismiss the kids at the end of the day.
*I will be out of school next Thursday and Friday. I have been asked to present to this year's Pearson Global Fellow Group and to do a second presentation to the Board of Directors for the NEA Foundation (this is where I will show our video!). Katie Kenney will be the substitute. She is a certified classroom teacher and has been doing a fabulous job subbing in our building. We are very fortunate to have her as a substitute.
*I will also be out of school on Friday, February 14th. I found out, last week, that I was selected for the Sontag Prize in Urban Education. I will attend a Two day Professional Development workshop in February and then teach an acceleration academy during our April vacation. I will be teaching a 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade math class in the Lawrence Public Schools in MA. I am excited about the opportunity. I currently have two former students attending Harvard, and am looking forward to catching up with them while I am down there. Katie Kenney will be the sub on this day as well.
*Last week, I also was interviewed on the Jeff Santos Radio Show. It is a syndicated show out of Boston. I was asked to speak about the Common Core Standards and the Master Teacher Project. If you want to hear my thoughts, check out this sight http://www.revolutionradionetwork.com/the-jeff-santos-show. You will have to find the 1/21/14 show.
That is all for now. I hope you have a great end of the week.
Peace,
Tommy
