January 29, 2021

Good Afternoon,

 I hope this finds you keeping warm and avoiding the frigid temperatures.  I want to start by congratulating the class and all of you as a whole.  We had three days of virtual schooling this week and the attendance was fantastic and the level of work, by most, was great.  The students have really improves (matured) since the start of the year and I find the level of focus so much better, as a whole.  Your children are doing a great job!

  This week we focused on Jackie Robinson and talked about the barriers he had to break, the abuse he put up with and how he handled it and how he started to change some views on how people of color were viewed/treated.  We also talked about how Jackie shared similar traits with Martin Luther King in how he handled hatred and violence.  The students finished the week by completing their writings about Jackie Robinson.  Below is an additional video if you want to watch it with your child.

Every morning I do a poll question as part of our morning message.  This allows me to cover the standards on data and analysis throughout the year.  I found the responses to today's question interesting and it may be good to know going into a cold weekend.  Many students explained their reasoning and I think getting some rest is on their minds.  Take a look at the results in the picture.

We have had PE class over the last two weeks of school.  Ms. Ally has been conducting a snowshoe unit with the students.  Although some have not found this unit to be the most fun, (they don't like the physical effort needed) the majority of students have really enjoyed this opportunity.

NOTES:

*Please make sure your child does the attendance question in Google Classroom each and every day we have remote schooling.  I will also remind you on each remote day schedule.

*Please make sure your child has a pair of sneakers or shoes to change into during boot season.

*Do you recognize these boots?  One of your children wore them to school but none of them will take them home.  Please let me know if they are your child's?

That is all for now.  I hope you all have a great weekend.

Peace,

Tommy 

January 18, 2020

 Good Morning,

I hope everyone had a chance to get outside and enjoy nature's beauty over the past few days.  One of my weekend pleasures was getting out in the woods with my dog and just enjoying the vast untouched snow and the simple sounds of nature.  It was very rewarding.

Over the past week and a half we have been talking about the Civil Rights.  I spent some time reading a variety of books about Martin Luther King Jr.  We used Martin's Big Words as our anchor book and will continue to work with this book during our virtual meeting on Wednesday.  This past week we wrapped on the "Candy Experiment" (explained in last blog post) and the kids used Flip Grid to record how they felt about it.  You can view their responses here: https://flipgrid.com/20925ea7.  The responses were unrehearsed and are how they felt.  I found them very interesting and will draw upon their feelings as I tie it into the discussion of civil rights.  These videos also illuminate some of the technical difficulties we deal with and how masks do make it hard to hear sometimes.  

This past week was very interesting from my perspective, as your child's teacher.  This was the first week where I felt COVID and the restrictions were truly effecting the kids as a whole.  There were some very challenging times during specials classes and kids just seeming "frustrated or even down."  I had a meeting where we talked about how they were feeling.  They were more than willing to share about how they are tired of masks, miss sleepovers, and never get play dates.  We talked about why these things are in place and I threw out an idea that they seemed excited about.  Every other week, if they work hard and earn it, I will set aside an hour on Friday's to allow them to have a play date, with friends, in class or outside.  We marked the calendar and I will see how this goes.  I am hoping it helps them a bit.

THIS WEEK"S ASYNCHRONOUS SCHEDULE & WORK

As a whole, the consistency of Wednesday work has started to waiver.  This week I will attach a rubric for your child's Weekly News.  This will help them see the expectation of the entry.  Your child will also have their passport on Wednesday.  Since this is a four day week, I need them to do some work with this on Wednesday.  If they can write about two or three facts on Wednesday, in their passport, that will be sufficient work on this.  

This weeks schedule:

1.  8:45 Meeting with Mr. Young.  You will need your yellow folder and a pencil;.

2.  Weekly News Entry.  Look at the rubric on how you will be graded.

3.  Passport Work

4.  Lexia Core 5

5.  Zearn Lesson

That is all for now.  I hope you have a great week.

Peace,

Tommy

January 12, 2020

 Good Evening,

  Tomorrow will be our virtual day and we have a meeting at 8:45.  Please make sure your child is on the call by 8:45.  We will be working on the start of a project about Martin Luther King Jr. and it will be rather difficult for them to complete it without an explanation of the requirements and process.  I do believe the Weekly News Journals have been recycled (by accident).  So your child has a packet, in their homework bag, that is lab;led for this week's entry.  Please have them use this packet.

  This summer, I met with 7 or 8 friends of mine who are also teachers and people of a variety of races.  When the events of the summer highlighted the racial issues that still exist in our society, I wanted to do more than attend some meetings and pledge to do better.  I wanted to use my position as an educator to help my students develop their own understandings of what racism is, looks like and what the term even means.  I also wanted to learn in a way that would (hopefully) impact them the best.  As I talked with these friends and colleagues, I asked a lot of questions and listened to their answers as well as their stories.  I asked them how does a school, with minimal people other than caucasian The work that we do over the next few months, the books we read, and the people we hear from are mostly a direct result of my conversations with them.  

This week we have already read books about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. We have talked about segregation and civil rights.  I focused on how Martin and Rosa both took on laws and rules that were not fair by peacefully fighting for them.  I started a lesson with the students on Monday.  I asked anyone who had blue on to stand up.  All but four kids stood up.  I told them that the four kids would receive some candy every hour.  Everyone else would not receive it.  Immediately several kids objected.  One even said it's not fair just because they didn't have blue. I will continue to pick colors all week and reward kids in the same fashion.  At the end of the week, I will ask each student to make a flip grid video about this lesson and focus on how they felt about it and why.  This will hopefully lead to a bigger discussion but I think the lesson will help them express stronger understandings when we discuss.  

Les Talking to the class about Florida

This week we are visiting the state of Florida.  My friend and retired teacher, Les Nicholas made a video about the state he now lives in.  He is a former high school journalism teacher and if you have a chance you should watch his video.

That is all for now.  I hope you all have a great week.

Peace,

Mr. Young

January 8, 2021

 Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable time as we wrapped up 2020.  I am sorry I didn't post Monday.  

 I love this time of year as far as teaching.  The January-February stretch marks a very valuable time in your child's learning.  It is a nice uninterrupted stretch of academic time.  The kids know all of the routines and we can really push the academic rigor before the February break.  I will spend the next two weeks conducting a variety of mid-year assessments to help me gauge your child's learning and help devise a 2nd half plan that will meet their needs.  Please do your best to have your child in school, as much as possible, during this time.  . 

NOTES:

Their are a variety of reminders and information that I need you to review.  PLEASE read through this and take note.

*Homework bags.  I really need your child to bring their homework bag to and from school each day and to make sure the book they bring home is in the bag when they do return to school.  Some students have this down but others are still struggling.  Please help your child with this.  I really don;t want to be forced to not send home books to read.

*Winter Clothing:  We will go outside everyday.  Your child must have the appropriate clothing.  Also, 
please make sure they have a change of shoes. Wearing wet clunky boots around isn't great for learning.

*Wednesday asynchronous lessons.  I am using the Wednesday lessons to work on improving writing structure.  In order for your child to learn these techniques, they really need to be part of the lesson.  Please do your best to make this happen.  I appreciate the effort.

That is all for now.  Have a great weekend.

Peace,

Tommy