Some items to note...

I am sure that you are all aware that there is a labour action going on, and as a result, I will not be able to send emails, or update the blog starting Monday morning...so I thought I would send out some notes to you all, and hope that a) I cover every question that might be out there and b) that this issue is sorted out soon so we can get back to business as usual.  The education of the students is a balance of the school, the students, and the parents all working together, and communication is key, so I look forward to a quick end to this situation.

Here we go...

I believe that the school is arranging a special morning for class meetings, as we were not allowed to run them in the evening, and we feel that they are such an important part of the way we run things at Churchill.  I will propose a potential second meeting, or open house night once the labour action is over, but for now Class meetings will be on September 24th at 8:15am until 8:45am.  I believe that there is a CASC annual breakfast event planned for 7:30 am that morning. 

I will try to run through regular class meeting highlights...but the half hour will be really short, and I know that many will not be able to make it at that time, so I will also try to include some of the details we will cover in this email.  If you ever have questions, please contact me...which leads me to ...

Communication

Even in a non labour action situation, the best way to get information to me that is time sensitive is to write a note in your child's agenda, and have them give it to me at the start of the day.  We are using pink notebooks for agendas.  It is a three column approach.  The margin is for the date, then the lines are divided into left and right columns.  On the left they write down the day's agenda from the board, so that they have a record of what we have done in class that day.  This is great for talking points, at home when you wish to ask about the day your child has had.  On the right hand side of the page they write down Notes that we make on the board at the end of the day regarding important events, items that need to be brought in, or home, trips, etc.  

You can contact me by email, but please make sure that this is not time sensitive information you are emailing me about as I don't check emails once the day has started, and sometimes I check them super early from home.  I can try for about a 24-48 hour turnaround time on emails, so general information, or questions can be emailed for sure.  Just don't email me to tell me about little Johnny needing to be picked up early today, as I won't be reading it until the end of the day, or tomorrow even.   The office would also like me to remind you to try and arrange end of day routines with your child before the day starts.  We are besieged with dozens of calls a day where parents are calling up to classes to tell their child about changes to end of day pickup.  It happens, but it also sometimes seems like the same people call day after day, and this creates a disturbance for the office, and the students in class.  

Indoor Shoes

As I wrote in the newsletter home, and on the blog earlier, each child needs indoor shoes for the gym.  We change into these each transition into the class, so that we can keep the class safe, and clean.  Each student has shelf space above their hook, for shoes to be left in the evening.  Students must have closed toed, non marking, supportive footwear for phys ed, or they will be asked to sit out for their own safety.  In middle school the shift will be to footwear and a change of clothes for phys ed, so footwear is a good spot to start in 5/6.

Group Snack

We would usually set this up at the parent meeting, and would have it in place by now.  It is a school tradition.  I ask that if you are not interested in having your name on the group snack schedule, please email me directly, and I will make sure that when we make it up, you are not included to bring in snack on the schedule.  It is meant to be a healthy snack focus, and there are 24 students in the class.  We have one nut allergy, and some students who do not eat gluten, so providing a couple of options is a good way to go (ie, cheese and crackers, with a bit of fruit, if you use rice crackers, will be ok for most).  Not everyone likes everything brought in each day, and similarly, some days the snack will not be ok for some food sensitivities, but the hope is that overall we can be aware, and most snack will be ok for most of the students.

Class volunteers.

I have Dan working with us on Wednesdays as a math volunteer, and am looking for reading volunteers to come in (at their leisure) to take students out to read aloud.  Children reading out loud improve their overall sight vocabulary, and spelling, and pronunciation, and general literacy, far more than reading to themselves.  So often I meet students who's parents say that they read voraciously, and yet results in class show gaps in comprehension.  Many fast readers skim, and do not fully digest what they read.  They read for the general ideas, but get lost in the details, so they just skip them.  Reading out loud corrects this, and forces students to slow down.  My goal is to have students go out to read for ten minutes at a time, to volunteers, over the course of the school year.  If every student reads out loud three times with a volunteer by winter break, I will consider that a great success.  Let me knwo if you can make it in.

Also on the volunteer topic, please let me know if you are often available in the day for field trips.  Once we get the green light to book them, I will need to know what kind of availability we have with parents, as this can be tricky to coordinate.

Homework...

Progressive educators have shifted away from homework over the past 25 years, as more and more studies support the notion that more homework does not correspond with better understanding, higher grades, or better outcomes intellectually.  Homework for homework's sake is the pitfall, but so is the idea of school becoming the all consuming focus of our children's lives.  My opinion, and approach, is to provide students with tasks, over the course of the school year, that will build skills they need to be successful in school, and in life.  As far as homework goes, we will have project based assignments, that are directly connected to topics we are looking at in class.  A few of these will be math projects, a few will be science and social studies assignments.  An expectation across the province, for students at this level, is that they be reading at home, and I would say a minimum of 20 minutes a day must be spent on this.  Mark Twain said it best when he was quoted "Those who do not read have no advantage over those who can not read."  To support this reading we will be working towards the use of a reading journal later on this year, where students will record what they are reading each week in the log, and then they will reflect on something they wrote by answering some prompts I give them to share information from their readings.  We will try to get to this by November.  Ultimately the goal is for students to take ownership for the completion of a task, and the submission of their work.  This will prove to be the greatest challenge for many students, not the actual reading or writing,  but the remembering to take it home and bring it back, which is why we will do it.  In total this should be about 20 - 30 minutes of work per week, on top of the reading they likely already do for fun.  

At any time, if work that is to be completed at home, is not finished, or you know it will prove a challenge, just contact me so we can sort something out.

Forms

I know that the office sent home forms at the start of the year.  They are gathering them, and we will hear this week of any that are outstanding.  Please get these in.  Some, like the media permission forms, we need before many events or activities can take place.

Finally...

This is going to be a trying time for us all due to the labour situation.  I apologise for any inconvenience it causes our community in the coming weeks.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  I hope to see many of you on Thursday morning.  FYI the class has settled in quite well this past week.  They are sharing great experiences, helping each other out, and, overall, acting like the great community members they are.  I think we are going to be able to do some remarkable things together as a class this year.  We have been working on some great character development topics, and we will continue to work on team building activities as we go forward.  Ask your child about Tchoukball later this week, and ask them about the Omniball...I am getting that ready for them tomorrow I believe...

Take care,  

Ray
ps.  We spoke about wolves this past week, when we did a main topic exercise in comprehension...and I told them about a great video.  We will look at it this week...and try to pick out the main idea.  Here it is as a preview...