Teachering in So Cal

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Literature Circles

Students finished their culminating projects for their literature circle groups.

Keeping Safe the Stars

Trumpet of the Swan

Island of Blue Dolphins

Tiger Rising

The One and Only Ivan

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Wow, week 38 Saying goodbye will be hard This year - gone too soon. I can't believe we're already at week 38. This year has flown by - it seems like yesterday I was standing out meeting 33 new students and families. The whole year ahead of us. Since then we've immersed ourselves in great books, shed tears over characters and story lines, we've written great opinion pieces and poetry, we've divided large numbers, multiplied fractions, created our own math games and witnessed history in the making. When the outside world was uncertain we found comfort and security in the classroom, among our friends. We've come together on field trips and learned all about the history of our great state and spent time building engineering projects and circuits. We've participated in literature circles, melodrama and even taught a lesson! We've sewn and drawn and painted - tooted our recorders and created journals full of examples of our learning. And we've re-written books to make them our own! We've had a full year and we've grown a lot! This weekend I was thinking of my students and hoping that next year's teachers really know how special each and every one of these kids are- -how funny, talented and kind they are. I worry, too, about new classes and worry that by the time 5th grade comes around others will have assigned roles to us that we just take on as our own. The smart one who is not allowed to struggle with learning. The quiet one. The artistic one. The rambunctious one. The one who can't. The one who won't. The one who loves to read. The one who hates books. I guess my last announcement is just to be careful with assigning roles or labels to others. Even the ones we think of as positive can really put someone in a small box and tends to let people off the hook, allowing them to not to get to know one another - thinking they already know what they need to know. Hey, if you're someone that has been labeled be loud about letting others know there's more to you than meets the eye. Finally, thank you, thank you, thank you for making me feel so very welcome and appreciated this year. This has been the best teaching year ever and I have every one of my students and their families to thank for that. Your support, trust, and patience was invaluable. Thank you.