Thursady, August 27, 2015 Day

We began the day with an end of the year 4th grade assessment that all our 5th graders are taking so we can get first snapshot of where we are after the 2 month break.

As they worked on that I went around, checked in with everyone and verified that they had mom or dad sign off on their 30 minutes of reading. I also collected those that returned the survey. Thanks for either completing the paper form and a special thanks that did the online survey. A somewhat funny & useful aside, I had three different couples complete the survey where both the husband and wife answer the questions independent of each other.It was great to read on the last question about “give me some adjectives that best describe their child,” in all three cases they gave unique positive adjectives.It proves how mom & dad each have unique relationships with their kids and each experience their child in a special way. As a teacher it was great to have the additional adjectives.

One of our early community building activities is reading from a picture book written by UCLA great John Wooden.He created the pyramid of success as a foundational teaching point while coaching UCLA. So every day we will discover two more of the 15 pillars of the pyramid and then have a class discussion and then time to write about that day’s two pillars. Today’s two were 1. Hard Work and 2. Enthusiasm. In the end they will make a Google Slide show artistically showing which each of the pillars means to them. They will also collaborate to make a pyramid of success poster. As we go through them, if you have time ask them to describe what they believe the pillars mean (e.g. what do you think enthusiasm means? Have you seen it home or in school?)

We tried getting 100% of everyone onto the new computer user names&passwords. We are now down to 3 of 27 can not get on. We anticipate by tomorrow to be at 100%! Then we will begin due much of daily writing and reflections using technology. It has been rough teaching Amish style the last two days.

The students also completed a pop-quiz. Not really, because the quiz was about myself, however they did an amazing job of remembering facts about myself. My preference for eating dark chocolate is clearly in the minority when it comes to the palettes of 10 and 11 years.

We also read as a class and discussed two magazine articles. The first one was a Time magazine article about how numerous schools have found success teaching and using meditation during the school day. This is not the exact article however it does explain some of the studies referenced in our article today. I then did a simple practice meditation that I was taught. Don’t worry I’m not getting new-age nor am I soon going to ask them for $2,500 so I can give them their own unique transcendental meditation mantra. It is a simple non denominational breathing exercise that takes 2 to 3 minutes top to complete and relax your blood pressure and bring your breathing back into normal range.

The 2nd article was from Mental Floss magazine. If you would like to learn about a lot of interesting things, increase your small talk abilities, then this is the magazine. In their back to school timed issue they talked about how school in the 1800’s and early 1900’s were more draconian than they are today.One over the top principal even went sybermetrics on his applied punishments and had documented the number of times he whipped, hit, slapped, used a ruler and pulled ears.The stories, in today’s modern world, seem way over the top and the kids got a good laugh and it is easy to remain grateful for being born in the early 2000’s.

They did their first free write in class -- 20 minutes -- no stopping and just writing and being creative. You are going to be trapped on a deserted island, who would you choose to bring with you. Some kids flourished in the open ended sessions, some couldn’t start writing and some begged to take it home and finished writing this evening. We will circle back onto these, add and edit and share these out.

We ended the day discussing the 50 states and capitals exam that happens in May 2016.It is an arduous challenge to memorize all 100 things. So students are encouraged to spend 5 minutes per week so when May comes, it will super easy to be successful.We also watched a great modern song that they could listen to that will help them memorize them.

Here is my website’s page with helpful links and you can download the actual maps that will be used.

Homework due tomorrow:

Due by Friday a free-write - it can be typed or written out. The subject? Tell me about your family. They should work on it a minimum of 20 minutes or 1 full page, whatever comes first. Students may exceed the one page. They are not to worry about their spelling or grammar. I’m just concerned with the content. It must be non-fiction and it can be however they wish to describe or define their family.  

Please sign your student’s day planner once they have read 30 minutes.

A more normal homework schedule will begin on August 31st.

If you have questions or topics that you would like me to cover in Back To School night please let me know. It is Thursday, September 3rd and 5th grade is at 6:30 to 7:00 p.m.

Kind regards,

Mr. Hubbard

Wednesday, August 26, 2015 Day 1

Day one has been completed and our journey forward has begun.

What goes on during the first day? There is a clusterduck of school supplies at everyone’s desk and it makes walking through the class like playing the old Frogger video game. So we began by organizing what is donated to the class, what should be kept in their desks and then the process of farming everything out. I’ll be looking for student volunteers to help put things in the infamous Hubbard’s cupboards.

The students are stuck with me for 9 and half months therefore I go over an overview of my life, why I enjoy teaching and then I answer various questions that interest a 10 or 11 year old. You can see what they remember or what stood out in their minds.They may mention the negative impact that the movie Jaws had on my childhood.

I also began discussing with them our theme for the year. It is going to be “conflict.” There is conflict is everywhere. We often think of conflict as a negative or bad thing, however we talked about how is through conflict, if handled properly, we learn and become better. I’m tying this into

the Hero’s Journey which we will reference throughout the year both in our fiction literature and at a personal level.

The district gave every student a new user name and a new password over the summer. They then reset everyone’s password to their birthday.  They then must enroll in this password recovery system. This led to a long discussion on password protection, password creation and the need to make sure they keep their new password and more importantly the EXACT spelling to their three question password recovery system. Some listened well, some had angered the computer gods and had tech issues out of the control and some were still in summer time mode.There is a reason that my dirty blond hair of 12 years ago is now predominantly grey people.

But everyone kept positive spirits and we will attack this again tomorrow because we can’t start using the chromebooks until this process is completed. As a student pointed out,our experiences in the computer lab displayed various levels of conflict in action and many people responded well to the conflict; even overcoming them.That would be exhibit A regarding why I teach. Grey hairs be darned, that is why I love my job.

Homework...on day 1?

Yes. 30 minutes of reading and then they ask you to sign off verifying the reading was complete. They also received a Reading Around the USA log. You sign off for every 100 pages that they read.No one is looking through this like a CPA. The focus is on reading and reading for enjoyment.

Completing my survey or filling out the paper one is due ASAP. They earn Class Dojo points when you complete your homework therefore they may be on your case.  Here is the link to the survey.

Due by Friday a free-write - it can be typed or written out. The subject? Tell me about your family. They should work on it a minimum of 20 minutes or 1 full page, whatever comes first. Students may exceed the one page. They are not to worry about their spelling or grammar. I’m just concerned with the content. It must be non-fiction and it can be however they wish to describe or define their family.  

A more normal homework schedule will begin on August 31st.

If you have questions or topics that you would like me to cover in Back To School night please let me know. It is Thursday, September 3rd and 5th grade is at 6:30 to 7:00 p.m.

Please remember to complete that survey, it will make my day. I can then start emailing you and also send out Engrade and Class Dojo invites so you can see what is going on everyday.

Kind regards,

Mr. Hubbard

Parents in my 2015-2016 class please complete this quick information survey....

Please click here to access the quick data base survey.  

This will help me build up an easy way to contact a student's family when we have class updates or they have achieved something awesome.

Thank you so much.

Mr. Hubbard

It is hard to describe..but I'll try anyways

The school year is super close and we literally just received our class list. It is like Christmas in August as I can finally type in everyone's name and create my first class list.

Really, you just found out right now? Let me share with you how the creation of a class plays out.

When you are 5th grade teacher you rely on the 4th grade teachers to make the class list and they determine who will be your students/team/comrades/heroes for the next ten months. I know this sounds crazy but if you want to influence where you child lands in 5th grade, your lattes, scones and/or gift cards should be given to the 4th grade teachers. Why? 4th and the administrators put multiple hours into the creation of the next year's classes.

They factor in prior family relationships between the teacher & family, how many squirrely students are in each class, does each class have an equal amount of boys and girls, does each class have an equal amount of rebels, an equal amount of students prone to start a revolution, an equal amount of students prone to take a vow of 6 hour silence and really do it, and most importantly which teacher would best meet the needs of each student's unique personality type.

So as of June when we leave for summer break the classes have been expertly created and "in theory" should be equally formed.  Often at that time, the 5th grade teachers will get a tentative list  however those class are hypothetical at best.


Then summer happens.


Families move into the district and they move out of the district, the school's numbers evolve and the district's numbers also evolve. In early August this year there were discussions about a 4/5 split or a 3/4 split or no splits. Then some summers based on how moving shakes out in your neighborhood each class will receive X amount of students from outside the district. All scenarios create contingency plans with reshuffling of the finely tuned June classes.

I believe one summer, five students moved away over the summer from my tentative June class list. While only one new fifth grader moved into the neighborhood. That entailed 4th grade having to equally redistribute the classes so I didn't have four less students than every other class.  As I described above, 4th grade didn't just haphazardly take away four students, it entailed them sitting down and playing a game of chess.  Except it is chess like Spock and Captain Kirk played where every move predicated another movement happening. They put a ton of thought of meeting the criteria of what is best for the student and understanding group dynamics and chemistry.

Therefore you don't know who exactly will be in your class until practicality demands that a line be drawn in the sand and classes are created. So I now know and I can now type their names into my spreadsheet.

Let the 2015-2016 school year begin.

I'm starting to get excited....