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
No comments:
Post a Comment