Day 2 of 2011-2012

Day 2
We began the day reading one of my favorite books, If the World Were a Village
http://amzn.com/1554535956

We had some pretty cool discussions and some writing about ratios, the world population and how a small village of 100 people would look based on population data.  Today we discussed nationalities, the top 10 most populace countries, and languages spoken by the 100 people.  Not much English is being spoken and many of the people would come from China and India.  

As a follow to my Monday presentation students were given time to ask me questions.  They asked favorite color, favorite sport athletes, how often I surf, and if I have ever skateboarded.  
We continued discussing classroom expectations.  

Math:
We reviewed last night’s place value.
We then went over today’s two lessons.  
1.  Greater than and less than when comparing whole numbers.  
2.  Understanding and writing decimals
**this lead to a great discussion about estimating, adding decimals., discussing the phrase - “when the cows come home” and why adding zeros at the end of decimal will not change its absolute value.  
click here for todays math notes

Brainpop.com FYI -- during the hours of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.   Every student can access www.brainpop.com and watch educational videos.  PFC pays for this resource so you paying for it and I strongly suggest students use it.  Their videos are waaaay more interesting, educational and interactive than brainless t.v.

Free-Writes --
We discussed the rules of doing free writes.  We will be doing one or two free writes per week.  Some are serious in nature and they must write non-fiction type free-writes (i.e. they are not that creative).  
Most will be creative free writes where they will be given a writing prompt and they may write as they see fit.
Requirements:
20 minutes or one full page whichever comes first.  If not a full page, then parent must sign and verify that it was an actual 20 minutes.
Just write what you are thinking regarding the topic, do not worry about spelling and grammar.  We are exercising our creative writing process and developing our voice.   
It may be typed or handwritten, either one is fine with me.
If typed you must use a font no larger than 14 and keep pictures or photos to a minimum.
We then did a practice free-write during class.  The topic was “My teacher is a robot.....”  The kids were able to observe that some students had completed almost two pages in 20 minutes while others students that I observed completed maybe a paragraph.  Both were acceptable amounts since some prompts will come easier to others.  The main goal is to do a “brain dump” about a particular subject.

Due Friday – a “serious” free write about your family.  They may share whatever they feel comfortable sharing about their family.  I will not be sharing these free writes with anyone; these free writes will only be read by myself.

I BELIEVE....
Dublin Elementary’s (DES) motto for the 2011-2012 school year is “I Believe”   All of DES is working on capturing our dreams and what we believe will happen and proudly displaying them in the multipurpose room for next week’s Back To School Night.  
We first started our process by watching this inspirational video from a 5th grade student in Texas.  CLICK HERE TO SEE THIS INSPIRATIONAL VIDEO

We then brainstormed as a class “I believe this year.....” and “I believe in the future.....”  Students were given 20 minutes to begin writing their rough draft and/or brain dump.   Some students had not completed their rough draft, therefore they need to complete this for homework.  

First official mistake of the year.....I asked everyone to put “dublin pride” in their email last night.  They all went to our DUSD spam filter, however I was able to pull them out.  In future emails, please put “dpride” in order to get by the spam-gatekeeper.  I’m sorry for that mistake.  

Homework for the week:
Math
Pages 7-8  (6-28 evens) and Pages 10-11 (2-26 evens) due on Wednesday

“I believe this year....” paragraph(s) and “I believe in the future....” paragraph(s)  due on Wednesday

Homework about Homework due on Wednesday
“Getting to Know You Better” a.k.a. The Reading Survey -- Due on Thursday with COMPLETE thoughts and sentences.
CLICK HERE IF YOUNEED THE GETTING TO KNOW YOU BETTER SURVEY

Free-Write (a non-fiction/serious one):
“My family......”   due on Friday
***Get your day planner signed.

Kind regards,

Ron Hubbard
Teacher, 5th Grade
Dublin Elementary School
www.mrhubbardsclass.com
http://mrhubbardsclass.blogspot.com/
http://www.diigo.com/user/iamron
"All of us are team players.  Whether we know it or not, our significance arrives through our vital connections to other people.  Family life is the central team experience."
·        Pat Riley

The First Day of School!!

Welcome to our 180 day adventure!!

This morning our room was overflowing with supplies, parents and students ready to get back to the business of learning.  It was great to everyone and thank you for everyone that stopped by to say hello.

Here is how these emails and/or postings go, I will tell you what we learned today and address homework assignments.  Why?  So much  learning can happen during an everyday conversation.  Therefore if these emails can lead to you into tricking your son/daughter into “teaching” you what we did today, it is the ultimate “win/win situation.   Also it helps me reflect on what we did and did not accomplish today as a learning community.

We started the day completing a quick getting to know you card and a student survey  survey.  These are helpful as they allow me to put a name to the faces and also discuss pasta & pizza with the class.

We then spent time discussing the class behavior system.  Here it is in a quick nutshell:
stage 1:  1st orange card -- simple warning
stage 2:  2nd orange card -- student leaves class for 5-6 minutes and completes a “refocus” form; this form(s) will be sent home on Friday
stage 3:  1st red card -- call home to the parents before or after a discussion with school administrator
Every day a students starts over from scratch so we all begin a new day ready to rock and roll.  

We then discussed our monetary system within our class.  We will hold one  and maybe two auctions throughout the school year.  Students earn classroom money by going above and beyond.  Therefore extra credit assignments, research topics based on classroom discussions or certain district/administrator forms quickly returned earn classroom money.  

Math:
Our first lesson of the year concerned....mostly discussing why a notebook should be your best friend.  I discussed myelin and oligodendrocytes and how repeated actions opened up passage ways to assist us in retrieving information within the white matter part of our brain.    So the discipline of taking consistent notes on a daily basis and using the notebook to prep for tests all should be incentive to bring this notebook back and forth everyday.
Regarding tonight’s homework:   It is place value w/ billions, millions, thousands and hundreds.  
We did examples of standard form, expanded form and written form.  
Here are our notes on the class procedures and the math that we worked on:
CLICK HERE FOR TODAY'S NOTES

The students then had physical education (PE) from 11:45-12:30;  P.E. will be on Mondays however the specific time is still being worked out.  

The end of the day consisted of me giving them a biography description of my life, what values that I stand for and how I chose to become a teacher.    

Students then received four handouts.  

1.  Homework about homework:  due on Wednesday

2.  “Getting to Know You Better” a.k.a. The Reading Survey -- Due on Thursday with COMPLETE thoughts and sentences.
CLICK HERE IF YOUNEED THE GETTING TO KNOW YOU BETTER SURVEY

3.  Handout requesting students to please volunteer to work as parking lot valets and greeters.  Due ASAP

4.  My welcome to Mr. Hubbard’s class and 5th grade letter -- to be given to parents.
CLICK HERE IF YOU NEED THE WELCOME LETTER

Final thing, we have an apprentice-teacher in our class through October.  Her name is Lisa Silva.  She is in her 4th semester of mastering and at the end of October she will have earned her K-6 Multiple Subject Credential.   She will be actively teaching during the day with me and she will take over responsibilities for a two period.   She has two children who have went through Dublin Elementary, she has substitute teaching experience and she has earned her stripes with some prior long-term substitute situation.   So we are blessed to have an additional educator within our classroom over the next 10 weeks.  

Kind regards,

Mr. Hubbard

For My Skateboarding Students the sequel...

Click here to watch a short video and read about how some skateboarders brought skateboards to the country of Burma.  It seems like everyone everywhere enjoys skateboarding.

click here for the video and to read the article

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Well, only one more day of elementary school day left.  We practiced all morning on the promotion ceremony.   This year’s group is picking it up, we still haven’t had a practice run with all the kinks worked out.  However the students traditionally step up on the big day and perform in a way that respects our community.

We are asking the students to please wear the same type of clothes that we had them where for the manner’s tea:

Mrs. Johnson and the school is asking:

1.  Students not show up with shorts or blue jeans.  

2.  No high heels.

3.  For boy’s --- ties are not necessary however a minimum of a collared shirt.

We are not asking families to purchase new clothes rather we would like the students to wear something respectful of this event.   

After practice we went directly into dodge-ball.  

1. 5th Grade girls versus teachers = victorious teachers.   
2. 5th Grade boys versus teachers = victorious teachers + 30 whining boys.   
3. All 75 5th graders versus teachers = victorious teachers + 30 whining boys.  

We then enjoyed our final afternoon together talking, eating yummy barbecue food and playing on the playground.  

Friday

• 10:30-11:45’ish   5th Grade Promotion
• Students may begin their summer vacations at the completion of the promotion festivities.  

Day ends at the end of promotion ceremony  *please note the super extremely unique Friday end time.  

The promotion starts at 10:30;   The doors to the multipurpose room will open up at 10:00 a.m.    Except for the family that bought front row seats at the Fall Festival or the recent Auction, people can not show up the night before or in the early morning and reserve seats.  
You must be present to grab your seat(s).
Remember to factor in that parking will be jammed packed on Friday so you will need to factor in the extra walk time if you want to sit towards the front.  

Kind regards,

Mr. Hubbard

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

I promised one email update every day this week so I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I didn’t come through with a quick one before heading off to sleepy land.  

Today’s biggest event was the bowling field trip.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous.  It was  Baby Bear weather, not too hot and not too cold.   The kids did their usual game of attempting to get all cars that we walked past to honk horns at us.  When we finally made it to bowling, students were allowed to get into lanes with 4 or 5 people per lane.  They could choose their own group so the kids could spend this special moment with whoever they wanted to.  Mr. Haar and Mrs. Wilmott had a spirited “clash of the Titans” battle of bowling.   While Mrs. Cargo assisted with the dissemination of nachos and french fries.   While I took some photos, made sure know one played video games, handled a few mechanical challenges and allegedly “taste tested” several team’s nachos/french fries for quality control purposes.   Truth be told...I think the arrival of the nachos and french fries may have excited the student more so than their bowling competition.   Regardless the students had a great time eating, bowling and several cars did honk at us.  

Upon returning the students were able to sign each other’s yearbooks, play various math games on the computer and basically “hang” with each other from all three classes.  

We ended the day practicing for our promotion ceremony.  We are really hoping to be a fine tuned promotion machine come Friday morning.    Most of our students appear to have read and memorized their line from “Oh the Places They’ll Go.”   The next goal would be work with them on reading their line with passion and theatrically.  We had a few people that may have been auditioning as the teacher from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.    So we are encouraging them to take a chance at school, if you could maybe also encourage them to try reading it with enthusiasm that would be great.  

Thursday

1. 8:30-10:15 Promotion Practice
2. 10:30-12:30   Staff versus 5th Graders in Dodgeball followed by 5th grade picnic   **please note all are welcome to watch dodgeball and socialize during the picnic

Day ends at 12:30 p.m.   *please note the extremely unique  Thursday end time

Friday

• 10:30-11:45’ish   5th Grade Promotion
• Students may begin their summer vacations at the completion of the promotion festivities.  

Day ends at the end of promotion ceremony  *please note the super extremely unique Friday end time.  

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

We started the day off with promotion activities.

The big thing, each student was given a partner to memorize a 1 to 3 sentence stanza from the book “Oh the Places They’ll Go.”   Each student was given the script and was asked to memorize it over the next few days.

We are asking the students to please wear the same type of clothes that we had them where for the manner’s tea:

Mrs. Johnson and the school is asking:

1.  Students not show up with shorts or blue jeans.  

2.  No high heels.

3.  For boy’s --- ties are not necessary however a minimum of a collared shirt.

We are not asking families to purchase new clothes rather we would like the students to wear something respectful of this event.   

After 90 minutes of promotion practice, we moved onto the year end auction.  We had tickets, toys, chocolate and tons of Dollar Store goodies.   

Immediately after our auction, the students enjoyed pizza and soda.  We then watched Bob the Builder after eating our pizza (it was the students’ request).  

They ended the day with their final P.E. class ever as an elementary school student.  

Tomorrow is bowling -- we are asking for a $6 bowling donation.  If you can still send in your $6 that would be highly appreciated.  Everyone bowls and can eat fries & nachos --- no matter what.   Students may bring extra money if they wish to utilize the snack bar (there will be no video game playing).   Thanks to your $6 donation and PFC, I’m serious that every bowling team will receive a serving of french fries and nachos.  
We are walking and it may begin to heat up tomorrow so please have your son/daughter dress strategically.  

Wednesday

1. 8:30’ish-11:30’ish  5th Grade’s Annual Bowling Event
2. 1:10-2:05 Promotion Practice

Day ends at 2:05 p.m.   *please note the unique Wednesday end time

Thursday

1. 8:30-10:15 Promotion Practice
2. 10:30-12:30   Staff versus 5th Graders in Dodgeball followed by 5th grade picnic   **please note all are welcome to watch dodgeball and socialize during the picnic

Day ends at 12:30 p.m.   *please note the extremely unique  Thursday end time

Friday

• 10:30-11:45’ish   5th Grade Promotion
• Students may begin their summer vacations at the completion of the promotion festivities.  

Day ends at the end of promotion ceremony  *please note the super extremely unique Friday end time.  

The promotion starts at 10:30;   The doors to the multipurpose room will open up at 10:00 a.m.    Except for the family that bought front row seats at the Fall Festival or the recent Auction, people can not show up the night before or in the early morning and reserve seats.  
You must be present to grab your seat.
Remember to factor in that parking will be jammed packed on Friday so you will need to factor in the extra walk time if you want to sit towards the front.  

Kind regards,

Mr. Hubbard

Monday, June 6, 2011

Not quite walking into the summer sunset. 

Today -- we finished our five paragraph essays, our theme tests and we began turning in our hard cover books.

Students should bring their back pack in tomorrow ready to load it up with notebooks and whatever else they would like to bring home with them.  My goal is to have their desks relatively clutter free by the end of Tuesday.

Students also received their yearbooks today.  So they began thumbing through them and signing each other’s books.  

We covered some more of the Corps of Discovery.  Today the team made it to the Great Plains, ran into the Teton Sioux, almost had a throw-down and they lost their first & last Corp member.

Also I used today to discuss the book the & Habits since it has meant a ton to me.  I encouraged them to go out and get the book written for students just about their age:
http://www.amazon.com/Habits-Highly-Effective-Teens/dp/0684856093

Click her for the Prezi that I used for our talking point.  
Click here for the nutshell version.

At the end of the day we discussed a few things that I hope they can take w/ them as they move on:
Memorize or be willing to look up the difference between:
to, too, & two
there, their, & they’re
were, where, wear, and we’re
I showed them if they didn’t memorize the differences that it only took about 10 seconds to do a Google search and they could find the answer.

We talked about liability and liability’s effect on your life.  

I discussed college and things to consider when they head off to college and during college.  

I failed to collect most student’s Reading Around the World so I need that tomorrow.

Friday -- the promotion starts at 10:15;   The doors to the multipurpose room will open up at 10:00 a.m.    Except for the family that bought front row seats at the Fall Festival or the recent Auction, people can not show up the night before or in the early morning and reserve seats.  
You must be present to grab your seat.
Remember to factor in that parking will be jammed packed on Friday so you will need to factor in the extra walk time if you want to sit towards the front.  

Tuesday

1. 8:30-10:15 Promotion Practice
2. 10:30-1:10   Year End Auction and Pizza Luncheon

Day ends at 2:05 p.m.


Wednesday

1. 8:30’ish-11:30’ish  5th Grade’s Annual Bowling Event
2. 1:10-2:05 Promotion Practice

Day ends at 2:05 p.m.   *please note the unique Wednesday end time

Thursday

1. 8:30-10:15 Promotion Practice
2. 10:30-12:30   Staff versus 5th Graders in Dodgeball followed by 5th grade picnic   **please note all are welcome to watch dodgeball and socialize during the picnic

Day ends at 12:30 p.m.   *please note the extremely unique  Thursday end time

Friday

• 10:30-11:45’ish   5th Grade Promotion
• Students may begin their summer vacations at the completion of the promotion festivities.  

Day ends at the end of promotion ceremony  *please note the super extremely unique Friday end time.  

Kind regards,

Mr. Hubbard

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Heading Down the Homestretch of the 2010-2011 School Year

Sorry for not emailing after Monday last week.  It has been crazy busy both professionally and at home therefore it was challenging to get the word out on the streets.  

The biggest news from last week, we had the family life discussions on Friday afternoon.  We separated the boys into one room and the girls into another room.    Mr. Haar and myself taught the boys the curriculum.  This year’s class was extremely respectful and they asked really great appropriate questions.  We did have a run on questions regarding babies born as Siamese twins and/or triplets.  We finally had to say, “no more Siamese twins (aka conjoined twins) questions, ask at home or do some independent research.”    Provided you feel inspired to do so, now would be a great time to discuss with your child about what they took out of the presentation and whatever questions or “theories” they may have about their changing bodies, etc.  

I did want to give you a heads up regarding this week’s events:

Monday

1. We will be cleaning up district assessments, showing off the last of our Federal Express day projects and cleaning up.
2. Yearbooks will be distributed today.  Students were told last week to return library books or pay for them.  People still owing library books will be able to pick up their yearbook once they resolve their library book challenges.  

Day ends at 2:05 p.m.

Tuesday

1. 8:30-10:15 Promotion Practice
2. 10:30-1:10   Year End Auction and Pizza Luncheon

Day ends at 2:05 p.m.

Wednesday

1. 8:30’ish-11:30’ish  5th Grade’s Annual Bowling Event
2. 1:10-2:05 Promotion Practice 

Day ends at 2:05 p.m.   *please note the unique Wednesday end time

Thursday

1. 8:30-10:15 Promotion Practice
2. 10:30-12:30   Staff versus 5th Graders in Dodgeball followed by 5th grade picnic   **please note all are welcome to watch dodgeball and socialize during the picnic

Day ends at 12:30 p.m.   *please note the extremely unique  Thursday end time

Friday

These 3 could be having a ceremony of their own this week.

• 10:30-11:45’ish   5th Grade Promotion
• Students may begin their summer vacations at the completion of the promotion festivities.  

Day ends at the end of promotion ceremony  *please note the super extremely unique Friday end time.  

39 weeks?  It is outrageous how quickly things have gone this year.   I promise to send out a note every afternoon/evening this week so you can have an insight into your child’s final week of elementary school.

Kind regards,

Mr. Hubbard

End of the Year Surveys for room C-5

End of the Year Certificates:

We need to know who has earned certificates also I would like an estimate of your Reading Around the World pages.

Please click here to take this survey.

District Student Survey:

The district wants you to take a survey and offer feedback.

Please click here to take this survey.