The Danger Box by Blue Balliet

Our new read aloud is titled The Danger Box. This is author Blue Balliet's fourth book. Her first three, Chasing Vermeer, The Wright Three and The Calder Game center around a mystery and an artist. Three friends try to solve the fictional mystery that she creates around the actual piece of art. She departs from the three friends and the art in this novel, instead choosing a scientist (Charles Darwin) and two friends. It's a complicated and intriguing book, with many twists and turns, but a satisfying read in the end. She crates memorable characters and weaves a complex plot of mystery. 

For more info, please read the review below from School Library Journal:

"Balliett's latest mystery explores the intricacies of scientific discovery. Wealthy Mr. Zip has arranged for a priceless treasure, stolen years ago, to be delivered to him. He will indulge his dream of savoring this object, and then will return it to society, a magnanimous gesture that will ensure that he is remembered as a hero. Sadly, before the treasure reaches him, Mr. Zip dies of a heart attack. When a mysterious man in possession of the box learns about this, he senses opportunity for personal gain, but before he can learn what he's transporting, his truck is stolen. Switch to our narrator, Zoomy, an engaging 12-year-old who, with pathological myopia, sees the world differently than those around him. Raised by his grandparents, he is pulled into the intrigue when his absent and alcoholic father makes a brief reappearance in his life with the box. Inside, Zoomy and his grandparents find only an old notebook wrapped in a blanket. An inveterate list-maker and notebook-keeper himself, Zoomy immediately falls in love with the journal, sensing a kindred spirit in the creator. He attempts to learn more about its history as the man schemes to reclaim that which does not belong to him, and as issues of The Gas Gazette provide clues but no answers about a "mysterious soul." Balliett demonstrates how danger boxes are all around us–not just as containers of physical objects for which people will hazard a great deal, but as vehicles that expose us to risky ideas and dreams. This highly satisfying story will enlighten readers even as it inspires them to think about their own danger boxes."

Survival

We are currently in the beginnings of our survival study. After completing the Marshmallow Challenge, we have begun to brainstorm what survival means and read stories of survival. Each person read a nonfiction picture book and wrote how the story was one of survival. Next, with a partner, students made a Venn diagram to look at similarities and differences contained in their stories. We are recording these and they will be posted in Moodle as podcasts in the near future. We are practicing podcasts as a result of an idea many students brought up in class -- to create a Wickliffe newspaper. After investigating we found two other classroom are possibly investigating writing newspapers, so we decided to create a "Wickliffe Weekly News" podcast. Look for more information in the near future.

In addition to comparing survival stories, we are also looking at survival events throughout history, how people survive, animal survival and qualities of survival. Eventually, each person will choose one event to study in depth about survival. We will be previewing these topics next week. Also next week, students will work in small groups to build bridges, perhaps a necessity to survival? We'll see! Stay tuned...

Poetry Workshop

The "Try It Out" for this week's poetry workshop was writing "How To Be" Poems. We shared a few and then tried out a group poem: "How To Be the First Snowflake" (appropriate for the day, we thought). This inspired many interesting, thoughtful and creative poems. Please see just a sample below.

How To Be Anything

Be
Live
Think
Hope
Dream
Thing Big
Reach for the Sky
Love What You Do
And make sure to
Believe



How To Be the First Snowflake

Descend on the first of December
Be in the clouds ready to drop
Get an early start and fall
Dive down and feel like a plane
Gliding through the air,
Crystal clear


How To Be a Light Bulb

Soak up electricity
Be bright
Be smart
Sometimes burn out
Symbolize ideas
Turn on and off
Flicker and spark and
Shine your soul


How To Be a Light Bulb

Soak up electricity
Get hotter and hotter
Start glowing
Reply to the call of the switch
Give lots of light
Symbolize ideas
Freak people out by flickering
Repel the monsters under the bed
End your life with a final flicker


How To Be a Doodler

Imagine your creatures
Use your surroundings
Give it your best try
Use your best skill to create it
Have fun with it
Take your time
Keep doing it
Draw what you can
Take it from someone who knows
Don’t care what other people think
It’s the best by how much love you put into it.

What Motivates Us?

What motivates you?
food/candy
learning something/gaining knowledge
friends and teachers
reading/books
someone telling you what to do
other people sharing
time
when you see someone else doing something cool
money
knowing you will get a good grade
knowing you will have a feeling of accomplishment
sports
seeing someone not as fortunate

We had an interesting discussion today about what is motivating to each of us. We asked the question, "what motivates you in school?" The list above is what we brainstormed. We also talked about extrinsic and intrinsic motivation - a very interesting and thoughtful discussion. If you get a chance, ask your child about our discussion.

Reading Grafitti Part 2 Set 1

Our Reading Grafitti board became so full, we had to type up all the descriptive, meaningful lines (thanks, Miss Petrolo!) and display them around the board to make new space. Well, the Graffitti Board is almost filled again! We will add those savory bits of language to the collection soon, but in the meantime, please enjoy our first set of words. We have been sharing them in class. Beautiful and fun to read again and again!

“Which brings me to your last question. And that question is: How do you know if you are a writer? For once, I am going to answer a question as directly as I am able. My answer goes like this: You know you are a writer if you are imaginative. You know that you are a writer if you are curious. You know you are a writer if you are interested in the things and people of the world. You know you are a writer if you like the sound of rain on the roof. And if you want to tell someone else about your heart and how waiting for the thunder sometimes makes you feel, if you work to find the words to do that, then you are a writer.”
p. 118 Funny Business by John Sciezka and Kate DiCamillo

“A wise man once remarked that we can count how many seeds are in an apple, but not how many apples are in the seed.”
p. 157 Jeremy Fink and The Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass

“Home is family and family is home.”
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Well did you know that dinosaurs really didn’t go extinct? Aliens were so fascinated by them that they decided to gather them all up and take them to their own planet.”
p. 129 I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

“Now what in the hokie smokies could that mean?”
p. 58 Emily’s Fortune by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

“And three sets of soft snores rose to the shining ceiling.”
p. 13 Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

“The butler knocked on one of the black doors, and a voice boomed, ‘Bring her in.’ an involuntary shiver ran through Charlotte. The voice seemed to penetrate her body.”
p. 341 The Shadow Thieves by Anne Ursu


“Sometimes you never feel meaner then the moment you stop being mean. It’s like how turning on a light makes you realize how dark the room had gotten.”
p. 144 When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

“All the kids are in a costume. We have bought a leash for Bernie Kosar who is wearing a Superman cape draped over his back, a large ‘S’ on his chest. He seemed unimpressed with it. He’s not the only dog dressed as a superhero.”
p. 125 I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

“We are inside the universe, and the universe is inside us.”
p. 218 Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass

“Supper in the cloth sack and a lot on his mind.”
p. 75 Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

“Don’t give up hope just yet. It’s the last thing to go. When you have lost hope you have lost everything.”
p. 124 I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

“Imperious little son of the gun acting like some big cheese in a small pond.”
p. 15 Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

“Don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me anyone else but me anyone else but me No! No! No! don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me till I come marching home.”
p. 50 The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins by Walter Dean Myers

“Good people I will sing you a little ditty and hope that it doesn’t annoy I make an appeal to your pity for I’m and unfortunate boy. Twas under an unlucky planet that I was born one night my life since first I began it has been cursed in dark and light o do not make sport of my troubles but pity one who feels no joy for I’m an uncomfortable horrible, terrible inconsolable Jonah boy.”
p. 23-25 Journal of James Pease by Jim Murphy

“A closed mind gathers no moss.”
p. 104 Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

“The towering trees swayed and whispered in the breeze.”
p. 92 Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements

“We all have disabilities. What’s yours?”
Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

“His howdy doody cue seemed to dance in the air.”
p. 59 Crime Scene Whodunit’s by Jim Sukach

“I have never spoken one single word. I am almost eleven years old.”
p. 2 Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

“Sleeping in there was like sleeping up in the night sky with the glitter of stardust all around you.”
p. 11 Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

“Scratching his head as if he might dig up an idea.”
p. 77 Crime Scene Whodunit’s by Jim Sukach

Survival By Design

We began one part of our "Survival" Study last week by completing "the Marshmallow Challenge". The challenge was to create a structure that could support one large marshmallow using only one yard of masking tape, one yard of string, 20 sticks of raw spaghetti, one marshmallow and 18 minutes. We found this challenge from a website called "TED".  Click below to get to the link.

Marshmallow Challenge

What did we learn from this experience?
•Having only 18 minutes to create the structure is hard!
•It is a challenge to work together, hear everyone's ideas and get the structure built.
•It's important to work together and listen to one another. 

Scientific Timeline

Each person contributed an event for our class timeline. Please go to www.timetoast.com. Scroll down to categories and click on science and technology. Our timeline is titled Major Accomplishments in Science by Mrs. McEvoy/Slater's Class. We hope you learn something! Enjoy!

Guest Poet for Poetry Workshop

We had the pleasure this week of having, Mr. Frank Hatcher, one of our retired teachers lead our poetry workshop on Friday, November 5th. We explored the concept of metaphor in poetry.  Mr. Hatcher shared the poetry of Barbara Esbensen and then we tried writing some metaphors together. He listed two sets or paired words that were seemingly unrelated: pencil/hotel and dandelion/king. We listed words to describe each without looking for relationships between the two. Then, we looked how how we could connect and compare them. We also started to brainstorm two other words : spelling and war. We will continue with that comparison next poetry workshop.  See charts below for an idea of what we did. It was so fun to listen to Mr. Hatcher read us poetry and share his expertise. He will visit again!

Reading Grafitti Part 1

Using the Book The Secret Shortcut to learn about story organization

We recently shared the book The Secret Shortcut by Mark Teague as a model and springboard to learn about story organization (beginning, middle, end), adding details and using transition words to help a story flow. After we shared the story of two boys, Wendell and Floyd and their "secret shortcuts" to school - including a jungle, alligators and quicksand, students created their own story maps and devised new secret shortcuts. These maps included new amazing encounters experienced by Wendell and Floyd on their way to school. After drawing maps, groups created three detailed sentences to go along with each spot on the map. We then talked about how to connect these thoughts with transition words. We will be sharing these in class tomorrow. Next, students will be writing individual stories. They have two choices. Each person can write another version of a shortcut story OR they can choose from a variety of wordless picture books we have in the classroom to create their own story. Look for postings of story maps and group stories soon!

A few samples of group summaries for What is Science? and Draw a Scientist...

The 30 Book Challenge

We posed a challenge to the class this week.  The challenge is to read 30 books by the end of the school. year. While this may seem a daunting task, we did talk about the fact that it is supposed to be a challenge. The goal is for each 5th grader is to read 20 books by the end of the year, so this definitely raises the bar. Each person now has a chart glued in to the back of the reading journal to keep track. Book that have already been read this quarter certainly count! As part of the challenge, the books must be in a variety of genres, to push us all as readers out of our comfort zone. The genres include: realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, biography, autobiography, traditional (which includes folktales, fairytales, tall tales, legends) poetry anthology, graphic novel, mystery and five your choice books. This idea came from a book we read over the summer:  The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child by Donalyn Miller

Book Groups

Beginning today, small groups will begin book groups.  With teacher direction, groups will complete readings, discussion and writing about a chapter book. The books we will be reading are shown below. One group will not begin a book group for about two weeks, until the other four groups are finished. This first round of book groups is very teacher directed. After this initial round, book groups will shift to more student led, with the teacher participating as a group member rather than a leader. Book groups accomplish a lot! (see post about why we do read aloud) Beyond read aloud, each individual has the opportunity to read the book independently and then interact with peers through discussion. When the book group is finished, groups will also decide on a way to share with book with classmates.

Farcebook Pages and a Digital Timeline

As a takeoff of a "facebook" page, each person is creating a "farcebook" page to share information learned about a scientist. This particular project gets at the steps of research: collecting articles, forming questions to guide research (as a class, we brainstormed information we thought was important to share with others about the scientists). This information included: scientist birthplace and date, death and any other fact regarding death, family and interesting information about family, intriguing fact about childhood, intriguing fact about scientist's life, major accomplishment(s) to science, how scientist made the world a better place and defining important vocabulary related scientist. Once all of this information is gathered from at least two references, information will be written on a farcebook template page. Pictures and at least one quote will also be included. A second piece to studying the life of a scientist is to create a digital timeline. Each person will choose a photograph that represents the scientist study. Also included will be the date  of the scientist's major contribution and a piece of writing. This timeline will be web-based, so can be accessed for all to view once we are finished. 

Exploring Science

For the last several weeks, we have been exploring what science means. We began with two activities: asking the question, "What is Science?" and Drawing a Scientist. After each person answered the question and drew a scientist, we met in small groups to compile responses. Pictures of those responses will be posted soon. We started with these two activities as a starting point, a way to gather information to show what we think and what we already know. We will revisit these questions after we complete our "Survival by Design" science study (a post about that in the near future), which will carry into the second quarter.

Word of the Week Web

We began looking at vocabulary this week by introducing word webs. The word web includes exploring different parts of the word: definition, syllables, part of speech, synonyms, antonyms, using the word in a sentence and creating an illustration. Up until this point, we have been giving words to look up and just discussing the definition.

Why Do We Do Read Aloud?

One of the 10 Principles of the Informal Program is "We view our school as a center for teaching and learning for all ages." The teachers at Wickliffe are participating in a learning group this year by focusing on a book by Samantha Bennett. She is visiting Upper Arlington to work with teachers this year. The book is titled That Workshop Book. One of things we recently discussed in our class after school was the use of read aloud. We decided to ask the class, Why DO we do read aloud? Below are their responses. They completely understand the reason for read aloud and put it into words better than we ever could have.

Why Do We Do Read Aloud?

•it’s fun
•we learn facts and information about the world
•discover new books, authors or series
•have time to relax
•learn new reading skills and strategies – like predicting, asking questions
•push us as a whole group to be better readers
•helps us learn about new books and books we can recommend to others
•learn new delicious words
•it’s a break from reading on our own
•it’s helps us to read better because we hear someone reading smoothly and with expression
•helps us be better writers because we hear language
•teaches us to make a picture in our head like a movie
•it is a time everyone can come together and listen to a good story
•if you liked the read aloud you can find another book by that author

Word Sorts

As part of the word work we do in class, each person creates two different word sorts. The pattern this week is the letter "y" used as a vowel.  Below is one sort created by a student. In addition to sorts, we look at patterns, we use literature and other texts to prove our pattern and we do lots of writing.

what syllable is the "Y" in?                            

first                second           third

keyboard       heavy             melody 
style              July                already
mystery         apply              quietly
                     reply              memory
                     story

Multiplication

We have started to review the four operations. We have reviewed addition and subtraction and are currently working with multiplication.  There are two processes (or algorithms) we are working with in math. The first (and probably the most familiar to parents) is what we refer to as "the old-fashioned" method. It is the way most of us learned multiplication. The second is partial products. Partial Products breaks the number down into ones, tens, hundreds, etc. and teaches each number to team up with another number and multiply. Students need to become fluent using one method.

Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

Our current read aloud is the story of an eleven year old girl, Melody, who has never talked in her life. She has cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair. Even though it is hard for her to use her body, her mind is sharp. She loves words even though she has never spoken a single one. We are learning that Melody has a great sense of humor despite the difficulties she deals with in her everyday life, many things that we take for granted. We previewed this story before we started reading it and formulated questions based on the information we had. (using the cover picture, the title, the inside book jacket and back cover. We are revisiting our questions to see if they are answered as we are reading. This really is an incredibly touching and uplifting story, even though sad at times. Melody has a strong voice and Sharon Draper has a way with words!

I AM Portraits

Math Smart

In math, students have learned what prime and composite means. They have demonstrated their knowledge of this vocabulary by making posters, classifying whole numbers as prime or composite.

May We All Strive To Be Like Geese

“May We All Be Like Geese” We shared this story today with our class. You can read comments from students after the story. Lots of lessons to learn, some we already know and some we need to continue to strive toward!

In the fall when you see Geese heading south for the winter flying along in the "V" formation, you might be interested in knowing what science has discovered about why they fly that way.

It has been learned that as each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own. Quite similar to people who are part of a team and share a common direction get where they are going quicker and easier, because they are traveling on the trust of one another and lift each other up along the way.

Whenever a Goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go through it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the power of the flock. If we have as much sense as a Goose, we will stay in formation and share information with those who are headed the same way that we are going.

When the lead Goose gets tired, he rotates back in the wing and another Goose takes over. It pays to share leadership and take turns doing hard jobs.

The Geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep their speed. Words of support and inspiration help energize those on the front line, helping them to keep pace in spite of the day-to-day pressures and fatigue. It is important that our honking be encouraging.

Finally, when a Goose gets sick or is wounded by a gunshot and falls out, two Geese fall out of the formation and follow the injured one down to help and protect him. They stay with him until he is either able to fly or until he is dead, and then they launch out with another formation to catch up with their group. When one of us is down, it's up to the others to stand by us in our time of trouble. If we have the sense of a Goose, we will stand by each other when things get rough. We will stay in formation with those headed where we want to go.

The next time you see a formation of Geese, remember their message that "IT IS INDEED A REWARD, A CHALLENGE AND A PRIVILEGE TO BE A CONTRIBUTING MEMBER OF A TEAM".

Here is what we learned from listening to the goose story:

•Seeing someone else do it helps us to do it too

•Being in a group is better than being alone

•Encouragement – seeing what others do can help you

•Helping others is important

•In a classroom with a group you can learn better because others can help you do it

•when someone gets tired or can’t do it any more, someone else can help

•someone can take over to help out

•take turns

•look out for everybody as a whole

•give encouraging words

•be positive to empower people

•tell others they can do it

•if someone is hurt you stay and support them

Homework

Beginning today, we will post homework on the sidebar of the blog. This is a way for you to be able to check in and support your child at home. Just as a reminder, reading is 30 consecutive minutes at least 5 times per week. If you have any questions, please let us know.

Delicious Words

Poetry Workshop and Poetry Share

We had our first Poetry Workshop with Mrs. Hinkle's class! As teachers, this is one of our favorite learning times each week. We come together to share poems, "try-out" a new type of poem, browse poetry, read poetry and write poetry! We began with list poems and shared a few by Douglas Florian from the book "Summersaults" and some from the book "Falling Down the Page" by Georgia Heard. Each person then wrote a list poem. We were impressed with the variety and topics chosen. On Friday, we had our first poetry share at Fancyburg. Here is just a sampling of a few I am Poems. Check back for others soon!

I am

I am blue
The color of the sky,
Swimming though the ocean,
Shimmering water from head to toe,
Splashing bubbles everywhere.

I am green
The color of grass,
Tickling your feet.

I am yellow
The color of lemonade,
Refreshing on a hot summer day.

I am white
The color of snow,
Shivering cold.



I Am Poem

I am a wolf as fast as a ninja, as silent as a mouse, as sneaky as a piece of
cheese.

I am red the color of fire, the smell of a warm smoky hamburger
That’s why I am red.

I am thunder the light bright person, fast as the wind that’s why I am
thunder.

Delicious Words

What is a delicious word? It is a word that is delicious to the mind and the mouth! We discussed delicious words and how we can look and listen for them in our writing and reading. We are making lists of delicious words. We also had a delicious feast last week, after brainstorming some delicious "non-junk food" items, while sharing our delicious words. It was timely to also discuss word choice with our "I Am" poems. For example, some writers chose to use sluggish instead of slow and plucked in place of get. Word choice will be a focus throughout Writing Workshop the entire year.

The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary

The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary by Candace Fleming is our first read aloud of the school year. It is the story of a fourth grade class that nobody wants to teach. Nobody, that is, until Mr. Jupiter comes along. He is willing to take this group of rambunctious (see delicious word post) 4th graders and teach them. They have fun and laugh together and learn at the same time. We are using this read aloud as an opportunity to complete "recaps" in our reader's notebooks. Recaps are brief summaries (2-3 sentences) that tell what happened during the part we read aloud. We are listening and learning from one another as we share.

Colored Dots...

Who would think simple colored dots could create such a positive learning experience. On Friday, we put four different colors (blue, green, red, yellow) of dots on each person's forehead. Directions were given for each person to find other people with the same colored dot and meet together. The only other direction was "no talking." It was great to watch kids communicate with one another to not only figure out what color dot was on each person's head, but also to decide how to meet as a group. When we finished the activity we asked, "Why do you think we did this?" We were impressed with the variety of answers: "to get us to work together, to learn how to communicate without talking, to do something fun that teaches us at the same time," were just a few of the answers we heard. We also had the opportunity to talk about non-verbal cues and how sometimes we communicate a lot without saying a word!

Gifts and Fascinations

Our goal is to help students treasure their own strengths, interests, beliefs and accomplishments as well as appreciate these attributes in others. Today, students constructed Venn diagrams with a partner to identify similarities and differences between one another.

The Three Questions

When is the best time to do things? Who is the most important one? What is the right thing to do? Ask your child about the moral lesson learned after listening to this simple yet profound picture book.

Locker Art

Students designed their own lockers.

Question of the Day

Are we going to have homework?

Answer: YES! We will begin homework next week on Monday. Each student will receive a planner and begin to record assignments. Many are eager to begin homework and have asked so we thought we would let you know!

First Week of School!

A busy week!

We have been hard at work with many activities while learning about one another as we settle in to 5th grade! Below are some activities you can discuss with your child:

Class Dictionary

Artifact Sharing

My Dog Is As Smelly as Dirty Socks

I Am Poems

Read Aloud: The Fabled Fourth Graders from Aesop Elementary

Smart Cookies

Math

Venn Digarams - same and different

Directions Game

Reflections

Check out the Room!

Welcome Letter

Welcome to 5th Grade!

In a few days, you will be starting 5th grade and your last year at Wickliffe! We are looking forward to the school year. We will be doing lots of fun projects and working hard, so we hope you’re ready!

We would like to let you know that you will have two teachers next year, but you are not in a job share classroom. Mrs. Slater and Mrs. McEvoy will be your teachers. We will both be teaching and learning together with you ~ all day, every day! We are very excited to be teaching together in the same classroom. Our classroom is room 211, around the corner from the top of the main stairs. We have both taught at Wickliffe for a long time.

To begin the school year, we would like you to bring some artifacts that represent you and that tell us something about yourself. If you are not sure what an artifact is, just bring some objects that tell something about you. There are two requirements for these artifacts. First, that each artifact fits into a sandwich size plastic bag. It could be a photograph, souvenir from somewhere you’ve been or an object that represents something you love or like to do - anything you can think of that will help us learn something about you. Please make sure these objects aren’t too large and also make sure it is something you can part with. Please don’t bring in a very special piece of jewelry, something very valuable to you or a special trinket from someone. We are going to use these for an art collage and they will get glue on them. We will talk about this more on the first day of school, but you can start thinking about your artifacts now.

We are looking forward to meeting you soon! It’s okay if you are a little nervous, we will be, too, but we are very excited to meet you and start the year! Enjoy the rest of the summer and we'll see you in a few days!

Get ready to have some fun and work hard! See you soon!

Love,

Mrs. McEvoy and Mrs. Slater

Welcome Letter to Parents

Dear Parents,

Hello and welcome to the 2010-2011 school year and 5th grade for your child! We are excited to start the year. We look forward to getting to know the kids and hearing their ideas. We will share more information with you about our year at Parent Information Night on Wednesday, September 1st in the evening. In the interim, please read below for more information about your child's classroom.

We are excited to have increased opportunities for team teaching this year. This is a result of changes to grade level assignments for support staff at Wickliffe while continuing to provide more common planning time for grade level teams. Your child will have two teachers next year in the classroom, Shawna McEvoy and Tammy Slater. Combined, we have taught at Wickliffe for over 30 years. However, this is not a job share classroom. Our class will have 24 children and 2 teachers, all day.

When looking at a collaborative teaching model during the 2009-10 school year, staff met several times after school, reviewed current research, invited a teacher from a neighboring school district who works in a cooperative teaching model, and conducted a site visit to a school that teaches with two teachers in class all day. We have worked during the summer to plan and have become very excited and energized by the possibilities that having two teachers working together in a classroom will afford. We believe that working together in a collaborative manner, sharing the planning and delivery of services while expanding our professional expertise, will enrich learning opportunities for all students. We also believe this approach to staffing our classroom is consistent with our Ten Foundational Principles of Progressive Education, particularly the following principles: teacher and children using time and space in a flexible manner, respecting diversity among children and variation in development, value ongoing reflection and self-evaluation by children and adults and viewing our school as a center for teaching and learning of all ages.

One of our goals this year is to help each child discover his/her individual passions and strengths and how to develop those qualities. It is important to us to not only work hard but to build a classroom community that is caring and cooperative. These first weeks of school will be spent laying the foundation and establishing routines that will help each child be self-motivated, independent, responsible and kind.

We will begin our school year by doing some getting to know you games, community building activities and beginning routines. We’ll be writing, reading, doing word play and having some science fun the first week.

We will have a class blog this year. You can find "Tales from 211" at http://talesfrom211.blogspot.com/

In addition, you can contact us at:
Shawna McEvoy: smcevoy@uaschools.org
Tammy Slater: tslater@uaschools.org

We are looking forward to getting to know both you and your child and to a very productive, fun and hard-working year!

Shawna McEvoy and Tammy Slater

What Mrs. McEvoy and Mrs. Slater believe:

1. There is always room for everyone - at meeting, in a work group, at lunch, even if you have to move to let someone in or tell someone else to let someone in. Always include everyone.

2. We are a caring community. We come in an assortment of shapes, sizes and colors. We all have special gifts and we all have things we need to work on together.

3. Life is not fair. That’s just the way it is - sometimes it is in your favor, sometimes not!

4. The same is boring—and so it might be reasonable to assume that everyone in the world could and should (and in our classroom WILL) be accepted for who they are.

5. There are people who talk with their mouths and people who talk with their hands and people who talk by pointing and people who tell us all we need to know with their bodies if we only listen well—We will talk to and listen to each other.

6. We all need to help one another and support one another. We all have things we are good at and things we need help with and we are here to help each other. None of us is alone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

7. Our words have power. It is important to STOP and THINK about what words you say before you say them. Use words to help people, not hurt them.

8. No one is perfect. We all make mistakes. Be gentle with others when they make mistakes and be gentle with yourself when you make a mistake. Remember the Golden Rule, Treat others as you want to be treated.

9. Honesty (even when it hurts) is always the best policy. If you are trying to be honest with someone about a difficult topic, be kind, but be honest.

10. Be respectful, be kind and be polite...all three will take you wherever you want to go, even if you are not treated that way.

Be positive. Smile, say hello, make eye contact! You will always feel better making someone smile than making someone hurt.

We are here to help you.

Welcome to the 2010-2011 School Year!