Greetings Parents,
It has been an immense pleasure getting to know your children! It's hard to believe we've only been together for nine days of school. Our first week was really about getting to know each other and team building! The wonderful result of our efforts was that many friendships formed. One child, at the end of the first week, said, "It feels like we've known each other forever, not just four days."
Besides getting to know each other and team building, we also took an incredibly educational field trip on Tuesday, September 9th! Students had the opportunity to ride the trolley from La Mesa all the way to the San Diego Convention Center to learn about space exploration. I want to thank the generous parent volunteers that spent their day helping groups of my students stay safe on the trolley and enjoy the many exhibits at the convention center (James's Mom, Yvana's grandparents, Isaiah's Mom, & Katie's Mom).
Your children and grandchildren have been sharing their dreams and goals with me, verbally and in writing. They've created "Vision Boards" about those dreams which are currently on display in our classroom. Please stop by and see them! We have also been talking and writing about how are thoughts move us into positive or sometimes negative actions. Some of your children/grandchildren have displayed incredible courage and vision by deciding to get up in front of their classmates and engage in public speaking. These are students who told me they would do anything to avoid speaking in front of a group. WOW! Are you impressed? I am!
I have been working with your children on multiplication facts. Only a few of them have the facts all the way to 12! This is not a problem as I have worked with multi-grade groups of students and understand how to help them grasp not only the concept of mutiplication/division, but also learn math stategies designed to help them solve various kinds of problems.
In addition to regular academic instruction, students have come up with some project ideas they believe are relevent in today's world. They will be delving into those projects in a more organized fashion in the coming week as they are introduced to Project Foundry. Some of the students automatically understood that these projects were meant to have a service component and wanted to create art. Their idea is to sell the art and donate the funds to a charity of their choice or maybe even to beautify the school. I have arranged for an oil painter to come into our classroom on Tuesday to begin a series of instruction on oil painting. Those students who are not interested in this form of communication/expression will have other options.
As parents and or guardians, you are your child's champion! We have a no homework policy at our school. That doesn't mean you can't read to your child or encourage your child to read. Take your children to museums when you can, turn the channel to something educational, and ask them about their interests whenever possible.
I am always available to contact at the following e-mail address: kim@innovationsacademy.org. My blog address (I will update frequently) is kimsiinnovationsclassblog.blogspot.com . Please log on frequently for information regarding what your children are doing in our classrooms!!!
Kim
No comments:
Post a Comment