Wednesday, December 14, 2011

December: I can't believe it is the middle of the month!

It has been way to long since I have updated.  I have been working on our School Improvement Plan with Mrs. Teer and Ms. Zahul.  This is another part of my job at Kinloch, so I was attending meetings recently for our school.  Every school must have a  plan to assure student learning.  We were recently visited by the State Department of Education to audit and review what we are working on at Kinloch.   The review went well and we have some minor changes to make.  Kinloch is a Title I school because of the number of free and reduced lunches at our building.  We are given federal funds to help assist the students.  Mrs. Teer and I write the plan for materials and professional development for our building.  This is how our school is able to get all the technology you see in our building.  I plan on giving more information on the Title I program on the website at a later date. 

Here is what has been happening in the classroom:

Math:
We have completed Chapter 3 on subtraction.  Our class average was 87%, but I had 2 students absent on the test day so this will change.  After a test, I usually pull the students who did not make 80% during our choice time and review the math concepts with them.  I then give students the opportunity to take another test and average the two test scores. 
     We started chapter 4 today which will cover both addition and subtraction in story problems.  This can be a difficult concept for kids to be able to think through the words and how the numbers are related in a problem.  We will focus on key words in problems and making sense of the information given.  At the end of chapter 4, we will have an accumulative test on chapters 1-4.  We will prepare in class and I will provide review work in the homework.  I will be sending home a math packet for the winter break. Try to do 10-15 minutes/day just to help your child keep fresh....you would be suprised at what kids will forget in 2 weeks.

Reading:
     I am in the process of DRA2 testing.  This test is performed one-on-one with me.  Students must read a book to me with both 96% accuracy and in a certain amount of time.  If a child is reading too slow, they may not pass the test.  The second part of the test is on comprehension.  The student must retell the story in order with sufficient detail.  You can have your child practice this by having them retell you what they read in their nightly reading.  Students must also identify the lesson learned and talk about a connection they made while reading.  Connections can be to another book they read, a movie they saw, or a personal experience.  A connection happens when a reader reads something that jogs a memory for them.  Our class is doing very well as of now and students are making good progress.  I attribute this success to the great amount of reading students do daily in the classroom during read to self.  Keep reading at home with your kids, make sure they read daily, this is the most important way to help your child be successful.

Science/Social Studies
    We are continuing to work on our Power Point slides on landforms and our community.  This is another challenging area to complete.  I chose to make this an opportunity to teach students how to find facts and take notes on the facts.  We are then taking the facts and writing a short summary on the topic.  I work with each pair of students to finalize their writing and their slide.