Viewing: Class Updates
November 4, 2009
Where is Mr. Moss?
Wondering what ever happened to me? There’s been a sub in class at least once a week lately, so I wanted to fill you in about what I’ve been up to.
Two weeks ago I was out sick for two days. Not a lot of fun, and I wish I would have been here instead!
Last Tuesday, Mr. Grgach and I had a release day to work on a follow-up to a grant he and I received. Last year, we got a grant of about $1,000 from the Avon Education Foundation (the same organization that generously funded part of our class’ SMART Board in 2005) to purchase some literary graphic novels to use in Guided Reading groups. These books are quality pieces of writing, but their fun “comic” style lets kids really enjoy the stories in ways that they might not normally be able to. Plus, we are able to have really interesting discussions. Our release day last week allowed us to prepare lesson plans to fit with several of the titles we have purchased.
Today I had a release day to administer the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) to students. It’s an individual reading test that students complete twice each school year. It evaluates kids’ reading skills in the areas of oral fluency (how well they read aloud) and comprehension (how well they show their understanding of what they read.) The DRAs give me valuable information, but since they are administered individually, they are very time consuming. That’s why teachers are given a release day to administer the DRAs.
Next Tuesday, I will be out in the morning for a meeting at the Board of Education building. I am the educational technology teacher leader at PGS, and the district team meets every few weeks to discuss methods of meaningfully integrating technology in ways that help kids to better learn.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
November 2, 2009
Tomorrow’s Vote
FYI: The Avon election tomorrow will not be held at the Senior Center. Depending upon your residential addresses, registered Avon voters should vote on Tuesday, November 3rd between 6:00 am to 8:00 pm at one of these polling places: Avon High School, Roaring Brook School, or Avon Town Hall.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
November 1, 2009
A Safe Online Experience
I found a great article on the Facebook administrative blog about ways to prevent cyberbullying. I was surprised to hear that some elementary-aged kids are already active on Facebook, and certainly the number of Facebook active kids grows for every year they get older. Here’s a piece of the article:
Already, Facebook allows you to easily report abuse on the site by selecting the “Report” link located near photos, videos, notes or other content you find offensive or inappropriate. This is just one step in discouraging people from behaving poorly online and potentially hurting other people. It’s up to you to address cyberbullying if it occurs to you or people around you.
While October is National Crime Prevention month in the U.S., cyberbullying happens throughout the year. Here are some ways you can prevent and address it if you ever experience a problem.
To read the rest, click here.
Last year, I have a presentation for the PSAC about internet safety. If you’re interested in learning about different ways in which you can better supervise and protect your child’s internet usage, you can access my presentation here.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
October 31, 2009
Trick or Treat!
Here’s my TRICK:
¡1ooɥɔs ǝʌoɹb ǝuıd ʇɐ ǝuoʎɹǝʌǝ ɯoɹɟ uǝǝʍo11ɐɥ ʎddɐɥ
Thanks to all the moms who came in to help us with our fun Halloween party yesterday, and to all the families who sent in supplies and treats!
Curious how to flip your text? It’s easy at www.fliptext.org/
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
October 31, 2009
Practicing Math Facts
Your child may have told you about our new method for tracking how well he or she is mastering his or her math facts. As the math material becomes more advanced in fourth grade, it’s important that the students are really comfortable with their math facts. To help your child to stay motivated, the Everyday Mathematics program provides teachers with a set of timed multiplication fact quizzes. For each quiz, we calculate two pieces of information: How many consecutive problems your child correctly answers in one minute, and how many total problems your child correctly answers in three minutes. The first piece of data shows immediate speed and mastery. (For the one minute score, kids aren’t permitted to jump around to do easy items first, so the data shows your child’s performance when he or she is forced to complete a variety of multiplication problems.) The second piece of data – the three minute score – reflects your child’s overall level of mastery when he or she is allowed to complete the problems in any order. (Doing the easy problems first can make kids more efficient, but too much skipping around will slow them down.)
We will be tracking student progress on a line graph so kids can see how much they improve between each fact quiz. (Each student’s graph is kept private.) Practicing math facts (particularly multiplication facts) is a DAILY homework assignment – whether it’s written down in their planner or not. You can help your child to learn his or her math facts by using some of the resources that are available on the internet. Some of my favorties are:
- Math Magician: Made by the Oswego, NY school district, this fun challenge should be familiar to most students who attended PGS last year.
- Multiplication.com: Lots of fun interactive games to quiz kids with their multiplication facts. Enough of a variety to keep kids from getting bored!
- Brainormous: Lots of neat math fact games, especially Multiflier (which is complicated enough to require strategy and planning, along with math fact knowledge). Beware of (kid-friendly) advertisements.
- Arcademic Skill Builders: Several arcade-style games for kids to practice all sorts of math facts (and other skills too!) Parents beware: There is the option for kids to play multiplayer versions of the games, so you may want to supervise.
It’s easy to find other math fact practice games! (I found most of these just by searching Google for “multiplication practice.”) If you come across other games that you want to share, drop me a line and I’ll be sure to share them with everyone!
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
October 28, 2009
Wednesday’s Homework
Tonight’s reading homework is web-based. Please go to this website:
http://www.dowlingcentral.com/MrsD/quizzes/grammar/AlphaExer/compsubandpre.htm
Complete Mrs. Dowling’s cool quiz about compound subjects and compound predicates. No need to print anything! Just come in tomorrow and be ready to tell me if you did your homework or not. We are relying on the honor system, so tell the truth!
Have fun!
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
October 22, 2009
So it begins!
What an October! We’ve had measurable snowfall in some parts of the state, and now our kids are dropping like flies from whatever bug is making its way around school. This doesn’t usually start to happen until January or even February, but everything is early this year! I was out with the flu for two days this week, and whatever this bug is, it’s contagious! I passed it on to my wife and to a friend who I saw briefly on Sunday. Today, we had ten – yes, ten – students absent. I must confess that it was the first time in my career that I had such a small class (14 kids) because of sickness. First, thank you to all the parents who kept their sick students home so that they wouldn’t spread the bug to other students. I know that you want your kids to come to school and to try to “tough it out”, just as I wanted to try to make it in on Wednesday, but I appreciate you thinking of the other students.
I didn’t want to proceed with standard lessons today since there were so many students absent who would need skills reviewed upon their return. So instead, we focused on our in-class writing project and a few other tasks instead. There is no homework this evening, and there is no make-up work for students who were absent today. My plans for tomorrow depend on how many students are absent, so we’ll see what happens!
We have several procedures in place to slow the spread of airborne germs, bacteria, and viruses. First, we have a class job called “Sickness Stopper” which rotates each week. The Sickness Stopper’s responsibilities include making sure that there are plenty of tissue boxes around the classroom and that the jars of hand sanitizer are full. He or she also periodically makes a pass through the room with antibacterial wipes to try to clean up any germs. Also, we have been pulling apart desks to give everyone some personal space, and we’ve discontinued (for now) the daily high-five or handshake greeting during Morning Meeting.
Hopefully next week will be a bit more healthy for us all. When Dr. Perrault wishes the kids “Have a healthy week!” tomorrow during Health class, let’s hope it’s an accurate prediction of the week to come!
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
October 19, 2009
Monday Update
Today, there was no discussion of the sad news from last week. I’ll be out sick tomorrow (Tuesday). (I always like it when my students share, but this wasn’t what I had in mind… :-)) The new spelling words are now available (left).
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
October 18, 2009
Update – A Very Sad Day
The teachers and staff met Friday afternoon at 3:40pm. We agreed that it is very likely – a certainty, perhaps – that this tragedy will be discussed on Monday, now that the sad news has become public. I don’t intend to bring up the topic on my own, but if students ask questions or have concerns that they share, we will address them in class. In a whole class discussion (if one comes up), I will focus on reassuring kids that they are safe and will talk about things that we KNOW, such as that we know she is not feeling sick anymore, we know you can not catch her illness, we know her family will be sad and that we will miss her too. I will try to address individual questions or concerns in a private manner. Counselors are available for students who want to have more of an opportunity to talk.
Have a good evening! I will post an update tomorrow letting you know how our day went.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
October 16, 2009
A Very Sad Day
Today was a terribly sad day for teachers and many students at Pine Grove School. This morning, teachers learned of the passing of a kindergartner at PGS. Some time ago, she was diagnosed with a rare form of childhood cancer, and we were told that she lost her battle yesterday at approximately 3:00pm. (I don’t post student names on the class website, so please pardon the sterile and seemingly uncaring way that I’ve written this by not including her name.)
Ms. D-H has sent home a letter to each parent today that explains what has happened and what we, as a school, are doing for the students. (Your child should have that letter to give you. The text of that letter is available here. Click “more” at the end of this post to read it.)
But I wanted to take the opportunity to share with you directly how the situation was handled in our class so that you can best discuss this tragedy with your children. (Each class addressed the situation differently, depending on whether students knew about the tragedy, whether they brought it up in front of other kids, etc.) In fact, however, the topic hasn’t yet been discussed in our class. Although many students in other classes came to school today knowing of her passing (which, I’m told, was shared late last night), none of the kids in our class seem to have been aware of the situation. I made a point of being close to conversations out at lockers this morning as kids came in, and there were no discussions that I saw. Everyone seemed happy. Because of this, I did not bring up the news with the class and want to let individual families proceed as they think best. That said, I would imagine that there may have been some discussion at recess as kids from different classes socialized with one another, so your children may now now about the student’s passing.
On Monday, I imagine that many students will come to school aware of what has happened. Conversations between students are likely (as they walk in, at recess, etc), and I would encourage you to have a discussion with your child in advance, to the extent that you are comfortable. Teachers are meeting at 3:40 to discuss how our classes were today (if they were aware of the news) and to formulate a plan for how we’ll proceed on Monday. When I have more information to share with you, I will do so. (At the very least, I will post an update on Monday so that you know how our day went specifically in Room 209.)
On a personal note, my thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the young girl – a sentiment that I know is shared by all the other teachers and staff at PGS. As I watched students walk in this morning, most smiling and excited to see their friends, I couldn’t imagine my reaction if something were to happen to any of my students, given how close I feel with them all. This is a tragedy that will undoubtedly touch the whole PGS community as word spreads, and we will get through it together.
Please feel free to contact me over the weekend if you have any questions or concerns. My wife and I are in a childbirth class all day Saturday, but if you have any urgent concerns and need to reach me immediately, you can page me by emailing the emergency email address that I shared at the September open house. (I have also shared that email address in an email to you all. If you page me, include your name and phone number at the beginning, because I only get about 100 characters of the message.) I can put you in touch with grief counselors, if the need arises. Otherwise, I will check my work email throughout the weekend, whenever possible.
Click on the link, below, to read the letter from Ms. D-H.
(more…)
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss