Teacher blog - Team Tasks

One of the activities with GLAD strategies is team tasks. They involve students recreating some of the pictorial inputs and charts from a unit in small teams as well as creating their own chants or poems and some inquiry for topics they still want to learn more about. It is intended to reinforce information as well as provide opportunities for students to collaborate, delegate, and compromise when necessary because students have to make sure everyone gets a chance to help on each of the "posters" or "charts." Today was our first day this year and it was a great sign of things to come. Students had to choose colors that they would use on each poster and there were only 7 available choices for each 6 students and students couldn't use the same color. Students also were able to select a folder to keep their on-going team tasks with only a limited amount of choices. It was great to see students discussing options, conceding their own wishes when appropriate, and even seeing some rock, paper, scissors to problem solve.

Teacher Blog - Student Start of Year Thoughts

This week I asked the kids to think about one thing that they have already learned, found interesting, been surprised by, or are excited to learn about this year? These are some of their responses.

Abhi - I am excited for enrichment.

Amanda - I am excited to learn about California.

Britney -  l learned that in the desert region, the weather fluctuates at night and at day. I also learned that there could be gas drilling, borax mining, and some type of farming in the desert.

Carissa - I am excited to learn astronomy because I want to explore the universe and learn all the black holes and I get to be with Mrs.Tabb.

Chase - I was surprised to do collages this year and I thought is was fun and interesting.

Deonta - I want to learn cursive and math.

Hudson - I think the school year is awesome so far. I also think that rounding thousands is cool.

James - I am excited to learn about the missions.

Justin - I am excited about learning about the Gold Rush.

Lauren - I am excited about art because its fun and I like art.

Lauryn - I learned how do a screen shot the whole page and how to screen shot a part of the page. I always wanted to know how to screen shot and now I know how.

Meghana - I'm excited to learn division because I love MATH!

Natalie - We are going to learn about the stars and how many there are. I am thinking that there is way more than one million.

Rylan - It was fun when we hid in the classroom to surprise Natalie. I learned that California has 4 regions. Our city is in the Central Valley region.

Sean - I like that we're doing electives and I'm doing stop motion.

Star of the Week - Sean

Our second star of the week shared some of his favorites from TV shows and games to songs. The class was especially impressed by his use of gifs for effect. Go Goku!

Link to his google presentation is HERE.

Student Blogger - California Animals

This week a student went above and beyond on the homework and completed an additional research and share about an animal in California. Here are some of the facts discovered by Ayla. I think it is worth mentioning that although a mountain lion may attack if you get near, it is not scientifically accurate to say you will be automatically killed. For information if you are interested, I have attached an additional link at the end.

California Animals

I chose the mountain lion because I want to know more about them from what I don’t know. Now I will tell you some facts about them.

*Mountain lions live in the mountain region.

*Mountain lions will automatically kill you if you get near them.

*If you feed deer it will attract mountain lions.

*Trim bushes to prevent hiding places.

*Bring dog food inside to prevent raccoons for mountain lion prey.

*Mountain lion attacks are very rare in California.

*If an attack happens immediately call 911.

http://mountainlion.org/FAQfrequentlyaskedquestions.asp

Star of the Week - Nathan

Nathan was our first star of the week and did a great job even on short notice. He created a slideshow presentation with some things he wanted to share including his favorite game, some songs, and book. He also read an excerpt of a book he selected, chose an activity for the class to play in the gym, Crossfire, and selected the optional theme for free dress day. He chose "Dress like Mr. Fassler," and some students even stepped up to the challenge. Nathan's slideshow is linked below.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1k7GwkLwvsShmLpQgtu027wmb2qTt6uqPWUrS-9Lk4Sg/edit?usp=sharing

A nearby, but eventful summer

       This year was my first summer after a year of teaching already being in Sacramento. The last ten years I had taught in Los Angeles, and immediately made the drive up past my hometown of Galt up through Roseville, past Marysville, and eventually curving eastward towards Lake Almanor and Canyon Dam. This regular practice was due to my pleasured involvement in a week long camp each summer one of the first weeks in June. It was a camp I went to as a high schooler, a camp I stayed involved with as a college recruiter, and finally now as a co-director. It was both bittersweet and a huge relief to only have to make a three-hour drive rather than the ten-hour one of the past.
The week at camp was still a fantastic start. Hiking, singing, camp skits, and camp sports filled the time as I was able to reconnect with some people that I only see once a year and even meet some new people altogether.

       The summer's start was not the only unique difference as I then normally try and get some traveling in whether to family friends in Oregon, camping at Lake of the Springs with family, a trip to Reno with friends, a return to the beaches of Los Angeles, or even going off course somewhere else. This summer; however, I had to stay relatively close as I had the chance to participate in something I had not done since high school. I was in a play! I happened to see a notice about auditions in late May and took a chance and was fortunate enough to get a part in an original play taking the concept of schemes from The Producers and twisting it into one of a failed game show host and his manager starting up a church to raise funds before slipping away. I got to play the nefarious manager. The rest of the cast were all strangers to me, but quickly became friends. All talented, many were even already performing in other plays that I was able to go and see.

       When the actual performances finally came around, it was hard to contain my excitement. What a surprise it turned out to be when different families from Star came to support each of the three nights. The performances went splendidly, including a gag in which I got three cups of water tossed into my face in the final scene. I even heard some of the audience members in the front row got wet. I was equally surprised to hear that one of my former students lost their tooth during the show. I promise it had nothing to do with the show itself.

       So although I made not have had to do as much commuting this summer, nor had the chance to do as much roadtripping, it was an enjoyable, rejuvenating, and memorable on to say the least.

Advice from the Future You!

In one of the books we read this year, a message is passed on to a younger version of a person from their future self. I won't name the book as that is a pretty big spoiler, but the concept caused me to think about what kind of advice, encouragement, message, or simply heads up the kids may have felt worth passing on to themselves at the beginning of the year. Here are some of their responses.

Angel - "Make sure to be careful with whats about to happen. I also would prepare for meeting new people."

Connor - "I would tell myself that I need to practice my comprehension and also that I will need to start practicing my lines because a play is coming."

Daphne - "Try to work hard. Do the best you can. Be nice to people around you. Never give up. At least try."

Devraj - "You are really going to like the gold rush epilogue."

Isabella - "Before you start school make sure you have a math book to study first because your grade gets harder and more challenging. Be excited and if your new try to make friends because star Academy is so fun."

Jeremy - "I would give myself advice for math. Like multiplication. Or other types of math."

Jonathan - "I wouldn't have known the angles measurements."

Kiana - "Hey I bet you can't wait for 4th grade. You'll love your over night field trip. Best birthday ever! The play will be so much fun. Hope you have the best time in 4th grade. I know I did."

Madelyn - "I would tell myself to try my best and if I keep trying I accomplish my goals. I will try hard and and get good grades. I will keep trying and trying until I get it right."

Mateo - "I would try to be as nice as possible so I could have lots of friends. I would also try and interact to get friends."

Michaela - "Don't be evil. Be a good person! Don't try to make friends; just let them friend you!"

Mihir - "That, always be confident about the subjects the new teacher will introduce to you."

Olivia - "I would tell myself not to get into many arguments and to be nice and ask the the teacher to help me if I need it. Also make make new friends. Learn more stuff. Talk to people I don't know."

Sierra - "I would tell myself to be outgoing! Find new friends. I didn't know that people were fond of me before. Oh, and remind Mr. Fassler he needs to be more strict. :D See ya!"

William - "Long Division is not hard."

Zerlan - "I would tell myself to go do good. Be smart and do great so that I could have a great future. I could tell me that in the future you have to work hard."