What a great start to 2015! The students came back rested and ready to continue their work in second grade. We even got a new student! the children gave a warm welcome to Elena and are teaching her the ropes.
The new year introduced new curriculum as well. We have begun our opinion writing unit. Students are working hard to share their opinions by using sentence starters and speaking language such as: I think...and I believe... as well as transitional words such as: because, so, also and for example. Be prepared to be persuaded! In reading, we spent a week digging into the book Freckle Juice by Judy Blume. Our focus was on summarizing the story. This is an essential skill for life long learning. Students practice retelling the story in sequence in first grade. In second, they are charged with synthesizing the most important parts and inferring the author's message while also making meaning based on their own experiences and what they have read in other books. All three second grade teachers are working collaboratively as part of a Student Achievement Goal to give students the skills to read, reread and write summaries with evidence from the text about what they are reading. Our science unit on balancing and weighing includes many explorations, observations. and interpretations. We have balanced paper butterflies on a pencil and have begun to use a fulcrum and beam to explore, in depth, these scientific concepts. How does movement of an object on the beam change the outcome? In social studies we will be visiting Antarctica via a webinar with Jean Pennycook. She is the educator we sent our class created flag and postcards to in December. She is working with scientists and will be answering questions about their work as well as questions about this frozen continent. In math, we continue to work in the areas of geometry, place value to help us compute fluently and most importantly: how to explain our thinking strategies both orally and on paper. Thank you for your support with story problems at home!
Technology: You may have heard by now that the new year also brought us a 1:1 iPad environment for learning. I am excited to use this environment to evaluate the impact on student learning when a 1:1 device environment is available. I have, and will continue to collaborate with other Stratton colleagues, Susan Bisson (APS Technology Integration Specialist), Nicole Melnik (Thompson First Grade teacher with a 1:1 environment), Teachers from the Ottoson 610 cluster that continues to pilot a 1:1 environment as well as other members of the Technology in Practice group. I think it is very important for students to integrate technology in meaningful ways, so that they are comfortable, safe, skilled at evaluating their personal needs and prepared for integrating technology in their learning and future endeavors. I believe, just like a pencil or a dictionary and iPad can be used as a tool for learning. Currently, students have the choice to use the iPad as a tool or pick the tool that works best for them. I do not believe second graders are to young, but instead, that leading them to embrace technology in meaningful ways at this age will encourage good digital citizenship. Stratton has been a leader in trying new ways to integrate technology and we appreciate that Assistant Superintendent Dr. Chesson has given us this opportunity. Please share any positive or negative feedback you are receiving from your child about our iPad use.
The power of positive thinking! Mrs. Henry and Mrs. Condon continue to bring their curriculum into our classroom. Most recently, we have been practicing positive self talk such as: I can do this and I am good at...when we are feeling like things are too hard or frustrating. Friday we made post it reminders for our desk tops. Last week, we created personal pacing meters for our desk tops. These encourage us to think about if we are feeling to fast, to slow or just right for the current activity. Be sure to ask your child to give more details! Last Wednesday, I was fortunate to be given a APS funded PD opportunity to participate in a presentation with Jessica Minahan, author of the The Behavior Code . I made many connections to understanding students who are struggling emotionally and filled my tool box with more ways to give them tools and supports to power through. Please let me know if you would like any insight to my learning
Congratulations Patriots!