I am almost done with my last parent - teacher conference. Thank you to all the parents for taking time out of their busy schedules! It was nice to see everyone again (since Open House)! The discussions were great! Always remember that you, the parents, do not need to wait until conferences to chat with me about your child. My phone and email are always open to each of you! Anyway, thanks again for attending parent teacher conferences. I was very pleased with the turnout and wonderful "conversations" I had with many of you! Your children are wonderful, and I totally enjoy working with each and every one of them. The video that was showing while you may have been waiting in the hall will be continued the rest of the year by adding pictures. Each child will get a DVD of the video at the end of the year as a 3rd grade keepsake of memories. They know this and are very excited!!!
Even though we only had 4 days of school this week, it was a productive one! We started a keyboarding program called "Keybo" that we will be attempting to do each week. The students were WAY excited about starting! For the first meeting, we discussed posture and home row before starting to type. Their fingers were just itching to get going. . . . The reason we are starting this now is that it is a required part of the 3rd grade curriculum (usually I don't start it until later), and I feel it would help them with all the computer "stuff" they are doing, especially their book blogs. Which leads me to my next comment,
Book Blogs are going great!!!! Oh my! The students are so anxious to do their book blog that we can't get them done fast enough. Most students made one blog within the last week. I apologize that not all did, but because the students can't type real fast, the first blogs went slower than planned. I really like the aspect that students are sharing their thinking about what they are reading. This will help when we get into book clubs and have deep discussions about what we are reading. Our tech person is still trying to figure out why we can't comment through iWeb. Hopefully, as I said before, we will get that figured out and we can pose questions to the students about their blog post.
Our Luther podcast pals finally made a podcast giving suggestions to our 3B students. We didn't have time to listen to them today so that will have to wait until next week. The students will listen to their podcast suggestions, practice, and then make a new podcast of the same passage. Rereading is a powerful strategy to build fluency and expression so that is the purpose of rereading, applying the Luther suggestions, and creating a new podcast. I think when the students each listen to their first podcast (where there was no chance to practice) and then listen to this one (after practicing) they will notice a huge difference. I did apply for a grant to get some iPod Touches in the classroom to use for recording reading as well as listening to podcast so that the laptops we have are available for other activities (such as blogging). I don't know when we will find out who got the grants but cross your fingers!!!!! iPod Touches are becoming a very popular resource for education as they can be equipped with many "apps" to be used for educational purposes. They are almost like a mini computer which I think is exciting!
Moving on. . . .we will be starting social studies this week by looking at a map of Iowa and then moving into discussion on "Communities". With that, we will be taking a little break from science (I know, many of the students will be saddened by that because it is a favorite) but we will be back at it in a few weeks. In literacy, we will be learning about tracking our thinking while reading, summarizing, and various other fluency/accuracy activities in our mini lessons. There are always so many other things being covered in literacy as it is very individualized, but those are the main "mini lessons" we will be covering.
My last comment (yes, it is fairly long I know) revolves around ITBS. We will be starting ITBS this week, and I don't want the students to worry or get uptight about them. We have done various "test taking tip" activities and I know they are ready. The most important things you can do as parents is make sure your child goes to bed early enough every night and eats a good breakfast every morning. The school has supplied "brain food" for the students to have before the test, which is always very nice. Otherwise, all the students need to do is try their best. That's all we ask. Done deal. :)
Have a great 3 day weekend with your 3rd grader! Enjoy the sunshine - I heard it is suppose to be a great weekend!
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