GOOD NEWS/ BAD NEWS
Keeping you informed...or something like that!
I wanted to share some good news/bad news with all of you in an effort to have an even better second semester when we return! Let me start by saying that not every situation below applies to EVERY single student in our class!
THE GOOD NEWS - Your children have enjoyed using their chromebooks on a daily basis! They've watched educational videos, used tutorial/problem based websites, accessed online quizzes and remedial content, and more!
THE BAD NEWS - We've gotten a little too excited about visiting some of our "favorite" sites once we finish our classwork. Mrs. Dohse is seeing a lot more rushing and sloppy work. As a result, some of our favorite sites will now be "restricted" while others have been moved to different areas of our website.
THE GOOD NEWS - Your children have been completing their reading logs each and every week, writing thoughtful responses to our class read-along novel as well as their own books that they are reading individually.
THE BAD NEWS - Although we all agree we're reading at least 20 minutes each night, very few of us have met our Accelerated Reading goal of 20 AR points this past 9 weeks. Some of us took time out of our recess to read when progress reports were issued, because we hadn't yet reached half of our 20 point goal. Now that report cards are being finalized, I see that very few students have met their 20 point goal that we set together in class. As a result, students who have NOT earned 20 points for the 2nd 9 weeks have ONE option upon finishing their classwork: READ A BOOK, THEN TAKE AN AR TEST!! We will also spend our Koala Time (45 minutes daily for those of us who stay in the classroom) to work on our 20 point goal. I know several of our friends will not be happy about this news, as they will be losing their power to choose! We've had a long standing rule in our class about privileges though....they can probably even say it word for word! "You abuse 'em and you lose 'em!"
THE GOOD NEWS - There's more?? YES, isn't that awesome?!? Your children did a great job managing their time this past week now that we've added more responsibilities to their weekly workload. Most of our responsible third graders had finished everything by Friday, some even completing their assignments earlier in the week! AWESOME JOB!!
THE BAD NEWS - While finishing the work is fantastic, we need to be sure that we're reinforcing what we learned in the classroom on our assignments. This means SHOWING OUR WORK on our math homework, rather than simply bubbling an answer. Sometimes this is as simple as numbering on the page, rather that counting in our head! What we seemed to forget this week was our SPLORE strategies on our weekly reading passage. (I even called it "the SPLORE story" all week to drive this concept home!) The students know what to do and should be able to "teach" their parents these quick and easy strategies at home. Has your child taught you the song?? If not, ask them about it! They know the expectations, but are choosing not to complete their strategies, or claiming that they forgot. As a result, we will continue to miss recess when strategies aren't shown, and lose dojo points as well.
THAT YOU CAN CHECK REGULARLY TO STAY INFORMED!
CONTACT ME
Email: kdohse@newcaneyisd.org
Website: http://kingsmanor.wix.com/dohse
Phone: 281-577-2940