Journal Entry 3

Wednesday November 5, 2008

Today after handwriting the students went directly to PE. I spent time with Ms Lisa and the other year six teacher, Ms. Hartland planning. We looked at math for the rest of the week as well as next week. Much of the class time this week and next week will be limited due to rehearsals for the Thursday play production. We decided to take more time to work with division this week and next before moving into fractions. We also spent time talking about our plans for the “logse” period during the student’s Spanish lesson. The logse period the native Spanish speakers have a curriculum that they are required to follow. The students need one extra period each week to be able to cover the required information. This makes the schedule or “time table” a bit confusing. The students who are not native speakers or not as good at Spanish need to attempt to cover similar information as the logse class in English. The material doesn’t have to directly relate, but the teachers try to make it similar.

During the “logse” period Ms. Harland did a geography lesson for the students who were not having Spanish. They identified the continents on a large map and then looked at a smaller atlas. Her plan was to blend a little of the remaining geography work for their last inquiry on the 19th century, with their new inquiry on conflict. Later she talked about passage ways for trade. She explained the benefits of the Panama and Suez canals. This information will be beneficial when studying conflict, the wars/battles for areas of land.

Next was “maths,” today we worked on division. Ms. Lisa used the students to demonstrate two different ways to divide. One method is called the “chunking method” and the other method is the “standard” method. She explained that the students were allowed to use either method, whichever one worked for them. The “chunking” method helps the students visualize the problem and actually see what they are doing and how they are getting their answer. However, with time, she hopes all of the students will want to switch to the “standard” method which will give the students the answer as quickly as possible. To finish the lesson we worked out some story problems.

After math we went to lunch. I am really enjoying the school lunches, mostly because it means that I don’t have to cook. Today I had vegetable and potato soup and salad. They don’t use salad dressing here, instead they always have vinegar and oil available to use. We are joking at the house of family members/friends mailing us some Sam’s club size bottles of Hidden Valley Ranch! =] The cafeteria also always has rolls, and today as the main dish they had couscous and chicken. I would have loved to have the couscous, however I just made it last night for dinner for Brittany and I with cheesy vegetables…bad timing. Today Ms. Lisa also had lunch duty. We were to dismiss the tables who were ready to go up to the line for food. I had a conversation in Spanish with one of the year four students about the day’s meal. Again, so proud of these short conversations…pretty lame, I know, but I get excited.

I went to see if I could find Riley before the next period to see about a ride home. Ms. Lisa and a few other teachers are having a meeting after school and I will miss the bus. I talked with Ms. Murray; she said that Riley was gone for the day at a basketball tournament. I really like Ms. Murray, she was telling me about the unique schedule on Wednesdays. Secondary students only have class for half of the day and then they have “activities.” She said that the schedule is, “way to complicated for my IQ…and its new so the first few weeks have been complete chaos.” I plan to go to the meeting and then get a ride home from Riley and Kevin or Murray and her roommate Sam.

The rest of the afternoon was a bit crazy. Some students leave the school for activities such as golf, horseback riding, and water sports. However, it’s difficult because not all of the students leave. This leaves the teachers with a period of time to fill with the students, but they cannot do anything that they expect the whole class to do because too many students would be missing out. They have decided to split the time in two chunks. The first chunk splits the students into areas for targeted support, such as reading or handwriting. Ms. Lisa’s group doesn’t really need much help in reading or handwriting so they are working on improving the overall quality of their writing.

I thought this was a great idea to fill the afternoon time slot. Ms. Lisa was talking about improving the students writing by looking at four different areas: vocabulary, connectives (because, since, while, alternatively), openers (briskly, shuddering) and punctuation (question marks, quotations, brackets, ELIPSES à yey Jill Potts =])

I am kicking myself for not bringing my “Writers Toolbox” from writing methods with me to Spain. Heads up Jill, I may be asking you if you could get your hands on an electronic copy of the project. I think Ms. Lisa may like to see it, and it would be a good project to introduce during this afternoon time period on Wednesdays.

The final hour a group of students who had crafts for their activity gathered in one of the elementary pods. We made Christmas mobiles of snowmen, Christmas trees, Santa Claus, and reindeer.

After school I had a meeting with Ms. Hartland and Ms. Lisa. We discussed the planner and scope and sequence of their last inquiry unit – the 19th Century. They update the plans under the teacher notes sections, so there are helpful hints for next year. We also started looking at the planner and scope and sequence for the conflict inquiry. In the unit the students will research and have a simple debate as part of their project, should be interesting.

I caught a ride home with Murray, Riley, and Sam (Murray’s roommates). They seem like really fun people, and hopefully we will be able to spend more time with them. There is a party on Saturday night at Tim’s house that we are all going to in Estapona which should be a good time.

Hasta manana =]