Second Day

Day two went well – except for the malfunctioning fire alarm during the last hour of the day. That’s probably all the students remember if you ask them, “What did you do in school today?”

But we were busy. We finished up a number of things from yesterday, including the portraits. Many of them came out quite well.

 

 

We began our study of Thinking Maps. We did the Circle Map which helps students brainstorm their ideas generally about a topic. The students made up a circle map about themselves and then wrote a paragraph. This is the first step in a project which ultimately results in the students writing a book about themselves and their lives. It’s a cool project.

We also started our discussion of “Risks and Consequences” our first Open Court Reading unit. Teachers begin each unit – or at least they’re supposed to begin each unit – with activities which help the students to think about the theme generally. This is called “frontloading” in school jargon. It is a particularly good thing to do with this unit because students have been trained to think that “risk” just means something you should not do. We had to discuss how many completely worthwhile, if not completely laudable activities, often involve some kind of risk. For example, we discussed the risks that the firefighters in the Station Fire took to help save lives, structures, and reduce the damage to the environment. Several students pointed out that even things like running a business has the risk of failure.

Students picked an activity and they did a kind of cost-benefit analysis of that activity or occupation. Of course, in room 19, we like to slip in a little art here, too. This was a quick “get your brain working” activity, so I did not have them revise endlessly for either neatness or language correctness. I just wanted them to think. Here is a typical example:

We also began our study of California by asking the students to list the things they already know about the history and geography of the Golden State. They will be finishing this for homework. We started our first unit in Health which looked at the idea that health is something much broader than just not being physically ill. We reviewed the thousands place in math and talked about the different forms of numbers like word form and expanded form.

So, all in all a good day. I am still getting used to how fast students will or will not finish class work to pace instruction appropriately. They are still learning classroom procedures. But I can tell that this is going to be a great class and we are going to have a wonderful year.

Homework:  (1) Do the California circle map and paragraphs handout. (2) Do “Thousands” Envision Math, pages 5-7. Use the special answer sheet paper.

Also, finish any class work as needed.