Thursday, Feb 7th

Professional development day tomorrow - I am excited to be attending a session by UBC's Adele Diamond on Brain Research and its role in learning- I'll share next week if you are at all interested.

Homework
none at least nothing new
except that is for the 5 students with no socials reports Aidan, Dawson, Edurardo, Malaya and Koghan (who ,to be fair,  hasn't been at school)
I am disappointed that of the 8 late reports 5 are still MIA
When I checked with the students there were various reasons (excuses) like "I left it at home" or "I just have the insert section here to do" or "I don't think I am going to hand it in" (!!!) Seriously, two months of work?

It is rather frustrating that deadlines mean nothing - even a reasonable sliding deadline like the last week of January. And, yes, I do believe deadlines and meeting them are important but I cannot take marks from their learning as meeting deadlines is an executive functioning skill that provides insight into their organization. However, organization, or lack thereof, has a huge impact on learning as student move up through the grades.
I understand procrastination but I have a very difficult time understanding self sabotage and disregard for one's own learning goals.

Reminders
Friday/Monday no school- have a great Family Day long weekend
School Tuesday - see you all then
With so many students away I intend to use the 11-12 session at the computer lab to get all missing FSA sections caught up before we do the Numeracy section
our class is booked to a presentation of the Aquavan (Aquarium) road show on Thursday and we were also planning a class celebration of Feb 14th
fundraising meeting Feb 13th in the evening, camp forms due 14th for numbers please
hoodie orders ASAP

our day...
daily French

spelling tests (finally) just can't keep putting it off- another 6 away today (some the same students)

Socials/Science
Deserts BBC Planet Earth DVD 25 minutes looking at the extremes of temperatures and the creatures who survive in the brutal high and low temperatures in deserts around the world (fascinating)

FSA section catching up and writing pieces are now completed except for 9 who have been away and/or need to get their extended write done.

silent reading- not as good as it has been!!

5 students helped with the kindergarten gymnastics in the gym

the rest of us (a whole 11 students) decided we  would use the afternoon as either a catch-up time or a create our own Valentine's day cards and that was pretty successful as long as I kept 'tabs' on the movement of a few 'usual suspects' :) We listened to a few popular songs while we worked - that had a few dancing or singing along :)

Once eveyone was back in class we cleaned up and prepared for home while I read chapter three of our class novel aloud. The students seem to be enjoying it as the writing style of Susin Neilsen is very up-to-date and she uses references that the students recognize.

dismissal after clean up
Have a great long weekend
Mrs. J.