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Ned's Room
At years end
Hi everyone.
We have made it through to the end of the school for 2007. The kids put on a wonderful culminating show for Charlie Knox on the Road to Health, and recited from memory the poem "King John's Christmas" by A.A. Milne for the Solstice pageant (have your student recite it for you this week!) They have all turned in their edited draft of their memoirs, and I look forward to reading them over the holiday. I always learn so much about them from this project. We are blessed to be surrounded by such great kids.
Your student can tell you all about the read-a-thon to start in January. Your child will be seeking either per page or blanket pledges for the pages they can read in the first three weeks we are back in school. We hope that we can raise enough money to both lower the price of our spring science trip and send some money to our pen pals in Guinea West Africa. In the past four years, both Jeff's and our classes have been able to raise $2500.00 each for this effort. While your kids are with family this holiday, see if they can get a few sponsors to help them along to our goal of $100 in pledges from each child. For our spring science trip, we will be going to Camp Magruder in March.
I hope you all have a great holiday break. My family and I am winging our way to Santa Fe to spend Christmas with my brother and his wife, and am looking forward to some sun and scenery there.
Thanks to Emily and her family for taking the Chinchillas over the break. They will be much happier there than in the cage at school.
Warmly,
Ned
Have a wonderful holiday.
It was wonderful to see you on Monday or Tuesday. It is a great opportunity for us to touch base and for your student to show off their great work. They really appreciate you taking the time to come in and meet. If you were unable to come by for a conference, please call or come by on Monday to arrange a time for a conference.
I am thankful for your kids, and MLC. Have a great Turkey day.
Ned
Conference sign ups
I see that a number of you have yet to sign up for Fall conferences next week. Please sign up this afternoon or tomorrow for a spot next Monday or Tuesday. The sign-up sheets are outside my classroom, and you can sign up yourself, have your student sign up tomorrow, or send me an email with a variety of times you are available and I will notify you of your spot. Conferences start at 1:00pm on Monday and continue to 8:30 Monday evening. Tuesday conferences start at 8:30 and run until 4:30. The conferences take bout 35 minutes; 15 minutes to look at your childs portfolio in the hall and then 20 minutes in the room with me.I look forward to meeting with you and your child about the work we have been doing this fall and to look at you student's work with you. For those of you new to MLC, your child must come with you to the conference so that they can represent their own work. We will look at the goals they set at the beginning of the year, and set new goals for the winter.During this first conference, I take the lead. For the winter conference, your student will take more of a leadership role in the conference, and in the spring you will meet with your student without me (though I am available to answer questions.) We think this gives a much better look at how your child is doing than a simple report card.I look forward to sharing the great work we do with you. Please call or email with any questions.Ned
Uhhh.... I guess I got those dates wrong.
Please check the calendar on the home page of the MLC website (www.mlc-k12.com) I was wrong about the dates we don't have school.
Oh, what a fright!
It's an appropriate season to be researching bones and entrails and muscles. If you looked at them the right way they could seem pretty scary. Boo.
The kids are far along on their body system research, and they will be prepared to present to the class next Monday. Allison is still in charge and is working with them on a comic book about health that our kids will finish and then share with our 1st and 2nd grade reading buddies. We have recently combined our classrooms for math (half of each class in both rooms) and the kids seem to like the opportunity to mingle with the other class.
Tomorrow for Halloween we will have as regular a morning as possible, and after lunch we will don costumes (if we want) and have an afternoon of celebration. Reminders for costumes: No weapons fake or real, you must be able to see through a mask, and keep it school appropriate. Some kids have agreed to bring some healthy food (they'll get plenty of candy later) for a snack. Ask them what's up. We'll be having our costume parade from 2:20-2:45. Come early and see what kids have put together.
The kids are memorizing the Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. Have them recite what they know and help them work on the rest. They should have it memorized by Friday.
November has a bunch of holes in it. There will be no school on Friday the 9th, Friday the 16th, and then the 19th, and 20th will be for conferences. I will have the conference sign-ups outside my room next Monday. Your children are expected to come to conferences.
OK Have a frightful Halloween.
Ned
What's an Osteoclast? Osteoblast? Osteocyte?
Our class is getting pretty deep into the research on their body system. Ask them what they know so far! This week for homework they are to do a little research into the types of cells that make up their system, and they may need a little help from you. If you search on "muscle cells" you will get a wide variety of information for a variety of audiences. Help them find an article from a reputable encyclopedia, and they should be able to find enough info.
In other news, we now have a functioning e-mail list server. That means you can address a question or comment to all the families in our class. You can post a note by putting Nedsclass@list4email.org in the address line, and everyone will get the info. If you have something for my eyes only, continue to send it to me at nhascall@pps.k12.or.us.
Ned
Oh how I've missed you...
It says here that the last time I posted was September 29! How quickly time flies when your running around like a chicken with your head... well you get it. I am sorry that your comments have not been published, but I can't figure out how to make this work. I read them though, so keep commenting. There is so much news that I am going to abbreviate.
- What a success Outdoor School was. It rained more than 4 inches while we were there and the kids never lost focus. I imagined the whole week going south a couple of times, but they proved to be troopers. They had a wonderful time and learned much. Alligator and Quark were greatly impressed, as was the ODS staff.
- Allison started her solo teaching on Monday, Oct. 8 and she is doing a terrific job. She has the kids respect, makes them laugh, and can be the tough guy when she needs to be. Make sure you come in and say "hey" to her and ask her how it's going. I remember my solo teaching as on of the hardest experiences of my life, but then I may not be as talented as she.
- Electives started and I for one am having a great time. Ask your student how things are going in their electives, and remind them that whether they are taking gym games or life drawing, we expect good work and respect of all staff.
- Today Literature study started, and all who participated were wowed. All of our students discuss books with enthusiasm and intelligence. Please ask your child about their group's experience. We also made rice for snack, and the kids seemed to like it. If you would like to send some brown rice in and maybe some soy sauce or tamari, seaweed flakes, or sesame seeds, we could use it. You could also buy some regular healthy snacks too (graham crackers, goldfish, etc,) as some days I don't have time to make rice (anyone want to volunteer to help with that in the morning?)
Some upcoming dates.
- Friday (Tomorrow) Due date to turn in Chinook book money and order form. If you haven't sold a book, just send the book with your child and we will mark them off. The book is work $20, so we must either get the book back or the $$. Email me if you have questions.
- October 26 is a district Professional Development In-Service. We will be in classes all day, and kids will not have school.
- November 2 in the MLC Community Dance from 6-9pm. Everyone is welcome (all grades parents, grandparents, family, dogs (not really)) Volunteers run this so if you are willing to stand around and supervise or set up or take down or anything else you can think of, call Brandee Grider @ 503 679-8323 or Laura Lane-Ruckman @ 503 860-5225 or laneruckman@yahoo.com.
Now, if I keep up more often I won't have to write as much at once and it won't feel like such a big job.
Keep warm while you walk your neighborhood looking at changing leaves.
Ned
P.S. If you have any outstanding moneys owed to me (supplies or OMSI) I am rapidly losing track (glub, glub) so the sooner the better :).
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