Update

Hi everyone

Here is an update and some pics.

Housekeeping

Field Trip on Thursday to Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. 

• Reminder to pack a lunch and water, comfortable clothes and shoes for lots of walking. 
• Parent Volunteers - thank you. I will send home a letter tomorrow with details. 
• There are still some outstanding permission forms - please return those asap. Thank you!

Snack Program

• Just an fyi - there are a lot of snacks from the paid snack program that are not being eaten. I know parents have paid for these snacks, but I think there are a lot of snacks coming from home, as well. In addition, sometimes kids are eating double the amount of snacks (from home and snack program) - not sure how you feel about the type of snacking and the sheer amount of snacks being eaten. Just thought I would put that out there. 

Dressing for the weather

• Because of the amount of rainy days we seem to be having, our kids are spending morning recess, lunch recess and afternoon recess inside, in the classroom. This past week, we had 3 consecutive days of inside recesses with maybe a short recess outside and that was combined with Halloween general craziness. 
• 23 students in a classroom all day, day-after-day, is a recipe for tears, fights, very physical behaviour and unmotivated learning. 
• Please send your child to school with clothes for rainy days - proper boots/shoes, rain jacket, umbrella, hat, etc.  I will be taking the class for walks, regardless of the weather. They need fresh air and exercise so we will make the best of the weather we are given and get outside at some point during the day.  

What's been going on in the classroom?

Open-concept Classroom

• We have been experimenting with an open-concept classroom. Kids learn best when they are allowed to collaborate and move freely, unrestricted (to a certain extent) in an open space. 
• 21st century learning is about teamwork and collaboration. Desks in rows, restricted movement, top-down teacher-driven instruction is outdated and that type of classroom design was for the "ease of teaching" and not geared toward "student learning."  
• Feedback from the kids was that open-concept was an unresounding success - but we will work at phasing in for some parts of a day, rather than just throwing all desks and tables out the window. 
• After a shared reading about asylum seekers coming to Canada, we worked on a design and media piece in an open-concept space - as much as I could do in our room.  These pieces then formed the basis for our partnered procedural writing with Google Docs. 

Chromebooks

• Our Grade 4's have been working on Chromebooks (Google Docs, Slides and Virtual Library) since September.
• In the last 2 weeks, I have graduated the Grade 3's onto Chromebooks, too. 
• As with any new learning, all students are approaching the concept from many different places along the continuum. 
• Some kids are comfortable with Chromebooks as they use bigger desktops or laptops at home while some of our students have older siblings who are fluent on Google Apps for Education and therefore have been exposed to Docs and Slides. Others have used mostly touch-screen technology (parents phones and i-Pads) and are becoming familiar with the keyboarding skills required for using a laptop. 
• There are learning curves, and that's why we are here - to learn. Regardless of the entry point, Room 206 loves Chromebooks. 

Hour of Code

• I have sent home passwords to Hour of Code website. 
• Ms Brown (Library, STEM, Grade 7/8 teacher) set up the Grade 3's on Hour of Code website last week while the Grade 4's were working on Dash and Dot robots. 
• Grade 4's will receive passwords this week and I will pass them along. 
• I will keep passing along websites for students to try at home, via TDSB's Virtual Library. 

Halloween

A rainy few days ahead. Hang on tight! 

Ms V.