Not a minute to waste

Dear Parents:

It has been a crazy busy week!  We had a mini field trip, multiple science investigations with earthquakes, landslides and volcanos.  Plus there was the Thanksgiving luncheon and the fabulous Groovy O Rama.  It's been a challenge but in the midst of all that excitement the kids completed several district common assessments and learning.

More than anything I hope that your family has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.  The year is speeding by and we'll only have a few weeks before our Winter Break.  We have some of the best learning units coming up, but they'll require that everyone is well rested and ready to commit to learning.  Coming up quick is our Passport to Literacy Night and the international Hour of Code event.

Please!  Continue to enforce a reading routine over every break.    Students should read at least 20 minutes a day in one position without getting up to get a snack or to talk.  When reading with students I can tell by listening to them if they have skipped the weekend.  And that's just the decoding part of reading -- the comprehension muscle gets weak as well.

But speaking of talking ... Let them!  I wish I were just kidding, but they will talk your ear off - and you need to let them.  I cannot be the only adult conversation they have all day and they seem desperate for it.   Please engage them in lots and lots of conversations so that they don't feel compelled to talk all day at school.  Kids talking are not listeners and they are missing key information.

Correct them in the moment if their grammar is wrong. Insist that they use specific language -- wanting to do "that thing, you know, that's kinda like" takes forever to understand and wastes precious time.   Reiterate that they should not interrupt people talking to begin their own conversation.  


I've initiated harsher penalties  for interrupting the learning in the classroom.  I'm stunned.  It is the first time in years that I have had to "punish" kids for their behavior.  It's not "bad" behavior like hitting someone at all.  It is careless behavior:  not turning in work correctly, playing in the bathroom, talking during tests, repeating a behavior like being off task immediately after being reminded to get on task.  For me, having your kids be as successful as possible is a non-negotiable -- it just makes it a grind to have to punish rather than praise.  If you have to ask your child to do something more than once, please consider that I have that scenario x 21.