MrGoerend.com

Parent Teacher Conferences Update

2009-10-13T18:48:00.000-07:00

Parent/Teacher Conferences are scheduled for the evenings of Thursday, November 5, and Monday, November 9!

A mailing will be sent to you in the next week confirming your date/time. If you have not yet signed up for a time, please contact the office at 987-5177.
We are in need of parent volunteers to help us with this event. If you are available and interested in helping, please email Jill Urich, principal, at jurich@waukee.12.ia.us. Please specify your availability: November 5 from 3:15-5:30, November 5 from 5:15-7:30, November 9 from 3:15-5:30, and/or November 9 from 5:15-7:30. (Please note that if you do sign up to help on the same evening as your child's conference, your conference time lasts 45 minutes.)
We look forward to spending time with you on November 5 and 9!

Students blogging their descriptive writing pieces

2009-09-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

We are beginning a descriptive writing piece. Today, students worked on choosing a topic. We will be focusing on using details and sensory words in their writing to aid the reader in painting a mental picture. We will also work on organization.

Students will be blogging their descriptive writing pieces on this blog -- MrGoerend.com -- which was created and is moderated by me. All comments to the writers and posts by the writers are moderated by me before they show up on the blog. We have discussed in class the safety and privacy issues surrounding a project like this. Students know they will sign their blog posts and comments with their first and last initials only. If you have any questions, please talk to your 6th grader about our classroom blogging discussions, and feel free to contact me. We hope that you -- parents -- will participate in our blogging experience as well, not just by reading, but also commenting on our students' writings to share in this positive experience for our students.

Students need to be writing for the authentic audiences they will experience for the rest of their lives. We live in a world that is getting smaller -- in a good way. As you can see in the visitors map on our blog, we have people from all around the world visiting our blog. This "small world" is something we as educators need to embrace. A recent article in Wired magazine has this to say about the freshman class at Stanford University:

The fact that students today almost always write for an audience (something virtually no one in my generation did) gives them a different sense of what constitutes good writing. In interviews, they defined good prose as something that had an effect on the world. For them, writing is about persuading and organizing and debating, even if it's over something as quotidian as what movie to go see. The Stanford students were almost always less enthusiastic about their in-class writing because it had no audience but the professor: It didn't serve any purpose other than to get them a grade.

from: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-09/st_thompson

A little late, but better than never

2009-09-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

Some great ideas here for starting off the year on the right foot.

10 Tips to Start the School Year off Right

Here's one I really liked:

3. Don’t ask your kids about grades, test scores or homework. Instead, focus on the content of the subject. (Instead of “What did you get on the test?” say, “What are you learning in science?” If you are connected to some school communication tool (like Schoolloop) you can look at homework assignments and grades privately. Benefits: you are teaching them to take ownership of their own schedules. You are letting them manage their own time. You are taking the focus off scores and putting it on learning. You are alleviating stress in their lives.

I'm a believer in this tip. We need to stress to our students that learning the content, concepts, and skills is what's important, and that when the content, concepts, and skills are learned, the grades will be where we want them to be.

I encourage you -- parents -- to contact me about your students' grades. I understand that grades are the quantifiable measure of their learning. But I also want you to engage the content, concepts, and skills they are learning. That engagement is truly what I hope this blog can be for you. I would also encourage you, though, to take the information I give you and focus the conversation with your students on the content, concepts, and skills.

As always, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me. If you're feeling adventurous, you can leave a comment on this post and get a conversation started!