Gingerlily's Blog

We have a nice long weekend so while your having some fun, don’t forget to catch up on your math work (if you have some still to do) and start reviewing the unit for the math unit test that we will take at the end of next week.

In this unit we studied how to solve:
-”fraction of problems” like 1/4 of 20, and 3/5 of 15
-discount number stories
-renaming fractions as decimals and percents

Students should also review:
-finding area and perimeter of rectangles, parallelograms, and triangles
-using parentheses in number sentences

Remember that STAR testing is June 4-8th.

I also noticed that some students still have not brought back their published stories from Writer’s Workshop. I put a note of the ones that are still out on the mailboxes and on the front gate. Please check to see if you have it at home. If you have lost the pages then print out a new one from your jumpdrive and complete the task so you can return it to me.

Thank you to Kipp and their orchestra who invited us over to listen to their school orchestra. We were so impressed with how well they played and the wonderful presentation. Some our our favorite pieces included Thriller, and the piece for Orpheus in the Underworld-also known as the “Can Can”. We were inspired, and look forward to you coming over to our school in a few weeks so we can share our Gamelan with you!

Just a reminder that our Language Arts Groups are rotating once again.  Emily’s group will move to the Writer’s Workshop with Gingerlily.  Gingerlily’s group will go to Tanya’s Expository Reading/Writing class.  Tanya’s group will move to Emily’s Reading Workshop. 

Please remind your child to be prepared and bring their materials, writer’s notebook, pens, pencils, jumpdrives, etc with them to school and to their classes.

If they still owe some work or are finishing up a project for their last LA rotation, please remind them to turn their work in. 
  
Keep an eye out for a change in LA assignements.  You may get a letter home or your child’s teacher may also have some information in their blog pages.  We all look forward to seeing your child in our next groups on Monday.

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To the Poets in My Class

Thank you dear poets,
we had a great day,
Sitting in the Sculpture Garden,
watching you play
With a few choice words,
some rhythm and rhyme,
A twist of a verse
to present in time.

You spoke of your loves,
your best friends and school,
Your teachers, your dreams,
your pets and their poo.

You inspired me,
as you spoke on the stage
And projected your voice
as you read each page.

Good job to you all,
I hope you had fun,
And found the poet in you,
Now, your poems have begun…

-Gingerlily

Had a great day in Writer’s Workshop. We went to the Art Museum and saw some wonderful pieces of work. We were inspired and wrote. Then we shared our work with each other at the Organ Pavillion.

March 5, 2012
Students had a wonderful presentation today from poet, Diane Asitimbay. Diane share poems from her book, “No Perfect People, Please” and other new works of about being a kid. After her presentation she took questions. Our students were inspired and delighted by her poetry. Thank you, Diane!

Dear Parents,

Thanks for a great Green Eggs and Ham breakfast this morning. We had a wonderful day celebrating reading and books. And everything was DELICIOUS!

On Monday, March 5th we have a special guest coming to our school meeting. Diane Asitimbay is coming to help us celebrate poetry (–early, April is Poetry Month), and she will be sharing some of her writing and her book, “No Perfect People, Please.” Join us if you can on Monday at 1:30-2:15 at the 3. 4. 5th graders’ school meeting.

On Tuesday, March 6th the 4th graders will be taking the CA State Writing Test. Please make sure your child gets a good night’s sleep on Monday, and a good breakfast on Tuesday morning. We will try to start right away, so please remind your student to be on time to school. Encourage them to do their best and show off what they have been learning.

On March 10th we will have our big fundraiser, “Picture This” http://www.museumschoolgala2012.com/ Please do what you can to buy/sell opportunity draw tickets and bring your friends to our event. As you are well aware these fundraisers are vital to the survival of our school. The funds generated keep our small school and our wonderful and very special programs in operation.

You may not be aware, but along with the many issues plaguing our public schools right now, there are some changes being proposed that may make public-charter school teachers ineligible to participate in Cal STRS—our State Teacher’s Retirement System. Just so you know, once we are enrolled in CalSTRS (which all the teachers at the Museum School are), we no longer are able to draw from Social Security and in fact we loose anything that we have paid into the Social Security System previously or are even paying currently. We also cannot collect SS benefits that our spouses or significant others might have accrued—as other couples might benefit from. The IRS is currently in a public forum phase, so please help us to voice our opinions against this proposed change.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has a very simple method to get your voice heard in just 2 minutes. Please visit their website at http://www.publiccharters.org/ and look for “UPDATES” and ‘Click here’ to take action. You simply have to fill out your name and address to a form letter to Arne Duncan, and local representatives. This could affect 95% of charter teachers across the nation. Please let others know and encourag them to make our voices heard.

Dear Parents and Students,

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend. This week teachers will be accepting the final PLP papers from July 5-8th. Students should also turn in the completed check-off sheet, and the outline and/or PLP worksheet notes. In Language Arts classes students will work on their PLP speeches after they have turned in their final PLP Paper. They will need a printed copy of their speech and index cards.

Students should have their PLP’s on their jumpdrives in a format that they can access at school (word “doc”) so that they can work in Computer Lab Rotation. Students will be learning to use more of the formatting and checking tools. They will also work on making any signage if they need it for their presentations. In Art Rotations, students may also be working on display and design concepts for their creative projects and presentation.

In Departments, students may be finishing off some of their department work and self-evaluations this week. Then they will be given time to work on finishing touches for the creative projects and practicing their speeches and presentation. Please make sure that students bring their materials so that they make the most of this work time. They should have a copy of their speech with notecards if they are using them, any materials that they need for their displays and creative projects, etc., and all the things they need when they give their practice presentation to their department.

Presentations begin next week on July 14th, and continue through the 19th. Students are expected to make a 5-7 minute long presentation on their PLP, and then take three questions from the audience. Students are roughly scheduled into a 10-minute block, but we expect that these times to be floating. In other words—some students may start a little earlier or later depending on how the previous presentations go in length. We ask for your patience and flexibility, and hope that you can also plan accordingly. Please make sure that you have checked the PLP schedule. We will do our best to accommodate everyone’s needs on the schedule. If there are adjustments that need to be made, please check with Jane who has the master. That way we will all work from one source.

As each student is working at their own level on their PLPs and you will see the variety of experience in the presentations. We remind everyone that the PLP presentations are a part of our learning process. We encourage each student to do their best and to also learn from this experience so that each year they can be excited about the PLP and are motivated to improve their performance.

We look forward to seeing everyone’s work.

Dear Parents,

This last two weeks in computer lab, students were given the assignment to type in their PLP Thesis Statement and save it on their jumpdrive to transfer their statement to my document. We talked about how the thesis statement should contain an assertion and a list of the subtopics that they will address in their paper. The thesis statement goes at the end of their introduction, right before the first subtopic.

Many students were able to complete this task. And I was also able to meet with students who did the assignment and help them revise their statements.

Since there were also quite a few students who may need some more help in writing their thesis statement, I thought it would be helpful for all if you could see what some of the statements look like.

By now, all students should have a working thesis. This can be changed and revised as they work further on their project, but they should have some idea of what their project is about. Students should also have all their materials, books, folders, jumpdrive with them everyday and taken back and forth from home to school so that they can work on their PLP in both places.

Please click on this link to see some of the thesis statements that have been drafted so far.
Then check with your child to see how they are progressing. Many of the handouts—including the Thesis Statement worksheet have a place for you to sign on the bottom. Students are expected to keep you in the loop and to ask for your assistance as they work on their project.

Thanks for your help and support,
Gingerlily