Ah, family fun nights in the schools.  This week I was busy attending with my own children, instead of hosting for my school.  The kids always get so excited to be at school, during a "non" school time.

                  

      

 
 I'm a little worried about parent involvement in education.  I could, and I'm sure I will at some point, express my views on the amount of true, quality time parents are investing in their children.  Now, don't get me wrong...I do kinda dread going to these functions.  But...it's worth it.  It's for the kids!

            

      

                                                                                                                       pEace-oUt!

Think-Pair-Share

      

            

I couldn't believe my eyes.  I couldn't believe my ears. 

You would think I was staging these pictures! 

The rich conversations that were happening today were so encouraging. 

These kiddo's really can be quite adorable as they develop and evolve into critical thinkers. 

            

 

The Think-Pair-Share strategy is designed to differentiate instruction by providing students time and structure for thinking on a given topic.  This in turn enables them to formulate individual ideas and share these ideas with a peer.  Sometimes the conversations are quite comical.  Today they were so serious.  They were right on point!                             
                                                                                                                     peaCE-OuT!

Lattice.

We’ve been discussing common core and using the 8 standards for mathematical practices in our daily instruction.  These standards of best practice are based on the belief that mathematical knowledge is learned through the actual process of doing, being able to critically think, and give appropriate reasoning.

It is still my responsibility to model a variety of ways to solve problems.

                  

      

 

Lattice multiplication (also known as sieve multiplication) is a method of multiplication that uses a lattice to multiply two multi-digit numbers. It is algorithmically the same as regular long multiplication, but it breaks the process into smaller steps. 

Again, this is nothing “new” to teaching.  Lattice has been around since medieval times…it’s just always fun when we come to this concept and I get to introduce this cool method.

Some schools have banned this method of learning double digit multiplication.  For some reason I have found that my lower performing student’s have such a better grasp on this method than that of a traditional algorithm! 

*Always find ways to make it work!                                   peaCe-out!

We honored our veteran's today in the frigid outdoor temperatures.  The veterans that were present of the U.S. military saluted, while we placed our right hands over our hearts.  We listened to Taps play on the trumpet by our district's band instructor, participated in the lowering and proper folding of the flag, and ended with the entire student body singing our nation's anthem.

            

Not only was the flag lowering done today, but the raising and lowering of the flag is done daily at our school.  It is customary to raise the flag at dawn and lower it at dusk.  Each day our students complete this task with a veteran from our community. 

                        

During our classroom community time we discussed and showed appreciation for the veteran's of our great country.  What made it even more special was that one of very own student's father was honored and asked to be in attendance to speak about his experience as a member of the United States military.  (I was his older daughters teacher when he was stationed in Afghanistan for the year.  He would send the class mail every month for the entire school year).  Just another way to make sense of the real world around us.  That's what education is all about!                  PEAce-Out!

 

 

      

Headline News?  Now you know that you live in a small town when this is in the newspaper!  Beloit population: 40,000.  Open the newspaper, what do I find? Hmmm, looks like our school secretary was trying to do a little public relations work for our school.  Just another day in B-town.
peAce-OUT!

                  

HAPPY FALL!

The headache began yesterday when I was teaching math...should've known it was going to be a big one when I suddenly felt like I was going to pass out right in the middle of teaching double digit multiplication.  Full blown migraine it was indeed.  By the time the boys came home from school this afternoon, the migraine was almost gone...just that groggy-hit by a truck feeling was left.  Thought it was a good night to chill at home & do a fall craft with my kiddo's to give to their teachers. 

                                          

                 

We collected pinecones outside, and got to paintin'...and then, the best part ofcourse was...

GLITZ and GLAM!  I love glitter!   They actually turned out pretty cute. 

peaCE-OUt!

                                                                    

 

 

....President Barack Obama...

for a second term

 

 

peace-out