Text 10231, 122 rader
Skriven 2007-01-08 16:32:33 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
     Kommentar till en text av hap newsom
Ärende: Flat Stanley                                             [1]
====================================================================
Hi Hap,

-> It'll work; I'm here now instead of HI. (G)

 hn> Yep, new places, new faces, new friends to meet!

Indeed; I just met one out at the mail box. She's been here about 3
months longer than we have but still isn't all unpacked. (G) Makes me
feel a bit better as she's still got kids at home of ages that are old
enoughto help.

->  hn> year...just too much stuff to get done and this year the whole group
->  hn> of kids is "slower" and doesn't get things as quickly so it takes more
->  hn> instructional time for them to grasp concepts and apply them.

-> But if they leave her classroom well grounded in the basics, so much
-> community.  If Anne can teach her students well enough that they don't
-> fall back on non standard English, then it won't matter whether the kids
-> did Flat Stanley or not; they had a better teacher than one who may have
-> done the Flat Stanley and not concentrated on getting them as well
-> educated in the basics.  (stepping off my soapbox)

 hn> With these kids it's just get them to absorb as much as you can at the
 hn> rate they can absorb it. There is a lot of pressure to meet "District
 hn> Goals" and with

Sounds like the 5th grade class Rachel had teaching her first year--in
Warner Robbins. Plus the District Goals, NCLB, and all that--it's tough
being a public school teacher these days. When we were kids, classes had
one teacher, no helper, and about 30 kids but the reacher did it all
(excpet for art & music), no matter what level of learning (except the
special ed) the kids were on.


 hn> this group of kids (the whole grade level !) that's just gonna be a
 hn> very tough goal to achieve. They are not stupid, they just don't catch
 hn> on to anything very quickly (must have been something in the water
 hn> that year{grin}) and it simply takes longer for them to grasp an idea
 hn> goals...Anne says it's like trying to go 50 mph in a car that will
 hn> only
 hn> do 35mph. It's very frustrating for her and the other teachers at her
 hn> grade level. The flat stanley project is really a great learning

I can see where she's coming from; hopefully the problem won't persist
into the 4th grade.

 hn> experience for the kids...they have to write, calculate math,
 hn> geography, do a lot of reading, and be able to integrate all those
 hn> concepts into a meaningful "report" Plus it's exciting and interesting
 hn> to them and the children are usually very enthusiastic about the whole
 hn> experience....much better than (and often much more
 hn> effective) than the "old" way. (off my soapbox (G))

IN some ways, it might be good to take a break from "traditionaL"
learning and do a week long special interest project--maybe a local
"Flat Stanley" type.  Send him to a local museum, the ball park, etc and
have the class go on a couple of field trips to other places.  Pull it
all together into a booklet.  Rachel's 5th grade class did that in
Germany; we've got a book of Frankfurt as seen thru the eyes of 10 year
olds.

-> We've talked several times with Rachel, once or twice with Deborah.
-> Steve is back to work on a regular schedule and I'm still half out of

 hn> We've talked with Amanda several times, but she's back into her final
 hn> class (a very complicated statistica analysis class) and is spending
 hn> about 30 hrs a week in homework for it, a LOT of work! After this
 hn> she's off on her own to do her research and work on her Phd thesis.
 hn> She has her oral boards sometime in May I think (she makes a
 hn> presentation to a board of 6 phd's and then spends 2-3 hours answering
 hn> questions from them; very in depth and very intense) and then she'll
 hn> be "in the field or lab" the rest of the way unless she is teaching a
 hn> class or TA'ing in a class.

Super busy!  When does she get the actual degree?  Talked to Deborah
last night; she's in the first of quite a few military schools/ special
classes she will be doing this year all over the country.  Right now,
she's at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri--where Steve had his Basic.

-> -> & then.  But, we both felt decent enough to get our sinuses cleared out
-> -> at an Indian restaurant last night. (G)I had an onion rava masala with a

->  hn> I love Indian food, we used to have a REALLY good one here...but the
->  hn> owner closed up shop and bought a SUBWAY franchise....what a
->  hn> tragedy!!!

-> Very much so! He probably figured he'd make a lot more money but did he
-> count in the franchise fee, cost of (inferior to what he was selling)
-> food, etc? He may get a lot of business from young people looking for a
-> quick meal but the long term, repeat customers are what keeps a place

 hn> It was a small indian restaurant, he and his wife were the entire
 hn> staff and I'm sure it WAS a lot of work...and the SUBWAY Franchise was

Still, sorry he made that decision.  We tried some Indian food when we
were in AZ; had a bit at a church thing in HI and are planning to go to
this place, as well as the other Indian one again.

 hn> in a much more affluent area, AND it's "American"! I think it was a
 hn> tragic loss, he was a good cook who really knew his dishes and gave a
 hn> great value for the price...but the American Dream is bigger better
 hn> more and MORE....and he wanted
 hn> it....sigh

Big sigh!

->  hn> I have tons of stuff to catch up on ...and I have some painting ideas
->  hn> that I need to get on paper before they jump out of my head! And I
->  hn> need to make some beaded lanyards for Anne's co-teachers....so


>> CONTINUED IN NEXT MESSAGE <<

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchafflyNOSPAM(at)NOSPAMearthlink(dot)net  FIDO 1:396/45.28

... I hit my CTRL key, but I'm STILL not in control

--- PPoint 3.01
 * Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)