10-24-17 GBH Newsletter

Important Events (Always defer to the parent calendar on our website, if you notice a discrepancy.)

• Friday, October 27th- Auction.
• Monday, October 30th- Historical Halloween.
• Next Early Release: October 30th.

Reminders:

• Our classroom blog is: crsblueherons.blogspot.com  It has digital versions of these newsletters, as well as digital versions of the learning journal maps.
• Historical Halloween Speeches should be memorized and PRACTICED at home this week.  Please help them practice each night.

Requests:

• Come to the Auction!  It will be fun, and it helps a lot with our charter school funding gap.  

Weekly Update:

It was so great to see so many families at the open house! In addition to seeing students show off the classroom critters, their work, and their space- it was nice to get a chance to talk  with so many parents and families.  One thing we mentioned was balancing Freedom and Responsibility (and how they need each other).  One tool we can use together on this is the Learning Journal Map- that is our three week long outline to help students choose balanced work.  We work hard to minimize the learning journal map and keep it open ended to help students stay connected to all their realms, but also have a lot of choice time to explore strengths and passions.  The LJ Map is attached on the classroom blog every 3 weeks so parents can see it as well and have discussions.

There has been a growth curve in the planning and keeping track of long term expectations, but the students are really improving as planners!  As we continue to focus on that dance of balancing freedom and responsibility, our next step is to really make sure we are helping the students foster creativity, curiosity, and quality work.  Please try these conversation stems instead of “how was your day?” over the next week or two to help us develop these skills:

• Tell me something you know today that you didn’t know yesterday.
• What projects are you working on today? What is interesting about them?
• What did you do that was creative?
• Did you have any victories you want to share?
• What was frustrating about your day? What made you smile today?
• What did you work on from your learning journal today?
• Let’s look at your learning journal map and discuss what you are working on and what questions you can answer tomorrow.
• Let’s look at the learning journal map, and divide up your work so it is just a little each day.

Gratitude Corner:

• Thank you to the families who brought food for the open house!  It made the room feel very welcome and warm to have food in the corner.  By the end of the night it had been demolished by hungry students, siblings, parents, and teachers- thank you for the many small and big ways everyone contributes to make our community feel like family.
• Thank you to Ari’s mom, Natalia and Noelle’s dad, Naia’s mom for helping with the pumpkin patch field trip.  Thank you to the other parents who showed up while we were there, and those that volunteered that we did not need.
• Thank you to everyone who is helping with the auction!  The work I have seen has been inspiring.