PAT

Pat tests this week!!
We are doing reading and maths PAT tests this week. The results will be reported back to you during parent interviews. These place your child into a stanine, which tells us where they sit compared to national averages.

The swimming pool is out of order due to high bacterial count and will be back in use ASAP, once the tests are back to confirm that it is safe to swim again. It was an interesting conversation trying to explain about bacteria today.

Always on

There is always something going on at school or in the class. This is why I love teaching. Two days down this week and it has been eventful already, both positively and negatively.

Had a parent come in this morning thanking me for everything I have been doing for their child.
Yeehaa makes me feel good. Had a student showing their family the work they have been doing on the wall proudly. Very rewarding.
On Monday we had a unsettled and bad afternoon, which led to more trouble after school. THis left me feeling uspet and thinking all night about what I should've done differently (hindsight is wonderful isnt it, especially when you've got 24 students in your class).
There are many things. We have talked about these in class and I have been implementing some today.

Anyway another busy week... we have finished Progressive Achievement Tests, on Monday we did a Statistic pre-test so I know what the students need to know. One thing all students need to work on is interpreting graphs and data, so expect to be making some comments about what you see in graphs for homework.
Cheers-
Rjames

Week 4

Persistance has its rewards!

Another week is slipping by us.

We are working hard! For example:

We are working well in a our reading groups to complete tasks that relate to our learning needs.

We are swimming lengths of the pool to enable us to practice our breathing.

We are writing an autobiography and most of us are publishing these into books at present.

We have completed another maths knowledge test. We are working in groups to learn about number sequences, place value and basic facts to 100.

We are still working on following instructions without fussing about others.

Thanks to those who came to info evening, hope you got something out of it!

Remember any concerns, I am available.

Cheers R.James

Hot!

We have had such a hot week. I wish we had air conditioners in class. Thinking of starting a campaign up.

We have had a busy week. Started our group reading sessions this week. All student have a book they could take home, but should bring it back the next day.

We have been learning several maths games, as you would have heard or played. This sets up the students for the rest of the year so they can play them independently.

We have had a STAR test this week. This tests literacy including word comprehension, sentence contruction and synonyms. There were some extremely pleasing results.

Other tests taken have been a basic facts maths test (where the homework Q's come from), two spelling tests and individual reading tests.

The class has been learning to move quietly around the class and school. I am pretty pleased with students behaviour. As part of the Cool Schools mediation iniative all students are learning to take responsibility for their behaviour and communicate their feeling better to others.
We are trying to be better listeners and deal with conflicting situations in a problem solving manner.
Has been a challenge but most are getting better, as are all the teachers.

Thanks
R James

Pleasing effort with homework- Mr James

Thank you for a great effort with the first week of homework.

If we start off well we will continue well!

Thanks to parents who have made the effort to sign and return the homework slips.

Today we have finished reading Fantastic Mr Fox, by Roald Dahl.

So you could ask your child some questions about this book. Who? What? Why?

I choose this book because I know the movie is out now, so maybe we could watch it later in the year.

Next whole class book will be another Roald Dahl one.

Cheers, Mr James

Hello Mr James here!

It is the second week and we are all go!

Meet the teachers evening next Thursday 18th of Feb.

See You there...

Welcome to 2010!

The new school year is about to begin :-)