Girls girls girls!

I am having a lot of problems with girls this week in class. What problems? It's a simple one. They just don't participate enough nor do they speak loud enough. It's really discouraging for me because I spent a lot of energy teaching and talking to them. I have repeated myself too many times and I am very disappointed. However, the boys are excellent and they try to participate in all the discussions and try to answer questions.

For reading, we read the biography of Satch Paige. An African American baseball player who was an amazing pitcher. He was a crowd pleaser. This week, we've alslo started with science and we learned about classification.

Jack is improved from last week. He is less comedic and more serious.

MJ is good, he is taking the class seriously and studies at home with his father. I am really glad he is putting in effort. I hope you can keep up the effort and keep in mind what I said about basketball and school.

Pon Pon and Dave kept up and did really well. Dave, you need to read louder, make sure you do that next week.

Howard and Teddy are good but they caused troubles together. They laugh together and cry together. They got into an arguement and I hope it doesn't happen again.

Anne PUT more effort in class and participate. You need to get sleep earlier at home.

Betty, if you don't have time to study vocabulary at home, please PARTICIPATE in class.

Tina made an effort to speak up and participate. Please keep it up!

Valerie, your performance this week was awful. Not only you don't speak up but you are not paying attention. Don't let that happen again next week.

Teacher Paul

For reading:

Do you remember 921 earthquake?  Please interview one of your parents at home, ask them what happened, what was your family doing, what changes did it bring, and how did your family live the next few days.

Extra

please click here and read this article

http://www.zenmoments.org/the-cab-ride-ill-never-forget/

Week 3

Week after week, the students are getting better. They have been more responsible and independent. I have corrected their writing book and some of the work really impressed me! This week we read more about lives of immigrants and further discussed ethnicity and diversity in society.

The new story we read in the textbook was call Thunder Rose. An American tall tale which turned out to be quite dry. The language in the story the author used was difficult due to cultural difference. It has a lot to do with western (cowboy) heritage.

Everyone participated more this week.

Howard stares at other people too often and he becomes unproductive.

This is MJ's first week back, he is catching up. I hope he will be more responsible for his own work. Learning is for yourself, not for others. If he put in the passion he has for basketball into his study, he would be top of his class.

Anne, Betty, Valerie SPEAK LOUDER and participate more in class. This class requires much discussion and in turn it will help your thinking and writing. If you don't participate more next week, extra writings will be assigned to you.

Pon pon and Dave are the class captains and they set great examples for others to follow. I have assigned them some work for them to help me in class.

Jack needs to get to class earlier. He needs to joke around less in class when he is reading. Move those sausages when you read and speak so people can understand you.

Teddy showed good improvement, he is engaged in learning and he participates occasionally. I want him to raise his hands more often.

Extra Question

What can you volunteer to do at Tree House?

Paul

People and Diversity

This week, the stories we've read, centered around the topic of people and race. We've read about how America is like a big melting pot and the civil rights movements in the 1900s. Other than vocabulary, the class focused on discussions of the stories. I am trying to encourage more discussion in class to help promote their writing ability.

The students did a great job in participating.

Jack impressed me with his attitude change and he actively participates in class.

Dave is all around great especially his writing but he needs to speak louder.

Pon Pon is also all around great and he actively participates in the topics.

Betty is doing well with her sentences but she needs to speak louder as well.

Valerie is engaged but I expect her to participate more in class.

Teddy is not engaged and not excited. I can see he is trying to focus in class but he is not interested in the topics that we are discussing.

Howard is behaving well "in class," he is showing lots of interest in areas where he hasn't shown before.

Anne needs to pay attention and not daydream. She also needs to participate more. She is smart and she understands the material but she really must work harder.

Student Journal Questions
1) What is melting pot?

2) Why did people immigrate to America? at least 2 reasons

3) What is civil rights movement and how did it change over time?

Extra Question:
If your mom or dad is American, who will they vote for? Obama or McCain? Why

Teacher Paul is BACK!

Hello Parents!

I am happy to be teaching again, especially for the advanced class.  This week, we are chosing text books together.  There are two different publishers that we are considering, McGrawHill and Scott Foresman.  We've read 3 stories and we've have decided to go with Scott Foresman's Reading.  This semester, we've also added new curriculum to further help with their verbal and writing.  Lots of vocabulary this week and I will be requiring them to study them this weekend at home.  The story from the take home reader is quite difficult and the questions are not easy and it require critical thinking.

I am trying to work the kids back into shape.

Anne needs to speak up and read out loud.  She also slacked off in class on Thursday and that's why she had to stayed til 730.

Valerie participates more but she had to stay til 730 because she was playing with Anne.

Teddy takes the class seriously, but he is not paying attention sometimes and writing too slow.  He also had to stay after.

Jack has a better attitude in class, he pays attention but he doesn't speak clearly.

Dave is good and fast with his work BUT he needs more confident and speak up more.

Pon Pon is great, he enjoys the class but needs to speak up more.

Betty needs to read louder and participate.  She works diligently.

Howard is good so far.  He hasn't got into any trouble and he is doing well in class.  However, some of the questions I ask in class, he should think about it more.

Teacher Paul