Partner Work

Grade 2 social studies is all about communities.

We are still working at learning more about our community. Right now we are learning about the jobs that people in our community have.

Research is such a great skill for students to have, so we started a very small research project. Students worked in partners to find information from books. (They thought that reading books would be the best way to gather information).

I was so excited when we got started. Students did a great job choosing which job they would like to work on and got started reading for information right away. All the groups worked really well together.

The final product is not yet finished as I want them to make a poster about what they have learned. (We will be working on that today.) But the information that they wrote down is great.

Something that I'm still thinking about, and will have to make a decision very quickly, is do I edit for spelling or let them use their best try at spelling.  I'm leaning more towards just having them use their spelling. These posters will not be put up in the hallway, just our classroom, so I don't feel they need to be in published form.

I will try to post the final products tomorrow.

Report Cards

It's that time of year... report cards.

November reporting is always a tough time for me and from what I can tell, for teachers in general. For me personally, I feel as though I'm still getting to know my students and having share the information I have gathered and put it in a child's file seems kind of daunting. The information that I have is always my opinion on how I see things. Another teacher who may see that same thing may interpret in another way. They may not even see the same things that I see. And this always stresses me out. Am I doing it right?

Teachers aren't really taught how to write a report card or make comments to parents during university courses. It's kind of a sink or float thing.

For anyone who doesn't actually know a teacher personally, I believe, doesn't actually understand what goes into making a report card. Words are carefully chosen as we would never want to come out and say things to upset a parent yet we want them to know the truth about their child's learning and behaviours . Hours are spent going over notes from conversations, observations and the products we collect to paint a complete picture of a child in as few words as we possibly can so as to not overwhelm parents. Giving each child a score out of 5, or a percentage becomes difficult. What do you really base this number on? An arbitrary ideal in your head? A mathematical formula?

For me, report cards are the hardest part of being a teacher. These reports cards are permanently with each child as they make their way through school and can be looked at when needed by future teachers. This is a lot of pressure for anyone. Is the information we are writing down accurate and written in a way that is not making things sound all good for a student who is really struggling?

If I could change one thing about teaching... no report cards! Just informal meetings with parents throughout the year as they are interested in how their child is learning at school.

I know this would never happen in the near future, but maybe one day.