Last-period gym anyone?

This year we have gym at 2:10 every Day 5, which leaves a bit of time to get my blog update done early. It feels a bit like they've just gone to the grandparents' house and I can take a minute to catch up on emails...

Today was another wild day; I'm not sure what's in the drinking water, but it's really upped the energy levels. As can be expected this time of year, I am having to remind students fairly often to speak in turn and not speak English when we are learning in French. These are both improving steadily, but it certainly is worth reinforcing as we go along.

I also talked to students about the French work they are completing at home, since some students are resorting to online translators and other such tools when working on homework. While these tools can be very useful for "one-off" searches for a particular word, we talked about how they are no substitute for generating your own work. I gave a demonstration of the shortcomings of these engines, and we looked at my correction criteria to see how work completed in this way is not something I can evaluate properly.

As mentioned at Curriculum Night, my focus with homework is to get students thinking and practicing in French. If there is a lack of time or your child is unable to complete a task, the best solution is to try their best and come and talk to me the next day. Taking a shortcut to "get it done" is never the best option, and I will not penalize anybody for taking their time and making a good effort.

That being said, I am very happy with the work being done at home. Students are coming to school on-time and prepared to work, which is as much as I can ask for! Many children in class have taken a particular interest in some of our projects and concepts, which has lead them to complete extra work and push their learning even further.

Mrs. Shortall gave out the band assignments today! Students who had band interviews are very excited to find out their instruments and get playing next week. Envelopes are going home today with all the necessary information. Also going home today is a newsletter and a form to update student information. This form is for the Eastern School District, who has a new piece of communication software that they are updating. It should be returned (signed) tomorrow, whether there are changes or not.

We also started our project on the colonization of Newfoundland. We had an exciting letter from an archivist at The Rooms, asking us to participate in a project. The class has accepted the challenge, and will begin preparing materials immediately. They will bring home a small project for the weekend/Monday, and have time to work on it in class as well.

Students can keep their weather-monitoring sheets in their bookbags, so we can use them in school and  they can monitor weather at home. I went through the sheets with them this morning in class, which should clear up any questions. Tonight's Question du Jour is about their Book of the Week. I showed the class today that many of the books have a useful glossary in the back that they can use to look up words that are complicated or new. This is also a great way to use online tools like Google Translate or Babel Fish.

Have a great evening, and talk to you tomorrow.