We are off to a new semester and a fresh start. To begin the new year, each student in CORE was given a composition book to use for their Writer’s Notebook. Our first entry was to list our New Year’s Resolutions or to reflect on what changes we think the New Year will bring in light of a new president. The students were excited to receive their own book and were able to reflect and write their responses in their books. We also discussed and wrote down the expectations of the Writer’s Notebook. The students were able to understand the goal is to get the ideas down and not to get hung up on spelling and writing conventions. We will be using these notebooks everyday in order to become comfortable with writing. I write along with the students, share my own writing, and then open it up for the students to share. My hope is that this notebook will be a springboard for writing at a later date.

In addition to writing, all students have a new Accelerated Reader points goal. The homework continues to be reading nightly for at least 30 minutes. I have been reminding students daily that the AR points are based on their reading level and a formula based on reading 30 minutes five days a week. Reader’s Workshop will continue on Fridays along with mini-lessons on reading comprehension and read-alouds. GATE students are beginning work on their next Literacy Exploration project.

In History, students are finishing up their unit on Muslim contributions and the crusades to new Muslim empires before moving on to learn about the ancient societies of West Africa. Most students will be working on posters highlighting the Muslim contributions; GATE students are investigating literature with excerpts from The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam, a Sufi mystic who wrote poetry, and the Epic of Kings by Ferdowsi, a Persian nobleman and poet. They will create a product or response that will be posted to their Blogmeister space. Stay tuned!

Technology students from last fall have now moved on to Spanish with Ms. Krott and I have a fresh batch of students for the spring semester. We have begun our first unit of study, Internet Safety. At the end of this section, students create an Internet safety podcast based upon what they have learned. Stay tuned for this audio podcast. It will be posted on the Technology page.

Upon closing, I would like to point out that Challenge day will occur once again for a second year. I would like to say what a moving experience this was for me last year (see my post below) and I hope this will encourage more students to be the conduit that will make the change! Middle school can be a challenging place to get along with others but let’s try and make it the place we want to be. Find it in yourself to treat others respectfully and be supportive of your fellow classmates. We are all more alike than we are different. Let’s start this New Year on a clean slate both academically and socially!