The Home Stretch

 

Wow- this has gone really fast and kinda slow at the same time. To paraphrase a friend of mine, "Time is sorta sticky this year!"

For a very un-normal year, we've done a lot of great normal school stuff. In math we've covered most of the big units and are now playing pedagogicl LEGO: Why just do integers and fractions, when you can groove on negative fractions? Why just do handshake problems (irony accepted) when you can look at tournament brackets and game theory?

In our writing we've worked on fluency and creativity, but now we're concentrating on clarity. How to write in ways that one's audience really groks our ideas?

Science and design have collided in our Rocket project. We're taking over the airspace above SIMS (yes, Nav Canada knows about this) and are learning about fuels, aerodynamic, ballistics, and when to duck*.

Over all, this time is about becoming ready for next year's challenges. Grade 7s will be off to the new junior programme at GISS. 6s are going to have their very own school for a year (and the SIMS teachers for next year are already plotting crazy, amazing, and wonderful things). Both groups are going to fantastic places!

Housekeeping items:

1. Phones. Kids need to ask before pulling them out. Starting tomorrow, if I see one unexpectedly it will be going to the office. You can imagine why this crack-down is happening... the class is tired of me ranting about distracted-learning. 

2. Masks are becoming an all-the-time-indoors thing. I've reminded kids about masks about 1000 times so far, and I just received a new batch of 1000 free reminders from Dr. Henry. When they're gone, I don't know what I'm going to do.

3. As a natural response to all these rules, a few kids have adopted the philosophy of "What can I get away with?" instead of "What should I be doing?". This makes it.... boring. 

Time spent policing behavior is time NOT spent being creative and having fun learning.

If you read all the way to here, you deserve that little thing you reward yourself with. I had been using sour gummy bears, but it reached Trainspotting levels of disfunction. Had to switch to tea.

Thanks, folks. You all send really nice humans to SIMS, and it makes everything worth it.

*Be calm, be kind, stay low.

Addendum to Winter Update

 Firstly, this is going to parents and kids for the Woollcombe class.

A wise person told me that it would be a shame if kids didn't get my last update, so here it is.

Secondly, the attachment is a mental health resource. At the bottom is a list of the help lines. The one to have on your fridge is Get Support - Kids Help Phone, which has a chat app, phone number, and whole bunches of really awesome humans who love listening. 

This season is great, but it's not always easy. The well-deserved break gives us time to process some stuff, and sometimes that requires help. A coach, an extra auntie or uncle, or just someone who answers the text and cares. 

We learned a bit about Rick Hansen in class, and about how he had to be in great shape just to survive his trip. It wasn't a race, he just needed to get back home. We need to keep our emotional muscles strong, too, and we'll get there. Things are going to start getting a bit better every day.

Even Rick needed help.

Christmas Update

 

Well, that went better than expected.

What a year. It's fairly easy to see the downsides of 2020 - both the news and our own individual challenges make that clear - but what are the upsides?

Firstly, my grandson is alive. I know this has nothing to do with our class, but it means the world to me. Felix just turned 1 year old, and there was a very good chance last November that he wouldn't even turn 0. He was in NICU for 62 days, had 3 surgical interventions, and is now perfectly healthy. Kids are tough.

Your kids make me laugh every day. It's not that they're doing dumb 'Oh, kids say the craziest things' TV special stuff - they are honestly trying to make our world lighter and happier. They feel a responsibility to bring joy, and they sure do bring it. Some of the puns are so stinky we have to open the windows wide. We're together so much that they are, like twins, making language. Sure, it's a bit tribalized and prone to a bit of overprotective behaviour (and we've seen that), but it brings strength. In truly original ways, these kids are strong.

Your kids follow me on some odd adventures. We've written about Santa's dyspeptic dragon, Norbert. We've tried to figure out what lobsters have to do with human rights. We've tried to get an understanding of the human immune system and the difference between an mRNA vaccine and an Adenovirus vector. Your kids are mentally flexible and smart.

Some of the kids have been through enough to nuke a buffalo. Seriously. And some of them put their souls into propping up the people they love. There are some heroes where I work, and they're not even teenagers yet. Your kids give me faith.

These are the people who will change the world. They will know that making our communities better, more resilient, and fairer, is more important than any other game in town. They're weird, they're original, they're fun, and they're good humans. You know that, but it needs saying as much as we can. 

I don't get to see Felix this season, and I'm sure there are many of you in the same kind of boat. We'll make do with deferred and virtual hugs for now, knowing that the light at the end of the tunnel may, in fact, be the sun. 

Pax Vobiscum

Bryce Woollcombe

Teacher

Update Nov 17, 2020

 Hello SIMS Division 9 families. It's past time I brought you up to date on class goings-on, so here goes:

0. The recent island tragedy has had some direct effects on some of our students and many of our staff. Others don't know anything about it, and I don't think they need to. Just do me a favour and give your kids an extra hug or two. 

1. Literacy - We're working on the writing process with our School Wide Write persuasive essays. Most of us are on Editing, and the kids are doing a great job so far. Outlining, organizing our arguments, and making good sentences and paragraphs have gone very well.

2. Numeracy - We found some gaps in our ability to visualize numbers and estimate, so we've been having fun talking through some problems using mental math in different ways. We're also finishing up our unit on data (stats and probs). This should lead us nicely into a final project on game design.

3. COVID Coping - This isn't a subject, but it may as well be in some ways. The kids still need many reminders on hand-washing, masks in common areas, and mixing with other cohorts. Any reminders from home are greatly appreciated. Also, just a reminder to call ahead when you're coming to the school - we'll meet you outside. 

4. Dressing for Success - Yep, we still go outside in anything short of a hurricane. Doctor Bonnie's orders. Getting kids to bring real rain jackets is a challenge, but don't give up!

5. Science and Design - The 3d printer is back! Kids are working in 3d and learning about stereolithography. Much biodegradable plastic will be consumed (by the printer, not the kids).

6. French - We just finished regular pronouns and regular ER verbs. We're trying to do a little every day, and have fun along the way: ask your student about the numbers dance!

Updates October 10

 Brain Dump from the Woollcombe Class:

First off, it's Assessments season. The FSA (Provincial assessment) for Grade 7 is postponed until January, and there was much rejoicing. So we got ahead on DART (reading), and our Island Numeracy program. I'll be communicating those results soon, because they make a great reference for all the growth that's happening through the year. 

Health and Safety:

 Kids have generally been good with masks in common areas. Please make sure they get washed, and I have spare disposables aplenty. If you want your child to have an emergency spare for their backpack, send a clean ziplock and we'll put some in. Hand-washing has been OK, but some reminders from home would really help.

Social distancing is a problem. Even in class, we're supposed to give each other space and absolutely avoid contact. Please, Please, Please remind kids of this. Even if they all pile on the couch to play Mario Cart at home, they have to distance at school. Put yourself in the place of a contact-tracer for a moment and you'll immediately see the logic in this. Thanks in advance for the help.

Numeracy:

We've zipped through a lot of computation work and integers (negative numbers) and are doing the Island Numeracy Assessment (INA). It's less an assessment and more a way of learning math so that major concepts and competencies don't get missed. It builds confidence, and helps kids think in numbers while addressing all the grade-level content.

One thing we've found (and are working on) is an issue with place value. Where's the hundreds place? The thousandths place? What happens to a number when it's multiplied by 10? Divided by a hundred? It's a gap for many kids, and really deserves some work in class (and at home?).

Literacy

We continue our parts-of-speech, spelling, and grammar daily. It's routine and occasionally fun, so a great way to get settled in the mornings.

Our literacy competency-of-the-month is reading for information, so we've been looking at news stories and articles (avoiding US politics for sanity's sake). We'll be moving towards outlining, organizing, and rephrasing in the next week.

Social Studies

Mrs Allan is doing a great unit on early societies as seen through art. I'll get her to send an update.

As a way to look at anti-racism and developing a stronger sense of self and community, we're also looking at some local history. I'm frankly gobsmacked at the diversity of our history here, with Indigenous, European Settler, Black Settler, Japanese Settler, and Kanaka settlements dating to before 1860 (or before 1860 BCE, depending). At this point I'm just discovering cool stuff, sharing with the kids, and having discussions. If you have any local history to share, bring it on!

As an aside, one of our EA's is John Gogo. If you know BC folk music, yes, THAT John Gogo. He's been a student of local history (mostly Cowichan and beyond) for a while now, and his songs on the subject are a treat.

PE

Volleyball. They're getting it. It's taken a bit, but now it's fun. Following the COVID rules for PE is tough, and it requires a lot of patience from the kids, but we're getting there. We also throw in some circus skills, minor games, and disc golf when we can. I'm certainly getting more much-needed exercise!

French

Si possible, utilisez un petit peu de Français a votre domicile. Cela nous aiderait beaucoup.

We've done greetings, numbers to 20, clothing, days of the week, months, and basics of -ER verbs. Anything you can do to reinforce at home would be awesome. My French peaked in 1993, but it's coming back!

Science

We'll be sharing our Newton's 3 Laws demos this week and next, and I hope to get them on video. They're pretty cool! The challenge is to demonstrate the effect (conservation of momentum, Mould effect, barycentre effect, etc) in an engaging way. They can show you what they have so far in Classroom.

Music

Ms Footz and the kids are doing a great job with a short music exploratory in Guitar. We're up to G, C, D, and Am chords, and are learning to move between them quick enough to play some songs. If you have a guitar at home, time to bring it out!

Coding and Design

Turns out we can hit a bunch of our coding and design goals IN MINECRAFT!!!! We're using Minecraft Edu, so I have some control and it doesn't revert to chaos, but oh my... these kids are motivated. I'm setting up a persistant world so assignments can be available any time, but that will take a bit.

If you could see these kids helping each other, making sure nobody's left out or left behind, collaborating on making wild ideas reality, taking up my challenge of "How can we use this to LEARN?", you would feel pretty great. Take my word for it, the kids are alright in the best ways.

A New Year!

 Firstly, apologies. I had intended to give you all more class updates, but got sidelined by my car, the ferries, a storm, and... well.... a pandemic. I like writing about our class, and I intend to do it lots.

Needful details first:

1. Transportation is still weird, so keep doing your best. I take attendance before 8:45, so if you're running late just make sure to have kids sign in at the office.

2. Attending: If kids aren't sick, please encourage them to be at school. We're doing a lot of really fundamental things this time of year, and unnecessary absences really affect learning.

3. Student Information and Permission Forms: Thanks for getting those in. I'll start emailing those who haven't next week. If it didn't make it home, please ask sims@sd64.org for a replacement.

4. Covid Rules: The more that kids take it upon themselves follow our protocols, the less I need to remind. The less nagging I do, the more time we have for learning. Our biggest challenge right now is getting kids to avoid physical contact. While they are intelligent young people, they really want to be a pile of puppies sometimes. Please talk to your kids about this... I truly hate nagging kids for doing what would be, under normal circumstances, caring friendly behaviour. Overall, they're doing a great job of following the plan.

5. Meeting the Creature: Email me to set up a time! Zoom, email, phone, and outdoors meetings work great. We'll keep this up throughout the year.

It really is a lovely class, and I'm so happy to be teaching here. It's year 27 for me, and it's just getting more fun. This is what we're up to this week:

Math: Integers (new for 6, review for 7). We can add and subtract using both positive and negative numbers. Next steps: 2-4 digit addition and subtraction with integers, then multiplication and division. We're relying on number lines to visualize.

Literacy: We have 2 routines running so far: Morning grammar/spelling/parts of speech, and reflective writing. Our reflections are going into Classroom, so your child can share those at home.

Science: Forces and Scientific Process. We're working through Newton's Laws, momentum, inertia, mass, and acceleration. I've done some demos for discussion, including Galileo's Canon. Next, we're building physics carts out of toy cars (10-40cm long with free-spinning wheels, just in case you can send one for Monday) that integrate MicroBits for sensing. Kids will write the code for these, then zing them down inclined planes, into things, and probably off small cliffs. We'll use the data to prove Newton's laws.

Socials and Art: Mrs Allan is taking the kids through an awesome unit on the dawn of human society, including some hands-on history. I'll try to send out pictures of their work - it's pretty impressive!

PE: We have 2 units running: Circus props and Volleyball. We do juggling, plate, diabolo, and other props to build bilateral integration (short version: it helps them read) and understand how we learn, set goals, and build skills. It's also something we can do just about anywhere, which helps with our jammed gym and busy schedule.

It seems like a lot, but we're actually being pretty incremental and careful: I really don't want anyone feeling left behind this early! This means there's some wait time between tasks for the quick writers, and they should always have a fun book, quiet craft, or sketchbook at hand. Eventually we'll have enough long-term projects that kids can pivot to them easily, but I don't want to overload folks yet.

So, there we are! I'll put this on the blog, but I'll keep emailing everyone for now.

Have a great weekend!

The Year That Time Forgot

Ooof. This is not the right way to end a year that was, overall, pretty great. The class was one of the best groups of kids I've ever worked with. We should be at the park playing games and grilling hotdogs, tossing frisbees and laughing. But we're not.

The kids gave a lot for us. They're generally not the ones who take the brunt of the virus, but their freedoms took a big hit. They got through 'til now with a good deal of grace, all for the protection of the community. We see pictures of nurses and doctors, grocery workers and paramedics, and we call them heroes. But they got paid, and in many cases they took positions purposefully. To help us, come what may. 

But it's your kids that are the heroes of this unfolding story. The did not sign up for this, and the only reward they get is the appreciation we can give them. They may not even get to look back on some pivotal moment, the toppling of a wall or parades for victory. They don't get a brave new world, no matter how brave they've been.

In a year that started with Greta and children's marches for the survival of the environment, we should be celebrating the end of coal, or cleaner rivers and oceans, but we are not. We should be celebrating the passion and action of our youth, but we are not. 

The best we can do is to celebrate them in small ways, and maybe that's always been the most important part. The medals and parades will have to wait, but the time to honour them is now.

Please have a wonderful summer with your kids. 

Bryce Woollcombe

SIMS Teacher