What a lovely week. We have a small, friendly class, a room that is fresh and large, and a whole tonne of enthusiasm. This is going to be a great year.
1. Tell Me About Your Child Thursday, 1-5. Please email me a couple of times that work, and I'll slot you in. Sometimes it's easier to just drop in after school and grab me. We all have busy lives, and I can accommodate just about everything, eventually. Getting to know you helps me get to know your child, which helps us learn.
2. Weird Stuff Mr. Woollcombe Says:
When I'm explaining a concept, I try very hard to use interesting, relevant, and compelling examples. I try to make them age-appropriate and clear. When those goals get missed, you will occasionally hear eyebrow-raising things from your child.
"What did you talk about in Social Studies?"
"Orphanages in post-war Soviet states, Mom. It was sad."
"Oh."
For clarity, we were addressing competencies in Personal and Social Responsibility, constructing our own Maslow hierarchy of human needs. I was illustrating how we found out that love is right there at the foundation of life, along with food and water. Failure to Thrive is not going to happen to us because of our caring circles of honour. Now, this is just an example, and nobody misunderstood it or missed the positive point (to the best of my knowledge).
But when I miss, email me. Please.
3. Reporting
Ohh, this is gonna be fun this year. We are working under a new reporting order from the Ministry of Education, and Judy Smith (Principal) had a hand in developing it. Short version: You'll get more feedback about your child's academic growth, more often, but differently. You'll only get 1 omnibus report at the end of the year, but I get to report out on how your child is progressing based on what we're learning at the time. All the boxes will get checked, but we have a year to do it. I'm helping test some cool tools for communicating this, so stay tuned. You'll get your first installment in a couple weeks.
4. Parents volunteering:
Thanks for doing the record checks etc. so you can volunteer when the opportunity arises. I'd also like you to be able to contact each other (for events or emergencies) and share interests and skills. I'll be sending out a Google Form (totally voluntary) for you to do just that. One of our class goals is to celebrate our own class community a bit more. We have artists, writers, machine operators, film makers, educators, potters, and everything else in our class community, and it's time we spread the joy to all the kids.
5. Google Classroom
All the kids are set up with Google Classroom. I will try to put all major assignment details and resources on Classroom so kids can look them up on Sunday nights when they freak out about homework. It's a great way to keep kids from stressing. If you don't have internet access at home, let me know... I can often help work around it without any kid feeling singled out.
6. Band and Choir
Senior Band: Mondays, 7:45am-8:45am
Jazz Band: Wednesdays, 7:45am-8:45am
Junior/Beginner Band: Wednesdays, 4:30pm-5:30pm
Choir: Tuesdays, 4:30pm-5:30pm
Contact mfootz@sd64.org for mor information.
7. Blog
These big emails get archived on the blog. I might add some 'general interest' stuff to the blog without emailing it out, but most info will be directly emailed through MyEdBC (our student information system).
23. This post is way too long. I'll make them shorter and more to-the-point as the weeks go on.
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