Snow Day Update

Ok, this is a corgi, not a Jack Russel like mine. The effect is the same.
And I bet this dog dries off on its owner's pillow, just like mine. Silly dog.

Snow Day!

So, after the kids get thoroughly soggy outside, dry off and hang up their own stuff (riiiiight), and try out the new board games, some screen time may occur. I previously posted some great resources for learning, but here's a smattering of other lovely media for kids and adults, while the power stays on:

Books for Geeks:

John Clarke's Ignition! is a history of rockets, written by a guy whose job it was to make them go better, faster, and explode less. It is very funny if you're bent just right. It's out of print and difficult to find, so here you go!

Gergel's Excuse Me, Sir, Would You Like To Buy A Kilo Of Isopropyl Bromide? is masterful storytelling featuring fires, explosions, poisoning, and waterproof diapers. It is mostly true, and also very funny.

Albums you may have forgotten (to play all the way through; sorry, no links):

Paul Simon, Graceland

Nirvana MTV Unplugged

(for that matter, REM and Eric Clapton unplugged, too)

Flook! Flatfish 

If your student mentions they have to research Iran, I recommend staying away from the news. It's a general profile with an option to dive deeper into history (Xerxes, Darius, Alexander, etc.), and the only currentish stuff is a timeline (5-6 points) of major international events concerning Iran from the 2015 treaty to the current situation. I've directed them to Simple English Wikipedia and the CIA World Factbook, which is surprisingly apolitical. The checklist for the assignment is on Google Classroom.

Anyway, time for the driveway! Yay!

Thinking, Deciding, and Fostering Pride in Learning

From a couple weeks ago (I forgot to hit 'Publish'):

It was one of those weeks where we tried to do everything. You know how that usually turns out... ...but on reflection we accomplished quite a bit.

Most importantly, the kids can think. Discussing the Rights of the Child, our techniques for making decisions in groups, and Greta Thurnberg (see previous blog post), the kids blew me away with their insights and questions. There is a movement afoot to allow 16-year-olds to vote in Canada, but I would be fine with 12. If they've done their homework.

We started a unit on storytelling and the elements of narrative, but it was an accident. The kids pestered me to tell 'The Bear Story'*, and I knew that the good version, honed by years of retellings and more than a bit of hyperbole, would take most of the block. So we looked at setting, character, story arc, building tension, connecting with an audience, storytelling as a collaboration... Good review, and a good springboard for writing. If you're thinking about Tim Roth's story from Reservoir Dogs, but without all the swearing, you'd be right. It's about the best stories we share and how we build community. The kids should now be thinking of crafting their own Personal Anecdote, and I can't wait to resume working on them. This will happen after the School Wide Write.


* The Bear Story involves two teachers, 12 kids, Eureka Peak in the Cariboo Mountains, and a very angry and persistant alpine grizzly bear. For the full story, please enroll in Grade 6 or 7. Oddly, the story arc closely traces the story arc of Tim Roth's "Comode Story". This was in no way intentional.

Class News and Tips

Class News - November 12, 2019

Hi! I hope everyone is well, all the candy is gone, and Christmas mayhem has yet to descend.

First off, please let me know if there is anything odd, surprising, wrong, unreadable, or confusing about the Point of Progress I sent out last week. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Also, the door is open if you want to talk, or just drop in and observe.

In this issue:

• Science
• School Wide Write
• Backwards Math
• French
• FSA Tests

Science
I really love science, so we sometimes leave it 'til last so I don't forget to teach kids reading, writing, and 'rithmatic. Otherwise, I can lead kids into a complete science rabbit-hole and we end up making trebuchets and hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane.
But the kids have worked incredibly hard on their core areas and we can happily get our feet wet in the sciences. Our overarching themes are Climate and Environment, with the goal of creating powerful, positive young scientists. It's about sharing absolutely critical scientific literacy while never placing the weight of the world on their small shoulders.
Lucky we have some great help. We'll be continuing work we started last year with the Canadian Space Agency concerning environmental sensing both in the classroom and on the ISS. Check it out here:
http://space.letstalkscience.ca/
Also, on a bit of a lark, I signed us up for the Fish Market Survey in which we sampled local retail fish for DNA testing. It's only useful in that it connects our own actions as consumers to the health of ocean species (and I really hope the Bio 12 classes also signed up) but is was a cool chance to get some free DNA testing done. We'll do some math with the data when it comes in, too. More here:
https://letstalkscience.ca/educational-resources/projects/fish-market-survey

We're looking at a range of climate mechanisms:

• Carbon Cycle
• Ocean Currents and Mixing
• Methane Clathrate
• Atmospheric Currents and Mixing
• Plants: absorbing CO2 and moderating temperature
• Radiance and Albedo
• Greenhouse Effect
• Permafrost and Sequestration

The goal is to have each team produce a working small-scale demonstrator for one mechanism, and we have a nice collection of tools to help: CO2 sensor, temp sensors, light sensors, etc. I'll be doing the methane clathrate demo if I can find a way to do it without any unexpected thermal events.* Come to think of it, perhaps I'll get a 3rd party to safety-check all our plans - a lesson in ethical science and personal responsibility.

School Wide Write
They've got the brains, they've got the ideas, but can they put them on paper in a coherent, organized way? That's the goal.
Topic Choices: 

• I am hopeful for the future.  
• I have concerns about the future.**

Mr Berendt has been working on idea-generation, note-taking, and outlining. I've been working on deconstructing a sample essay and analysing form. This week we'll write the actual essay, then use the results to guide our learning through the rest of the year.

Backwards Math
OK, I'll start calling it Algebra pretty soon. After all our work on computation (which we'll continue, lest we lose it!) we're taking a break to do formulae, equations, algorithms, and other fun stuff. This is a point where some kids get a bit freaked by all the abstract thinking, while others revel in all the nice, friendly, small numbers (and no long division!). Please, please say nice things about math at home. It makes all the difference in their confidence, and confidence is the biggest factor in math success. Not a single kid in the class is slacking- they all deserve that 'good mathematician' feeling.

French
We are very lucky to have Linda Suderman teaching our Core French this year. Stay tuned for French news! Students are encouraged to practice with DuoLingo, a bilingual relative, or tolerant pet at home.***

FSA Tests
Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions.




*Blowing myself up.

**My favourite thesis so far: "My message is that we'll be watching you." A bit creepy, but not completely off-topic.

***Dogs are especially great at listening without unnecessarily correcting grammar.

A rather good day...

A rather good day.

I told myself I wouldn't do it, but I did it

I showed Greta Thunberg's UN speech.
Julie,  a great environmental educator, once told me, "No tragedies before high school!!". I've tried.

But a third of the class had already seen it. Common points of cultural reference are important to us, so we kinda had to. I prepped the class in the gentlest way possible, and their level of attention was excellent. We watched for 4:30.

The speech is passionate and well-crafted. It is as impactful as Churchill's beaches, King's dreams, or Henry's scars. It is reasonned like a thesis and edged like a falchion. It is more than a little violent. Those four brief minutes may alter history, but it certainly wasn't very nice to hear.


Several of us, however, found the Easter Egg. The moment in which Greta, speaking with great venom towards the world's leaders, offered something to her peers, the children:

"This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean."

She is paraphrasing JRR Tolkien*. Samwise Gamgee, faced with unending tragedy, is trying to help Frodo. Sam's speech is all about hope, the future, going home, and the stories that we will tell.  While castigating the world's leaders, Greta offers a hand of hope to the children whose imaginations include Middle Earth, Hobbits, and Heroes.

I haven't found Middle Earth, but we may have found a hero.

*Tolkien was a South African, a reluctant soldier in the Somme, a cryprographer contemporary to Turing, and a man very committed to peace. But he is not the hero.

SIMS class update: Lots of Beginnings

SIMS class update: Lots of Beginnings

I already miss gardening season...

Logistics Alert:
Picture Day Monday
All permission forms are in. Thanks!!!!

[Now the wordy stuff]

Getting your kid to reflect on the school day* is a bit of an opportunity for growth ("What did you learn today?"  "Stuff! What do we have to eat??") so I'll try to do a weekly post to fill in the gaps.

Here are some milestones from the week:

• Our spelling system has begun, with all students showing growth.
• Mr Berendt has collected a writing sample from each kid so we can customize our teaching.
• Freewriting has really helped many kids with their fluency (even the very cautious writers).
• Phases of Matter review is complete in Science.
• In Maths we have worked on creating common vocabulary and problem-solving strategies.
• We made our hierarchies of Human Needs (Maslow, but more fun).
• Students are learning really cool stuff in their exploratories (too much to list).
• All students can now access the computer lab.
• All students can use our apocalypse-grade class laptops.
• All kids are using Classroom. Ask them to show you; it works at home, too!

Here are some things to look forward to:

• Systems of Government and Society. This is pretty timely, and builds on themes of personal and social responsibility. We'll use this to draw together lots of reading, writing, computing, reflecting, and thinking.
• Benchmark tests in Numeracy and Literacy. I'm not a fan of too much testing, but we use small focused tests to customize learning, and so kids can see (and help direct) their growth. If a test can help a kid be proud of who they are, what they've learned, and where they're going, I like it. Otherwise, we assess in different ways.
• Lots of confidence-building maths using dice, markers on the windows, measuring tapes, and spreadsheets. We will learn to love spreadsheets.
• Prodigy. We will use Prodigy as way to practice computational skills and concepts. It even helps with basic reading. It's a very 'gamey'-looking online tool, but results have been excellent in the past and the kids enjoy it. We'll use it as a reward or a break from heavier thinking.

A note on maths language: 
Some great recent research has shown that teachers really hamstring kids in maths when we keep changing our wording. As a staff SIMS has decided to do our best to fix that. We find the difference, sum, or quotient. We multiply factors to find a product. 123.34 is 'One hundred twenty-three and thirty-four hundredths'.
This has been proven to work, I find it quite challenging to do, and any help you can give by using good math language at home is truly appreciated. More info and tips to come.

*This reflection is stupendously important for intellectual growth, and it doesn't happen enough in my family. We're working on it.

A very good week...

*This is an archive of an email sent to parents a week ago. Better archived late than never!

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.

Welcome Back: 2019 Edition

Community Week Activities - SIMS

Welcome! We survived Community Week, regained some of our 'school groove' after the break, and now have our homerooms. All the myriad tiny details of startup are coming together.

I have to tell you, first off, that this is a great class. Your student is going to be in a room full of really, really nice humans. I can already see enormous strengths in the areas of empathy, thoughtfulness, and willingness to learn.

Please excuse this very long email - I'll try to keep it organized, and it will be archived on my blog for reference.

In This Post:

• The Class in a Nutshell
• Forms and Fees
• Volunteers
• Other Ways to Help
• Technology
• Other Teachers
• Projects

The Class In A Nutshell
The style of our class is really going to depend on the learning style of the students. I've been a high-school band teacher, standing at the front and directing everything, and I've facilitated entirely self-directed inquiry learning. We will end up with a blend. I know that core literacy and numeracy skills are a huge factor in your student's future success, and we will be approaching those in a really systematic way. We also need to design, create, reflect, and think independently, so that's where a great deal of individualization comes in. The biggest goal is for students to become really excited about their learning, get inspired to take chances, and get passionate about making and following their own goals. It doesn't happen all at once, but the journey is worth it.

Forms and Fees
Student fees: $25 due this week. Cash, cheque, or e-transfer (talk to Cynthia in the office). September is a challenge for finances, so nobody is going to come knocking on your door if this is late.
Forms: They're really different this year. The yellow form is so you can confirm or change any information the office has. Please pay special attention to regular and emergency contacts, emails, phone numbers, etc. Good records really helped us last year during the 'hurricane'. The white form covers a great deal. Please read carefully and return with a zillion signatures this week. We are taking our consent and privacy standards to the next level this year, and we need to give the office all the help we can.

Volunteers
You never know when you might be able to volunteer, so please have the paperwork done right away. All volunteers need a criminal record check, and volunteer drivers need a yearly drivers abstract. Both are really easy to do by following Tania's great instructions on the school website. Please don't wait until the last minute.

Other Ways To Help 
The SIMS PAC  does great things, and needs you to help make them even greater!

Technology
Over the years people have started looking at me like some kind of technology Yoda, which does not make me feel young. We use tech for research, creating rich documents, learning coding, and as assistive technology so all learners can have their needs met. We have a class set of laptops, which are old but serviceable, and a lovely lab next door. We'll be working with cutting-edge microcontrollers and 3d design both in class and in exploratories. That said, I am pretty picky about computer use, and kids learn fast that tech is for learning and creating, not zoning out. Mobile devices (phones, tablets) are really not very welcome this year at SIMS: they'll live in lockers during the day if they do come to school. If your student has a learning or safety need concerning technology, or if you have any question at all about our tools or how we use them, let me know. I try to stay really up to date on best-practices, and I'd love to talk.

Other Classes
We will spend a lot of time as a homeroom, but there are times when we can work with master teachers in areas of particular expertise. We are currently scheduled to have art with Ms Allen, PE with Mr Langdon, and Mr Berendt has agreed to help get our reading program rolling (he has always had an amazingly successful reading program!). Students will also be in Exploratories block 8 Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Projects
We will do some inquiry projects later in the year.
If it turns out that your child is passionate about understanding 2-stroke engines, or using a serger, or traditional Hungarian horse archery, I'm totally into that. So much learning happens when kids really take the wheel, and I'll make sure that academic rigour is part of the fun... ...but I'll need your help.

Thanks so much for sending such great kids to the class. It'll be a memorable year!
Bryce Woollcombe

if [ in box ] then get out! fi

Updates in Friendly Bullet Form:

• FSA Forms for Grade 7's due Tuesday!!
• School fee of $25 (to the office) can be paid any time. If you can't, don't stress about it. 
• Basic school supplies need to be renewed regularly. The 144 pencils and 2000 sheets of lined paper I brought are now gone. Perhaps eaten. Pencils, paper, coloured pencils, binder, and gym strip need to be there. 
• The student desks in our room have wire baskets instead of drawers. Pencil boxes really help keep stuff off the floor.
• I love technology, but if your kid can't make good decisions yet about appropriate use, then keep devices at home. The class is actually doing great in this regard (perhaps the best in the school) but reminders are always good.
• Gr 6 Immunization forms are due now, and shots are next week. If you're on the fence about this, please know that there are immunocompromised people in our school. Our herd immunity through immunizations helps keep them alive.
• The food program is great. Nutritious breakfast food is there every morning. This is not just for 'some kids'. It's for all kids. They're growing and changing, and they often don't feel like eating what you serve before work and school. Their clocks are off, and it's going to get worse. The Lions and the Saunders Foundation happily pays for it, and any other donations can go through the office. Kids who are hungry, tired, or scared can't learn, so let's fix this one small thing forever. This is not about charity. It's just about kids and learning.
• Spelling groups are set...ish. Kids will move around, and one group will split off to provide more challenge. Lee Sigmund is running this with the help of Dan, our amazing EA. 
• Math groups are coming soon. We've been concentrating on problem solving and communicating in groups, using as many open-ended challenges as we can. 
• The school is having some staffing changes, and it's been tough trying to get the right resources to the right kids. There's light at the end of the tunnel, but things like Literacy Groups, Robotics Club, and class trips need to wait until core logistics settle out a bit. I really appreciate your patience.

All for now! Thanks!

Bryce

Welcome Back 2018!

Email: bwoollcombe@sd64.org
Blog: https://woollcombeclass.blogspot.com/



Welcome back to school, and welcome to Mr Woollcombe's Grade 6/7 class. I really hope everyone had a great break and Community Week. When I got my class list on Friday I was, to say the least, a pretty happy camper.

Introductions! 
I'm Bryce Woollcombe. I've taught (in chronological order) in Kelowna, Williams Lake, Oliver, Osoyoos, Pender Island, Mayne Island, and here. I started out as a highschool band and choir teacher in 1996, but I've also taught everything from Kindergarten to Physics 11 to Adult Ed. Along the way it turned out that a few things really held my imagination:

• Learning and teaching technology, for both students and teachers
• Design, creativity, and problem solving
• Methods for collaboration
• Stagecraft and performing arts

Come to think of it, I get excited about learning anything, from grammar to long division.

Communication
Email me at bwoollcombe@sd64.org 
I'll really try to use this blog as the repository for parent communication. Subscribing by email means you'll get everything. I'll also email the most important stuff, but not blog posts that are just for background or general interest.
I'll print things off for those who need, but we should try to get away from that if possible.
For students, we use Google Classroom as a way to hold assignments, announcements, and reference stuff. It's a great tool that can really help us stay organised.
Trying to get me on the phone is no fun. Email is much better, and there's a system: I answer students first, parents second, and my boss third. If it's an emergency, we're really close to the office and they will pop over.

Supplies
Your child will have a different teacher for several classes, and they might have specific supply requests. For general use we'll need:

• Gym strip
• Binder with paper
• Pens and pencils
• Coloured pencils
• Geometry set (for later in the year)

Technology
I love technology, and I love finding the best ways to use it for learning, self expression, and positive social change. Students are allowed to bring personal digital devices to my class if they commit to using them responsibly and following directions.
If a device comes to class, it must be able to run GSuite. A chromebook is great. Other devices must have memory available to load the apps, otherwise they may as well be bricks.
We have a class set of laptops that I turned into Chromebooks. Many are somewhat usable, but for kids that need extra help with text-to-speech, scheduling, or other special tools, having their own device it a real plus.

More to come!

How to Prepare for a Circus When You Have No Skills

Well, I can kinda juggle balls and kinda spin contact staff, but the people I'll be performing with are pros. They have amazing skills. So I have some options:

1. Practice like crazy
2. Develop a pinched nerve in my back as an excuse
3. Rely on my maker skills

Number 1 is a given. I've been working, but old dogs learn new tricks at a glacial pace. At least the old tricks are getting easier. Number 2 happened, but it's getting better. Gotta lay off the doughnuts. Number 3 is kind of a natural for me, especially when projects require new learning.

Up first was the day-glo costume. Now, I can sew, but my experience has been with harnesses, horse tack, and luggage. Clothing? Not so much. So why not a day-glo viking tunic? I started with a general pattern from the lovely Carolyn Priest-Dorman, who posted historically accurate instructions in 1997. On the internet. Whew. FabricLand had some cool day-glo synthetic twill, we have a sewing machine, and off I went. The pattern required some math to up-size all the dimensions (I think it was made for Gimli) and most of it came together in a day.

So I'll look a bit like a traffic cone. Sewing is fun. 

Well, That Went Fast...

Yep, killed another blog through neglect. The SPCB will be after me soon... ...if they can find me.

I'll be hard to find, because (drum roll) I've joined a Circus! Again!

Why post about this here? It's an unused class blog in the Summer... what's the point? Two things:
1. It's about learning. I've always been a musician, but theatrical and physical stuff is new to me. Learning about movement, flow, props, and costumes is giving me some insight into how my students learn. It's the least I can do, really!
2. I'm trying to improve on the old documenting-learning-thing. I use so many blogs and videos to learn, it seems only fair that I start trying to hold up my end.
3. This blog was not living up to its potential. I mean, blog abuse is a terrible thing.

Sooo... here's a coupla pics from last year to whet the appetite (Thanks Nick Woolsey and Karina Strong for the pics):

Pirate Mode intensifies...

Tiff and 3000 of her closest friends.

So VestaFire Circus at MusicFest was a blast, but I had to throw myself on Karina's mercy for props and costumes. It worked fine, but when you have limited circus skills like me, it's best to bring something to the party. This year's themes are Day Glo, Circus Checkers, and Go-Go-Galactic (variations on Buck Rogers, etc).

For Checkers I'll rely on the magic tickle trunk.

Day Glo and Galactic will get their own posts. 

Yay!

MIC CHECK!

New year, new blog. Incidentally, I have to delete about a hundred blogs and pages from years past. It's become a mess, really.

Actual information coming soon!