SMARTBoard

The SMARTboard was installed at the end of last week. I came in over the weekend to rearrange the classroom and to tidy up after the "construction." The bits and pieces of training I received over the past 5 years is coming in handy and I am attempting to use the board as often as I can in class. I am working hard to incorporate the practical uses for educational advancement that the board offers. Many would prefer to have it available for drawing and posting personal messages, but I have resisted such requests. Thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement in raising funds and awareness for technology in our schools. Your work is paying off with all of the materials and training we have. I will have a class devoted to using the SMARTboard on Dec. 1. Your children and I are learning together.

Update for the week

We worked on ALEKS on Tuesday in the Library Computer lab. Everyone is making progress on the program. If you have time it is a good compliment to homework for students to work about 20-30 minutes per week at home. I will plan to have a class session devoted to ALEKS twice per month. We are hopeful that the class SMARTBOARD will be installed soon. There is a packet for homework this week. It is about the relationship of fractions and decimals. There have been some questions in class and we reviewed the decimal equivalent for fractions. 5th graders will be on a trip Thursday. We will be together again on Friday.

Conference Time

I appreciate the time you have taken to come in and conference with me about your child. 5th grade provides a lot of opportunity and time for growth as we embark on the journey toward middle school. As mentioned in conferences and probably by your child we are using ALEKS. This is an on-line program that uses assessments to analyze student understanding of concepts. Students may spend time working on problems and use the explain feature if they are uncertain about any particular item. I can access an online data resource that provides me with the improvements made over time as the student uses ALEKS. The homework for the week of Nov. 3rd was minimal to allow for children to use ALEKS. This week Nov. 10 there will be a homework packet to reinforce the work on fractions and decimals. We are over half way complete with the unit and hope to finish by the end of the week. Thanks for your continued support.