Good news!

Hi All,

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I was pleased to be able to meet with all of you last week, thank-you for taking the time to come out. (Was so glad that I managed to stay mostly on schedule!)

The common theme around many of the conferences last week was Math and Homework. Let's talk about homework first. I am not a huge believer in homework because the children have been in school for so many hours of the day and need some "down" time, just like the rest of us. My other biggie is that homework needs to be meaningful for it to have any value, and at times, it's difficult to find work that can be sent home and reinforced in the way that I've introduced it in class. If you are interested in the topic, Alfie Kohn, a well known Education lecturer/author, has written a popular article called "Rethinking Homework" - read it here. (Just a read that gets you thinking!)

That being said, as you've discovered, I do send home some work that has usually been started in class and just needs to be completed. I will sometimes send work home that also helps families better understand what we are working on in class (for example, asking the children to fill in a graphic organizer that talks about connections - after we've done a few in class). 

Last thing about homework - anything related to word sorts - you can find the "how to" in that booklet that I sent home during the open house. If you need another copy, please let me know.

Onto Math! I attending a two day conference in Victoria last week.. all on teaching Math. I'll admit, Math is one of my favourite subjects to teach, so it was pretty exciting to be at an all-Math conference with teachers who were all of the same mindset. While I was there, I had the opportunity get our district Math Coordinator to agree to co-hosting a Math Parent night! (So exciting!). In the near future, Mrs. Bletcher and I will be announcing the date in which we will be running a variety of activities that will help you understand how Math is being taught in classes today. Once we hold the first evening, I will try to schedule a few smaller scaled sessions that focus on the strand we are working on. More details to follow!

Quick reminder that we have our field trip to Delta Museum tomorrow. Be on te look out for a Halloween letter this week!

Have a wonderful week!