Thanks so much for meeting with me last week. It's always a pleasure to work with families that are so supportive, who listen and want to work together. There seemed to be a common feeling in many interviews that while our students are doing fine, they are not pushing themselves as fully as they could be, and none of us want to settle for just getting by. I will continue doing my best to set high expectations and make them clear to students so that they know how to meet them. One of the expectations that has been clear since the beginning is speaking in French with peers during French work periods. While I know that this takes some effort, there really is nothing preventing us from doing it, so I do hope that the kids will feel a renewed sense of responsibility in this area. This week we will set some personal goals to work towards, and I will do my best to recognize students who are making an effort to work towards their personal goal for improvement.
I hope, when you were here, that you had a chance to see our beautiful paintings before they started falling down. They are a little heavy for hanging the way I tried to! Here's what they looked like...
Last week in Financial Literacy, we earned money for our characters through a game of Jeopardy, reviewing all the information we have taken in over the past 5 weeks. We have 3 more classes left and our characters will be around 38 years old this week.
Last week we celebrated Remembrance day with a lovely assembly and sharing some personal stories in class. We also read a short informational text about Remembrance day together as a class and practiced answering some grammar and comprehension questions, similar to what students will be preparing for their Club de Lecture meetings in the near future.
We've continued to practiced our dramatic storytelling of P'tit Jean et la Sorcière. We plan to present this for Mme Potor's class soon, and then continue on as reading buddies for these grade 2/3 students.
Students who have not yet finished typing their good copies of their personal narratives are now doing this as homework, and they have already had almost a week since our last in class computer period for this. This should be written in agendas each day that it still applies. Please remind your student to prioritize this task. Sharing our stories out loud is optional, as some of them are quite personal, however students are welcome to do so.
In other news... I am excited (and nervous!) to share with you that I'm expecting a baby in the spring. At almost 5 months along, this may not come as a surprise... I'm not sure I was hiding it very well. I finally told the kids this morning and they were very excited.
This has been a dream of mine for a long time, and I'm so happy to share it with this class. Of course, I'm very sad that I won't be the one to finish this important year with the kids, but on the other hand, I'm glad they will be around long enough to meet the baby after it's born.
I understand that there may be concerns around the transition to a different teacher. Please know that I am already planning for that and will do everything I can to make the transition as smooth as possible. As always, you can contact me with questions.
Thanks so much for your support at this special time in my life.
- Tamara