2006-10-06

Stuart's Samurai Warriors - Friday, October 6th


""Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." - Chinese proverb

I can remember hearing this quote as a child sitting in church. Since then I've heard it again or seen it many times. I'm sure we all have. This year I stapled it to the wall next to my computer. A friend of mine took the time to write it in calligraphy and give it to me. I can take the time to write it's philosophy into my lesson plans and empower my students with its message. But nothing great comes easy. And I truly want their greatest selves to be realized. If I can just get them to Be Big this year, bigger than they ever have been before.........



Congratulations to Kenny who scored a 100% on his spelling test! He and I have had our run-ins. As many people as possible need to be around this young man's wonderful heart. In order to do this he needs to have marketable skills. I told him I don't care if his IQ is 20 or 200, I care that he uses and develops what he does have to its fullest potential. Ms. Wilson your work with him is outstanding!




MATH
According to the results of the Unit 2 reassessment test, only two students have truly increased their intellectual wealth (IW). The intelligence quotient (IQ) of all my these students allowed them to attain a 74% average on the initial testing in mid September. They studied like good students and only two students failed. Not bad right? I'm a good teacher and they are good students. It sure looks like that anyway.

The hard reality is that when they were reassessed on this same knowledge 3 weeks later, they averaged 59%, with 6 students failing. What this means is that the collective Intellectual Wealth of my class on Estimating and Computing Numbers is a miserable 59%.

I have failed my students in empowering them with long-term ability in this area, so far. I tell them there is no "try", there is only "do". You do or you do not do. The way to make this happen is with tremendous "try", and not the cop-out "Well, I tried my best." Our "best" is often nowhere near our true best. And since I don't see one of these students as failures, I will not allow them to fail. I will not allow myself to either.

One student who failed crumpled up her test because she was so mad (well, not mad, because an animal foaming at the mouth is "mad"; so she was angry). But I like that fire. That anger is a sign of great frustration in that she knows she can do better. Now the challenge is to turn that fire into power; not allowing it to burn her up but use it to ignite her spirit to perform at a much higher level.



We went over the results of the Unit 3 test: 74% class average and only 2 students failing. But it's not where you start but where you finish that's important. "Sarah Smiles" is a great song (from a long, long, time ago). I'm proud of you Sarah for coming a long, long way. It's a beautiful thing to see anyone believe in themselves, but especially a child. You have become more than you were before, and your smile says it all (That OSU flag again?!?)

Bridget commented on "Why?....I Don't Know" wondering why it's "amen" and not "awomen"? Well, the top three test grades belonged to the men. Maybe back in the day the men scored higher on the prayers. All I know is that in an effort to motivate the young women to do better, I led the boys in a dance through the classroom chanting "men, men, men, men, men, men, men, mennnnnnnnnnn" (from the show "Two and a Half Men").



After this frivolity we took a reassessment on Unit 1 - Number Theory. The original test was taken for the first time near the end of August. Do I dare look at the results? I will dare. But not until I hug and love and play with my own children who are with me this weekend. Then I will be feeling all good and stuff and courageous enough to face the possibility that I've not truly increased my students' intellectual wealth (which is the opposite of listen, study, test, forget). But I will have the energy to keep Dreaming Big on Monday and empowered to fight the good fight, the fight to see the best in each one of them and figure out how to bring that out.

It is not my job to try. My job is to do. I work for them; not the principal, the parents, or the FCAT (state test). I work for the 21 students that come in my room every day (by the way Nick, where were you today? You were one of the top math grades. You missed the "men" dance!)

Do they feel unstoppable? Great! Are they in fact unstoppable? Well, can they still get an "A" on a test they took a month ago? Again, there is no try; only do or do not do. Some say that "those who cannot do, teach." Coming from the business world myself I understand this thinking. However, if you cannot do, you cannot teach. There is only do or do not do.

Here are some BIG DOERS. Devan was this week's principal award winner for outstanding effort and performance.










Sandeep was our first


Kieran our second (send us a photo :)

and Serena our third
Congratulations and thank you for your hard work and belief in yourselves!

Below is today's reassessment on Unit 1. Make sure your child can perform these operations and similar ones you make up. My own daughter went from scoring 06% in math to being the best in the school, through extra practice at home ("You Have to Win to Lose"). She had to be told she wasn't a failure and made to prove it to herself.

Unit 1 Number Theory Reassessment

1. Mr. Stuart has 42 footballs plants. He thinks he can actually grow footballs from plants. Mr. Strange (er, Mr. Stuart) wants to plant them in a rectangular array consisting of at least 2 rows with at least 2 football plants in each row. Draw three possible arrays. (2x21/21x2/3x14/14x3/6x7/7x6)

2. Is 42 an even or odd number? Or is it the very best number of all? even (and the best - one student remembered 42 was my football number in college)

3. List all the factors of 42 (1,2,3,6,7,14,21,42)

4. Is 42 a prime or composite number? (composite)

5. How can you tell? (it has more than 2 factors)

6. List the factors of 42 that are prime numbers. (2,3,7)

7. Write the prime factorization for 42 (2x3x7)

8. Write the prime factorization using exponents (there is none)

9. Fill in the missing numbers

a. 49 = __7__(squared) b. 81 = __9__ (squared) c. 36 = __6__ (squared)
d. 5 squared = __25___ e. 10 squared = __100___ f. 8 * 8 = _8___(squared)

Homework: Study Link 4.1 (Division Dash is a good game to play to reinforce this skill and can be found in the SRB) (Refer to "Brain Recognition" to see the importance of games for some students. My son, Brosden (4th grade), is one of these. He just showed me his math test from today - 100% A+! Thank you Mrs. Lyons for your great teaching and great belief in him.)



READING
We took the Paul Revere test today. The students put it in the "Treasure Chest" I brought in today. Thank you Jessica for suggesting that name. As you said, you put treasure inside of a treasure chest, and only effort you treasure, your gifts, are allowed to be put inside.



After it was over I worked on teaching Samurai Masters to assist me in teaching the Samurai Warriors on different skills. This is building a sense of community in the classroom, a very valuable skill. Using Chapter 11 of the science text, we worked on reading skills in these flexible groups.




Homework: Read, read, read.

"Read a book.
Read a brochure.
Let your mind travel
On a wonderful adventure."
- Me (I keep getting asked if I'm the one coming up with my own writing, both good and bad. Yes, for Pete's sake (whoever this guy is)

SOCIAL STUDIES
Students worked on their History on Parade PowerPoints as computers were available. We also worked on our geography skills as two new countries visited us for the first time; France and Greece.

Over the week we learned where visitors were in the United States
and countries such as Germany, Spain, India, Canada, Malta, Zambia, Malaysia, and the U.K.















SCIENCE
Today we had our first ADDitions Rotation. Mrs. Kocarek came in and did a great job engaging the kids to use their intelligence and creativity in rewriting tobacco and alcohol ads.


We also went to the Sandlake Saks Store where students spent the "dollars" they earned for outstanding performance in the classroom.


I'm happy to say I was cleaned out this month, having nothing left to give; just as I hope to be able to say in the moments of my passing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Stuart,
you made the day sound exactly as it was. However, you have forgotten that your answer to one of the math problems was wrong. I corrected you that on problem number 1 in the Number Theory work a possible array of 42 in 2 rows is not (2x24) it is (2x21). You promised me you would remember this but now you have published the wrong answer for the world to see. Serena

Unknown said...

Thank you Serena for reminding me of my mistake. The same goes for the teacher as it does for the student; If I'm not making mistakes, I'm not trying hard enough. If I'm making the same mistakes over and over, I'm not trying hard enough. I appreciate you holding me to high standards, it shows you believe in me as much as I believe in you.