Stuart's Samurai Warriors - Thursday, October 5th

You are absolutley not going to believe this. If you come into my classroom or look at the pictures, you see lots of action, motion, thinking, working and playing. I even have a few students left who get so excited they can't help but "ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh" hoping I call on them. I congratulate them for trying to prove man comes from monkey, and then call on the person right next to them who's just as excited but a little better controlled.





This morning when they came in the room I was meeting with a parent. The students came in, sat down, watched morning announcements, took out their journals and began writing down their objectives for the day. Then they all got to work. What was more amazing is some of them got to work on the exact skills they had written they needed to work improve on.

READING



Samurai Skill Center - Author's Purpose
Before: 67%
After: 89%

MATH
"What's my grade?" - student
"What's your knowledge?" - Mr. Stuart



I'm glad every student is concerned with their grades. I'll continue to emphasize the need to make what you're learning a part of you more important than "getting an an "A". If you can show me mastery of the material we've covered, I'll give you the "A" you deserve.

Today I found time to give them a reassessment on Unit 2. Since this is something extra, I fit it in when I can. "Know what you don't know." I emphasize this over and over. Even after you get a test back, unless you got an "A" in being able to do what you're suppossed to do, I'll keep reassessing you until you do. This test was a more important indicator of whether I'm truly empowering students with real world ability, or continuing the cycle of "lecture, study, test, forget". This usually happens with expository teaching, or as I call it "Teacher Led and Student Fed". This is procedural teaching and not conceptual, and might be the number one reason American students test so far below other countries on international math tests.



This was the test (answers have been included for you to quiz your child).

UNIT 2 REASSESSMENT TEST

1. 37.4-33.2 = 4.2
2. round 87,215 to the nearest hundred = 87,200
3. round 891.9 to the nearest one = 892
4. round 214 to the nearest ten = 210
5. write the number that has 9 in the ones place, 2 in the thousands place, 4 in the ten-thousands place, 8 in the tenths place, and 3 in all others
42, 339.8
6. 14.4 * 1.65 = 23.76
7. 52 * 11.3 = 587.6
8. 642 + 426 =
600 + 400 = 1,000 40 + 20 = 60 2 + 6 = 8 1,068
9. round 772.95 to the nearest tenth = 773
10. 4 * 920 = 3,680



Congratulations to Devan and Serena who blew the test away, proving they are true Samurai Masters in this area. They were the buzzsaw to the test and not vice-versa.

SOCIAL STUDIES
D.A.R.E. Officer Larry came in to talk to the kids about drug and alcohol awareness.




SCIENCE
One week ago I asked them to write down at least one thing they don't know about what we're studying in science and to study that. Tomorrow I'm handing their questions back to see if they can answer them. At the very least, it could turn out to be a great teachable moment. It's not where you start but where you finish; and if you're in the same place you were a week ago, I guess it's going to take even longer to get there.