Playing Catch-Up

It's a busy year. This is a big class with a lot of different needs, and I'm doing my best to meet them all.

Occasionally a parent comes in who is near panic that their child is failing fifth grade. First, no one is failing. Kids don't fail in this room. The closest thing to failure is getting a 'C.' A 'C' involves me standing behind the student pushing them to get the work done. I don't let kids just sit and fail. It's simply not an option here.

There has been some parents worried about homework, but this shouldn't be a worry either. The homework journal is the way the your student and I communicate in the beginning of the year. The journal lets me know who the child is. If your child isn't writing in their journal, the downside is that I don't know much about your child. It also means that your child is not doing the amount of writing that I would like them to. Why am I sending home writing? Because at this time of the year we spend most of our time in intense grammar lessons. The nightly writing is when the children are supposed to be using the information from our grammar lessons. Those kids who are writing are showing growth. Those students who are not writing are not showing growth in their writing.

Another Note on the Homework Journal: The homework journal is not private correspondence between the student and I. There are no secrets in the journal. If you look in the journal you should growth in writing over the last six weeks. If your student isn't writing, you won't see the growth. The homework journals will be an artifact for conferences. Please take a look at the journal before conferences come in November.

I hope all is well for you. Take care out there.

Adam Berkey

Hello 2013!!!

September is a crazy month for a teacher. I don't know about my colleagues, but outside of my five day absence from town, I have been in the classroom every day. I'm not complaining. I like working with kids. They are energetic and innovative and full of hope. Their optimism instills optimism in me.

Teaching, for me, is a creation of systems each year. Treating two classes the same is a serious mistake. Every group that comes into my room has their personal struggles and their personal strengths. Based on these strengths and weaknesses, my job is to create an environment in which every person is moving forward. When a class is really spread in their abilities, this gets tough, but it's far from impossible. I feel like we are beginning to really move forward, and that most of the systems are now in place for success. There are still program changes coming, and there's the possibility that there will be some grouping based on ability, but we are beginning to find our groove.

I'm excited to begin Math Club for the year. If kids take Math Club seriously, students can make tremendous math growth in one year. NOTE: To give the kids a break, 2:30 - 2:45 will be the time we quickly unwind and get afternoon snacks. We will begin Math Club at 2:45 and end at 3:30. This will also take care of kids who want to stay at school until Lego League.

I'm getting to know the kids quite well. The homework journals have been a huge help with this. The kids are willing to write me a lot about their lives, and from this correspondence I can get to know who my students really are.

Thank you for not losing your minds through the beginning of the year. I'm sorry it took me so long to Blog. I'll try to do better. I really will.

Finally, I will be out one day (October 30th) to go receive External Leadership training. I will let you know what that is after the meeting. It has something to do with school leaders meeting with administrators and going through intense leadership training.

I Hope Your Sunday is Going Well -

Adam Berkey