Posted by MrLynch | Posted in Weekly Newsletter | Posted on October 28, 2017
Last week students had the opportunity to participate in the fifth grade More Than Money Conference at Aetna. This conference focused on financial literacy and used the Junior Achievement curriculum. It was taught by volunteers from Aetna, and students had the chance to meet other fifth grade students from the greater Hartford area.
The Unit 2 Math Test will be on Thursday. An optional, extra math review will take place on Thursday morning at 7:30 AM. Students will also have an in-class review on Wednesday.
We head to Sturbridge Village on Friday. Students will be walking quite a bit so sneakers are a must, as well as a lunch/drink. The class will be split into a few groups and each group will decide for themselves where to eat. Therefore, students will be walking around with lunches for a few hours. Those tiny drawstring backpacks are great on this trip. Regular backpacks are a pain – otherwise, students are better off carrying their lunches in a sturdy disposable bag. Electronics are allowed on the bus, but they cannot make an appearance in Sturbridge itself.
Upcoming Events
Picture Makeup Day – Friday, November 10
Parent Teacher Conferences – Thursday, December 7 and Friday, December 8 (although I will offer times each morning all week as well)
Posted by MrLynch | Posted in Weekly Newsletter | Posted on October 14, 2017
Students started Junior Achievement last week with Ms. Barcikowski. They will be involved in a five session program over the next few months. This will fit in nicely with both the More Than Money Conference, and the other financial literacy tie-ins we will be doing this year such as our class business (Bungles) and the upcoming Holiday Bear Project (more info to follow on that second one).
Students started Genius Time last week. Genius Time is a modified form of Genius Hour, which originated from the company Google. Engineers at Google were encouraged to spend 20% of their time (one hour) each day on any project that they wanted to work on. Many really cool ideas came out of these special side projects. According to Google, the idea is very simple. Allow people to work on something that interests them, and productivity will go up. For students, it’s not a full hour as it will take place during the second half of Targeted Instruction (TO) time, but the concept is the same. They will choose a project to work on from a list I created (along with their input). All components of this project all housed on Google Classroom so students have access to it at any time, even at home. At first all projects will be individual, but eventually they will be allowed to work with other students, too. If students have a project idea that is not on the list, they could discuss it with me to see if it could be added.
Upcoming Events
Picture Makeup Day – Friday, November 10
Parent Teacher Conferences – Thursday, December 7 and Friday, December 8 (although I will offer times each morning all week as well)
