Monday, January 3, 2011

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

Well, we certainly hit the ground running today, and we started with Social Studies. We left off right at the end of the chapter, and I had originally planned to have a test on that last day. Because of the snow days and all that stuff, though, it didn't happen. So here we are, and on Friday, the kids will be taking an open-note test (which will include their white pages). I warned the kids against writing every word down in their notes, because they are going to have a limited (however generous) amount of time to do the test. I modeled for them a good way to make their notes, showing them how to "edit out" the unneeded information and distill it down to what they will need. They will finish up the chapter on their own in class tomorrow.

In Math, we're working on scatter plots, stem and leaf plots, and those kinds of data landmarks. I'm going to kind of shake up the way we do Math, if only just a little bit. My plan is to have the Math Boxes due for homework the next day, and then we'll check them in class. At least that's the plan--what happens in actuality will most likely differ. This will be in addition to their study links or whichever other homework the child will have that night.

I'm trying to change what I want the kids to do during school hours and altering what I send home, because I want to get a good read on what they can do on their own.

Take care, and have a great first week back!

No comments: