8.28.14 Crew News

Announcements:

Attention 3rd, 4th, 5th* and 6th* graders: Battle of the Books is back! If you love to read and compete against kids from other schools to show your knowledge of these awesome books, then BOTB is for you! 
Click here for the reading list. The Registration form must be returned to your teacher by Friday, August 29th. Let the battles begin!

Calendar Updates: 

Sept 1: No School; Labor Day Holiday
Sept 26: No School; Professional Development Day
Oct 3: Students are IN school (different than other schools in the district)
Oct 6-17: Fall Break
Oct 20: No School; Teacher Work Day (different than other schools in the district)

Voyage Reflections:  Students came back to school brimming with excitement about our voyage last week. What a difference it makes to have these voyages for opportunities of personal growth and coming together as crew.  Each child decided on one activity that was particularly a great experience, one where they had to overcome obstacles (mental or physical) and learned something about him/herself in the end. They worked hard this week to craft a voyage reflection that not only told about the experience, but included feelings, specific details, and thoughtful reflections about their learning from this experience.  After drafting these, they are working on publishing them on the computer. By next week, I hope to have these reflections loaded on their ePortfolios. Expedition:  We launched our first expedition... They were told to first draw and label the parts of the toys. Then they were asked to explain how the parts work together. Getting to work with toys in school was a big hit! And very engaging! What would happen if a part was missing? What would happen if you change one of the parts? After building some excitement and enthusiasm about this expedition, students learned the guiding questions. In what ways do systems interact? In what ways do cause and effect work in systems? In what ways does asking questions create knowledge? It sounds like this group has some great knowledge about systems already from their 2nd grade expedition on prairie dogs and wolves. Now they will be expanding on their understanding of systems through other studies of science. I'm not going to say too much about our study yet, so that parts of it can remain a mystery. Stay tuned for more!  Just for fun:  Here are two photos from our Back-to-School Carnival. Thanks for coming out to splash the teacher! :)  Rosetta Stone:  We are very excited to start learning a new language, including me! Here is our language spread:  I will keep you posted as we begin this new adventure. Mrs. Deborah's letter is posted below for your reference. Deborah Lemmer, Principal Dear Families, At the end of last year, Renaissance was presented with an opportunity to pilot Rosetta Stone, an on-line foreign language program. Through collaborative conversations with staff and SAC it was decided to pilot this program in second through fifth grade and Discovery classrooms. Throughout this year we will monitor the effectiveness of this program to enrich our language arts instruction. We will formally survey you towards the end of the year to collect your input before decisions are made for the following year. The intent of the foreign language program for students is to enhance their literacy and language development. This is a component of their literacy instruction. The goal is not for students to become fluent (though that would be great!) but to gain the benefits of critical thinking, creativity, and flexibility of mind. It is well documented that learning a second language, especially one not spoken at home, is more of a problem solving activity than a linguistic one. Rosetta Stone is a subscription based program. Students and families will be asked to commit to their choice of a language for one school year. If our pilot is successful and we continue with Rosetta Stone in future years, students may want to continue with the same language or choose another. Rosetta Stone brings language learning to our school. Fully on-line with each student working at his or her pace, with models that meet the unique needs of each classroom and each student. This program utilizes innovative approaches, with a learning framework that promotes creative and strategic thinking with feedback that offers motivation and individualized engagement. Progress is measured by each student’s mastery of content. For many students, that progress won’t stop at the classroom door. It’s anytime and anywhere learning that’s both independent and interrelated. Learning begins immediately in an immersion environment with interactive activities carefully sequenced to build language naturally. Core lessons introduce reading, writing, speaking and listening skills (literacy standards). Then, key skills such as grammar and vocabulary are refined in focused activities. Strong emphasis is placed on producing spoken language. Proprietary speech recognition evaluates students’ pronunciation, providing immediate feedback guiding students to speak the new language correctly. Content learned in Language Lessons is reinforced with interactive games and activities that provide fun ways to explore the new language. Students practice reading culturally related stories aloud, receiving feedback on the speech via speech-recognition technology. Management tools enable monitoring of student, class and group progress. This unique language program will be a component of our literacy instruction. Specific information regarding student progress is available through the on-line program itself. We are excited about this new offering and ask that you be patient with us as we implement it. We value your feedback as we work through the coming months. Warmly, Deborah