Thank You 5D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A BIG, humongous THANK YOU to all my students for making my birthday extremely special today. I appreciate the kind gesture.I am the luckiest teacher ever! #grateful, #myclassisawesome

Cards and tokens from my students - thank you so much!

Some of my gifts - thank you so much! 

My students started decorating the room two weeks ago! Good job everyone!

Even my desk was decorated! Words cannot express my gratitude to all of you for your thoughtfulness! Thank you!

My class eats awesome sauce !!!!!!!!!!!

Today my AMAZING 5 Diamonds got me quite emotional with a very thoughtful birthday surprise presentation. It was well-planned and rather entertaining! Thanks soooooo much for all the wonderful gifts,cards and kind words. It was REALLY appreciated. You guys made my day! What an AWESOME class! We fit together like a perfect puzzle :-)

Merci Beaucoup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Surprise Birthday Presentation!

Birthday PPT by Grade 5 students - priceless!

Thanks for the lovely poem 5D! 

Last Thursday's Open House

Last Thursday's Open House was absolutely AMAZING!! It was indeed a pleasure meeting and connecting with my students' parents. I look forward to working collaboratively with each parent this year. I truly believe that learning is a partnership.Thanks for coming out everyone!

STUDENT + PARENTS + TEACHER +  COMMUNITY = SUCCESS

Students' work displayed around the school as part of a school-wide numeracy initiative. Math Prompt: Display a number in as many ways as possible.

PowerPoint Presentation of the Grade 5 Program

Our classroom was ready!

Congrats 5D!!!

Congrats 5D for raising a total of $148.30 for the Terry Fox Foundation. You are an AMAZING class! I wasn't expecting this much from one single class. Way to go! You guys have a a lot of school spirit! #Grade 5 Tug of War Champions

You make me proud :-)

Terry Fox Walk/ Ice Bucket Challenge

Today's Terry Fox Run was amazing! To top it off, our lovely administrators bravely agreed to do the Ice Bucket Challenge much to the students' delight! Way to go Eldorado! With all the great incentives, I'm sure the school will raise a lot of money for a very worthy cause. #greatschoolspirit

Students anxiously awaiting the start of the Ice Bucket Challenge

My class after the run/walk. Yes, some of them did indeed run!

Our courageous Admin Team waiting for the Ice Bucket Challenge.Great sports indeed!

Mr V being dunked by ice-cold water! 

Terry Fox Walk

Next week my students and I will be participating in the Terry Fox Walk in recognition of everyone that has been affected by cancer. This walk is deeply personal for some of my students who have lost a loved one to this terrible disease. We walk in solidarity.

Inspiration from Students

In my years of teaching, I have always firmly believed in the idea that students will always strive to achieve or surpass the HIGH expectations that are consistently set for them in an environment that is productive and engaging. Teachers should never underestimate the value of their presence in a room. A teacher who inspires student to do their BEST and ultimately brings out the BEST in students is probably one that first comes across as strict, nagging, talkative etc. But, my advice to new teachers is to keep on talking! Keep on giving those mini lectures. Keep on maintaining structure and discipline in your classrooms. Keep on being consistent with your expectations. Because on the receiving end are STUDENTS. They are listening, observing and most times appreciating every thing you do for them. Your steadfast belief that ALL students can learn and will learn in your class should be repeated over and over again. The students will eventually know this mantra well but most importantly, they will begin to accept that behind that 'tough love' stance is someone that genuinely cares. Someone that simply wants the BEST for them. Someone that sees their potential and will not settle for mediocrity. Someone that believes that STUDENT SUCCESS is possible for every single student. #lovemyjob

On that note, I want to share some samples of student work that I received in the past two weeks since starting Science. The work was INDEPENDENTLY done by my Grade 5 students. It all started with one girl doing some out of school research on Energy. This was after I had engaged my students in a talk about the importance of taking pride in their work and developing good work ethics. I told them I admired these qualities in students and that my expectations for them this year was that they would take the initiative to go above and beyond in everything they did. Sure enough I showered that student with a lot of praise in front of the entire class. Not surprisingly, the excellent example of that one student has inspired other students to do unassigned, independent work - from making windmills, drawings of the human body, power points, booklets etc

I am INSPIRED by my students and so ENCOURAGED. I write this post with so much pride and admiration. The future is BRIGHT. Children are truly amazing. Love and care for them.Show them the way, they are watching!

Student independent research - wow!

Student theory on Energy (too cute!)

Science is fun!!!!

Science is by far one of my students' favorite subject! In the two weeks since we started, they have already become accustomed to the idea that an experiment will be done in every class! Talk about setting a precedent! Lol!

The unit in Grade 5 (Conservation of Energy and Resources) is highly relevant and quite relatable to every day life. The practicality of the topic makes it interesting and engaging to the students. Our first lesson was basically around coming up with a definition of Energy. Each student was given an index card to record their understanding of the term. Here are some sample comments. I would say my students already have a pretty good idea of energy!!!!!

Science Word Wall

More Math!

Based on my student's performance and obvious comfort with 4-digit numbers it was time to move on to using patterns of the place value system to represent and interpret 5-digit numbers.

This, as expected, proved a bit more difficult for some of my students. It was time to bring out the teacher-made charts! Old school perhaps but I'm all for doing whatever it takes to get a child to learn.

Lots of practice on the good ole chalk board!

Close up of student work

Here's a close up of one of the student's Place Value Flip chart.

Minus the slight spelling mistake (nindy) this student, like all my other students, did a fantastic job! Proud teacher!

Students Work

My students did an amazing job with their Place Value flip charts! See the pictures attached! I am so proud :-)

Place Value Flip charts

Math and more Math!!!!

The past two weeks in our Grade 5 class have been busy. In Math, we started the year looking at Representing and Renaming Whole Numbers. After administering an initial Diagnostic Test that revealed the students' strengths and areas of concern, I have been busy using different intervention tools/ strategies and resources. Marian Small's Gap Closing Resource has been extremely useful! Her vast experience in Math Education is underpinned by years of solid research. I trust the wisdom in her approach to teaching Math and I do concur that students sometimes struggle in interpreting and representing large numbers for several reasons:

- not recognizing or being able to use the periodic nature of the place value system to read or interpret larger numbers
- confusion about the place value column names
- not realizing that the same digit in a different place represents a much greater amount if it is to the left of a number or a lesser amount if it is to the right
- difficulty in skip counting by hundreds, thousands, or ten thousands


After two weeks of teacher-guided lessons on Representing and Renaming Numbers to 10 000, reflections in Math Journals, games, working with base ten  blocks and peer teaching a "mini project" was given to consolidate the student's learning.

Mini-Project

Nice Message

Last week's school assembly was a wonderful start to the year. The message was simple yet profound - what makes you different is what makes you AWESOME!

Embrace every fiber of your being. Accept who you are. Celebrate YOU and don't ever forget that an original is always worth more than a copy so BE YOURSELF!!!!!!

Take this attitude throughout life and celebrate your AWESOMENESS every single day!!!!!!!!

To anyone that is reading this blog, don't forget - YOU'RE AWESOME!

Share your smile with someone. Inspire. Do good. Be the change you want to see in the world. Off you go! Go create waves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Goal Setting Day

Yesterday, Day 4 of Grade 5 was our Goal Setting Day. I gave my students a "How Do You like to Learn" sheet as well as goal setting sheet for them to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses and the steps they will take to improve on the areas of greatest need. The sheet also asked them to identify the persons that can assist them to improve and how. The answers were honest and  demonstrated a great deal of self-awareness that took me by surprise.

After one week in Grade 5, I can truly say that the experience so far has totally exceeded my expectations. My students are extremely well-rounded and socially aware of many issues. They're articulate, outgoing and very motivated to learn and discover new things. Their overall attitude towards school is positive and highly encouraging. The forecast for this year : BRIGHT with lots of sunshine and positive surprises!!!!!!

Students "All About Me" Posters. Excellent job 5D. I am impressed!

Community Building Activities

Day 3 of Grade 5 and it is totally AWESOME!!!!!! The kids are extremely enthusiastic about everything! It is so heart warming to see how their eyes light up to do a new activity. They are EAGER to start learning!

However, in my wisdom as a teacher of many years, I recognize the importance of establishing the right climate at the start of the year. All week the emphasis was on gathering information about each student and reinforcing routines and procedures. Yesterday, the conversation shifted to the rights and responsibilities of each student and coming up with classroom rules and expectations. Today was deemed the "Community Building Activities Day". In the morning the students were given a seating plan in groups of four. In all, there are six groups. They were then given five minutes to collaboratively come up with a name for their team. The names were hilarious! I forgot to snap a picture of the chart but here goes ......

Group 1 - Chicken Wings
Group 2 - Unstoppables
Group 3 - Dark Bookworms
Group 4 - Diamond Bears Millionaires
Group 5 - (don't quite remember this one but it had Diamonds as a part of the name)
Group 6 - The Invincibles

They will be able to earn points if they demonstrate good character traits and adhere to the classroom rules and expectations. I was impressed with how quickly this seemingly simple idea at the start of the day transformed the overall atmosphere of the classroom. I observed a lot of cooperative learning and respectful interactions during later activities throughout the day. Way to go 5D, keep it up!

Classroom Rules and Expectations

Classroom rules and expectations that were totally constructed by my wonderful Grade 5 students. I think they did an incredible job! They had so much to share! Can you tell?

 The signature on the chart paper is their promise to abide by their own student-made list of rules/expectations.

Another first day surprise

Yesterday morning my new Principal went around and personally delivered a long stem rose with a note attached to every single staff member. It immediately set the tone for the new school year. It was an excellent, personal gesture that was totally unexpected. Thanks to the amazing Admin Team! It is very much appreciated! #darrenvanhooydonk, #shannonlee, #susieho

First Day Surprise!

Today was an amazing day! It was great meeting my new students and finding out more about them. I started out by showing them a video of a live reading of Julie Dannenberg's book First Day Jitters. I thought it would have been the perfect teacher introduction. Teachers do get first day jitters as well!

The toilet paper activity also went over well. The students were in suspense as to why they were given a roll of toilet paper and instructed to take as many squares as they wanted. Of course, some students took way more than expected! One boy took 19 squares! When done, they were informed that the amount of info that they would give me about themselves would correspond to the number of toilet tissue squares taken :-) Fun activity and a nice way to learn about the students.

We also did a First Day Challenge in pairs. Each pair received a sheet of paper that spelt out FIRST DAY. With each letter they had to write several things (a city, province, country / clothing/ name of a famous person etc. ) that starts with each letter. It became competitive and the students worked intensely in pairs to win the treat that would have been awarded to the pair with the most boxes filled in.


At the end of the day, I got the best surprise ever. Just as I was preparing to leave I noticed the following sign attached to a student's desk. What a perfect way to end the first day!

My diamonds (5D) ROCK!

First Day Surprise!

New Beginnings

 Tomorrow is the start of another school year. For me, it's also the start of a brand new experience - new grade level, new subject content and curricula, new school, and new location. Wow!