Relay for Life and Relay Car Wash

Hey sixth grade Relay for Life Team,

The dates are set for the Relay for Life and the car wash.

The car wash to raise money for the Relay is set for Sunday, July 6 @ 1:00 at the school. There will not be a charge, but we will be accepting donations to go to the Relay for Life. Invite your family and friends to bring their car in to the school.

The Relay for Life is at Circleville High School on July 19 starting at 12:00 until 7:00 A.M. on Sunday morning. Someone from the Relay team will be contacting each member with details, but you can post questions on the comment section and I will be glad to answer them.

If you have the phone number of a member of the Relay Team, give them a call and let them know about the dates.

If you know for sure that you are attending one or both of the events, jump in with a comment to let me know.

See you soon!

Relay for Life

Great job Laurelville students! We raised $2,590 on our Relay for Life. You can read all of the details in the Circleville Herald. This was a super job by all of the students who helped raise money for this worthy cause.

Sixth Grade Outdoor Ed. Camp

We are back with a few bruises, scrapes, and a little poison ivy, but a good time was had by all. The Laurelville students did an awesome job facing challenges, and working with their group to succeed.

GREAT JOB, LAURELVILLE SIXTH GRADERS!

A special thanks to all of the staff members who made this possible including Mrs. Griffey, Mr. Congrove, Mrs. Stevenson, Mrs. Blubaugh, Mrs. Cartee, Mrs. Bower, Ms. Fraley, and Mrs. Caudill. Also thanks to our special guests, Mr. Guthrie, Deputy Thomas, and Ms. Bowlby.

More on camp later.

Relay for Life

Today is the kickoff for the first Laurelville Elementary Relay for Life. A kick off rally was held in the gym at 2:45. A special thanks to Lori Reid (Lori.Reid@cancer.org) for coming down to help get us started. Students took home envelopes with an explanatory letter on the front. Hopefully parents, grandparents, friends, and neighbors will support us as we work to help this worthy cause.

We do have some great news already. VanCuren's Graffics sold Laurelville Elementary Relay for LifeT-shirts for $10. They donated $5.00 of the cost for each shirt sold. Over 90 T-shirts have been sold!

Also, the sixth grade students have been selling window stars for $1 each in the cafeteria every day at lunch. They have sold over 150 stars.

Great job to parents for your help! Hopefully this weekend students will be able to build on this great start!

Group Work

As part of the Sixth Grade Outdoor Education Camp experience, students must cooperate and work as a group. In order to prepare students, they will have several opportunities to work together, and get their group ready for camp.

Today students had to make 2 lists:
The Top 10 Things That will Help a Group Succeed The Top 10 Things You Don't Want to Happen at Camp

After making the lists, students then shared their top three with the entire sixth grade class. Their lists were interesting, and the groups worked well together. Below is a compilation of the lists.

The Top 10 Things That will Help a Group Succeed

1. Teamwork
2. Encourage each other and be supportive
3. Respect group members
4. Follow camp rules/behave
5. Try your best
6. Don't give up
7. Respect Oty Okwa staff and teachers
8. Believe in yourself
9. Be Understanding
10.Have fun

And on a lighter note

The Top 10 Things You Don't Want to Happen at Camp

10.Don't forget to pack your underwear
9. Don't talk to Mrs. Stevenson before she gets a diet Coke in the morning
8. Don't pee in the pool
7. Don't run out of hot water after you go through Fat Man's Squeeze
6. Don't make Mrs. Griffey yell
5. Don't sleep in the bunk next to a snoring female teacher
4. Don't break a leg
3. Don't get poison ivy
2. Don't pass gas at dinner

1. Don't get sent home

Outdoor Education Camp

All thoughts in the sixth grade are centered around Sixth Grade Outdoor Education Camp at Camp Oty Okwa. Tonight (5/19/08) is our parent informational meeting at 6:00 in the cafeteria. Students will receive their Camp Book at this time. It includes a schedule of activities, supplies needed, camp rules, and camp groups.

Sixth Grade Camp motivates students to work as a group member to achieve common goals. Activities also push students to achieve individual success and overcoming fears to reach goals.


PLUS, CAMP IS THE MOST FUN YOU CAN POSSIBLY HAVE IN SCHOOL!

10,000 Hits!

Today The Reading Workshop blog passed 10,000 hits. This means that the blog has been viewed 10,000 times. WOW! Thank you to parents, students, teachers and visitors for reading. There have been over 4,000 unique/different visitors.

This is remarkable for several reasons.

1. Students are listening.

2. Parents are using this resource.

3. Teachers tune in to see what we are doing.

4. This proves the value of a blogs in education.

5. Parents, students, and teachers are all reading the same thing.

6. Educational issues are being discussed.

7. Students are feeling ownership for the class and what happens here.

8. Where Am I? causes students to think critically and use map skills.

9. Student write with the knowledge that their writing has an audience.

10. Students are taking advantage of the opportunity to earn extra credit.


Thank you to everyone that has stopped by to see what we are doing!

The Magnetism of Bad Attitudes

In this whole world, there is no attraction stronger than one bad attitude to another. Today, when two classes were together for about 3 minutes, the complainingest student from one class immediately joined the unparticipatingest student from the other class. You're shocked, I know (yeah right!).

Now, this is absolutely the hardest working sixth grade I have ever seen. This really makes a complainer, or someone with a bad attitude stick out.

What is amazing is how bad attitudes attract bad attitudes. They remind me of how

stink is attracted to armpits and old shoes or

ear wax is attracted to a Q-tip or

mustard is attracted to the front of a fat man's shirt or

grass stain is attracted to a 9 year old's knees or

spaghetti is attracted to a first grader's face or

a teenager's ear is attracted to a cell phone or

lipstick is attracted to a collar or

Mrs. Caudill is attracted to dark chocolate or

a 16 year old boy is attracted to his first car or

a sixth grader is attracted to camp or

a teenage girl is attracted to MySpace or

Mrs. Griffey is attracted to new clothes or

Those bad attitudes just love bad attitudes! Do you know of any attractions?

Relay for Life

The Relay for Life at Laurelville Elementary is moving forward. This week, students will be selling window stars for $1.00 to raise money. All of the stars will be posted in the window of the cafeteria.

VanCuren's Graffics is offering Relay for Life T-shirts for sale. Each shirt is $10.00. For each shirt sold, VanCuren's will donate $5.00 to the cause. These will be gray shirts with a Laurelville Elementary/Relay logo. The T-shirt sale will be May 12 -20. Shirts will be delivered on June 2 so we can wear them at the Relay for Life on June 3.

Relay Calendar

5/12-19 T-shirt sale

5/12-19 Star sale in the cafeteria

5/23 2:45 Relay kickoff for the whole school in the gym—envelopes & letters will go home

6/3 9:00 Turn in envelopes in homeroom

6/3 1:30 Assembly in gym with Relay for Life walk around school grounds to follow

Help the cause and purchase a star for only one dollar. The stars are available in the cafeteria at lunch each day and in the school store.

Plan for Success in Jr. High

As Laurelville students head off in a few months to McDowell Jr. High, how will teacher's describe them? Will they be the organizational nightmare destroying the sweet dreams of their teachers? What do they need to do to start of their two years of jr. high on the right foot?

On Friday, May 16, the sixth grade will go to McDowell for their orientation. As they begin to think about their future, what goals should students have to face this new challenge? And, what should their plan be to succeed?


I read this recently on Polski3's View From Here.

Helpful or Coddling?

Teaching 7th graders, every school season I get a good number of them who have absolutely NO organizational skills. Our school gives each student a binder and dividers at the beginning of the school year. Most have backpacks to use for lugging their school stuff... many arrive to us with no organizational skills.

The main problem many have with this is that when it comes time to turn in their work, they can't find it. Their assignment might be in their backpack, crammed amongst the remains of who knows what else in the pile of mulch found in many of their backpacks. Their assignment might be someplace in their binder, if they have a binder.

OR

Will our students be a smiling example of success? Will they hold up "A" papers that prove their ability as jr. high students. Or will they be the Pig Pen from Charlie Brown.

What is your PLAN for success?

Learning Styles

What kind of learner are you? North Carolina State University has a test you can take to find out how you learn best.

Just follow the link, take the test, and then print out the results.

Felder and Soloman, researchers for NCSU look at four areas of learners in their report of Learning Styles and Strategies. Listed below is a breakdown of the areas.

Active and Reflective Learners

Active learners tend to retain and understand information best by doing something active with it--discussing or applying it or explaining it to others.

Reflective learners prefer to think about it quietly first.

Sensing and Intuitive Learners

Sensing learners tend to like learning facts, intuitive learners often prefer discovering possibilities and relationships. Sensors often like solving problems by well-established methods and dislike surprises.

Intuitors may be better at grasping new concepts. Intuitors tend to work faster and to be more innovative.

Visual and Verbal Learners

Visual learners remember best what they see--pictures, diagrams, flow charts, time lines, films, and demonstrations.

Verbal learners get more out of words--written and spoken explanations.

Sequential and Global Learners

Sequential learners tend to gain understanding in steps, with each step following logically from the previous one.

Global learners tend to learn in large jumps. Global learners may be able to solve complex problems quickly or put things together once they have grasped the big picture.

My Results

The chart below shows the results from my test. As you can see, I am strongly an intuitive, global learner, with a tilt towards visual learning. Basically, this means I tend to work quickly, always looking for new ideas, and need to see the whole concept. I need to picture an idea to understand it.



What is your learning style? What does this tell you about how you learn best?

Why Blog?

Why? Why? Why?

New School

Will we ever get a new school? Do we need one? Would it improve the quality of education for Logan Elm students? I was reading the Blue Skunk Blog when I saw this picture. It just made me sit and daydream about seeing a sign like this on S.R. 56.

As the Logan Elm Local School District searches for a new superintendent, the leading candidate, Mrs. Jan Broughton, current superintendent, Portsmouth City Schools, helped her current district achieve this. Logan Elm currently ranks 371 out of 612 districts by the Ohio School Facility Commission for matching state funds. Most of the schools up through the first 300 either already have new schools, or are in the process. We will soon be eligible.

Almost every district in our area has new buildings. You will see new buildings if you drive by Amanda, Southeastern, Adena, Huntington, Teays Valley, Canal Winchester, Logan Hocking, Unioto, Westfall, and many others.

Are our one hundred year old building good enough? Do we need air conditioning? Would it help if classrooms were bigger, so students would have more room? Would Laurelville Elementary students learn more in a new setting? Would more students succeed?

A Sure Sign of Success

How do you know when you are reaching your students? How do you know they are motivated? How do you know they are putting forth extreme effort? How do you know they are working hard to succeed? How do you know your students are buying into your message?




Well, they always make sure you know. Thanks to Amanda for sharing some love for The Reading Workshop.

Achievement Vocabulary

Tune up that achievement vocabulary. "What," you say, "is achievement vocabulary?" Certain words are contained in Achievement Test questions. Now, I am not going to say that their only purpose is to challenge students, but they sure make the questions harder to understand.

Why say: How does the ending show what the writer felt?

When you could say: Analyze how the author's purpose is defined throughout the conclusion. Use detailed description to illustrate your position.

Now, I get that this is a reading test, but geesh, ask the question! It almost seems like the test writers from the Ohio Department of Education find the most difficult way possible to ask a question.

Anyhow, today we looked at specific words necessary to understand test questions. You can view most of the words at the Reading Workshop Wikipage. Students studied in rotating four person groups and then we had the big challenge. Students played Around the World, defining the words.

Congratulations to the winners: Shayna T., Micah L., Connor H., and Shelby C.

Achievement Test Tips

Laurelville sixth grade students compiled a list of the top 10 Achievement Test Tips.

Here is the Real Top 10, Baby!

1. Go to bed early, and get a good night’s sleep.

2. Eat a good Breakfast.

3. Come prepared (three sharpened pencils, erasers, highlighter, SSR book)

4. 10 Questions every 30 minutes

5. Read the questions before you read the passage, so you know what you are looking for.

6. Skim the article

7. Highlight the important information in the article and the questions.

8. Reread questions and look for key words. DON’T GUESS if you don’t know the answer to a question. Take a deep breath, read the question again, and look back into the selection.

9. Restate the question and number your answer

10. When you are done, go back and double check your answers.

Hard Working Students

Where is this student? Well, he is not in Reading Workshop. On our sixth day of school this week, I couldn't be prouder of the effort put forth by the sixth graders at Laurelville. Great job to all of the hard working students, giving it all to be successful!

Why Do You Come to School?

Megan dipped into the conversation at the table beside us. This guy said, "kids should want to go to school because they want to learn." Megan gave me a funny look and said, "How many kids go to school because they want to learn?"

On Sunday afternoon, we were at the Millstone BBQ in Logan eating BBQ left over from last night's rush. Laura and I took Megan, our 16 year old daughter and our niece, Lauren. We had just ordered, and our conversation wasn't keeping Megan too engaged, so she dropped into the next table to see what they had to say. And that is when she overheard this guy talking about students and their reasons to go to school.

Naturally, Megan's question caused me to think about my students and their motivation. How many show up because it is a law? Because they have to? Or because their parents make them? Do they really want to be there? How many are there because they have a ticket on the love boat, and they just want to see their crush? I know a few guys just want to play B-ball at recess in the intramural tournament. Who is showing up just to see their friends? How many are coming just to hear their teacher's funny jokes?

So, why is a twelve year old, sixth grade student coming to school every day? And what are they getting out of our school, this reading workshop, and our time together?

Riddle me this, what makes school worthwhile?

Journal Responses that Count

Each day I read aloud from a fictional book. Currently, I am reading Double Identity written by Margaret Peterson Haddix. This story features the main character, Bethany, that unexpectedly gets dropped off at an aunt's house that she didn't even know existed.




Students journaled about the topic, "If I was Bethany." Here are samples from students' work.


Kari W.
Why did they keep Elizabeth a secret? They should have told me a long time ago. It's not like I would have been too disappointed. I wouldn't be crying all the time like Mom. I would like to know this kind of stuff. Are they keeping more secrets from me? If so why don't they tell me? I thought parents were supposed to tell their kids everything.

Kyah H. Bethany is a girl who has been spoiled since she was a little girl. Her life was great until one day she was dropped off at a relative's house. She never met this relative and her parents are leaving her with Aunt Myrlie. All of these things are happening in the book Double Identity.




Katie W.
I'm kind of mad at my parents for keeping a secret from me for thirteen years. I also feel bad for them because their daughter died. I don't know what to feel right now. I mean I never thought that they'd keep something like that from me. I'm just confused. First Mom calls and keeps saying I'm Elizabeth, then Myrlie tells me Elizabeth is my sister who died. Since they kept that from me I can't help but think what else could they have kept from me?



Baylie M.
I feel like my stomach and insides are coming up through my throat. I also feel like I have known Elizabeth for a long time. I just wish that my parents would have told me sooner so I would not have to come here to Myrlie's. I'm wandering why my parents didn't tell me about my sister. I am afraid to sleep, now that I'm wondering about Elizabeth. The more I wonder the more I feel like it's my fault for Elizabeth's death. Now I know why my mom was saying, “Elizabeth don't go to that amusement park. I fear that something bad is going to happen.”



Micah L.
I feel lost, like no one is watching over me. I feel alone stuffed in a box that someone sits on. I don't know what to do. Nothing is helping. I away feel so depressed. I can't keep my head straight. My dad will not talk to me and I'm weirded out about my parents.





Molly V.
Today, I found out that I had a sister, whose name is Elizabeth. I still don't understand. What I don't understand is why have my parents kept this from me? I don't understand why they haven't told me all these years.





Shayna T.
Shayna had an excellent example that must be in some folder far, far, away, never to be seen again. The closest anyone can figure, the journal thieves got it. If they are brought to justice, then maybe her writing can join that of her peers.




These are excellent examples getting into the character. Way to go girls! Oh, by the way, the boys did this assignment too. Hopefully we can showcase their work soon (which will happen as soon as they step it up).

Getting the Achievement Question, Part 2

As we continue to work on getting the questions, students are beginning to show remarkable progress. You can read about previous work from the Do You Get the Question post.

This is an example from Luke that demonstrates the before and after.

GREAT JOB, LUKE!