Wednesday 27 July 2016

Dear Parents/Caregivers

As part of our literacy genre writing, students have written a procedure on ‘how to make a sandwich’.  They were asked to write the recipe as if explaining it to an alien from another planet.  Students could choose from ‘ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato and cucumber’ to add to their sandwich.

On Friday 29 July, in celebration of their first week of successful writing, students will be making their sandwich between recess and lunch to eat at lunchtime. 

You therefore, may not wish to pack as much food on this day! 

Please let me know if you do not wish your child to participate – they will be required to watch or help if not making a sandwich. Please also let me know if your child has any dietary requirement, e.g. coeliac, gluten or lactose intolerant, etc.


Val Crozier

Monday 16 May 2016

Flashlight Friday - this week

Wow!!!

Your fabulous children have now reached over 3000 points on Class Dojo.

As a reward, Room 31 will be having "Flashlight Friday" this week on Friday 20 May.  Students may bring in a torch/flashlight and we will turn off the lights, sit in a dark corner or sit under the desk and read our library books for half an hour or so.  Students will be reminded on Wednesday as I will be away Thursday afternoon.

Term 2 Week 3

I am pleased that we have survived NAPLAN.  I am so proud of how the students handled themselves.  Again NAPLAN is a snapshot of their learning on that particular day.  Reports are completed based on written work, observations, discussions and formative and summative assessments.

I decided to check each child's Chromebook history today and was surprised to see a couple of students had spent nearly 6 hours on YouTube or playing online games. However, there were many who completed their Geography homework and caught up with their Term 1 Studyladder work (which I have told students must be up to date by the beginning of Week 6).

As part of our Digital Technology lessons, we are discussing digital safety and currently students are working at receiving their "Digital Licence".

Steve Whitehead posted the information below to the Google Community reminding everyone of the age restrictions for social media platforms.  We restrict access to these sites while students are at school and  discuss the potential dangers associated with digital learning.  Some students have indicated they have had Facebook for a number of years - this means their "age" will now show over 16.  It might be pertinent to check your child's accounts and make necessary amendments to age/date of birth and who their "friends" are.  Some admit they accept any friend request - even from males they do not know!!

If you need help in checking your child's accounts, please let me know and I can arrange for you or a small group of parents to come in after school to go through their access.

Sunday 24 April 2016

Happy Holidays

Wow!  We are already half way through our holidays.  It is inspiring to see so many students completing NAPLAN practise activities on   Studyladder.  I hope you are all managing to have some time to relax and have fun with you family.  Enjoy the rest of the holidays.

Thursday 10 March 2016

Arbury Park Camp

Reminder that all camp consent forms, health forms and specific dietary needs must be returned tomorrow Friday 11 March 2016.

I am aware you have had a lot of expense at the beginning of this year due to Chromebooks.  Payment arrangements can be made with Michelle Kraniac in finance.  You will need to contact her by 3pm tomorrow (Friday 11 March 2016) to either pay or make arrangements to pay.   (There are 35 weeks left this year.  Therefore $5 per week would have camp paid for by the middle of Term 4, $10 per week would have the camp paid for by the end of Term 2).

Unfortunately I must confirm definite numbers on Friday so I can not accept late payments/arrangements.


Thursday 3 March 2016

Questions answered (hopefully)



I am so proud of how all students have taken to working between books and their Chromebooks.  As we all learn more, I am sure we will all see amazing things happening with our learning and teaching.

I have been asked about the microphone I wear in the classroom.  I use a microphone/speaker for two reasons:
  1. I lost my voice for nearly 9 weeks in 2015 and following over 6 months of speech therapy was advised to use a microphone/speaker system both in and out of the classroom to reduce voice strain.
  2. Room 31 has two students with hearing difficulties. The microphone/speaker provides the amplification needed to help them hear instructions.

Students are asked not to speak or make background noise whilst either I or another student is talking to enable these students to hear instructions and answers. The school behaviour procedure will start occurring for repeat offenders who have been constantly reminded not to talk while another person is speaking.

A couple of students have started forgetting to charge/bring in their Chromebooks.  I ask that Chromebooks have at least 6 hours of charge on them at the beginning of the day.  Students must also bring their Chromebook to school each day.  If forgotton/left at home, it will be the students responsibility to catch up any work completed in class on the Chromebook by the next lesson.  Students will make hand written notes during the lesson to use at home.

Unfortunately, I have had to remind a couple of students of email etiquette and will make this a focus of future Chromebook lessons.

Don't forget, you, as parents, can log on to your child's Chromebook using your ardps.com account to see what work they are doing.  Homework/classwork is shown on Google Classroom and also on the class blog.

Have a look at the typing app they are using - it is free to sign up!  Practice your touch typing skills too and challenge your child to be better than you!

 I will notify you via the class blog as more and more apps are introduced.

Please let me know if you need any help with Chromebooks, etc.


Wednesday 2 March 2016

Why Reading Matters


Khan Academy

Hello everyone,
Today your child joined our Khan Academy class Room 31 2016.
I will be using this wonderful educational resource for many math topics and digital technologies focus lessons. It is a wonderful tool to enhance  a student's exposure to subjects and gives real life scenarios to work with/in.
A great example of the exposure the students can get from Khan Academy is in the Pixar in a Box Unit of work. The renowned animation company Pixar has teamed up with Khan Academy to create a step by step structured lesson unit for kids to learn about the whole process of animation. We will also continue this in class in practical hands on projects.
Khan Academy requires parent authorisation for any person under the age of 13. The reason for this is that all videos from Khan Academy are stored by YouTube.

It would be prefered that the student's do not start the units of work yet but wait for me to begin together. Signing up is all that is required.

Term 1 Week 5

It was good to see so many at the parent Chromebook session last night.  Please remember to check the homework page to see what work your child has to complete.  You can also sign in (using your ardps.com account) to your child's Chromebook and check out Google Classroom to see their work too.

Please email me if you have any questions.


Wednesday 17 February 2016

Term 1 Week 3 2016

It was great to see so many people at acquaintance night last night.  For those of you who could not attend, a paper copy of the term overview came home with your child tonight.  I will be posting a copy of my weekly term plan (detailing the topics to be covered each week by subject) on the Term Overview page.

I have arranged for staff not trained in Read, Write, Inc/Fresh Start to complete training over the next two days.  Therefore I will not be in class and have left my planned teaching for the relief teacher to cover.

Please feel free to email me if you have any queries concerning our learning, Chromebooks, etc.  at vcrozier@ardps.com

I will also be using Google+ to communicate with you too.

Val

Tuesday 9 February 2016

Term 1 Week 2

Welcome back and General Class Information


What a great day, all students have made a fantastic start and the signs are good for a very successful year ahead.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you as Room 31 parents for 2016.

Please take a few minutes each day to let your child tell you about Room 31 and how we work. There may be a few concerns about class expectations and procedures. This usually disappears after the first week.

All students have been given equipment to use in the classroom. This equipment will stay in their tray and any other pencil cases they have can be kept at home for homework tasks.

We encourage students to have water bottles in the classroom. Raw fruit and vegetable snacks are also encouraged for brain break eating throughout the day.

Thanks to the parents who sent a box of tissues to school today. We would appreciate each family donating a box of tissues for class use.

We will cover Homework, Curriculum & Behaviour Management expectations and any other class information at the acquaintance Night on Tuesday 16 February 2016.

This year most communication will be through the blog rather than using a diary. If you need to write to us please do so in the diary. Confidential notes will need to be in a sealed envelope.
We hope that all families will be able to access and participate in the class online Hub and be an active member of the Ardtornish Google Community. We have found this to be a very successful communication tool especially when parents can access the information via their phone.


or you can access the blog through our school homepage, then click on the class blogs menu link.

School site - http://www.ardtornps.sa.edu.au/

I look forward to working with you this year.



Val Crozier