Open House Update

Phew! I always stress out about getting my room perfect before Open House and this year was no different! But this year I had a lot more anxiety than I normally do and at 4:30pm, I started feeling that my room was missing something. It was missing that spark that I normally feel...almost like a sense of completion. But families would be coming in soon and I wouldn't be able to do much to fix the uncertainty I felt.

As soon as 5:30 hit, I realized what I was missing: the community of learners...my students. I know it sounds cliche, but welcoming the families really made the room feel better.

I'm excited for what this new school year will bring and so happy to have the students I have. Here's to a great 2014-2015 school year!

We had a station where students built a representation of themselves with only 20 Legos!

We also had a station where students wrote an "I am" poem. And there was another station where students wrote their names and numbers on an index card to go on their crate!

And a photo booth, of course!

Welcome to Room 208!

: R E A D     C A R E F U L L Y :

This post contains 1,131 words that will begin to shape your year as a fourth grader. You may like to have your parents sit and read with you so that we can all be uber excited about fourth grade together!

Are you ready to read on about becoming fourth graders at Robinson?

I am so excited for what this 2014-2015 school year will bring! If you read the letter I sent home, some of this may be a review. But just in case…

I taught fifth grade at Robinson last year so some of you probably already know who I am just because you’ve seen me in the halls and around school. But remember, I was with another class last year so you didn’t have my full attention. I’m ready for you now!

This will be my sixth year of teaching! I taught in Chicago before teaching/moving to St. Louis. Yes, that’s Chicago as in the Cubs, the Bulls, the Bears, and the Blackhawks! I hope you don’t count that against me. We may have some differences, but I married a St. Louis native who is all about the Cardinals and the Blues, so I’m slowly learning more about your sports teams. I even cheer for them from time to time...when they’re not playing my Chicago teams of course. :)

I am married to my wonderful husband, Peter. You may see him around at school sometimes because he likes to visit with our daughter, Ellie. Have any of you already seen her around school? She is turning two this September and loves to copy everything Mommy does!

So, I’ve told you some personal things about me, and I’ll share more with you as our fourth grade journey progresses, but now it’s time for you to get to know me as your teacher. So here are some things I value:

1. YOU

The number one thing to know about me is that I am rooting for you…ALWAYS. I will be your number one fan [outside of your family, of course] in and out of the classroom at all times. This means that I am even rooting for you next year or when you’re on your way to high school! This means that I am rooting for you on the soccer or the baseball field! This means that I am rooting for you when you’re on stage! [Just ask my previous students!] Sure, you WILL struggle and you WILL fail, which is totally OKAY! Even adults struggle and fail which you will see me do many times this year! But it is how you get back up, continue, and finish what you’ve started that helps you learn from your struggles and build character! And I will be the fan that sticks with you through the ups and downs this year may bring. I am rooting for YOU!

2. RESPECT

Yes, I am YOUR number one fan…but you are not the only one I’m rooting for in OUR classroom. I am the number one fan for all of my students. I know you know this, but I am stating it here because I value it so much!

I value RESPECT. I give it and expect it in return in my classroom. I expect you to treat others the way you would want to be treated. We respect each other’s personal spaces, ideas [even when we disagree!], backgrounds/cultures, and so forth. We will respect one another!

3. Collaboration / Communication

I love to collaborate! I love sharing ideas, getting ideas, and trying new ideas with other people! I can’t wait to work with the three other fabulous fourth grade teachers at Robinson so that our teaching reflects the best of four minds! What does this mean for our class? Well, it means that we’ll be doing a lot of collaborating and communicating with one another. The more you share and the more you listen, the more you will learn and grow! I love group projects and/or group work and I encourage you to be generous with your great ideas and to be attentive to your peers’ ideas, even if you disagree! Remember, this is where respect comes into play.

Not only are you collaborating and communicating with your classmates, but with me too! I not only love sharing my ideas with my students, but I love receiving ideas from you as well! We are going to be giving each other feedback, where we engage in a dialogue about our work and how we can continue to learn and grow! Remember, I’m rooting for you to become the best possible person you can be!

We are also privileged to have iPad Minis as our personal learning devices! Not only does this mean that we get to learn and grow in a number of ways, but that we also get to showcase what it means to be respectful, collaborative, and communicative on a whole new [digital] level!

There are a lot of other things that are important to me: family, time, fearlessness, taking risks, reading, discovering things, continuous learning, working hard, friendships, knowing when to apologize,... I’m sure my list could be longer, but this is what I wanted you to know about me first.

I know that was quite long, but I hope that you are as excited as I am to be learners in Room 208 this year!

So what now? Well, I’d like you to do three things for me:

1. Ask yourself, “What is important to me?” You can make a list or write about each listed item or maybe this list is deeply rooted in your mind. Either way, I’m hoping that each one of you will take the risk to share with our class so that we can strengthen or even tweak our own lists!

2. Ask yourself, “What does it mean to have someone rooting for me? What does it mean to be respected and to respect others? What does it mean to collaborate and communicate with other people?” Again, I hope that you will share your thoughts with the class so that we can take the first steps to having the best year ever!

3. And…here’s that homework part I’m sure you were gawking at in my letter! Drum roll, please!

I would love to add the finishing touches to our classroom with a 3x5 or 4x6 picture of you and your family! It’s a great way to remember the ones cheering for us even when they are not in our physical presence. [Homework: Bring a picture!]

Well, that’s it…for now. :) If you have any questions or comments about this post, feel free to leave me comments here or email me at: genie.hong@kirkwoodschools.org.

I can’t wait to meet every single one of you!

Mrs. Hong

Scigooooos?

We are totally having fun with Legos in Science!

We are actually dabbling in stop motion videos and I am so excited to share the most recent ones that they will be presenting tomorrow. We are not professionals (yet) at making stop motion videos, but we are learning quite a bit!

The question students had to research prior to creating a presentation was:

Is life sustainable on other planets? (Could life be sustainable on other planets?)

Students had to research (in teams) the planet that was chosen at random for them (I love the random team generator website we use for almost everything!). They were to find out if life was sustainable on their planet and find a way to present their findings. Of course, most of the students chose to make a stop motion video!

Here are some of the videos that my students created today!

Closing the Gap with Legos!

Back in March, I read an article that argued that we are losing the attention of male students in the classroom. As a few educators and I discussed this problem, an idea that surfaced was using Legos to provide opportunities for all students to engage in what we're learning. So I jumped on that idea and logged into Donors Choose and started writing a grant proposal.

Below is what I wrote to attract potential donors:

"How will you show GRIT today?" That's our school theme of this year (and quite possibly every year from now on). We are choosing to persevere every day, even when it's hard because that is the biggest predictor of success!

My students are from diverse backgrounds. They love to collaborate and challenge one another's thinking. Students in our school receive free and reduced lunch and have a plethora of issues poring into the classrooms, but the adults in our school make it about the successes of these children! They have a great potential to not just merely survive in the real world, but succeed and impact life on the outside of our building walls.

Have you heard about the gender gap? Did you know that our boys are losing interest in schools?!?! We make them sit down, read a book, respond (talk or write) to the book, and so forth. These are activities in which boys normally dislike! So why aren't they engaged in school, we ask?

I am asking for Legos so that our boys will have a chance to rip apart, build, design, create, demolish, recreate, and put in motion what they are learning. And I bet these Legos won't be interesting just to boys! All students can be engaged in their learning by doing! Kinesthetic learning is so important for young children!

Legos can open the doors to robotics, STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) projects, literacy, and so much more!

Students of all diverse backgrounds will have a chance to take apart, put together, create and/or recreate designs that will challenge their minds. They will have all kinds of options to demonstrate their learning: creating a Lego representation, making a stop-action movie with Legos, and so forth.

This project makes me excited because it has the capability to reach the learners who aren't always excited to be engaged with a book! Girls, boys, readers, non-readers, everyone!

This project was funded within a month! And when my students found out, they were excited...but the excitement was more apparent once they were able to use them for a free-create session!

Math Journals!

Math has been a struggle this year. So as I thought about what my students needed, I thought about last year. What was I doing differently this year that might be affecting the learning?

And with that came an "AHA!" I wasn't using a math notebook as I normally do! So, even as late as we are in the year (Quarter 4 to be exact), I introduced math notebooks to my friends! On the left side of the page, we write down: 1) Learning Goal (before the lesson), 2) What I Know (before the lesson), 3) What I Learned (after the lesson), 4) Proof (after the lesson), and 5) Reflection (after the lesson).

The Proof is something that they have to prove based on what the lesson was that day. For example, "Show the differences between a polygon, a nonpolygon, and a regular polygon." Students would then have to either draw or write the differences between these three categories. Reflections will help students reflect on the process as well as some content!

Here are some student examples!

Hopefully taking notes and making foldables will help students remember the knowledge/skills learned!

Marble Mazes

My wonderful fifth graders plunged into a GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) Force & Motion unit where everything science was embedded with literacy! Students read about force and motion while writing about force motion while speaking about force and motion and listening about force and motion! Phew! That's a lot of force and motion.

Then we came to the week everyone was waiting for: Marble Mazes via Simple Machines! The task was to design and build a marble maze using three of the six simple machines we were learning about. Students picked their partners and began the project by designing a model before building it. We brought in materials like toilet paper rolls, rubber bands, foam noodles, straws, cardboard (in various forms), and so forth.

Students had a whole week to imagine, innovate, and implement their designs! Here's a video that brings that week together with the students' marble maze runs at the end.

How do you let science grow in your classroom? We are looking for more science experiment/project ideas if you are willing to share! Drop a comment below! :)

The Classroom Project

"What do my students need in order to succeed this year?" was my thought Thursday evening as I was thinking about my next Donors Choose project. I began dreaming about all the nonfiction books I could ask for, magazine subscriptions for my students to help with their inquiry projects, or even money to take my students on a field trip we normally wouldn't be able to go on! The possibilities were endless and I couldn't let my dreams get ahead of me. I still had the next day to plan and prepare!

After a long day of school on Friday, I checked my email to receive a wonderful comment left on my post Choose Donors Choose! It seems that there are some wonderful people willing to help out teachers like me who are constantly looking for ways to benefit students without depleting our personal bank accounts!

So all weekend long, I thought about why I am deserving of more supplies in my classroom and how these additional funds would help me. After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that it is not me that is deserving of more supplies in my classroom, it is my students who are deserving of more supplies in the classroom! Whether or not I win this contest, I can only hope that I continue to seek out a number of ways to get it for them. It could be another grant, Donors Choose, or even my personal money.

Sure, I hope I win something to help alleviate some of the financial stress of being a teacher. (Did you know that teachers spend their own money to provide some/most of the classroom supplies in a classroom?) But I will continue to dedicate my time and energy to the learning of my students, and will do whatever I can to provide the best education for them all!

Here are two pictures of our wonderful classroom! I believe that students learn best when an anchor chart is made with them. Students also have access to iPad Minis in our classroom and when we run out of room for all of the fabulous anchor charts, I make a QR code and post it on our walls so that students can continue to have access to them!


USC’s Masters of Arts in Teaching Campaign

Thanks for stopping by to read this post and helping me see that there are people advocating for us teachers! :)