Thank you for all of your support this semester overseeing (and sometimes helping) students rewrite or type final copies of a narrative, a poem, and an expository! You guys are the best!! I'm already seeing growth in the kids' writing skills. It makes my heart happy. :)
We are pushing forward now, honing all of our writing skills, as we tackle new concepts and strategies to make our writing even better! We are doing a lot of analyzing of mentor texts to learn about creating main idea sentences that are both broad AND specific. Sounds confusing, right? I'm steering students away now from creating main idea statements such as, "He is nice," or "My mom is cool." The kids are learning that it is much more difficult to come up with good supporting details when the main idea is too vague. This will take time and practice.
More good news... on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the campus technology educator will join me to teach all of my classes about Google Drive. Hopefully you received my email yesterday with a reminder of how to help your child practice logging on and off with ease. Once we get through some basic steps with the students, they will be ready to create their next pieces digitally from the very beginning!! This is a big step for some of them, as it will be a"paperless" way to work. That also means work won't get lost! YAY!!! In the Google drive, students will be able to access their work from any device that has internet capability, at home or at school. They will "turn in" assignments in a class folder I have set up. I will be able to see their revisions and editing along the way by looking at time stamps. I'll be able to make revising and editing suggestions on the documents for them. I'll even be able to see which friends suggest revisions! I'm hoping that many students will then take off with this, creating all sorts of documents, slide shows,, etc. for any class. Students who like to go the extra mile will have opened up a world of opportunity just by logging on. I'm really excited for this opportunity.
Next week is our Goliad field trip. Please look for a green sheet in the Friday folder today (11-13-15) with all the details! The trip coincides perfectly with where we are in Texas history...the creation of Missions and Presidios.
We are finishing up our study of Spanish and French explorers who came to Texas. Once Spain heard France was showing interest in Texas, they increased their power by staking more claim in the area and setting up Missions..
Have a wonderful weekend, Everybody!