June 25, 2010

Reading is An Activity

Funny thing happened this week.
We were having our first discussion about the book and what has been happening. I have a very Socratic discussion method. I ask leading questions and let the students sort out the merit of their observations and ideas. Only a few of the students were able to participate. The other children said they read the chapter, but they were unable to talk about the book.
I explained to them the importance of reading for comprehension vs. simply decoding phonics. The next day I noticed an improvement in the classroom discussion. So I stress with the children, we only read what we understand. Everything else is not reading, but wasting time!

Beautiful Math

This week, in Math, we've started on our Math Posters. These poster are designed to educate students about mathematical concepts and make it engaging. You will be able to see them hanging in the hallways by next week.

Student of the Week!

Chandler Sutherland

Not only am I impressed with this young man's smarts. I admire his honor and integrity. He always tells the the truth (even when he knows it may get him in trouble) and he looks out for hos other classmates. And if anyone ever needs a ride home, he's sure to give them a ride in the Batmobile.

 Snack Parent of the Week

The Power Family

Weekly Update June 18, 2010

We've wrapped up our first week and, as an educator, I'm so excited about what we've done, what we're going to do, and the students I'm doing it with. 

What We Did This Week:

• Thank you to all those parents who hustled to get their children Artemis Fowl. We've already read the first 3 chapters and the children seemed excited about the story. This week we've talked about the importance of reading comprehension and how it's makes reading more effective and fun. Case in Point: One of the characters had his boat blown up by the Mafia. It occurred to me that none of the students knew what the Mafia was. As a result they didn't understand why the character was attacked, what the nature of his "business dealings" were, or how that would have influenced our main character. When I gave a (sanitized) explanation of organized crime the children demonstrated a deeper understanding of the story and it's implications. We've are also doing a translation activity. We are decoding a fictional language (Gnommish) into English.

• In Math, we put our measuring and geometry skills to the test. We built boxes. This tends to be a bit more complicated than it sounds. The children have already created templates for functional containers and we will assemble them to use in the classroom. This is a project that can be done at home. All you need is a ruler, paper, scissors, poster board or cardboard, and some glue. 

 What We Are Doing Next Week:

• Next week we will be reading chapters 4-6. We will cover new vocabulary, critical essay writing, homophones, and subordinate clauses.

• In Math we will be making math posters. This is an exercise to teach children to use math to communicate ideas. This is a useful and fun thing to learn. It was our Math teacher's inability to do this that lead to many of our frustrations with Mathematics.

Camper of the Week:

Thaddeus Gue!

Thaddeus is an enthusiastic and prepared student. After he finishes projects he doesn't mind helping others. He is not afraid to ask questions and seeks to comprehend everything. He is a good sport and he defends our classroom from Decepticons.

Snack Parent:

The Gue family! Thank you for your help. Anything is appreciated but fruits and vegetables are preferred for growing minds and bodies.You will find the entire snack list in the Parent Resource Center.

Building Better Thinkers

This week we started our 3 month journey to build better thinkers.
My course is designed to take the skills your children have been learning for the past 5 to 8 years and teach how to use them. Unfortunately, this is severe lack in education and has been for the past 100 years.
Traditionally children are taught rote skills, or “math by rote” as it was phrased by Louis Benezet. (Please click on his name to read about his experiment in Math education.) By high school our children will have mastered geometry, trigonometry, and calculus and still have no idea what it is or how it’s useful. It has been said that the longer our children stay in school the less they know how to reason.
Well that all ends in my classroom. There are no math books, no readers, and no answer keys. There is only the application of skills to real life problems.
The first problem we are tackling is what to do with our art supplies. I would like the markers and pencils in containers… yet I would not like to spend money on them.
So I thought we would make our own containers from cardboard. So I’ve been teaching the children to take what they’ve learned about geometry and measuring to build useful boxes. We’ve already built prototypes and now we are customizing the design for each medium.
I hope that projects like these will answer the question, “Why am I learning this stuff?”
Please see the lecture I have embedded to Sir Ken Robinson provoking and funny lecture on changing the way we think about education. 

Welcome to the MVP's!

Welcome to University Camp!

Welcome to the M.V.P. (Munus Veritas Pietas)

My name is Mr. Raines. I and Ms. Vinson will be your child's Classroom Leaders this summer. We are looking forward to learning and exploring new thoughts while having fun.

On our first day, we've already picked our summer reading choice. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. It's a good summer read that also touches upon themes of Materialism vs. Community. Parents are required to purchase the book. You can find it new
at Chicagoland Border's ($6.99) or call ahead to your local used book store.
While reading this book we will build upon our understanding of theme, build vocabulary, narrative writing and critical thought.

Things to know for Tomorrow!

1. Make sure you child comes with a lunch. The camp WILL NOT provide lunch until next week.
2. Make sure you child comes with swimwear. We are going to the pool tomorrow.
   
3. Parent must also bring snack. This will the Snack parent is The Raines Family. Please bring a healthy snack for this week. 

At the end of the week I'll be sending home a syllabus outlining some of our future projects.

If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me araines@cambrdigechicago.com
or call/text me:
773-727-9092
or comment here. If you wish to receive instant updates of this page. Simple subscribe at no cost to you.

Thank you!

Mr. Raines
Ms. Vinson