Wall of Fame

The sixth grade are wonderful. I can say that at this moment because it is 5:52pm and I haven’t been in school for nearly three hours…so I am feeling in a good mood about them. However, the sixth grade are wonderful readers! Many of them have taken to reading in a way that should be celebrated and rewarded. I like the enthusiasm that many of them read with, and their desire to read more and more. Obviously, reading goes in stages, and at the moment we are going through a “Twilight” stage. This does not cheer me up too much, but I am just happy that pupils are reading. Once they get through the whole Edward/Bella/Jacob problem, I am sure they will go on to read something else.

However, whereas my sixth grade are wonderful, and keep reading more and more – I am not wonderful, and have been writing less and less. [Ironically, I have been reading more!] This means that I have not been updating the blog. Which, in turn, means that you, gentle reader, have no idea who has been reading the most. Who is on The Wall Of Fame? I hear you demand! Where are the members of The 200+ Club? You ask in wonderment! They are here:

Wall of Fame for week 17

The 200+ Club for week 17

Wall Of Fame for week 18

The 200+Club for week 18

Oh, and for 6A, here’s the song you need to learn:

It’s a girl!

Kyra Sophia.

“She was born at 11:05 pm, on January 22. She weighed 3.5 kg, and she is 51cm. long. And of course she is beautiful. She has couple of healthy lungs and will definitely be heard.“

Professor Rene is a dad! Miss Michelle is well and doing fine.

Just found this

I’m sorry. Just a bit. But, I’m sorry. I realise that I have not been posting on here. And I realise that maybe some of you have been missing it – oddly enough, only one student has made any comment about it [hello Marissa]. However, I’ve been struggling to keep up with everything, and the blog has become the least of my worries.

Primarily, we no longer have internet in the classroom – well, we no longer have wifi in the classroom. This means that the odd moments I would get through the day, so that I could write some of my blog, haven’t occurred. I can’t get onto the internet and start writing the days events. This means that all my writing has to be done at home – and here comes the really big excuse…

…I’m not getting home until a lot later. With maria Mrs. Kay now working at school, it means that all those little tasks that need to be done, don’t get done until after school. Instead of getting home before 3:30, I’m not getting home before 5 most days. Obviously there is still school work to do, and there is time to spend with Mrs. Kay maria, and there is all the house work to be done (I should never have given that sock to the house elf!), and at some time I need to cook, and we need to eat. By the time I’m actually ready to sit down and write a blog post, it is already past eight at night. As much as I enjoy the blog, I really do enjoy married life. So, there is normally enough time to sit down and zone out to some television – although, I have read a whole book this week, the excellent The Hunger Games.

However, I haven’t forgotten this blog. Every other day I intend to come back and write about the days events, I just don’t seem to find the time. I’m sorry. But, to make up for my failure to write a blog post because of lack of time, here’s a video from three years ago (?) that I found on my hard drive. Enjoy.

 

Did you miss me?

I know, I know, I know. We’ve been back at school since last week and I haven’t got round to writing a blog post. In fact, truth be told, I wasn’t intending to write one today either but 6A’s Reading Log numbers were so good that I decided I would quickly write a post to congratulate them.

So, how was your Christmas? Mine was very good, thanks for asking. Spent Christmas Eve with friends, celebrating in a Mexican type way. Then spent Christmas Day with family, celebrating in a British type way. New Year’s Eve was spent at home, playing board games (I’m not as bad at Pictionary as you would assume). In fact, I seemed to have spent so much time having a good time, that I’m exhausted and need a holiday to recover from my holiday. That’s why I haven’t been writing the blog. I’ve been getting home way too tired to write. And, after today, I really need to go have a quick nap now, before I write the blog. With five teachers away from school, including Miss Claudia, it meant that today was a full-on day without a single break. However, I have a sudent coming round in 30 minutes, so there is no time for sleeping, just time to write a quick blog post and mention:

THE WALL OF FAME

• 645 pages: Katherine
  

• 620 pages: Aleksei
  

• 480 pages: Jose Manuel
  

• 480 pages: Rodrigo
  

• 418 pages: Naomi

• 374 pages: Azereth
  

• 370 pages: Marissa

• 340 pages: Diana
  

Eight (EIGHT) names on The Wall Of Fame which, considering that they only had five days of reading, is excellent. It would have been nice to see some names from 6B, but instead you’ll have to make do with picking their names out of The 200+ Club. However, staying positive, it is also nice to see some new names on the wall. Well done to everyone.

Mrs. Kay’s Interesting Fact Of The Day: Sir Elton John, who wrote the music for The Lion King, does not have a cell phone. [Except he calls it a mobile phone because that is what English people call phones that you can carry around.]

Homework:

• Maths: Practice 8-4 Nos: 1-4
• English: Grammar Workbook pages: 50, 51, 52
• Writing Assignment: A legend in your own words. (By Friday)
• Read: 20 minutes

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 12,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

breeze driftin’ on by, you know how I feel

Last day! Despite all my encouragement (:grin:) seven students turned up! And then, later in the day, Andrea turned up too. The Magnificent Eight! With only twelve people in 6B, Mrs. Kay and I decided to combine the two sixth grades for the day. We read through Hatchet in Reading Street. We had a PE lesson. We had a Spanish lesson. We had computing. We went home.

Have a great holiday. Read. Read lots. Speak English. Speak English as much as you can. And rest. When you get back to school, we will be working hard. So be prepared.

And, if you have been following my post titles for the last week, this will come as no surprise to you. Enjoy:

sun in the sky, you know how I feel

Well, that went well. Except for the last ten minutes!

The whole sixth grade gathered in the 6A’s classroom. We moved all the desks back and sat on the floor in a circle – it was present giving time:

There were some lovely gifts, that showed a lot of thought had gone into them. The highlight was probably Marissa’s gift to Sergio C.. She had spent a lot of time, and put in a lot of thought, with the wrapping. It was a huuuuuuge box, that had a smaller box inside, that appeared to be full of popcorn but in fact contained another box. And when Sergio finally reached his present, he was very happy. I also liked Enrique’s gift of liquid paper to Diego L.P. – it’s an in-joke-type-thing. If you want to see pictures of the exchange/opening you can see them here. [You might notice that I have had to remove some photos from the sidebar. Unfortunately the place I store photos on the internet is full and, as much as I like you, dear students, I don't like you enough to start paying to store pictures of your aliens and DNA models. So, go see the pictures now, while they are still there!]

Some watched Flushed Away while others played Monopoly. Even though I had mentioned that it might be a good idea to bring something in to do, most people decided that the best thing to do was just eat sugar and then try and sit still for a whole day. It didn’t work. After Flushed Away we moved on to A Christmas Story – the highlight being the moment one of the characters got his tongue stuck to the metal flag pole. While that was playing, the food arrived. At first I thought it was going to be enough pizza to feed both sixth grades. However, it appears that some members of 6A have the ability to eat their way through anything – oh, and drink! I know that one girl had nine Capri Suns and another had seven! Mind you, all the effort that went into eating the pizza meant that when it came to the twisty-donuts most people were full!

Recess, and a chance to run off all that sugar.

After recess there was a card exchange in Spanish, and then Professor Marvin took the music lesson in the classroom. I was hopeful that the end of the day would see everyone settled and calm. I gave out my presents to the students, and left them to go put people in cars. Another day got through!

Tomorrow is a normal day in school. You will be expected to wear PE uniform. There will be lessons. I can honestly say that I will not be teaching anything that will appear in an exam. I realise that some of you might not be in school tomorrow because your parents have made that decision for you. Do not worry. You will miss nothing. And, on the plus side, I have already filled in the grades on the computer – which means that I have also filled in the days missed. So, if you miss tomorrow you won’t be marked as absent. Result! If you do come in to school, expect to have lessons. There will be no point moaning and whining and demanding something else. It will be a normal day.

Mrs. Kay’s Interesting Fact Of The Day: If you place the two different sides of a precision scale so that one of the sides is left in shadow and on the other you allow for light to land on, the one with the light falling on it will slowly sink. Light has “weight”. It is calculated that the pressure light exherts on the surface of the earth is about 350 grams per square kilometer.
Homework:

• Something to do
  
• Laptops: charged
• Read: 20 minutes

birds flying high, you know how I feel

That was a strange day. It never really got going from the start. Because of the rain, there was no standing outside, opening car doors – today the children came to us. Most remembered to bring their small gift for day two. In a moment of total niceness, Rodrigo’s secret friend made up for forgetting yesterday, with a huuuuuuge present today. Tomorrow is the big present. Yes, tomorrow is going to be Sharing Day. This means that everyone is allowed to come in in normal clothes…unless you are a teacher, which means you can’t wear jeans! Also, it means that you can bring in games to play. Do not bring in cameras or electronic games.

Anyway, strange day. The first lesson never got going. We were waiting for the late comers to arrive and [shock/horror] Hector never made it in to school! How ill must he be? It was interesting to see the total lack of belief that he hadn’t made it in. The first lesson was spent conversing in English! it was then time for yoga. This gave me a chance to sort out my mark book and start working out the grades. Except I was pulled out of my classroom to go take a video of:

No, I’m not sure exactly what it was I was supposed to be videoing – especially as they immediately started as soon as I walked in the door (hence the fact that there is a countdown and I only caught the end of it in the video). But, they seemed very excited about what they had done, so here’s the video.

Maths in 6B, and I did my origami lesson. I taught them all to make a box. Oh, sorry. If you are a parent reading this, pretend you didn’t see this bit – just in case, for Christmas, when you are handed a box and open it, expecting something inside...the box is the present! Your child made a box!! Whoot!!!

PE was in the library. Spanish was making Christmas cards. And then it was home time.

Mrs. Kay has just discovered that I have spent 89 pesos of her birthday present on Plants v Zombies (I bought her a 300 peso iTunes card and then used it to buy the game…sometimes I’m not a brilliant husband). Fortunately (because Mrs. Kay is a brilliant wife), instead of telling me off and banning me from playing on her iPad, she is demanding that I get full value from my purchase, and play the game! So, I’m off to save my garden. Don’t forget, tomorrow bring in your big gift for your secret friend. Bring in a game to play with friends. Do not wear uniform!

Mrs. Kay’s Interesting Fact Of The Day: Cézanne was rejected by the École des Beaux-Arts when he applied for enrollment.
Homework:

• BIG Gift for Secret Friend
• Game to play
• Stuff to share
• No Backpack: unless your name begins with rod and ends in go :^)
• Laptops: charged
• Read: 20 minutes

confused? I’m all over the place

You’ve all been to the school’s website? Of course you have. So this doesn’t come as a total surprise then? The Christmas Presentation has been put back until January.

As a teacher, there are tough times in the classroom: the days when it is windy; the days when it rains; exam week; the last week before the holidays. A classroom needs to be organised, otherwise it is no longer a classroom, it becomes a day-care centre. Unfortunately, we are smack-bang-in-the-middle of an exam/rain/end of week. It isn’t a lot of fun at the chalkface. The kids are tired, they need a break. They have been through a week and half of rehearsals, that has disrupted their lessons. They’ve had to sit through exams. We’ve had days off school cancelled. We’ve had nights at school cancelled. We are now at the point where it is impossible to teach anything new in the classroom. Students are in a “non-learning” mode, anything taught to them now will be instantly forgotten. There is no way that they will remember, in January, anything done in class today. In other words, as a teacher, it becomes a task to fill the time as successfully as possible.

• secret friend gift exchange
• geography exam
• reading log numbers
• Santa Claus is fat!
• professor Brian Cox and the rings around Saturn

Mrs. Kay took in the reading log numbers and you need to look closely as there are some new names on The Wall Of Fame!!

THE WALL OF FAME

• 800 pages: Dionisio
  

•  653 pages: Rogelio
  

• 602 pages: Aleksei
  

• 520 pages: Gerry
  

• 367 pages: Mariana

• 356 pages: Diana
  

• 322 pages: Azereth

• 320 pages: Montserrat
  

• 312 pages: Rodrigo
  

There are also fourteen names in The 200+ Club. Well done Mrs. Kay for keeping them all reading. And well done to the students for rising to the challenge. It’s nice to see three names from 6B on The Wall Of Fame, and half of the members in The 200+ Club are also from 6B. Next January is going to be exciting!

On Friday night we had the Admin/Teacher’s Christmas Party. A great time was had by one and all. There was food. There was drink. There were party games. At the end of the evening there was one last party game to be played. It was a complicated affair, that involved rolling a die, trying to tear into a parcel, and a lot of running round-and-round in a circle. The game ended when the final envelop was opened, to reveal a big sign that read, “WINNER!!!” As the picture shows, it was Mrs. Kay who won the piece of paper. Except, it wasn’t just a piece of paper. It appears that the winner also got to unwrap one other present. Yes, Mrs. Kay won an iPad. This means that I need to finish marking my geography exams, because I have just downloaded Plants v Zombies on to Mrs. Kay’s iPad – and I need to get playing before she notices I’ve stolen it from her.

Mrs. Kay’s Interesting Fact Of The Day: The largest art gallery in the world is the Winter Palace and the neighbouring Hermitage in St. Petersburg. One has to walk 24 kilometers to visit each one of the 322 halls which house nearly 3,000,000 works of art and archeological remains.
Homework:

• Gift for Secret Friend
• Laptops: charged
• Read: 20 minutes

I’ve broken my little finger

“Worst. Birthday present. Ever.”

Three years ago, playing football with the sixth grade, I broke a bone in my right foot. Two years ago, putting kids in a car outside school, I fell over and broke a bone in my left foot. Mrs. Kay (or maria as she was known then) was not a happy person. She loves me, and likes me whole and in one piece. I promised to take more care of myself. I stopped playing football at recess and limited my participation to one game a year, at the end of the school year. I’ve also stopped doing most physical activity, unless eating tacos can be considered a sport. And, totally against the general wisdom about this, I haven’t missed a day off school in two years, and I’ve not had to see a doctor in two years.

This has been fairly hard on me because I like my sport. I played football, rugby, cricket, and hockey through school. Rugby and hockey at university. As a teacher I taught all four sports and even taught PE for four years. And I would play six-a-side football every Monday night. I enjoy getting involved. But, let’s face it, I’m not getting any younger. Maybe Mrs. Kay was correct, maybe I should avoid any physical activity at all.

And then I took a PE lesson today.

The students missed some of their PE lesson at the start because Miss Claudia needed to complete a review for the history exam. The students missed the last fifteen minutes of their PE lesson because Professor Rodolfo left. Last week I let them play in the playground. Unfortunately, one student took a nose dive off the swings. So, today I decided to drag a PE lesson out of mothballs, and taught PE. Because I wasn’t prepared to teach the lesson, there came a moment when I needed to go to the staff room to get more equipment. Caught up in the moment, suddenly involved in physical activity, not really thinking, totally forgetting that i am now 50 years old, I jumped over the fence that surrounds the playground. Half way over, I suddenly realised that this could all go terribly wrong, and if it did all go horribly wrong then Mrs. Kay would kill me. Good news, it didn’t go wrong. I landed safely, took off into the staff room, grabbed the stuff I needed, turned quickly, and jammed my little finger on my left hand.

I’ve broken my little finger, on my left hand.

Mrs. Kay is not happy. “Worst. Birthday present. Ever.”

Ah well, perhaps a meal out at a Japanese restaurant will cheer her up – and I will only have to use chopsticks! So, that’s me out of here:

• science exam
• computer lesson
• rehearsal
• English/maths lesson
• history lesson
• PE lesson with Professor Rodolfo
• PE lesson with me

Mrs. Kay’s Interesting Fact Of The Day: Claude Monet would work on 5 paintings at a time in the grassy fields of the Etretat cliffs. As the hour changed he would switch paintings.

Homework:

• Exam: History
• Something to read: when the exam finishes, what else are you going to do?
• Maths: Pair of compasses, ruler, and protractor
• Voluntary Writing Assignment: Best Christmas (for Friday)
• Laptops: charged
• Read: 20 minutes