Crazy Week!

     Well, that was a crazy week of weather...snow, rain, fog, flood, ice and what else!  We are grateful that we only missed one day of school.  We are all feeling like the kids are out of sink with all of the days missed and the delays.  We have been talking to them about good choices and getting back in to a good routine.  This winter has been hard on all of us we know!  Please remind your children to not forget that they have quite a bit of school left and we have to get our things done! 
     A highlight of this week was our trip over to PHS on a sunny, nice day last week!  It was a great time and the PHS students worked with our groups and they all enjoyed themselves.  The students really did a nice job listening to Ms. Faulstich and were all very attentive.  This was a great partnership and we are hoping they can come to Riverside next week to help us some more.  The students scripts are coming along nicely and we are excited about the results. 
     This week we continued to work on sinking and floating in science.  We worked on perimeter and area in math as well.  We also continued our work with writing and American Revolution in humanities.  It was a busy week!  Please help students remember to be working on their Riverside Reads, reading calendars and their weekly Achieve 3000.
     Have a great week!

Science class

 Photos of our trip to PHS

Positive Thinking Did it!!!

     Well, it took us six weeks but we finally completed an entire week of school with no delays or cancellations!  I know it was a little bit of a shock to the kids (and our) systems to go every day on time!  (I think the positive Blog title last week helped!)  We are so glad that we made it and we were really able to see how our new schedule is working and we think that this was a good change!  We are all working hard on our current project and we are working hard getting ready to take the ISTEP.  We have moved back the start of our test to Monday, March 10th with a practice test on Friday, March 7th.  We will be testing on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday March 10-13.  On Wednesday of that week we are having Junior Achievement for the day.  This was something that Riverside has been working on for months. It will be a nice break during this first round of testing. 
     It looks like, pending school board approval, that we will be making up our days on Good Friday and then tacking on the final three days onto the end of the year.  Considering how much we have missed it does not seem that bad to have three days at the end!  (Positive thinking again!)  We are planning, (weather pending again) to finally walk to PHS on this Wednesday, February 19.  This is rescheduled from February 5th.  We are excited to work with the advanced acting class and see how they can help us on our scenes. We are planning for our Revolutionary play to be after Spring Break.  We will be sending our specific details soon. 
     This week we continued to work with geometry in math class.  In science we continued to work with floating and sinking.  In Humanities, we are working on learning more about important events necessary for our play and we are working very hard on our reading, writing and discussing skills. 
    Remember to encourage your child to complete their weekly Achieve 3000 and their Riverside Reads!  Encouragement from home is always helpful!  Have a great week! 

Isn't it Beautiful Outside?

    Since last week's title to the blog did not help us with our weather, I thought I would be positive about this endless (wonderful) snow.  We are sure hoping that this week we will have school for all five days. 
     We obviously did not get to walk to PHS last week since we were not in school and the weather was unkind.  So, sometime the week of February 17-21 we will be walking over to work with the PHS acting class.  We had a visit from Ms. Faulstitch and a few students last week and it was wonderful.  She held all of our attention and she involved our learners into what she was talking about.  She had volunteers work with her students and it was a lot of fun.  I think it lit the fire under our kids and they are ready to get rolling on this play. 
     We have been working on geometry in math class and will continue through this grading period.  We have also started a new daily math review and those papers you will be seeing in the Monday folder for awhile.  It was requested that we send those home so parents could see what we are working on and if their child is struggling.  If you see that your child's daily math review has some blanks encourage them to work on these problems.  We work on them in class and go over them but not everyone gets them all done and they are encouraged to review them at home.  This is a great way to get everyone ready for ISTEP. 
     It looks like we will be pushing back to start date for ISTEP due to this extreme winter and our days off.  When things are finalized we will let you know those dates for sure.  Students will be taking all of the ISTEP online this year except the Applied Skills math portion (so they can show their work).  Students will be writing online so we have been working with digital journals to keep them typing and practicing. 
     In science we have started a new unit of inquiry called Floating and Sinking.  This is a fun unit and we will be doing these inquiry based activities two days a week for this quarter.  In humanities we continue to work on our knowledge of the American Revolution.  We also continue to work on our reading and writing skills daily. 
     On Friday, February 14th Echo is getting a bit of a face lift.  Here is a link to the information we received on this from New Tech.  Some of this may not apply to you parents but we thought it would be nice to give you a heads up on what is happening. 
     Have a great week and enjoy this beautiful snow! 

A few shots of our American Revolution student lead lessons.

 A visit from PHS students and Mrs. Faulstitch

 Student demonstrating knowledge of geometry terms

Is Winter Over Yet?

     Well, we are wondering if this winter will ever end!  We are ready for a normal schedule and we know the kids are as well!  Last week, at the start of second semester we started a new schedule and we have been able to use it fully for three out of ten days.  For those three days we like what we see.  We have put true Humanities back into the big room and Mr. Hunter and Mr. Premetz are working on language arts and social studies skills together.  They are working on skills that we need for our project and for the ISTEP!  Mrs. VanDerWeele is now in a small room during the first part of the day and two days a week she is working on science standards and the other three days she is doing math intense.  Mrs. Dennie is still working on math topics and Mrs. VanDerWeele is working on extending and reteaching topics.  The students have been wonderful with the change and with all of the delays.  We appreciate their flexibility as we try to find the best fit for our facilitators and learners.
     Students gave mini-presentations last week on their American Revolution topic.  They are definitely getting more comfortable speaking in front of their peers.  We want them to learn that they do not need to read word for word their information from slides.  We have been stressing that their visual aides should just add to their presentation.  The more they practice the better they will get.  We are very happy with how far most have come.  We are excited to see what they come up with for the play that we are all putting together.
    As you know from the permission slip we are planning on walking to PHS on Wednesday to work with the advanced acting class.  This is all weather permitting if it is too bad for us to walk we will reschedule and try to go sometime in the next week.  We will let you know if we have to change the date but no other permission slip will be necessary.  We are excited to pair with PHS for this project. 
     With the start of a new semester a new Riverside Reads needs to be completed.  Please encourage your child to read and complete this requirement.  We will be participating in a few other reading incentive programs.  Here are the links for information on the I Love to Read challenge English and Spanish.  Also, Achieve 3000 is still a weekly requirement of at least 2 articles at 75% or higher.  We appreciate all that you parents do to help our learners with their reading. 
      We are expecting the school board to approve the use on next Friday, February 7th and February 17th as a make up days.  We have been informed that the waiver for the first two days we missed in early January have been approved.  We are waiting on hearing from the state on possibly of moving the ISTEP back due to all of this weather.  We will try and keep you all informed of more make up days when we find out about them.  This has been the craziest winter we can remember. 
     Have a great week and stay warm.  We are hoping for a full week!