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Thursday, December 19, 2013

Multicultural Week

This has been such a wonderful week at my school. It is multicultural week, where families come in to every classroom and share their cultural traditions (not just Christmas or Hanukkah). The week was kicked off with a wonderful Bollywood dance by a few of the moms, as well as the Fifth Graders sharing a song they wrote. Being in the area of Los Angeles we are, our school is so incredibly diverse. In my second grade alone, there are 20 different cultures represented- Israel, Palestine, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mozambique, Egypt, Canada, Honduras, Mexico, South Africa, Russia, Latvia, Iran, Brazil, Philippines, Laos and Lebanon.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Before Break Craziness

It is crazy to me how quickly the weeks between Thanksgiving and Winter Break go. As soon as we got back from the week we got off for Thanksgiving, we have three weeks to make holiday crafts and gifts, give assessments, and jam as much actual teaching as is humanly possible before the three weeks of winter break wipe out a good chunk of the learning they've done so far. 



Sunday, December 8, 2013

Polar Express Pajama Parade

We had a Polar Express Pajama Parade this week at school. Scholastic Reading Club /Classrooms Care has an amazing Pajama Program- more information on that can be found here and I encourage you all to look at it, it really was such a great experience both for us and for the kids.  We had our Kindergarten and First Graders bring new pajamas to donate (if they wanted to) and Scholastic will match each pair of pajamas with new book for a child in need- how wonderful, right? We had so many cute nightgowns and pajamas donated in our class, just look at this adorable Hello Kitty Christmas nightgown.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

The Phonics Debate

Before I get too deep into this post, I wanted to share some good news!! Without going into all the drama and details, I have had some trouble with getting student teaching set up. First, I started student teaching in September but had to get pulled from that due to inappropriate behavior by my mentor teacher. Since then, I have been waiting for another placement to come through, but have not had any luck (that is one of the hard parts of doing an online program based on the East Coast while I live on the West Coast). Today, drum roll please, I got news from a teacher at the school I have been volunteering at that she would like to have me in her classroom!! More details once everything has been confirmed.