Storm drills.

Fire drills.

Evacuation drills.

Reoccupation drills (I call them that, because reverse-evacuation is a ridiculous term.).

Lockdown drills.

Bus evacuation drills.

All with the intention of keeping people as safe as possible.

This time, I'm not talking about the MAP (Missouri Assessment Program) test; this time, we actually pulled out the map of Missouri to take a look at it.  To get our bearings, I asked students to point to Joplin (our fair city) on the map.  Sadly, only one or two could do so. Granted, this particular map did not have cities labeled, but my students were pointing closer to Jefferson City and Columbia than to our Southwest Missouri location.

Next, I started asking about the states surrounding Missouri:  Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee.  You might imagine some of the answers I received.

It's always a joy to read books that I have chosen for myself, rather than one chosen by the librarian or the teacher.  It's also nice to be given the time to read said book.

Parents, we need to build stamina in reading!  I've discovered that many kids will not "stick" with a book for long enough to even know what the book is about. At this age, a child should strive to read for 30 uninterrupted minutes at a time without switching books.  Many will read five or ten pages, switch books, read five to ten minutes, switch books again, etc., never getting into a book for long enough to appreciate the story.

I don't like reviews like this, but this book is the biggest disappointment in reading that I have had in a long time. I am a big fan of Robin Hood, but this telling is just deplorable. Folks, I feel strongly that children should not waste their time reading this book! The language, the hints of sexuality (though mild), and the crude comments about people's private body parts pulled focus from the storytelling; it was as if the author was trying too hard to be edgy (or was this originally intended for an older crowd?) 

The best part about this book is the Author's Note at the end.  Here, Author Matthew Cody explains how the legendary characters of Robin Hood have transformed through the centuries.  Because of this, Cody felt he had the right to introduce a whole new origin story.  It felt like he was just trying to alter it for the sake of alteration. Even the antagonists were changed.  I liked the author's explanation, but not his treatment of the legend.

The story itself, kind of an origin story for "Rob", is pretty anticlimactic and never excited me to turn pages.

As an introduction to our Native America unit, students reproduced drawings of individuals from a local variety of Indian tribes.  Each student spent time with his/her chosen person, imagining what he was like, what she was thinking, the places he lived, her personality, etc.

I asked the class to get to know their people, to notice every wrinkle and feature, what they held in their hands, the ornaments around their necks, and the feathers in their hair.

I wanted students to experience a relationship of sorts with their papers.  In doing so, they will be more prepared to face the duties, hardships, and lifestyles of real-life Native Americans who might have trekked across the Midwest in search of places to live, Indians who lived near our current location who lived quite differently than we do today.

There's more to words than meets the eye.  In fact, with analogies, students are forced to think about the relationships between words, and then apply the same relationship to the next set of words.  It's not always easy, but if they're participating, it will get them to think!  That's what we're looking for in Room 404 - a class full of thinkers!

Put that together with doing this work as a team.  Some still "wrestle" with conflict during our teamwork sessions.  They think the teacher will just separate them from one another to solve the conflict.  Not this teacher!  We'll have a conversation, solve the problem, and get back in there with the same team intact.  These are tough lessons to learn, but with persistence, hopefully we will progress toward treating others civilly!

Our current focus for Reading is to find something called the theme of a reading text.  This may not be easy at first, but with some explanation, I hope it becomes clearer.  I am placing a couple of resources here for parents (or teachers) so you can see how we have addressed this in our class.  Please look them over.