On Friday we had a great visit with Mr Marsh’s G4s. They’ve embarked on their own Genius Hour inquiries and thought they could benefit from a consultation visit with 5R. We paired off, according to areas of knowledge and/or interest and spent a half hour looking at their process, asking questions and making suggestions. 5R were exceptionally good at taking their role seriously and really trying to support the thinking of their partners.

For photos and details of the G4’s feelings about the event, click through to Mr Marsh’s blog post.

This week in our exhibition time we have been busy!

We have developed a definition of innovation and articulated a plan for how we would like to go forward together.

Yesterday I used my passions and concerns lists to write three proposals of interest. Please read my proposals below.

• There will be no regular classes on that day.
• Each child will have a passport. As they visit the different classes/stations, they will check off or stamp this passport. In the homeroom class, you’ll hear about their progress in literacy, unit, mathematics, and on their learning path goals. You’ll also visit single subject classes (PE, music and German. Art will be shared in the classroom).
• This is a student-led conference, rather than a traditional parent/teacher conference. Your child will lead the conference and teachers will not be involved in giving feedback.
• Follow this link to open our class’s sign-up sheet.  Sign up for a slot either in block 1 (8:30-10:00 AM), block 2 (10:30 AM-12:00 PM), or block 3 (1:00-2:30 PM). On the conference day, your child will begin in either our classroom or in the single subject classrooms. The students and I will work out their starting points together.
• Please attend during the block for which you sign up. We want to keep the number of families in at one time to a manageable number.

Here are the links to sign up (same as those embedded above):

Student Led Conference Sign-Up

Today marked the conclusion of the ZIS ES Dodgeball tournament. A few months ago, suddenly the class was abuzz with choosing teams, and who wanted to be involved. Over the months we watched two 5R teams play round after round. In many ways it brought our class together with two 5R teams rushing down to the gym at lunch to cheer each other on. Even class members who weren’t part of the tournament became part of the regular, powered-up cheering squad.

In today’s final game, the 5R Red Eagles went up against the other finalist and prevailed. What was most notable was that after their final win, both teams immediately began congratulating each other for their efforts. A big round of applause for team spirit, learning to win, learning to lose, learning to be gracious and learning to be supportive. Well done teams.

Enjoy the video of the final match below!

The Final Dodgeball round from ZIS Grade 5 Mr Raskin on Vimeo.

Welcome back to school!

5R arrived back (mostly) well rested and ready to go this morning. It was lovely to hear of all the holiday adventures.

A quick reminder that this Thursday and Friday mornings we will be writing our annual G5 ISA assessments. There is no preparation required for this day. Just make sure that your child has slept well, had a healthy breakfast, has a healthy snack and their reading book and water bottle ready to go!

Before too much time has passed, I wanted to share images from the Genius Hour sharing event before the holidays. Thanks so much to those who were able to attend and support our process and progress. I’ve added images to the album linked here. Enjoy!

Unfortunately, one student in our class has come down with Scarlet Fever over the holiday. This is not terribly uncommon, and is related to Strep Throat. Please see the details on this document.