Week in Review

Hello all,
I must say that I had some of my best moments as a teacher this week. It was a week that I felt everyone was excited about what we were learning which lead to some great discussions and lessons. I also started to feel that most, if not all, of the students have finally realized that fourth grade is a different bird than third grade. With this realization, the students have started to work harder and I have seen the results in their recent assessments. For example, the average grade in both classes on the Ecosystem quiz last week was an 82 (B-), while the average on the Isopod quiz today was a 93 (A). I have also seen an improvement on a lot of the classwork and homework assignments. It has been an awesome week in math. I have absolutely loved teaching the kids about expressions, phrases, and equations. They have really caught onto the concepts and I can't wait to build on that success next week.
I did have an interesting moment mid-week when one of the students asked, "Why do we have to learn this?", as we discussed isopods. I didn't respond by saying, "You just do!", like some of my teachers might have done, but I did take the time to discuss my thoughts with the students. I explained that they probably won't need to know that an isopod is a scavenger in order to become a successful banker, lawyer, athlete, etc. However, I went on to explain that we study isopods because roly-polys are a good organism to integrate into the terrarium, and we use terrariums because they are an excellent (and fun) way to build the skills involved in the scientific process. I shared a laundry list of other skills that we used or learned about during our study of isopods:
* study skills
* reading for information
* observation
* recording data
* making connections
* questioning/hypothesizing
In short, our content that we use is a springboard to mastering a wide variety of skills that will not only make them better learners, but better thinkers. After my soapbox moment, I felt good that children understood my point.
Finally, we spent the afternoon talking about our upcoming trip to Harris Hillman. For those of you who don't know, Harris Hillman is a local school that provides education to children with a wide variety of physical and mental disabilities. Our fourth graders, over three trips, will be forming a relationship with these students. The first trip will involve a "show". The students are going to work in groups of 3 or 4 to put on a routine, skit, etc. that is set to a positive, upbeat song. I have seen these performances in year's past and they are wonderful. I am really looking forward to sharing this opportunity with your children. It is opportunities such as this that make me thankful to be a part of the Ensworth community.
I hope that everyone has a wonderful, and hopefully dry, weekend. Thank you again for all that you do.

Pill Bug Extravaganza

Today was an exciting day in our class. The pill bug observations were a blast. The kids really got into using the hand lenses and did an excellent job studying the characteristics and anatomy of this interesting isopod. Be sure to check out the slideshow.

4-Earhart CFS Week 2 Rankings

1. Florida (1)
2. Texas (3)
3. Alabama (7)
4. Texas Tech (12)
5. Kentucky (6)
6. Oklahoma (17)
7. Notre Dame (13)
8. Pittsburgh (15)
9. USC (2)
10. Arkansas (11)
11. Michigan State (8)
12. Mississippi (13)
13. LSU (10)
14. North Carolina(14)
15. Vanderbilt (5)
16. Tennessee (4)
17. Florida State (16)
18. Georgia (18)

4-Champion CFS Week 2 Rankings

1. Florida (1)
2. Texas (4)
3. Nebraska (10)
4. USC (2)
5. Auburn (8)
6. Alabama (9)
7. Penn State (7)
8. Boise State (15)
9. Notre Dame (6)
10. Oklahoma (17)
11. Vanderbilt (3)
12. Pittsburgh (13)
13. Ohio State (12)
14. Tennessee (5)
15. North Carolina (14)
16. Mississippi St. (11)
17. Florida St. (16)
18. Georgia (18)

An Awesome Couple of Weeks

Greetings,
First of all, I love teaching your children. We are having a wonderful time and getting a lot done. I am really enjoying 4th grade and I, like your children, seem to be making a smooth transition from 3rd grade. Here are the highlights of the last couple of weeks. I hope to add some photos soon. Don't forget to check out Ms. Earhart's blog as well to see what the kids are doing in Language Arts and Social Studies.

Math:
As you know we spent a good amount of time on place value and rounding. We have now moved on to more complicated addition and subtraction. I am really pleased with how well both classes have been catching on. I hope you have had a chance to see the Champion Football Rankings that were previously posted. This is a math project that we will work on throughout the college football season. We will be learning about statistics, graphing, and other skills as the students track and rank a select group of college football teams. We had a great discussion about what some of the issues are with the "human" polls (biases, misinformation, etc.), so we decided to use statistics to make a more objective ranking system.

Science:
The terrariums are a huge hit and I am very pleased with how careful and responsible the children are being as they observe and care for their terrariums. Today and Monday the students are sharing the posters their Paper Airplane Experiment groups designed to show the scientific process they followed during their experiments. I have been unbelievably impressed with the quality of work each and every group has put forth. They have really set the bar quite high for themselves.

Thank you again for everything you do and have a wonderful weekend.

Week One Champion Football Rankings

It was a lot of fun doing all the statistical calculations this week. I have found that point differential is a great way to reinforce how negative numbers work. Anyway, here are the rankings for this week. There has been a slight change of plans. Instead of listing the human poll and stat-driven poll, we have decided to add each team's ranking from both polls to determine their CFS (Champion Football Series) ranking. Here are this week's rankings:

4C Week One (previous ranking)
1. Florida (1)
2. USC (3)
3. Vanderbilt (9)
4. Texas (2)
5. Tennessee (13)
6. Notre Dame (17)
7. Penn State (6)
8. Auburn (11)
9. Alabama (5)
10. Nebraska (16)
11. Mississippi State (12)
12. Ohio State (10)
13. Pittsburgh (8)
14. North Carolina (14)
15. Boise State (15)
16. Florida State (unranked)
17. Oklahoma (7)
18. Georgia (4)

4E Week One Rankings (previous ranking)
1. Florida (1)
2. USC (8)
3. Texas (3)
4. Tennessee (14)
5. Vanderbilt (unranked)
6. Kentucky (12)
7. Alabama (2)
8. Michigan State (10)
9. Notre Dame (13)
10. LSU (5)
11. Arkansas (15)
12. Texas Tech (7)
13. Mississippi (6)
14. North Carolina (11)
15. Pittsburgh (unranked)
16. Florida State (unranked)
17. Oklahoma (4)
18. Georgia (9)

Preseason College Football Rankings

These rankings were completed by the students on Friday, September 4th. The students ranked each team based on what they knew (or didn't know) about each team. Each week the classes will generate a human poll and a stat-driven poll. The human poll is self-explanatory, but the stat poll uses the following stats as decided by the classes: point differential, total yards, and turnovers. Please note that each student chose a team to be included in the rankings. They will record and track (with graphs) their team's statistics throughout the year. Here are the preseason polls:

4C Preseason Poll
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. USC
4. Georgia
5. Alabama
6. Penn State
7. Oklahoma
8. Pittsburgh
9. Vanderbilt
10. Ohio State
11. Auburn
12. Mississippi State
13. Tennessee
14. North Carolina
15. Boise State
16. Nebraska
17. Notre Dame

4E Preseason Poll
1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Texas
4. Oklahoma
5. LSU
6. Mississippi
7. Texas Tech
8. USC
9. Georgia
10. Michigan State
11. North Carolina
12. Kentucky
13. Notre Dame
14. Tennessee

*The rankings are short a few teams due to student absences*