News and Notes 8/28

News and Notes

From Fourth Grade

New Beginnings

It's official.  The new school year has begun.  Backpacks are hanging on the hooks.  Textbooks are settled on the shelves.  Pencils are sharpened and supplies are carefully organized.  And each morning a crew of fourth graders piles into the classroom.  Eager to share and visit and learn and discover, this class is already shaping up to be a remarkable group of fourth graders.  Many, many thanks to the friends and families who took time on Tuesday morning to join us for the pancake breakfast.  What a treat it is to be able to start the year out with a gigantic Simonds family breakfast!  The first three days of school have gone quite well.  The fourth graders have begun to establish the routines for the year.  We have also put in effort to shake off the summer haze and remind ourselves of the joys and struggles of being in school.  Looking ahead to the next 177 days, I'm certain it's going to be a great year in fourth grade!

Contract

Before the end of the day on the first day of school, every student in Simonds School is able to recite the three school rules: Be safe.  Be respectful.  Be responsible for learning.  The rules are posted in every room in the school and have intentionally been made easy to remember.  In our fourth grade classroom we spend time reviewing these rules and will do our best to follow these rules throughout the year.  It is the standard we strive for.  This week we went beyond the more generic school-wide rules and created a contract unique to our classroom.  This "classroom contract" is a kid-created list of expectations we are holding each other accountable for in our class this year.  This year's classroom contract includes ideas about being friendly, respectful, honest, accepting, and responsible.  It is always a treat to see the kind of classroom environment that the fourth graders want to create!  What's even more remarkable is the fact that every student in the classroom agreed to try to follow this contract.  Now we have it posted in our classroom as a reminder of the ways in which we want our interactions, our studies, and our school year to go.  Feel free to stop in and check out our classroom contract for yourself!

Final Destinations

Keeping the end in mind is a powerful way to begin something new.  This week we took time to talk about setting goals.  We talked about different things we've accomplished that were challenging.  We discussed that feeling of success after completing a difficult task or challenge.  By the end of the conversation, we were all well on our way to creating some goals for ourselves for the 2014-2015 school year.  These goals aren't necessarily related to academics, but are more focused on this essential skill of "grit."  Also known as perseverance or "stick-to-itiveness," the ability to work hard and persist in order to reach a goal is key to success in so many aspects of life.  The hope this year is that by encouraging students to set goals and seek to reach those final destinations, we will all learn lessons about perseverance together.  Then hopefully we can apply these skills to our academic pursuits as well!