Frequently Asked Questions
Newest entries listed first.
The Answers...
I think it is awesome to celebrate your childs' birthday here at school! We will sing a ridiculously silly song to your child (which has become a tradition in my class over the years), send her/him through the tickle machine (same gender), and give her/him a couple of pieces of candy. If you wish to send in a treat, that is fine. We partake of the treats together as a class at lunch break. (This avoids using class time on 33 different occasions this year.) The birthday kid chooses a helper to pass out the treats. Please be sure to include 33 treats (I'm not much of a sweets person, so don't worry about including one for me.) Keep your treat simple as the kids don't have much time to pass them out and eat. Some ideas for treats: cookies, cupcakes, etc. If the treats are not in the classroom by lunch (11:45) then we will share the treats together on the following day.
I've never heard of a class that hits all the standards, so we need to first get that myth out in the open. Every year I try to teach all of my students all of the standards to mastery. I take a student-centered approach to education. I blend this with a standards-based approach. My first concern is the needs of your child. I differentiate my instruction to challenge each student in my class as best as possible. The bottom line is that your child will not receive instruction in every single standard for his/her grade level. Since this is a GATE class, most students have already mastered many of the standards for their grade level before spending a single day in class. In these cases, we will move on, enrich, and go deeper. This is mainly in subjects like language arts and math. Most students do not have a grasp of subjects in the arts and sciences. For social studies and science, the students will primarily work in small groups and pairs to do research and complete a project based on that research. Students will be teamed with other students in the same grade level. Students will mainly work on grade level standards in both of these subjects.
First, please understand that we don't go to lunch during a "4th grade lunch." There are several other 5th graders on the playground during our lunch break. What we have is basically two different lunch times for 4th and 5th graders. Our class goes to the second lunchtime, or the B lunch. We have 2 4/5 combo classes on campus this year. A lunch and B lunch overlap by 30 minutes, so if your child's 5th or 4th grade friend goes to B lunch, they will get to spend 30 minutes of it together. By splitting the 4th and 5th grade into two lunch periods, the lunch line is reduced in half. We don't want your child standing in line for her/his entire break. There are many advantages of going to lunch A like making new friends and eating earlier instead of getting too hungry in class and not being able to think straight. It also allows us to have an uninterrupted math block. If we were to go to lunch B, we would have to start math before lunch and finish after. The middle schools typically split a grade between two lunch periods, so it's nothing unusual.
In short, the answer is no. A few years back, I synthesized several different methods for grading and student feedback. I call this new hybrid way of correcting "Reaching Consensus." If taken seriously by the students, which is typically the case, it is an extremely effective technique. Students are only allowed to write on their own papers. To learn more about this technique, please read the faq answer below.
Watch this video to see what it looks like!
I am actually currently writing a book on this topic, so to try to fully explain it here would be impossible. I will give you the reader's digest version. First, all students complete an assignment on their own. If they ask me for help, I will try to give them a little direction or a clue. I don't want to rob them of the valuable learning experience that comes next. I also want to foster independence and critical thinking in your child. If I do a whole new "mini-lesson" each time a child asks for help, it will undermine these two goals. Next, the students switch from pencil to pen and meet with other students to "reach consensus." Sometimes they do this at their table groups. Sometimes they do it in pairs. Sometimes they wander through the room meeting with as many other students as possible (in groups of 2 or 3.) The directive to the student (monitored and enforced by me throughout the process) is the following: find any answers on your papers that disagree and discuss how you came up with your answers until one person changes her/his mind. When both/all students agree on the answer, the students who changed their minds must use their pen to change their answer. This process develops several very important skills including critical thinking, independence, verbal skills, perseverance, depth of understanding, initiative, kindness, humility, and more. And most kids love it!
Now when it comes to math, students must not only agree on their answers, but also on how they came about finding the answer. Anyone who knows much about math knows that there are always several legitimate ways to arrive at the same answer. So how do students make their papers match when they both have it "right?" My directive to the students on this is to go ahead and change the way you showed your work as if you are marking your paper wrong, but don't worry! When I look at your paper after you turn it in, I don't just look at a score, I look at what you are writing and why. By changing your show work on such a problem, you are demonstrating that you understand, "This is another way to solve the same problem." This does not lower a student's grade. If I did not enforce this procedure, here's what would happen. Two students might disagree on how to solve the problem, "Bob and Sam each have 3 cats. How many cats do they have altogether?" If one student wrote 9-3=6, does that student understand how to solve the problem? Of course not. But if the students are allowed to simply agree that both of their show work is fine without matching, the above student will never discover her/his error.
Students must persevere to reach agreement before they are allowed to move on to something else. However, I monitor the process and there does come a time when I say, "enough." Also, I normally don't let the students leave for the day without giving them the correct answers. There are occasions where I will let them dwell on something for more than one day without giving them the correct answer, but when I do, there is a bigger purpose in my plans.
It's all about the process, not the answer. Don't misunderstand though, the answer is VERY important. There are right and wrong answers. However, my focus is on achieving depth of understanding and personal character. Even when a student doesn't get the right answer, he/she will learn a great deal. To learn more, either visit our class or watch some of the videos here at timbedley.com. Several of these videos show students reaching consensus in various contexts. One video even shows a group of students explaining why reaching consensus is good for them. Back to the top.
I love helping kids. It takes every ounce of self-control and several years of practice to resist the temptation to help students every time they ask. I have come to the conclusion that students don't need our help nearly as much as they appear to. There are some teachers in this world who don't help kids because they are lazy or incompetent. They just sit at their desk and read the newspaper. If a student asks for help, the teacher says, "Go ask your group." This is terrible teaching. First, I don't have a desk. Secondly, I don't sit by and do my own thing when the kids are at school. I am always engaged with my students throughout the entire day, except for lunch break. My approach is to do my best to guage how much the student really needs help and give her/him only as much help as is needed. Again, I don't want to rob students of their own ability to think, persevere, and problem solve. So if your child says I didn't help him/her, there is a good reason why that was the case. It's not because I'm too busy to help kids or don't care. Keep in mind, that as I work with your child and make hundreds of little decisions all day long, some of them will be the wrong decisions. So perhaps, at one point I will decide not to help your son/daughter and I should have helped him/her. At other times, I may decide to help when I shouldn't have. These decisions are very tricky and, in spite of my experience, I often make the wrong one. I encourage you as a parent to consider the same approach. Don't always "tutor" your child every time he/she asks.
I give 3 homework assignments to students every Monday through Thursday.
First students must read for pleasure for 25 minutes. If a reading assignment is given that night, time spent on that book counts toward the 25 minutes. Time spent reading at school does NOT count. Reading minutes are recorded on the reading log. This log also asks students to record TV minutes. The purpose of recording TV time is to help students and parents compare the amount of time reading to the amount of time on media. Videos, video games, and computer games all count toward the TV minutes.
Secondly, students must complete a math assignment. Students are not allowed to do math homework in class. There is a possibility that your child would have his/her math homework completed before coming home. Students are allowed to work on homework during recess and lunch since that time belongs to the students. Normally math homework will include completing any unfinished class work as well as a designated math assignment. Normally, this will mean students must finish the guided practice portion of their math and do the homework section at home.
Third, students will have some sort of writing homework each night. This assignment will vary depending on what we are doing in class. The students will often have a writing assignment with a word count minimum. Encourage your child to exceed the minimum in order to do his/her best. Back to the top.
I use one primary mode of communication between school and home. I call it the planner. Your child should keep this form as the front page in her/his binder. The binder should always be with the student, either at home or at school. The planner serves three purposes. First, it shows if your child completed ALL of her/his homework the previous night. This is indicated by a daily stamp. Secondly, it shows if your child "got in trouble" that day in school. Each time I have to talk to your child about breaking class or school rules, we color in a little box next to the appropriate day. If your child gets more than 2 or 3 boxes colored in each week, he/she is behaving worse than most children. In fact, many students go all week without getting a single box colored in. However, if your child gets a discipline warning here or there, please don't overreact. This does NOT indicate a problem. Lastly, your child's planner has a place on the back for you and I to write notes to each other. It is your child's responsibilty to point out to the receiver that a note has been written. The planner has served as a powerful communication tool in my classes for many years.
The other way to keep track of your child's performance is to tune in to the assignments that I send home each week in the Friday envelope. This will give you a pretty good indication of how your child is understanding the material. I mark letter grades on very few papers, but you can judge for yourself by noting the amount of corrections made by your child.
It is easiest to reach me by email. If you don't have my email address, simply click on the contact link on this website. Your message will be emailed directly and immediately to me. If you wish to reach me by phone, the best time to call is right after school between 2:00 and 3:00. The secretary can transfer your call to my room.
About 30 seconds. Most of that time is spent washing the goop off of my hands.