Teacher Mark’s Reading Room

I’m already tired and we still have 18 weeks to go in Term 1!

The P3 students are a very energetic lot, to say the least. They are enjoying the Reading lessons and eagerly thrust worksheets my way whenever I enter the classroom. Completing the comprehension exercises properly are the key to receiving a new Oxford Reading Tree book.

We also started taking students to the Reading Room this week in small groups (five to seven kids). That’s really worked out well as I’ve already moved a few kids down a stage or two as they were really struggling. And a few children have advanced a level as well. Except for a bit of minor misbehavior on Tuesday, the students have been extremely well-mannered while in the Reading Room. Starting next week, there will be multiple groups of kids using the room at the same time as we are sharing with with P1 through M2 — both Reading and ESL. I think that we will still be able to maintain control, however.

Thursday once again proved to be my favorite day of the week as I was upstairs teaching P4 Reading. Other than a few students in one class who had forgotten their copies of Charlotte’s Web, the lessons went fairly smooth. I again had to teach P4 Green in a shortened class period as they had to have their photographs taken for school identification cards. I hope to make it up to them next week.

All three classes focussed on Chapter One of the book. I think they initially were surprised that P4 Reading is more about comprehension than anything else but they soon got into the spirit of the discussion. I’m sure any one of them can tell their parents, brothers, and sisters every little detail of what happened in Chapter One as well as why. Their homework (apart from reading the next two chapters) is to draw a picture of one scene from the first chapter. We’ll do this every week so at the end of the term they will have an illustrated version of the story to go along with their comprehension worksheets (which we finished in class this week).

As I mentioned, school ID photos were taken yesterday. This afternoon, the children will register for their Friday Clubs (I made some visual aids with which to decorate my booth). And we’ll have Parent-Teacher meetings next week for P3. The school year has only just begun and I feel like it’s already been a month!

Have a great weekend…

It’s been really nice seeing all of you this week with the start of the new school year. Yesterday, I had my first Reading class in P3 Yellow and today it was P3 Green’s turn (plus a second lesson in P3 Yellow). Tomorrow, I will visit the students in P3 Red and Blue. Finally, I have three classes in P4 on Thursday; I’m especially looking forward to seeing my kids from last year most of whom are in P4 Yellow this year.

I’ve spent a lot of time running around these past two days checking out the Oxford Reading Tree books, printing and photocopying worksheets, and finishing the Reading Room. I think next week will be a lot easier, especially when we begin removing children from their homerooms to come and read in the small groups.

In addition to several Reading classes on Friday, we have the ever-popular Friday Clubs to look forward to. This week the teachers will present their clubs to the students with sign-ups occurring next Friday. I’ve submitted a proposal for a “Community Service” club in which we will pick up trash and perhaps even plant some flowers in front of the school and inside of Villa 5. I want to give something back to this community that has been so good to me, and it will be nice to have a cleaner area surrounding our school.

I know we will have a very exciting year together. If I’ve just met you, please give me a week or two to learn all of your names (I have over 175 new students in my classes this term!) and, more importanly, how to pronounce them correctly…