Duval County Parent Portal

If you have not done so already, please pick up your Parent Portal password from the Main Office, so you can access our gradebooks/monitor your student's progress any time.

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month!

This year, we will be studying the geography and culture of several Hispanic countries (Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, The Dominican Republic) in social studies. If you have ANY Hispanic heritage (or have traveled to ANY Hispanic country), I would LOVE for you to come in and read a story to the class or share your experiences with the culture. Please let me know if you would be interested!

Open House

We had an AWESOME turn out for Open House last night! I forgot to mention one important thing...we value each of our students as individuals, each with his or her own special gifts and talents. As our schedules permit, we LOVE to support our students outside of the classroom. We have been known to show up at ball games and recitals, so please feel free to send us game schedules or inform us of any such important dates!

Learning is Life-Long!

I don’t usually post things about my personal life on this blog, but I thought this would be encouraging to my students, who will be learning many new concepts (what something is) and skills (how to do something) this year.

This weekend, a friend taught me a new skill—how to loom hats. For months, I have admired her beautiful work, but I was always intimidated by how amazingly complex her creations appeared. I enjoy crafts, but have a hard time with making anything that involves technical precision or skill. I definitely did not inherit my engineer dad’s “mechanical mind” and have a very difficult time understanding how things work. (My husband still jokingly asks when he will receive the scarf I tried to learn how to knit for him 12 years ago, which, pitiful and unfinished, is still buried in the depths of a closet at my mom’s house!)

Recently, I have had a renewed urge to create something (despite my interest in Project Runway, sewing is out…that’s another story. ☺) I felt like enough time had passed since my discouraging and frustrating attempt at knitting, so I decided to give looming a shot. Little did I know what a great reminder this would be about the learning process…
*How dumb I felt not knowing how to tie a simple slipknot to start my project
*How upset I was about the massive knot I discovered in the middle of my skein of yarn
*How intimidated I was by my peers who were “getting it” much faster than me
*How my heart sank when, after working diligently for nearly an hour, I went to incorporate the string around my anchor peg, only to find a gaping hole and had to start over!

Thankfully, I had a kind and patient friend/teacher, and that made such a difference. Instead of feeling like I wanted to give up because I was taking an unfinished hat home at 11:00 p.m., I chose to persevere. The next day, I got on YouTube for a tutorial and finished the hat! The incredible feeling of success that brought has spiraled into a new hobby! It was awesome to think about how my mistakes and frustrations on my first hat helped me to better understand the construction of it and allowed me to do an even better job on the next hats.

(Can you guess what my family will be getting for Christmas this year? ☺)

Numeration Unit Test Resources

I have scheduled our EnVision Math Topic 1 (Numeration) test for Friday. Students will be assigned some review problems as homework this week. We did not do the lesson on making an organized list, so students won't be tested on that section. If you notice your student is struggling, I have posted some assignments on Pearson SuccessNet for you to have your student complete at your discretion. Please let me know if you need another copy of the log-in information letter.