What are YOU most thankful for?

Read the replies to see what each student is most thankful for.

Menu Method Division

The students of Room 24 are working on Division in math.  They are learning different ways to divide large numbers.  One of the methods we are working on is called "The Menu Method."  Here is a quick video that explains how to do it.

Meet Mr. K

Greetings!
My name is Kyle Kertay but I go by Mr. K to all the kids in room 24.  I am a student teacher from Concordia University and I am being mentored by Mr. Nguyen this fall and winter.  So far I have taught various lessons under Mr. Nguyen's supervision and I thoroughly enjoy the awesome group of kids that are the 2013 class of room 24.

A little background about me:  I grew up in Bend Oregon, I went to college at Willamette University and majored in environmental science.  I love snowboarding, kiteboarding, computers, science, and animals.  Also, I like eating spicy food, I love Minecraft, I have a cat named Lu Bu, I like raw spinach, and my favorite color is blue, no red! AAAHHHh!!!   I first started teaching by working as a kiteboarding instructor teaching mostly adults and some older children.  Two years ago I moved to Oahu to teach kiting in warm water, and there I began working as an after school teacher with 2nd graders.  I liked it so much that I decided to become a real teacher... and here I am!

In about a week I will begin to teach my first full science unit on energy.  This is going to be a super awesome topic and I can't wait to start delving into this incredibly deep subject.  The unit will span 10 lessons, hopefully sparking everyone's curiosity and answering many fundamental questions about energy and our world.  Lets all learn together!!!

Here's what some of the students are saying about Mr. K:

"He is nice all the time and he is good at helping."  -Auston

"He's a really good helper and always has a good attitude."  -Issa

"He's funny and has a lot of personality." -Bella

"He's funny, nice, and a good teacher." -Jaylynn

"I think Mr. K is nice and funny to me." -Detronnae

"I think that he is nice and capable of helping people." -Porter

Grant Wood Art Project

This week in Room 24, we studied about an artist named Grant Wood.  If you don't know, he is known for creating one of the most famous pieces of art named American Gothic.  The students learned about his life, how he got into painting, and why he painted the things he painted.  In the end, the students drew their version of American Gothic.  The four key elements to their drawings were detail, layering, shading, and taking their time.  This was pretty fun and it was nice to see the students express themselves through their drawings.  Check out some artwork from our wanna be Grant Woods!

Grant Wood's American Gothic

Fall Teacher-Parent-Student Conference

Conferences start Wednesday!  This is a time for me to communicate, problem solve, and celebrate this past term with the parents and students of Room 24.  I want to make this time worthwhile and positive for all involved.

Here are a couple of expectations for ALL participants (parents, students, and myself) during conference time:

1.  Please be on time.  Conferences are scheduled in TWENTY minute blocks with no time in between.  You being late means your conference will have to be shorter.

2.  Let's problem solve and not blame.  It is easy to blame the student, parent, teacher, or school when things don't go as well as we like.  Please be respectful to everyone involved by not blaming.  Blaming gets us nowhere!  Instead, we need to address what to do to improve a students' performance or behavior by COLLABORATING.

3.  Both students AND parents need to attend.  This conference is for the students, so he/she needs to be there.

4.  Stay on topic.  There is only TWENTY minutes scheduled for each conference and there is a lot to cover.

5.  Keep positive.  There is plenty of school left this year, so there is a lot of time to improve!

Here is my AGENDA for conferences:

1.  Greetings and introductions

2.  Go over REPORT CARD

3.  Goal Setting, Problem Solving, and Celebrations
I will go over the current curriculum, web tools, and other ways to assist students at home.

4.  Conclusion

I look forward to meeting with each of you to share your child's progress.  See you soon!

Native American Projects

For our first major research project this year, the students of Room 24 studied Native American tribes and how they compared with each other based on the area they lived in.  The students chose two tribes to study.  The requirements for this project was to research the tribes, write a comparison essay, and give a speech on their research paper.  This was a HUGE project that consisted of doing tons of research on-line, using Google docs to type their reports, and some students even created art and a slide show to go with their presentations!  The students had a month to work on this.  It was very nice to see and teach the students to utilize technology to complete this project.  I created Google accounts for each student at the beginning of the year.  They were required to type their essay and share it to me via Google Docs.  They also peer edited from our Chromebooks.  I love seeing the end products and especially, the process the students took to complete this project.

Feel free to browse and read the students' essays here:

Abigail's Essay          Abigail's Slideshow          Brian's Essay          Sasha's Essay       

Porter's Essay          Zach's Essay          Bella's Essay          Isabelle's Essay         Issa's Essay       

Evelina's Essay          Faythe's Essay       Faythe's Slideshow          Artem's Essay         Tavia's Essay



Here are a couple of presentations I recorded in class:

Tavia's Visual Aid Art Project for her Speech.  Great work!!!