I hope everyone had a great break! I know I did. I spent a few days in Vegas at a wrestling meet, and my wife and I spent Christmas Day driving up to Michigan to see my family. However, I still got a little R & R and now I’m excited to be back and get back in the swing of things.
Although we have been off for two weeks, it didn’t take the students long to get back on track in Reading. We spent this week focusing on Hattie’s Birthday Box in our Harcourt Series. The focus strategy for the week was questioning, so the students spent a lot of the week creating higher-level questions. Not only that, but each student made two cubes with a question on each side. They turned out quite nice so hopefully we will be able to use them for the next few weeks. In order to link what we are doing in reading to writing, the students also created a diary with 3 entries as if they were Hattie. I haven’t had a chance to read them yet but I am very excited to.
I think I should also mention that, although we were on break for two weeks, the students still spent a lot of time reading. As a matter of fact, as a class, we read over12,000 minutes during break! That is amazing! We are now over half way to our goal of 100,000 minutes. Keep up the great work!
In Writing, we have been working on a number of different things. We are wrapping up the unit on simple sentences in grammar. We had a test Friday on everything we have learned so far, and I’m confident those went well. We have also been starting to prepare for ISAT’s by going over the ABC’s & D of Prompt Writing. This is a strategy I am teaching the class that will help them answer the writing prompts on the ISAT’s. It is a very systematic strategy that has been proven to work in the past. Writing has been very busy, so we haven’t had a lot of time for independent pieces, or journal writing. I want to encourage students to do those as much as possible on their own. The best way to become a better writer is to keep writing. The more you do it the better you will get. However, I am very happy with how far we have come since the beginning of the year.
In Social Studies we have started our unit on the American Revolution. This is one of my favorite times in U.S. history and I have some big plans for us. Each student will be doing a number of independent and partner projects that they will be presenting to the class. I am hopeful, with what I have planned, the students will enjoy learning about the American Revolution as much as I will enjoy teaching it. I would also like to encourage students to go to the links on the blog that deal with the American Revolution. There are so many resources out there and these are just a few.
Although it was a great break, it is good to be back. I am excited for some of the things we have coming up. I hope everyone has a great weekend (I will be in Iowa for the Team National Tournament). Get a little more R & R, enjoy the snow, and I’ll see everyone on Monday.
Celebrations
100% on Unit 15 Spelling: Kara, Nathan, Victoria, Hannah C., Hannah F., Dominic, Lanie, Julia, Landon, Brenna, & Matthew R.
100% on Cell Final: Nathan, & Matthew R.
100% on Memoir: Arushi, Julia, & Matthew R.
100% on Flying Saucer Test: Dominic, Gabby, & Matthew R.
Cooper, Victoria, Hannah F, and Gabby are all done with Otter Creek Division
Avarie is all done with Otter Creek Multiplication
About Mr. Johnson
- 2J Brooks Blog
- This is my second year as a 2nd grade teacher at Gwendolyn Brooks Elementary School. I spent my first two years at Brooks as a 5th grade teacher, but I am excited for the change. I graduated from North Central College in June of 2008 and I spent the following few years as a TA and substitute in District 204. My wife is also a teacher! She teaches 4th grade in Yorkville. Outside of school, I spent the last four years as a wrestling coach at North Central College. However, I recently accepted a coaching position at Waubonsie Valley High School, and I will be coaching there this year. I also spend a lot of time furthering my own education. I am currently completing a masters program at Aurora Univeristy in Educational Leadership. I am so excited to start back up this year, and I am looking forward to watching my class grow as students, children, and soon-to-be 3rd graders!
5th Grade Dream Team
Ms. Horst, Ms. Henderson, Mrs. Duval, Mr. Johnson, Ms. Morgan
My Wife!!!
She is also a teacher. She teaches 4th grade in Yorkville. We are actually buying a house in Yorkville, and we will be all moved in after Spring Break!!!
NCC Wrestling Team
Click on the picture to go to our website. This is a picture from the wrestling team that I coach for. Since I have been there, we have gone 50-17-1 in duals and won 3 straight conference titles. We have had 11 national qualifiers, 8 All-Americans, and finished in top 20 every year at nationals. We are starting to wrap up the season and things are getting crazy. While we are ranked pretty high this year, I am still getting a little nervous for the post season. We have conference coming up on February 10th, our national qualifier February 29th, and then nationals! It has been a crazy season, and I'm anxious to see how we will do when it counts.
