School update

Nov 03, 2011 00:03

We're almost two months into the school year and it's going swimmingly so far!

all the exciting details )

how i feel, kindergarten, ruthie, shout-outs, minutiae, school, isaac

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Comments 7

ceo November 3 2011, 04:26:32 UTC
I'm glad to hear all of this, as that school is our top choice if Benjamin goes into the public schools year after next (his current school goes through grade 2). The kid whose mom you know through SMC, that's the mom and kid we ran into with you at Water Country, right? Benjamin knows the kid through his previous school; I think they were in a multi-age small group together.

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mamajoan November 3 2011, 04:46:51 UTC
Yep, that's the same mom and kid. It's funny, because I feel like I've known her for ages via the online SMC group, but somehow we never hung out in person until our kids ended up in kindergarten together.

And yeah, overall I'm very happy with the school. I mean, not that there aren't issues, but nothing's perfect. But there's a lot to like.

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lapenn November 3 2011, 11:58:32 UTC
I love leading night hikes! I worked at a place like where Isaac went (in Maine). So much fun.

Of course, I bet you're super relieved that both the kids are now at the same place and on the same schedule. Is Ruthie in all day kinder?

Also, last thought: thank goodness they're teaching cursive! They must not teach it where I live. I am currently working with 7th graders in prep for my teaching license (I student teach next semester), and those kids are the slowest and messiest writers. As far as I can tell, not a single one uses cursive in any form. Cursive really helps students be more fluent writers, so I'm glad it's still being taught somewhere.

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mogwar November 3 2011, 16:27:47 UTC
I have an eighth grader who cannot write in cursive to save his life (our last name begins with a G and he needs me to remind him how to write an uppercase cursive G every time he needs to sign something) and can barely print legibly. His elementary taught cursive in third & fourth grades, but since every remotely long assignment is typed, he has had virtually no reinforcement. Now, in middle school, they have one laptop for every three kids, so they even type in the classroom. This seems to be the norm now.

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lapenn November 3 2011, 16:36:01 UTC
Typing is a good skill, and it's not bad to work on that. But I still find it frustrating that kids can't write. The printing legibly thing is an issue for a much smaller number of kids. My concern is about writing speed -- it's really hard to take notes when you can't write quickly. I'm not sure I see a world where we can type everything.

We'll see what I do when I'm full time in the classroom. I don't want to make everything a test of writing (I love using different learning styles), but I am concerned about what I'm seeing. Thanks for the input about your son. Do you find that he's a pretty fast typer?

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mogwar November 4 2011, 16:33:16 UTC
His typing is pretty fast. And while I think his handwriting is atrocious and barely legible, it does seem to work for him when he does need to write things down and a computer is not easily available. However, I can easily see him turning into the type of student who takes a tape recorder & laptop/netbook/tablet to class in college. In fact, it would not surprise me if very soon (if not already), tablet/netbook's had apps available to record lectures.

I'm actually considering applying for law school myself in the near future and now I'm curious about looking into that. It might be redundant, but law school does seem to be about vast amounts of information in a very short period of time.

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