Sunday, September 10, 2006

Jamie's First Week at School

Well, the first thing you should know - trying to get information from Jamie about the details of what goes on at school requires a lot of patience and the ability to choose the correct questions for him to answer. The following represents four days of questions. Since I received many "I don't knows", I will try to fill in the blanks as best I can.
First - He has a teacher that is new to the school this year, and last year this teacher taught Grade 2. Her name is Mrs. Folino. Jamie seems pleased with her - she hasn't yelled all week! She started out the week with everyone sitting in alphabetical order going in a Z pattern. He has about the same number of students in his class this year as last year - about 20ish (his words).
Second - The other major thing that I found out was that she presented her "Me Kit" on the first day - it was very original! Some of the things in her kit were a bunch of movies, a bunch of pictures, a pair of running shoes (because she likes shoes and sports), a purse (because she collects purses), and a lot of other stuff.
Jamie had to bring in a "Me Item" for the second day of school - that he was to present to the class. So . . . Jamie chose to wear his Karate sweatshirt - it seemed like the correct choice since it was cold that morning and he could wear it and then talk about it! He then told the class about karate and the fact that he doesn't like the cold - that's it.
Third - Mrs. Folino did another interesting activity on the first day. The class pushed their desks out of the way, sat in a circle on their chairs, and then one-by-one, told her their names, how long they'd been at St. John, and told her something about themselves that she should know. When I asked Jamie what he told the teacher, his response was - I like quiet! That was it - he didn't explain himself or anything. The teacher's response was simply - okay.
Fourth - Jamie does not have a locker this year - he has a cubby hole! Yeah! His classroom is on the top floor, and it has a small hallway at the back of the room that has coat hooks (each student gets two hooks) and cubby holes(only one of these).
Fifth - Since the province has implemented 20 minutes of continuous physical activity for each elementary school student, Jamie's class does their 20 min. at the end of the day. This activity is called DPA! So far . . . they went outside and did suicides (running), stayed inside, listened to a work out CD, and tried to do what the exercises (Jamie - It was boring!, and on Friday the class did the same thing, but with a different CD!
Finally - All in all - not a bad first week! but not really a good first week either! I think that he misses his teacher from last year - Mr. Charlesbois. He was so awesome (according to Jamie).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just thought I'd check out this kewl blog I've heard so much about. As I SMOKE MY CIGARETTE i can't help but say......I miss you guys!!!!
Talk to all of you sooon.

-Rich

Anonymous said...

Jamie, is your class facing the road or the school yard? My first year at St. John I was in grade 4 and in the class facing the school yard. I know the room and cubbies you are talking about.

In the class facing the schoolyard I put up permanent lines on one of the black boards for numbers and decimals I think. Is it still there?