I hope you all had a fabulous break whether you traveled in state, out of state, or just enjoyed some extra time with your children last week. Here are a few updates and things we did in our first of the fourth (and final!) quarter of this school year: Spring Parent/Teacher Conferences are in April. I am available for conferences as needed before school any day but Tuesdays. Please let me know if you are interested in meeting with me or having me sit in on your conference with your child's homeroom teacher. In May, you will be receiving your child's final updated progress report and ALP (Advanced Learning Plan)related to their GT goals. When Colorado updated our state learning standards, they included standards in math related to financial literacy. Fifth graders in my math class will be learning about these standards through playing the Stock Market Game. The Stock Market Game is an online, free, educational program that allows students to actually trade real stock at the current value. Students in my class have a "business partner" that they work with to make buying and selling decisions with the pretend $100,000 they get through the game. Of course, the goal is to have more money than you began with. As the kids login to the program, they see how their stocks are progressing (or regressing!) and a ranking among students their age in our region of the U.S. for portfolio value. Here are a few more of the rules they must work with: *Work with your partner to make all decisions *$100,000 to spend on the stocks in the NYSE/NASDAQ (no bonds or mutual funds) *No margin trading (don't spend more than your $100,000!) *Must buy 10 shares at a time; can sell less *No "penny stock" (cost less than $3) *1% brokerage fee for buying AND selling *Purchases/transactions go through at 4:00pm eastern time *Trade ONLY on designated class trading days *No need to sell off at the end (May 8) And just for fun, we watched a silly video this week that (hopefully!) helped them begin to understand how the Stock Market works: Every quarter, I have the chance to meet with all of the GT kids at each grade level together to discuss their progress on their affective goals. Today was that opportunity. Here is a quick update: Fourth graders' goals this year relate to study skills and organization. Today we discussed strategies for effective studying and test taking. We also had some fun reading silly book about students taking standardized tests (a very timely topic considering what we have been up to at Werner lately!) Fifth graders' goals are centered on learning about healthy risk taking and dealing with making mistakes. We read true accounts of people who made mistakes that actually ended up with favorable outcomes (like the inventions of Velcro, chewing gum, sticky notes, and popsicles.) We also discussed professions where failure is a natural part of the job. Think about these situations: - Great quarterbacks only complete 60% of their passes on a good day. - Oil companies dig 10 wells to find 1 that will produce. - Actors auditioning for TV commercials hear no 29 times before landing a job. - Authors like John Grisham might be rejected 28 times before getting a novel published. Third graders' wrote goals this year related to peer relationships. Today the students worked with a partner to invent and complete a task. They had newspaper, tape, a cup, and paperclips to remove a special snack from the wall. They did a great job of working with one another and encouraging each other even when it was challenging. Here are a few shots of the cooperative fun (more on the photos page):
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Tracey BeanWerner Elementary Archives
May 2018
Sign-up for updates: |
Knowledge Peak | Blog |