I'm back!

Well, it is a new month and I'm going to recommit to getting this blog back up and running!
Without telling you my whole life story, I do want to share with my HMS family a picture from March 2008 that is now one of my prized possessions.

This is my grandfather, H, and grandmother, Barbara, with me and my husband, Dave, when we visited them in the spring. Barbara passed away on the night of September 4th and H. soon followed her home on September 14th. It has been a difficult month for me but I have appreciated every act of kindness from my colleagues, students, friends and family.

In all the craziness of the start of the school year, I forgot to introduce you to Kayla, a 10-year-old who joins us for math. She is a great addition to our group and the boys work well with her. Welcome, Kayla!

Speaking of math, we are currently working on a unit called "How Many Rooms, How Many Floors." It is an introduction to patterns, ratios and multiplication. We are also practicing coin values, time to the hour/half hour and addition facts. I expect the students to have fluency in all of their addition facts this year! Some will also be required to learn subtraction.

The students are getting a lot of one-on-one attention as you can see! They are all working on various activities at the same time -they rotate through 4 centers during the second half of math every day: a math game with Jana, addition flashcards with Cathy, independent math reading and a review/intro lesson with me.

Agustin is finding the ratio between rhombuses and hexagons! (It's 1:3!)

For math homework, the students have a review worksheet and are expected to practice their flashcards with a parent nightly.

I'll update about our English Language Arts curriculum soon!
They've been doing GREAT work and I want to make sure to get some work samples to demonstrate!

Thanks for hanging in there while I work out the kinks here. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think! :)

Hey everyone,
Sorry for dropping off the face of the earth for so long. A quick update in case you are checking here ... I am still in Tennessee. My grandfather passed away on Sunday. His services are Tuesday and Wednesday so we hope to come back to Boston Thursday. Hopefully things will go as plan and I will be back at school on Friday. Thanks for all of your patience.

_becky

First two days

The first two days are done! The boys were happy to be back but a little unsure of the new room. That is, of course, for Jonah, who LOVED it and immediately gave me double thumbs-up and high-fives! We have spent a lot of time getting used to working in the big group of 14 5th graders and just a little bit of time in our own room.

Chung is relieved to see that the Spiderman puzzle is in the new room!

Agustin loving our new lite-brite!

Jonah in his new favorite spot - the couch!

It seems like the boys are settling in though, and did a great job with the big group. Agustin even explained the behavior system to the whole group! We were all so proud of him!

Day 2 we planned to have a birthday celebration for summer birthdays, which included Agustin!

XBOX cake for Agustin's birthday - he'd been asking for over a year!

Happy boys!

Of course, the black frosting dyed everyone's lips and teeth black!







It is so good to be back with my students. They keep me laughing all the time. I sure do miss my girl, Taylor though! Luckily we're spending more time with the other 5th graders so I get to spend some time with other students as well. We'll keep updating!

Last Day before the First Day!

PHEW, what a crazy day today was. Meetings all day, internet access issues at school, followed by computer issues at home ... sorry I couldn't post this earlier! I also STILL don't have access to any school emails from the last 24 hours so I apologize if I haven't replied to something you sent early. In the interest of my sleep (!!) I'm just going to make this a picture blog! Here's the new room all ready for our first day!

Our new para, Jana, who is an intern in the severe special education/deaf ed program at BC.

Math/Independent Work Area

Entrance/Play Area/"Bright Ideas" Work Board

Close-up of play area

Entering the Room/Reading Area/Writing Window on right

English Language Arts/Group Work Area

Art and Writing Supplies

Teacher's Area (still needs some work!)

View from one side

View from the other side

Close up of the BEAUTIFULLY labeled and organized library
(Thank you Cathy and Jana!! This will save our sanity this year!)

More beautiful library area!

I cannot wait to see the kids tomorrow and see how things go. It might be a bit of a rocky start with a new room, new staff and LOTS of new routines, but I know we'll get it all figured out together! Check back for 1st day pictures! :)

-Becky

Welcome to the New School Year!

And welcome to the new home of Becky McVey's crew - Room B324!
It has been a whirlwind summer of teaching, travel and learning for me. I am thrilled to have another year with three of my favorite people on earth: Chung, Agustin and Jonah! While a lot has stayed the same, there have been some changes starting with our new location. We are now closer to the other 5th grade classrooms which will give us more mainstream opportunities. Please tell your child that we have moved and that we are in Abby's old room as this will be a transition for them on the first day. Hopefully the pictures I post here will help you explain it.

Here are some of our other changes:
Sara has decided to move on to become a full-time student in BU's Deaf Ed program.She will be greatly missed but we are so proud of her and know she will be an excellent substitute anytime Becky is out! Good luck Sara!

Taylor has also moved! Her mom, Eraina, was accepted to Yale and now "Miss T" is in a FABULOUS new school in New Haven. She has a very successful first day last week! We look forward to keeping in touch with her!

I will put up more pictures soon but here is where you can find us!
Just kidding - this is what it looked like at the beginning of the week! I'll post the "After" pictures tomorrow once I make a few final touches! Check back Wednesday night!

Please let me know what you think of this blog and what you'd like to see here! I will update as frequently as I can and hope to get the whole class involved in telling our story! Rest assured this is a private blog - you cannot find it unless you have the specific web-address. If there are any concerns please contact me immediately: rmcvey@boston.k12.ma.us.

Here is to the 2008-2009 school year!

-Becky