Episode Three: Eight Days a WeekHello!  Welcome back to the Mr. D show - I am your host, Mr. D.  After our first full week of school last week, I hope everyone had a restful weekend because if you are anything like me, you needed it!  It’s not as if working in a school is akin to working in the logging industry, but trust me when I say, there’s a special kind of tired reserved for these opening days of school.I have started the process of sifting through the opening days paperwork, checking out the initial scores of my students, reading through their vision boards and opening writing pieces, and getting data from our first round of MAP testing - but most importantly, through of that, I have been getting to know the students.  I feel like, after just eight days of school, I know this group out of the gate better than any group of students I have had before.  Just before recording this podcast, I was creating the new seating charts for each class and as I typed each student’s name, I felt like I knew at least something about them.  A big part of that is a testament to you - the parents and guardians of my students, many of whom have sent back your parent essays and shared invaluable information about your kiddos.  Once again, thank you so much for providing me with the most important reading I will do all year long.  This past week, we introduced our first unit of the year - We Can Be Heroes.  With that, we also started to outline the Hero’s Journey, a story pattern of archetypal heroes discovered by Joseph Campbell.  We will finish that outline on Tuesday.  We tracked that outline with the help of Simba in “The Lion King,” but according to Campbell, regardless of the heroic story, any story would do.  I challenge you to ask your student about some of the stages and steps of the Hero’s Journey and how stories they may be familiar with fit within that framework.  On Wednesday, we will dive into our first poem of the year, “Ithaka” by CP Cavafy.  If you are of a certain age, you may remember that this poem was read during the memorial service for Mrs. Jackie Kennedy Onassis back in the mid-90s.  It is inspired by Homer’s The Odyssey in which Odysseus faces quite the journey back home to Ithaka after the Trojan War, outlined in “The Iliad.”  This allows us to enter into our first figurative language practice of the year, while also connecting to the Hero’s Journey.  On Thursday, students will be reading “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” and creating a character-based action figure based on the main character, Joby.  On Friday, weather-pending, class will be held outdoors as we do some stations, including the creation of a group video based on the imagery provided in Ithaka and I cannot wait to share that with you all via social media.That will do it for this episode - thanks for listening and being involved in what your child is doing in class.  We are a partnership and I am here to work with and for you on behalf of our community.  Here’s to a phenomenal school year - peace be the journey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ver todos los episodios