Happy New Year!

Happy new year everyone! It’s a short week. I hope you all enjoy your long weekend. We’ve enjoyed learning about soil profiles and glacial tills in science and reading about the freed slaves who founded the farming settlement, Freedom Town. We’ll have our regular, biweekly vocabulary quiz on Wednesday. Best of luck!

Merry Christmas everyone!

We took a biweekly cumulative vocabulary exam recently. The cumulative exams, for the most part, were satisfactory. The biweekly exam scores, however, were disappointing. Memorizing vocabulary has nothing to do with level or background; it is simply a measure of work ethic. As a class, our work ethic needs to improve.

For the last two weeks, Perry’s attitude in my classroom has improved. He still needs to work on his study habits. He showed up to school today (Friday) unprepared for his vocabulary retest. He should have studied for his day off. I gave him an hour to study and he still scored a D. He missed 13 words on a 33 word quiz.

Kevin’s behavior in class is improving. He still talks back from time to time and that needs to end but in general he is getting a lot more work done.

Andy’s biweekly vocabulary score was unsatisfactory. As I wrote early, memorizing vocabulary is purely a matter of work ethic. Andy’s work ethic needs to improve greatly.

Jordan got a surprisingly low score on his biweekly vocabulary quiz. He retook the quiz this afternoon and scored a high A.

Jessica comes to class completely exhausted ever single day. She looks like she hasn’t slept in weeks. It is affecting her work. Is she ok?

Irisa did well on both of our recent quizzes. Here work in class has been strong.

Iris scored above average on both of her quizzes. We spoke the other day about her handwriting which is getting progressively more sloppy.

Merry Christmas!

We’ve been trucking along through our curriculum this week. We learned about geology and different types of rocks in science last week and read a lovely story about the imaginative illustrator, Pat Cummings. We will have a cumulative vocabulary review Thursday afternoon. Good luck!

Perry has been much better behaved in class this week. He didn’t bring his vocabulary book to class on Friday, Monday or Tuesday. He needs to bring his book every day.

Andy has been doing solid work. He still needs to keep his questions on task. I appreciate his inquisitive nature but our class time is limited.

Kevin has been in good form this week, for the most part. He still needs to stop talking back.

Jordan has had a very productive week. He’s little by little coming out of his shell. It’s good to see him developing friendships with his classmates.

Jessica fell asleep in class yesterday. One moment she was reading along and the next she was fast asleep with her head on the table. Is everything ok with her? Is she getting enough sleep each night?

Irisa has been on top of her game. I enjoyed watching her choir piece at the rehearsal yesterday.

Iris seemed exhausted in class on Wednesday. I assume that was a result of the Christmas show rehearsal. She was having trouble staying focused in class.

Teacher Peter has returned!

I'm glad to see the kids made their way through exam week without me in good form. The grades on the reading test, especially, were a little bit low but we've been talking about how to take these tests. They're a little bit different than what most ESL students are accustomed to.

Irisa has been doing good work but she seems a bit more reserved than usual. I hope in the next few days she will return to her normal, vibrant self.

Iris, as always, is a model student in class. She was a little disappointed about her reading test results. The grade wasn't great but it was at the upper end of the class. These things will come with time.

I've been putting a lot more stress on Jordan to speak out in class. He seems to be coming out of his shell a little more.

Andy needs to focus a little more in class. He has been getting easily off task.

Kevin needs to stop goofing off in class.


I've spoken to Jessica about paying attention to detail on her written work. It seems, often, like she just doesn't bother trying to use grammar. A lot of her work is completely devoid of verb conjugations, plural forms, etc. She should be doing better.

Perry was punished on Wednesday and had to wear a diaper in class. He cried for the first 5-10 minutes then was back to his normal self making jokes and being disruptive. We will have to find another way to make this work.

Test Week

This week has been test week at Tree House. We spent Monday and Tuesday reviewing Science for our Science test on Wednesday. Today ( Thursday ) we'll be doing the Reading test, and on Friday we'll have a BBQ dinner for Fun day.
All the kids have done well this week. However, Andy and Perry got into a little trouble on Monday when we were correcting the science workbooks for review. The two of them were drawing in the books, and not really paying attention to what we were doing in class. Jordan did Jessica did great this week, they were both well behaved and eager to learn. Kevin had a lot of interesting questions to ask, and finally Iris and Irisa were both motivated and talkative teh whole week.

Hi

This is Teacher Scott. I've been teaching for Teacher Peter while he's on vacation. The kids have all been very good this week. We spent most of the week reviewing reading and science for next week's tests. In reading we did review, and in science we reviewed lessons 1-5.
On Thursday we read lesson 6 in science and did the accompanying book work.Next week we will have our science test on Wednesday and the Reading test on Thursday.

Week 12

We enjoyed our art projects. They look great! I’m looking forward to seeing you all at the exhibition this Friday evening. I will be out of town for the next two weeks to visit my family in Washington DC. Teacher Scott will be covering the class while I am gone.

Kevin has been a bit better behaved this week. It’s amazing the quality of work he is capable of when he asserts himself.

Andy has been doing great work this week. His artwork looks quite nice, though his attitude during the project was not always the best. After we got into it, he began having a good time but he was all complaints at the outset. His vocabulary sentences were incomplete again on Wednesday. He needs to do his homework.


Iris has been doing great work. Her writing is steadily improving.

Irisa is a great model for her classmates. Her work is top notch.

Jessica has been improving. She needs to take more care over her written work. I looked over her TOPS book the other day. She seems to not bother paying any attention to conjugating verbs.

Jordan is consistently well behaved and brings a superb work ethic to class every day.

Perry has been a bit better about staying on task in class. We made a bargain that if he is perfectly behaved for a whole week I would buy two peck for the class. His vocabulary sentences were incomplete again on Wednesday. He needs to do his homework.

Week 11

Everything is back to normal and we’re chugging through our coursework. We finished our first letters to our new pen pals in Ohio, USA and we hope to hear back from them soon.

Kevin has been having a relatively good week. He has got into trouble once or twice, but, in general, his in class behavior has been much more productive.

Adam has returned to his regular self. He was a little bit out of sorts last week. I assume that was the result of his midterms.

Perry has been more productive in class. We’ve had a number of talks about how joking around slows down the class and how we need to stay on task. Things seem to be improving.

Iris is doing great work. Her reading out loud is improving. Great attitude, great work ethic.

Irisa is excellent. Great attitude, great work ethic, super smart, etc.

Jessica has been making steady progress.

Week 10

Thank you all for coming out to our Halloween Party. I hope you all had as much fun as I did. It’s been good to get things back the normal routine this week. We’ve continued working on formulating a three paragraph essay. We have another bi-weekly vocabulary quiz this week.

Andy’s attitude in class seems to be deteriorating. I know he is stressed about his mid-terms at Chinese school but he still needs to do his English homework. He often shows up to class complaining about how much Chinese homework he has. We don’t assign that much homework in our class. He needs to write his vocabulary sentences on time. They are a great way to study for our vocabulary quizzes.

Kevin goes back and forth between being serious, doing solid work and being a completely destructive element in class. He needs to stop trying to make jokes in class. We have a lot of material to cover and he is slowing things down.

Perry also needs to settle down in class. He is too focused on trying to make jokes. I like to have fun with the kids, but he is taking things too far and slowing down the progress of the class. We have a lot of material to cover this semester.

Irisa is continuing to do good work in class. Keep it up.

Iris as well is doing very very strong work. We need to work on reading out loud.

Jessica has been a lot more on the ball this week. Her homework looked great. Keep it up.

Jordan has been continuing to work very diligently in class. He has an extraordinary work ethic. His sentences in his vocabulary book have been creative. This is a great chance to practice using more advanced sentence patterns. Keep it up.

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween! I hope to see all of you this weekend. Please feel free to invite your friends to join us for the Saturday and Sunday events.

Irisa has been doing well this week. Congratulations on finishing the student focus project strong!

Iris has had a good week as well. We’re all getting excited about Halloween!

Perry has been more focused this week. Good work.

Jessica has been a little quiet this week. We should encourage her to speak up in class.

Kevin has proved again that when he focuses, he does excellent work. I’d like to see more good behavior out of him.

Jordan is more and more active in class. Keep it up!

Andy has been a little stressed about his mid terms at Chinese school I hope he comes back next week ready to work.

Exams are over and we're back in the swing of things preparing for Halloween. It's going to be a great party, I hope you all get a chance to stop by.


I had a conversation to Irisa the other day about the way she has spoken to teacher John. She often complains about doing student focus, but she always comes back with a smile on her face.

I was surprised to hear that Jessica has been complaining about her homework on the weekends. The work load hasn’t changed and is rather light, by comparison. Reading a short story and answering a few questions shouldn’t long if she sits down and focuses.

Iris has been having a great week. Keep up the good work.

Jordan has been contributing more and more. Great work on your exams.

Perry has been having a good week. He’s been getting better and better about staying on task during class time.

Andy needs to be more aware of his tone of voice. He often speaks out in frustration about not understanding something, but the way he phrases his question comes off as confrontational and disrespectful. We spoke about this the other day.

Kevin’s rewritten essay was quite good. He has the potential to be a strong student if he applies himself.

Exam Week

We’re in the middle of exam week. It’s never the most fun time but they are trucking through our work. Results, so far, are quite positive. We certainly are getting a feel for where we will need to improve over the rest of the semester. We have begun working on writing full, multi-paragraph essays. This is a very hard but essential skill to develop.

Irisa has been great this week. She’s been doing good work with Teacher John and it will pay off. Keep it up.

Iris has been studious and diligently completing her work. Keep it up.

Perry has been doing good work. He still goofs off a little too much in class.

Jessica has been well behaved in class but she often completes her writing assignments lazily. She should pay more attention to making careless mistakes.

Kevin’s discipline issues are getting worse. He is intentionally disruptive. I had to speak to him for the third time the other day about copying other people’s work and presenting it as his own.

Jordan has been doing great work. His reading has improved considerably. He is slowly beginning to speak up more in class.

Andy and another boy were arguing when we went to the bowling alley two weeks ago. He has been complaining and in a bad mood ever since. It’s a shame to see him reverse all the progress he has made. I hope he will bounce back next week.

Double 10 Day Week 10

Happy Double Ten Day everybody! I had a blast bowling last week. Everybody else seemed to be having fun as well. I hope you all have a pleasant three day weekend. We’ve been making great progress and reviewing for our first exams next week.

Iris has been doing good work. She’s always focused in class. She should work on her intonation and fluency when reading aloud. That will come with time and practice.

Irisa is still doing great work. I’m continually impressed by her intonation and fluency reading out loud. Keep up the great work.

Kevin still has an attitude problem in class. He is disruptive to his other students. I have spoken to him about this numerous times.

Andy has been doing great work and focusing in class. Great improvement here. Keep up the good work.

Perry has been a little too excited in class this week. We need to work on finding ways to settle down and focus on days when he has a lot of energy. If he focused all that energy on working hard instead of goofing off, he’d be a wiz kid.

Jordan has been doing solid work. He’s still quiet but attentive and on the ball when I ask him questions.

Jessica has been a little lazy with her workbooks and vocabulary sentences. She makes an awful lot of careless mistakes that she shouldn’t be making.

Creative Pictures

We had a great time taking creative pictures last Friday. A few of our best pictures are here on the blog. We’re all looking forward to bowling tomorrow afternoon.

Irisa has had a great week, as always. She’s been doing a great job with the Treehouse TV program and is on track academically. She was the only student to score 100% on her quiz last week.

Iris has also been doing good work this week. She did good work on her spelling test. Keep it up.

Perry is still behind on one or two assignments. He needs to settle down in class.

Jessica has been a little lazy about the way she completes her work. She often makes careless mistakes on her written work.

Andy has been have a very good week. He has been working efficiently and productively. I was sorry to miss him last Friday.

Jordan has been doing good work. He is still quiet but he answers questions accurately and astutely. His reading out loud is showing improvement.

Kevin has been a big distraction to our class this last week. Other students cant’ get their work done because he has been talking out of turn on all occasions and being disruptive.

Fun in the Kitchen

We’ve had a very productive week. I had fun making cookies with everyone last Friday and look forward to taking creative pictures this Friday. We read a lovely storey about Harp Seals earlier this week and are continuing to work through plant cells and ideas like photosynthesis in science. We will have our second vocabulary quiz on Thursday.

Irisa has continued her strong work in the classroom. She got a little nervous about working on the Tree House TV show but that seems to have worked itself out. This should be a fun opportunity to show off her outstanding work. I hope she will realize that she has been chosen because she is one of the brightest, most well spoken students in the school.

I had a talk with Kevin before class yesterday. He is a bright, charismatic young man but he needs to stop distracting his classmates. This type of behavior will not be tolerated. He has a great deal of potential and I hope we can set him on track this semester.

Perry found himself in a spot of trouble yesterday for goofing off when he should have been reading a definition from the dictionary to the class. He’s a smart kid with a great spirit. We’ll continue to work on his attitude in the classroom. He volunteered to let us use his digital camera for a class project on Friday. Please don’t forget to charge the batteries!

Jordan has opened up a little more. I’m glad to see him flashing a smile from time to time and he has been reading out loud a good deal in class. I singled him out to answer questions a few times and he was right on the ball. I’m glad to see he’s paying attention.

Andy has been extremely productive in class this last week. I’m very pleased to see him doing such great work. He has been asking intelligent questions and staying on task. Keep it up!

Iris has had another strong week. Her sentences in her vocabulary book are very smart. She should make an effort to experiment with compound sentence patterns like, “My little sister is so stubborn sometimes that it drives me crazy” rather than simple ones such as, “I don’t like stubborn people.”

Jessica has been working much more productively with her partner this week. Keep up the good work!

Week 3

It was so nice to speak with all of you last Friday. Thank you for finding time in your schedules to come visit our class. I hope you enjoyed yourselves. We’ve had another productive week. Just a little reminder, please do try to check the blog as I will be updating it every Thursday.

There seems to be some confusion about Kevin’s schedule on Mondays. He arrived an hour and fifteen minutes late for class. The class is only two hours long. Our time in class is valuable. We discuss the material as we read in a manner that is hard to reproduce at home. If Kevin does continue to arrive late, he will need to arrive in a quiet manner as not to disrupt the other students.

Perry got into a spot of trouble on Tuesday afternoon for not paying attention during group reading. He was leafing through the pages of his book and making jokes with another student who was sitting on the far side of the classroom. It’s a small class. There are only 6 other students. I can’t imagine how he thinks his behavior will go unnoticed. He’s such a bright boy and he has a great spirit about him but I’m going to be very hard on him when it comes to focusing as I think it will be for his own benefit.

I’ve been pushing Jordan to read out loud a disproportionate amount in class. He actually reads out loud quite well. He’s been opening up a little more in class. We’ll keep at it.

Andy has had a great week. Two of the other boys were misbehaving in class the other day and not only did him not join in, but he chastised them for bothering him while he was trying to focus on the group reading. He still needs to keep his questions on task but I’m proud of the progress he is making.

Jessica has had another productive week. I’ve been forcing her to work together in a group to finish her bookwork in class. I think group work is an important skill and one she needs learn. We’ll keep at it.

Iris has been doing well. She’s always well behaved and focused. I’d like to see her making better use of the time she has before class to review new vocabulary.

Irisa is in a similar situation to Iris. She’s also very well behaved and focused. But I’d like to see her, too, using the free time before class to review new vocabulary rather than chatting with her friends.

Preparing to Potluck

We’ve had a good second week. Our class has filled out and I’ve been enjoying getting to know each one of the students. This week we have covered a large range of material learning the ins and outs of space ships and endangered species, protists and chloroplasts. We have a lot of material to cover, so it is important that we keep on task during class time. I had a great time playing laser tag last Friday. I think the students did too. I’m looking forward to the chance to chat with the parents this Friday during our Potluck. I hope to see you all soon!

Andy asks lots of questions. Many are intelligent, genuine questions and that is to be encouraged. From time to time, Andy gets a little off topic. He should be encouraged to remain focused in the classroom.

Kevin is a very bright student. He needs to focus in class and stay on topic. We do a lot of group work in class. He needs to work on being a positive group member.

Perry has been better about focusing in class but still needs reminding to stay on topic. He’s moving in the right direction.

Jessica is has been doing solid individual work. She needs to work on being a positive team member for group work.

Jordan is still a little intimidated by me. I hope, as he grows more accustomed to his new teacher, he will begin to play a more outgoing role in class.

Iris is extremely bright and has been working hard. Keep up the good work.

Irisa speaks extremely well and focuses in class. She also reads with a native speaker’s intonation, character and charisma. She has been outgoing and well behaved.

Welcome Grade 4 Romans!

It's been a great week and I've enjoyed getting to know each of our students. This is clearly and extremely bright, hardworking class. I've already been very impressed with their level. They keep laughing when I ask them if they know words which "are soooo grade 2 level." I hope that this semester we will have fun and be productive. I run my classroom a little different than some other teachers and I recognize that it takes many students some time to get used to. I welcome the challenge and I hope your children do as well.

Andy is clearly and extremely bright, inquisitive young man. He asks lots of questions and is very interested in learning. There are times when he speaks out of turn or gets a little to excited in class. There are also times when he thinks that I am treating him unfairly. He needs to learn to wait his turn and not try to speak over other students. I welcome his questions but I don't tolerate being interrupted by students in my classroom. We will need to work together to find a middle ground where everybody can learn productively and have fun together.

Perry is a bright young man and also asks lots of questions in class. Sometimes his questions are productive and sometimes they are off topic. I hope that he will put an effort into keeping on topic in class and not asking questions simply to get a laugh out of his friends.

Kevin has similar problems to Perry. He is also extremely bright and also gets over excited and off topic very easily. I hope he will try to stay focused on the subjects we are learning during class time this semester.

Irisa is very bright, focused and generally interested in learning. She reads with emotion and character uncommon in learners of English as a second language.

Iris is also smart, well behaved and hard working. I look forward to getting to know her better over the semester.

Jessica is a little quieter than her classmates. We will work on her reading fluency and speaking out over the coming semester.

Jordan is also a little quieter than his classmates but when he does speak, he speaks accurately. New teachers can be intimidating to some students, especially foreign men. We will work on him speaking out over the coming semester.