Teacher Jason's Jaguars

2010-03-05T20:59:00.005+08:00

Hello Jaguar Parents,

Science: "How animals stay Safe"

Reading: We read "Yasmin's Ducks"

Phonetics: We did high frequency words and worked more on Long vowels A, E, and I.

Individual Comments:

Andrew had a lot less errors in all his written work this week. He also got 100 percent on his vocabulary test!

Irene read very well this week, especially with the long vowel sounds. In addition, she got 100 percent on her vocabulary test!

Gwen definitely enjoyed the new science this week. It was a little tough but she read through almost without any assistance from me. She got 100 percent on her first vocabulary test as well!

Timmy had a few difficulties this week, I feel that he at times still has a hard time speaking out when he needs help. Also, he did not take studying the vocabulary seriously, stating that he only studied 3 min for the test.

Tony again did superb in his reading and actually improved a lot in his reading comprehension. I can clearly see his progression, hes on a great head start and will continue to do better and better. He alsogot 100 percent on his vocabulary test!

Leo had a bit of a falling out this week. He only waits til I come to help him when theres difficulty and isn't putting in his 100 percent. I had a very serious talk with him and I will make sure that he gets out of this problem he's in.

Hanna is working incredibly hard and it is clearly showing! She told me she woke up early on Thursday, in order to get the 100 percent she got on her vocabulary test. I am really proud of her effort!

Annie has already started warming up in the class. She read a few lines out loud and I can visibly see her pushng her self to work harder. I know she will get caught up to speed quickly and I am happy to have her as an addition to the Jaguar Family.

Julia got right back out of vacation mode and was as serious as ever in class. I am happy to see her back and proud of the 100 percent she got on her vocabulary test. Keep it up!

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend,

Teacher Jason

Start of the new Semester!

2010-02-26T21:10:00.002+08:00

Hello again!

Welcome back Jaguar family, I hope everyone is well rested after Chinese New Year. We had a very busy first week which resulted in a fantastic first week.

Science: "Getting Food, and Where Animals Live"

Reading: We read "The List" which is the first story of McGraw Hill's reading book 4!

Phonetics: We did word building and consonant V.

Individual Comments:

Andrew again was the quickest student to finish his science work. He had minimal mistakes but
was having trouble pronouncing a lot of the reading. Sometimes I also see he gets distracted so, He will be moving closer to the front of the class.

Irene was great, her reading is really progressing fast. I definitely believe that it is her attitude that resulted in this tremendous change.

Gwen loved the double science portion we did this week. She also was supporting our new student Annie, helping support her emotionally during her first week in the class!

Timmy did really well with the reading comprehension of the new reading. He will continue to do well as long as he keeps his focus on improving his phonetics and reading out loud.

Tony read very well this week, as before his writing was a bit slow but overall he is back on track with the flow of the class.

Leo was doing superb in class this week, especially in science. He was able to breakdown some of the big compound words. However, like before he will sometimes read over words which results in pronouncing them incorrectly.

Devon was still in break mode this week, he was totally unfocused and was playing through all of the class. I hope he will learn from the lesson this week and make sure this does not happen again.

Hanna was cheery as always and I was happy to see that she was excited to come back to class. She participated well in class, Hanna's only weak point is that she will sometimes confuse the short and long vowel songs.

Annie's first week was an interesting one to say the least. She like many new students felt a bit nervous, but I know she will open up as the weeks progress. I look forward to getting to know her better!

Last week of the first semester!

2010-01-28T14:49:00.002+08:00

Hello Jaguar Class

In phonics: We did the y sound and the variation of Z sounds.

In reading: We reviewed what we learned in book three of McGraw's Reading.

Science: This week we did double the science again to catch up, which went very well. The kids are all finally grasping the structure of the science book and they enjoy the challenge.

Individual comments:

Andrew went from being a shy hermit crab, into a full fledged rockstar. He is constantly the first one to complete his class work and I can tell he loves to take on new challenges. He has a competitive spirit, and I will be utilizing this to push him further in the coming semester.

Irene has definitely come a long way and I am glad to say that she is increasingly becoming more focused and it is definitely showing in both her written and reading ability. I feel she is a good problem solver and I have come up with some ideas for the future that should push her even further.

Gwen has really become the rock for the other students in our class. Every week I've seen her help the other students both with assignments and the general wellbeing. She has a great heart and I am really glad to have her in the class.

Its only been about six months, yet the change in Timmy's confidence levels are incredibly different. He went from being shy and saying he hated learning English to one of the top in our writing. This clearly has given him a boost in his esteem and I will be making he does the same for his phonetics!

Tony is already above the children his age and I greatly believe this is the push start he needs to become an all around better student. He is working with students a bit older than him, so it forces him to mature in his work ethic as a student. He learns quickly and with the new semester I expect his writing speed to quicken too!

Julia has had the biggest change of all the students in my class. She was timid, shy, and hated participating in class. Looking back at her and seeing where she is now is fascinating. She is very comfortable in the class and has made sure that she helps both herself improve everyday. I cant say enough about how responsible she is and how happy I am to see all shes done thus far!

Yo-Yo has grown a lot as a student here in Jaguar class, and I hope you both are as proud as I am of his achievement thus far. I know there is a lot of room for improvement but were all moving to support Yo-Yo and I know he will be successful in the future thanks to all the hard work we put in!

Leo came in being one of the top students in the class, but hes steadily declined as the course has progressed. He has full capability to gain the top spot in our class again but he needs to be in class to do so. If not, he will learn to take this as a class that is just filler and will loose importance in his perspective.

Devon has had a rough time adjusting from kindergarten to elementary but I am happy to see that he always keeps that cheerful attitude. Lets both as teacher and parent make sure he realizes his responsibilities and keep him focused on being the greatest student he can be!

Hanna Banana has been terrific from day one! I have never had to worry about her behavior and she has always had a thirst to learn more. This attitude is the reason why she is destined for success in her education. Her one true difficulty is in phonetics and I will make sure she has more practice in the up coming semester!

This semester has finally come to an end, and I must say it has been amazing seeing each students progression. Each student is making clear strides to improve and I can honestly say that I am proud of my class. So your children enjoy the break, because next semester will be filled with more challenges and lots of new interesting coursework!

Have a great weekend!
-T. Jason

Almost finished with the Semester

2010-01-21T19:31:00.003+08:00

Phonics: We did the y sound and the variation of Z sounds.

Reading: We reviewed what we learned in book three of McGraw's Reading.

Science: This week we did double the science! We worked on Mammal's and discussed the difference between them and other ones.

Individual comments:

Yo-Yo is getting back to a more productive student. He still needs to work on speed, but I think the double science was beneficial to him.

Andrew was the first one done with the science.

Irene fluctuated a lot this week. She got all her written done and comprehended all her work but took much more time than it was needed.

Gwen did well with her written, but had struggled pronouncing a few words in the the science. She understood the words, but

Timmy had struggled with the double ll sound. So I will practice more of those next week!

Tony did his work as usual, but he was very antsy this week. I believe this was because Chinese school ended

I cant say enough about how good Julia's work ethic is! She has the greatest attitude even when it takes her a long time to figure an answer.

Leo was not here much this week, lets get him caught up as soon as possible!

Devon was unpredictable this week, he was good a few days when reading but completely reverted back to bad behavior on others.

Hanna's memory continues to amaze me, she retains knowledge so quickly and is proficient in most aspects. Just needs to continue to push her self with her out loud reading.

Have a great weekend!
-T. Jason

Hello jaguar Class!

2010-01-15T20:04:00.005+08:00

Phonics: We started long vowels A and E.

Reading: We read "Time Magazine for Kids: Going Camping."

Science: We started our section on Animals and how we can differentiate between the different groups. We also learned how to compare and contrast things.

Individual comments:

Yo-Yo was much better behaved this week. He got all his written done, and i wish the best on his tests in chinese school.

Andrew behaved well and as always finished written work on time. However, he needs to put more effort in his vowel recognition, since he was confusing short a sound with e and u.

Irene was great, honestly I am astonished how quickly she improves. She is able to break down pretty complicated words on the first try!

Gwen had minimal mistakes with the comprehension, and was in better control of her fidgeting.

Timmy did much better this week than weeks prior, I just have to make sure I stay alert to his wandering mind!

Tony is doing well as always. He read well and is actually improving in writing speed. Still has a ways to go but hes making stride!

Julia is continuing doing the steps to help her remember her words and what she learns better. She asks many times to make sure she got some of the harder words, and I know she wants to improve a lot.

Leo was doing a bit better this week, he still is acting a bit lazy but I am sure this saturdays lesson will shape him up.

Devon was on better behavior. He can read ok, but his writing is still a ways to go.

Hanna had her first real challenge this week. There was a word she couldn't pronounce and got really frustrated with, so i'll be focusing more on word pronunciation techniques with her individually. Other than that, she was doing as well as ever.

Please take care, and have a great weekend!
-T. Jason

The Start of the New Year!

2010-01-08T19:50:00.003+08:00

This was kind of a hectic first week of 2010, I had to travel to Hong Kong for visa issues and within the same week I got ill. Teacher Tom relayed most of the material we had to cover and said, for the most part the class was well behaved and got their work done!

Phonics: We did unit review, which went over the past months of material.

Reading: We read "Snakes" in class this week. This explained the different kinds of snakes and how to compare and contrast these reptiles.

Science: Review the Plants and living things Unit.

Individual comments:

Yo-Yo was one of the exceptions this week, Teacher Tom told me that Yo-Yo made no attempt to do his writing homework and instead drew pictures. So, he lost his fun friday privileges for the next two weeks and I already had a severe talk with him. I hope this is the last time this will occur.

Andrew did all his work but was being quite the jokester with Teacher Tom. I told him not only does he represent himself but, also the entire class. He was a leader before and so he appologized to the teacher and was disciplined accordingly.

I'm told that Irene was very polite and did her homework well. She did however have a bit of a problem with the writing comprehension in the science review section which I think was due to her lack of focus before. She is steadily improving and just needs to remember to stay focused everyday.

Gwen was great to the substitute and got back on the right track. She just needs to read through her reading comprehension questions a little more carefully, since she still overlooks a few questions.

Timmy did well in class and behaved well for Teacher Tom!

Tony apparently was the best in class this week, infact, he was the fastest doing his work when Teacher Tom was teaching. I was very suprised and happy, hopefully he continues to do so!

Julia is staying on the right track. I am really glad to see her self motivation paying off!

Leo was better this week, but still is in need of the Saturday class next week. I look forward to catching him up.

Devon was on and off this week. He did well for me but was misbehaving a bit with Teacher Tom.

anyways the semester is almost over, and there will be plenty of new improvements I am looking forward to adding in the spring!

Take care, and have a great weekend!
-T. Jason

Happy New Years!

2009-12-31T19:09:00.003+08:00

This week was another busy week for the class, this week we:

Being New Years this week, we got set and talked about New Years Resolutions. The kids had to think of an achievable resolution, which is something they can do better in the upcoming year, and how they can make these goals possible.

Phonics: We worked on vowel combinations, OU and IE. Also, we did high frequency words that indicate distance, like here, there, and question word where.

Reading: We read "Sam's Song," and even though this was very challenging for the students, by the end of it they not only were able to read it, but completely understand the story. This is another stepping stone because of the added writing elements like metaphors and implications.

Individual comments:

Yo-Yo is getting back on the right track. He wrote faster this week and comrehended the story with ease. He however needs to work on our reading out loud exercises.

Andrew was able to read well this week and pronounced most words properly. But, he struggled with the written, which wasn't because he didn't comprehend, instead it was cause he was constantly distracting himself.

Irene proved she had exceptional problem solving ability this week. She was able to get all the answers correct on the class assignment on comparison, even though she only knew one of the two words! At first I asked if she looked at others, but she then explained to me how she was able to figure out the answers, using only her own logic!

Gwen has been distracted these past few weeks, which caused her to fall back on her reading progression. She had problems doing the story questions and I clearly explained the story and the questions.

Timmy like Gwen has been loosing focus, but I believe its because of the move of classrooms. I think once we get back into our class, this problem will be resolved.

Tony was in good spirits this week. The moving distracting most of the students, but for tony, it actually was no problem at all. He is reading incredibly clear, and I am continuing to see him mature. Keep it up!

Julia is having a hard time with some of her questions, but she is staying very responsible and handling these difficulties well! When she comes across a problem, she tries to solve herself, and if not went straight to me.

Leo was excelling before in class, but like I mentioned last week, hes falling behind quite a bit. I really would like it if he would come Saturdays to catch up on his work and get back to speed!

Devon did superb this week on his reading. There were some very difficult words but he broke them down and was able to say them with ease! great job cookie monster!

Have a great New Year, see you in 2010!
-T. Jason

Merry Christmas Jaguar Class!!!

2009-12-24T19:09:00.002+08:00

This week was another busy week for the class, this week we:

Science book: We finished the chapter on Plants.

Phonics: We worked on the G and X consonants. We also continued working on how to indicate what tense is used in sentences.

Reading: We read "Greg's Mask." Was a bit difficult for the students, but the challenge was overcome and the students seemed a lot more confident with their reading sklls.

Individual comments:

I am really hoping that Yo-Yo learned his lesson from this weeks events. I hope all goes well, and would like to talk more on Monday about his progression.

Andrew like always does fine with written work, but the problem is he sometimes just zones out when other people are reading. This causes him to miss out on the errors other students make which he ends up making himself.

Irene is doing substantially better. Her reading is improving now at a increasingly faster rate. Keep it up!

Gwen put more effort into her written work this week. It still is a bit of a struggle but she listens more and is asking questions at the appropriate time.

Timmy like always was superb. He annunciates each part of words correctly, including the ones he does not know.

Tony had no problems this week. He worked hard and was reading well, he needs to work a little on annunciation but hes clearly making a step in the right direction.

Julia struggled a bit this week with all the reading comprehension, but she kept on persevering and its paying off. Even though she had to ask quite a few questions, she was able to understand the whole story and how to read each word correctly. These are great steps for her improvement!

Leo was not here all week, and missed quite a lot of grammar and sentence pattern work. I will get him caught up as soon as he comes, and obviously the sooner the better.

Even though Devon was sick, he was continuing with a better attitude. Get better soon Devon.

Well, have a good weekend
-T. Jason This week was another busy week for the class, this week we:

We did lots of Christmas activities this week! We not only had festive vocabulary, but also worked on Christmas cards and had the chance to see some holiday themed movies that I watched as a boy.

Reading: We finished reading "Greg's Mask" and the rest of the reading comprehension.

Individual comments:

Yo-Yo's behavior is steadily increasing once again, I hope to see this a permanent step in the right direction.

Even being a bit sick, Andrew continued to do well in class. He enjoyed the winter festivities and I hope to see him at 100 percent next week.

Irene is honestly growing more and more independently. She still has a few minor reading problems but she worked very hard this week. She is clearly very artistically talented.

Gwen had a phenomenal week, she did well in the reading this week. However, she does need to practice more of the reading comprehension, since she was making careless mistakes in the practice book. She is such a compassionate person, always cheering people on and cleaning up for everyone instead of just her self.

Timmy was a bit out of it this week, he had a hard time fully concentrating. He did fine with his written but he always asked questions other students already did prior. But he did do well with the Christmas activities!

Tony was on good behavior this week, I think clearly he wants to be on Santa's Good List!

Julia is really improving on a stable pace. She asks questions on each word she does not know and is taking her reading much more seriously.

It was good to see Leo back more this week, he still however still has a bit of catching up to do.

Devon had some good and bad days this week. That being said, I can tell he is like Henry in the sense that they both are artistic. I hope to see him pursue his natural talents.

Well, have a good weekend
-T. Jason

2009-12-18T20:13:00.004+08:00

2009-12-11T20:31:00.003+08:00

This week was another busy week for the class, this week we:

Science book: We went over different kinds of weather and how they affect the growth of different plants. We will be finishing up the plant section this upcoming week.

Phonics: Had grammar practice, where we went " 's" and the use of quotations.

Reading: We started the third book in our reading series and it was well recieved by the kids. They understood the first story with minor help along the way! This week, we read "Stan's Stunt."

Individual comments:

Yo-Yo got his work done, but at a much slower pace then he once was doing. I've talked to him several times prior, so now he will be sitting in front of me during next week's classes. He's got the comprehension down, just have to remind him to stay focused!

Andrew did well with written, but is having a bit of a difficulty with his phonetics. I've said it time and before, he needs to work on slowing down his speech and enunciate every sound clearly.

Irene was terrific! She was not only well behaved, but also, her reading comprehension has picked up tremendously fast!

Gwen is doing well with the actual reading, but needed a bit more help on the written work. Sometimes she will blaze through the papers and only go slower after I've already graded her work. Once she slows down a bit more, I am sure well see an improvement in her written.

Timmy was excellent. He became leader this week and was the model student!

Tony had troubles with writing speed again, but I am happy to say that he was one of the smoothest readers during this weeks lessons. He also retained the vocabulary quickly and I'm glad to see him become more independent!

Julia at first was not doing so well this week. She was putting minimal effort into her work, but I got her to snap out of it and she finished the week strong. I'll be making sure that she is working hard continuously.

Leo was a rockstar this week. He did all his work with ease and read very clearly. He however is having a bit of a hard time remembering vocabulary, so if possible, I would like to see him come on mondays more often.

Devon is starting to improve. I need the support at home so that he continues to take more responsability for his own actions.

Well, have a good weekend
-T. Jason

Jaguar Class

2009-12-04T21:07:00.002+08:00

Hello Jaguar Family,

This week was another busy week for the class, this week we:

Science book: Read about plants and the parts that are involved in a their growth.

Phonics: We reviewed the prior consonants and high frequency words.

Song: We sang Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers

Individual comments:

Yo-Yo was out for half the week, but he was behaving very well when he was in class. He clearly enjoys sciences and I am glad to see him getting back to his hard working self.

Andrew did decent with the phonics this week, but it took him quite a bit longer with the science. I will have to spend a little extra time to get him up with the rest of the class, but that wont be a problem.

Irene had a lot of challenges with understanding the concepts, but like most of the others she stayed focused and was able to do all the science written by her self, and most of it was error free!

Gwen enjoyed the plant part of science this week. She got most of the vocabulary already on the first day! Sorry I was unable to give her a new book this week, I will be sure to next week.

Timmy had a few problems at first with the science, but he stayed concentrated the whole week and by the end of it, was able to understand everything.

Tony was behaving exemplary. He was participating a lot and did all his work with minor problems along the way. He was more independent than weeks prior and hes continuing to improve!

Julia had some challenges with the science, but she kept a great attitude and put in a lot of effort.

Leo was gone most of the week, he has quite a bit to catch up on!

Devon was misbehaving all week, he needs to make sure he keeps paying attention at all times.

-T. Jason

2009-11-27T19:05:00.002+08:00

Reading
We read over "The Vet."

Phonics
We went over the W,Z, and R consonants.

English Second Language Book
We finished the second week of the chapter on "learning."

Student comments:

Yo-Yo was doing well with memorizing the content as usual, but his writing speed was incredibly slow this week. I had to have a serious talk, since I haven't seen him this distracted since early on in the semester.

Andrew was leader again and he really shines in the role. He also did well with his work, he just needs to make sure to enunciate his words more clearly.
Irene

Gwen was leader for the girls this week. This is where shes most confortable, since she enjoys talking and helping boost other peoples spirits. This is a constructive way for her to speak out and I am glad she enjoys it!

Timmy spoke quite a bit more vocal this week, I hope he realized how advantageous voicing his problems can be.

Tony as a whole was good this week. However with his written, he did try to get me to give him the answers before really trying it himself. He just needs to keep pushing himself!

Julia was sick for monday but caught up on what she missed quickly. Also, She excelled in the mapping concept we learned!

Leo had a few troubles with how to use a map properly. But after a little explanation, he was able to understand and soon was actually assisting me on helping students with questions regarding the topic.

Devon was behaving better this week. He finished a lot of his written work done, without me having to say it many times. Hope the trend continues!

-T. Jason

2009-11-20T20:47:00.002+08:00

Science
This is the start of the new part of our curriculum. So, this week I evaluated the kids on this new style of reading, though this new book is challenging, I believe we are ready to make science part of our weekly agenda!

Phonics
We went over J and B Consonants and high frequency words.
Science book

Song
"Better Together" by Jack Johnson. Shows simple metaphors and a very soft melody.

Student comments:
We started our next unit on Learning. We started discussing what is learning and how we can learn faster. This was a more difficult chapter, since the concept is more abstract, but the students are continuing through with stride.

Yo-Yo loved the addition of the science book to our curriculum. But, he did again repeat some behavioral problems, so he was not able to do the extra curricular activity at the end of Thursday lesson.

Andrew was exceptional this week. This is his first week as the role of leader of the class, and I am happy to say he was a great example!

Irene is now consistently improving in not only her behavior but also in her reading. Great job Irene.

Gwen didn't have a hard time adjusting to the science styled reading.

Hanna as always did great with most of her work, but behaviorally speaking she was a bit naughty. she wasn't as focused this week causing her to have a harder time with some of the science vocabulary.

Timmy was awesome, he understood all the new science vocabulary with ease. He also

Tony was a bit distracted this week. I had to tell him several times to get on the right page, so I will be keeping a better eye on him next week.

Julia I hope you feel better. You did great as the female leader this week, and hope to see you on Monday.

Leo was superb this week. He enjoyed the science reading even though it was a lot more challenging than the material he was previously reading.

Devon was misbehaving this week, he wasn't following directions on Thursday so he was not allowed to do any of the extra activities.

-T. Jason

Hello Jaguar Parents!

2009-11-13T19:16:00.003+08:00

This week we covered,

What we did this week was:

Reading
We read "What bug is it" which was their first introduction to more scientific reading.

Phonics
We went over ll sound with the combination of different vowel sounds.

ESL book
We started our next unit on Learning. We started discussing what is learning and how we can learn faster. This was a more difficult chapter, since the concept is more abstract, but the students are continuing through with stride.

Yo-Yo
Did great with class assignment but this week he had a few behavioral backlashes. I talked to him on Thursday, and will be making sure he continues to improve!

Andrew
Had difficulty with some of the questions on how we learn outside of the school but we will be continuing next week and I will be sure to go over last weeks material with him.

Irene did a lot better this week. She was eager to read out loud and did most of her written perfectly.

Gwen had some trouble with the reading we started this week. We will be going over more of the new vocabulary next week which I believe will help.

Hanna was struggling with some of the writing for the reading comprehension. This is good because before, she was just breezing through most of the material. Now that she has a challenge, I feel she will be pushing harder in order to reach the next threshold in her learning!

Timmy like other students had a bit of a hard time doing some of the reading. We will be reviewing the story again tomorrow to make sure everyone is caught up.

Tony did well with understanding the story, which is good since it was quite difficult. The only thing was he again persisted for help on many of the written questions, when in fact he already knew the answers.

Julia understood the phonics quickly and did a fantastic job breaking down the new vocab words. She pronounced every new word exceptionally well!

Leo was one of the few that excelled in reading the new story this week. His reading skills are really coming along well!

Devon is paying better attention to reading and participating a lot more!

Well hope everyone has a great weekend.
-T. Jason

Hello Jaguar Parents!

2009-11-06T19:49:00.003+08:00

Another week is done and it was another thrilling one for the always awesome Jaguar Class.

This week we completed:

Reading
After we finished "Splash!" reading comprehension homework, I decided we needed to have a little change of pace. So this week we tried something different, I taught the kids about how to read and use simple recipes! This included not only the usual reading activities but also, on Thursday we made cookies! This gave the children a hands on understanding of a new form of reading and I think its obvious they loved it.

Phonics
F, C and N consonants

Student Comments

Yo-Yo did well this week. He understood the recipe concept pretty quickly and definitely enjoyed the experience of making the cookies himself. He did however was a bit antsy and ended up falling out of his chair. I think after the experience and a little couching, he now understands why I ask that each student sit properly at all times. Sometimes I suppose you just have to live and learn!

Andrew was working hard this week and for that reason was one of the main helpers in the cookie making day. His reading is improving daily, he just needs to keep absorbing more and more vocabulary.

Irene continued with a good stride this week. She knew how to work with rhymes quicker than most students, which showed me that she can easily succeed if she puts her focus on any concepts.

Gwen again was great with being a student helper and I am glad that she enjoys the responsibility. She however still is talking a bit too frequently so I had to have a serious sit down and talk to her about it.

Hanna is exceptional when it comes to classwork and the face she made when I told them were making cookies was priceless!

Timmy as always was well behaved. He understood the concept of recipe and I know for a fact he loved the cookie and milk experience. Considering the fact that there was chocolate all over his face afterward!

Tony Loved this week. This week he did all the written homework on his own which is a big step in the right direction.

Julia had a few problems this week but I could tell she really learned from what happened. I hope she always remembers this lesson "Cheaters never prosper!" She is a good girl and I think this was a slip up.

Leo was out for half the week again which was a shame. Because I wish he had a chance to do some of the extra activities like the cookie making which I feel makes the class feel more unified and warms up everyone. Hope next time he gets the chance.

Devon had probably the most fun this week cause we all know that he has quite the sweet tooth. He also managed to learn some vocabulary this week while chewing his way through his cookies.

Well hope everyone has a good weekend.
-T. Jason

Halloween at TreeHouse

2009-11-01T21:53:00.003+08:00

Hello Jaguar Parents,

This week was quite the eventful one here at treehouse, with the not only the usual classwork but also the friday haunted house and class pumpkin carving experience!

In our reading, we read the poem "Pets" and the story "Splash" by Jessica Clerk. This was the first week, where I didn't have them follow along as I read it, instead each student was reading pages in a rotation. This is great because, the kids are now feeling comfortable not just out loud but also to their peers.

In Phonics, we worked on Long A sound and constants V.

Student Comments

Since this seems to be the birthday month, I wanted to first wish Gwen a happy birthday. She is growing very fast, and I want her to keep striving past her challenges and always stay the same cheery person we all love.

Andrew did great with reading to his peers, which was great to see. He did however have a hard time with some of the new vocabulary, so I will encourage now to start studying his vocabulary more outside of class, like when hes waiting to be picked up.

Irene is keeping up the positive attitude. She read out loud not just once, but volunteered to do some more after!

Yo-Yo did supurb this week, he as always picked up the vocabulary quickly and enjoyed reading with the class. His behavior was also good and minus the Haunted house, I know he enjoyed the festivities. I say this because Andrew and Yo-Yo were so scared that they threw water at me during the haunted house on friday.

Devon loved the pumpkin carving and was able to use some of the related vocabulary while we did the activity.

Julia did fantastic in her reading this week! I would love to see her continue and I will plan on giving some extra books next week, for her to take home to read with the family.

Hanna all around was great this week. She was the only student in the class that didnt complain about the messiness or smell of the pumpkin carving. Instead she went all out and made sure that her groups pumpkin looked great.

I was glad to see Timmy back on friday and look forward to seeing him back in class on monday.

Tony was a rock star! He clearly is confident in the class, Tony read out loud with a high volume and clearly. Also, he still has a bit of a dependency issue, where he will ask me how to say words without trying them himself first. What I would recommend is that at both home and school, he continue to try to solve problems on his own.

Leo probably has the easiest time, when it comes to reading. That being said, I had to remind him quite a few times this week, to slow down again and read over words properly. Leo shows that he is very bright and a good heart, he just needs to instill harder effort, so that he can maximize his capabilities. Also, cheers to Leo's dad for beating me at chubby bunny on friday!

Anyways hope everyone enjoyed the Annual Halloween Activities,

-T. Jason

Hello Jaguar Family

2009-10-24T09:06:00.002+08:00

Hello Jaguar Parents!

This week we covered:

This is Week two of Halloween/Evaluation and I am glad to say that all the students are improving already after just the first quarter of the Year!

This week, the evaluation was two parts. First being some of the grammar concepts, like the proper "is and are." The second was a verbal phonics recognition of the short vowel sounds. The second was a bit harder for the students, but this challenge really gave the kids a real life application of the use of these sounds.

We had a lot of new Halloween vocabulary and we also discussed what the meaning of Halloween is all about. We made paper versions of Jack-O-Lanterns which all the kids really enjoyed. Photos will be up next week!

Student Comments

Andrew was superb this week. On the grammar concept part, scored a perfect 100! He just needs to work a bit on his listening comprehension.

Gwen was better this week behavior wise and in fact also did well on the first evaluation.

Irene is on the right track, she just needs to keep up the same performance consistency. After the review, she improved substantially on the concept part of the test. Keep striving hard!

Yo-Yo was a model student this week. He not only did well on the evaluation, but also showed me that he is able to concentrate without anyone telling him to focus. He really is trying a lot harder and I think hes enjoying his new found role in the class.

Devon writing and behavior was better this week!

Julia is continuing to suprise me as each day goes by. She seems very confident in her English ability, and when she isn't she asks questions right away. That is the exact kind of mentality I want her and other students to attain. She did well on the test and consistently gets three stars, Keep it up Julia!

Hanna did great on her grammar conceptual evaluation! There is still room for improvement but, she definitely is on the right track.

Timmy loved the second halloween vocabulary which showed a lot since he particpated a lot in the verbal test! His behavior always is exemplary but he still sometimes is a bit shy toward asking questions.

Tony is now looking at challenges he has with a better attitude. He first tries to find the answer on his own and if he is really unsure he asks me right away! Great job this week!

Leo is already nearly caught up from the work he missed before joining the class. He just needs to make sure to slow down on his reading because he will sometimes rush over words he cant pronounce.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and I hope to see all parents at our Halloween Festivities next Week!

Cheers,
Teacher Jason

Hello Jaguar Parents!

2009-10-16T19:55:00.003+08:00

This week we covered:

This is Week one of two of the Halloween Activities in the Jaguar class! This week's vocabulary was exceptually fun since it had festive words like haunted house, and trick or treat

Phonics
We went over all the short A, E, I, O, U vowel sounds

Reading
We read Bug Bath. This was definetely a benchmark in their reading comprehension!

Student Comments

First off, Happy Birthday Andrew! He is doing well, his main focus right now is enunciating his sounds.

Gwen did well with remembering all the short vowel sounds. But, I had to talk to her this week about her extra comments in class since she does at times distract others.

Irene did a lot better this week! She has been speaking out more and its already helping her understand the class a lot more. Keep working on it!

Yo-Yo's speed has improved a lot since class had first started. I'm glad that our focus has shifted past writing. Hes making progress with his concentration and just needs to keep being persistant and aim to always achieve the best.

Devon

Julia remembered all the short vowels but had a bit of a problem saying them verbally. A way to help her at home is to make sure she reads out loud anytime shes reading any english book.

Hanna caught up on all she missed and Im glad to see that she is now back to 100 percent!

Timmy was great with the vocabulary and phonics this week. He just needs to continue working on reading outloud!

Im glad to say, Tony remembers his short vowel sounds very well!

Leo reading comrehension is incredibly fast. Hes already caught up with most of the reading and is now finishing up his phonics. He understands the sounds by themselves but has problems with sometimes combining them when reading outloud.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend,

Teacher Jason

2009-10-09T20:18:00.002+08:00

Hello Tree House Parents,

This week we covered:

Phonics
Short I sound, id and ip phonograms.

Reading
We started our second book in reading! We read "Good Pup" and two new poems.

English Second Language Book/Song

We went over D.A.N.C.E. by Justice, which is a light hearted song with lots of simple metaphors. The kids really enjoyed this song since this was the first song they could both read and sing along with!

Student Comments

Gwen's understanding of each lesson has been both beneficial to herself and the other classmates. I see that she is continuing to help boost the moral and im happy that shes really filling into this leadership role nicely!

Andrew did a lot better with his behavior this week, I want to see that he keeps it up!

Irene had some difficulty this week, since I did catch her looking at another persons work. I had a big discussion with her on student integrity and I think she definitely learned from this experience.

Yo-Yo's really building up a lot of confidence, he is proud that he knows all the vocabulary and Im happy to say that his behavior is progressing admirably.

Devon finished the vocabulary without any help and followed along better with the reading!

Julia is continuing to really put her best effort into the class, I can see her verbal skills are improving very fast.

Hanna was sick for most of the week, so I was glad to see her back in high spirits. She has a bit to catch up on, but by next week she will be done.

Timmy had a little difficulty with the different uses of questions words this week, but he worked hard and I am sure he will understand the more after next weeks continuation.

Tony at first was at first struggling to do the reading comprehension work by himself, but hes continuing to work hard and is starting to really show!

Leo started off his first week strong, he behaves very well! He understood the vocab quickly and participated a lot. Keep up the hard work!

2009-10-02T20:57:00.003+08:00

Hello Tree House Parents,

This week we covered:

Phonics
We reviewed all this months High Frequency words and worked on the H sound.

Reading
We read "Ships" in the McGraw-Hill Reading book, were almost done with the first book!

English Second Language Book

We started the school unit! Talking about different parts of the classroom and the activities we do while we learn.

Student Comments

Irene as always is writing well but is still a bit self conscious with verbal participation.

Gwen's been a great influence with some of the newer students. I see her supporting Irene and the others with high fives and supportive comments which has made the class atmosphere even better.

Andrew did better with his behavior and was a big help Yo-Yo and the others on his team win the vocabulary challenge we had at the end of the week

Yo-Yo's got quite the memory, he knew almost all the vocab for the first month! He is still struggling with minor behavioral problems, but is continuing to do better.

I believed Devon learned his lesson this week and I hope to see an improvement next week.

Julia really enjoyed the song for this week! This was the first time I heard her sing without me asking her!

Hanna contiues to do well in class. I was happy to see that she also was able to help others understand their reading comprehension!

Timmy is consistantly improving! He knew 90/100 of the vocabulary and really put an effort to participate this week.

Tony is picking up on his writing, and now he is starting to get a better understanding of the harder written questions in our workbooks!

It was great to finally have Leo back in the Class this week! He is already catching up pretty fast! I'm looking forward to seeing how he does as the weeks go on.

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Moon Festival!
-Teacher Jason

2009-09-25T13:22:00.003+08:00

Hello Tree House Parents,

This week we covered:

Phonics

We worked on s and o vowel sounds while learning to differentiate between how to pronounce -ad, -at phonograms.

Reading

.We read "Fish Dish" and "The Path on the Map" with the included reading comprehension. This taught the students how useful maps can be while practicing more complex phonetic sounds like sh, and th.

English Second Language Book/ Song

We continued talking about growth and how we need to grow in maturity along with the obvious physical growth. Which got us talking about more responsibilities and how we can really start to help others! This also brought us to our song which was Micheal Jackson's "Man in the Mirror." I thought it was fitting since he illustrates that we have to start working on ourselves in order to make the world around us better and more fulfilling.

Student Comments

Irene really enjoyed this week's song, "Man In the Mirror" by Michael Jackson. This is something she and I both really enjoyed, since it was the first time she stepped into the spotlight and spoke clearly.

Gwen is constantly improving her speaking in class. She did great with her understanding of the vocabulary!

Andrew's did well with his writing this week but needs to work on pronouncing the sh and th sound.

Yo-Yo is continuing to do better, he is staying consistent with his work and I can see that he feels a lot more proud as a student!

Devon is following along better with his reading, he is making sure to follow along with his finger and was answering a few of the questions in class, good improvement Devon!

Julia's English speaking is unfolding very quickly now, and its great to see that she is taking it on her own initiative to ask when she doesn't understand something.

Hanna's verbal skills are improving, she was able to sing almost all of this week's song. She also was the first to point out what some of the song meant, which was pleasantly surprising.

Timmy did great, he hopped back from being sick with little difficulty and did well with this week's lessons. He is learning to speak out more and is starting to feel comfortable inside the classroom.

Tony's reading and phonics are really picking up! He is starting to break up sounds on his own when he doesn't know the word, which tells me he is starting to really grasp phonetics.

I hope you all enjoy Open House this evening,
-Teacher Jason

2009-09-18T20:13:00.004+08:00

Hello Tree House Parents,

This week we covered:

Phonics

We focused on the T and L sound. We also spent a lot of time on words that are used quite often. (I.E. He, She, On,Like, and It)

Reading

We read "Reading Jig and Tap" and "What does Pig do?" These stories allowed the students to focus on short i sounds and continued repetition of the short a. The stories also emphasized calendars and why they are useful. For example we use them to remember what we did and what we are going to do in the future.

English Second Language Book

We covered the chapter on growing and changing. Which told us about the different parts of us that get bigger and taller as we get older. And also the different abilities we learn thanks to these growth spurts.

Student Comments

Irene is steadily increasing with her phonics ability. I would like for her to put more effort though in participating with our discussions.

Gwen loved the finger paint activity and shined when we were going over our vocabulary.

Andrew did well this week and was a great help illustrating how growth works. I want him to make sure to keep it up and work a bit on speaking out of turn, since at times he can distract others.

Yo-Yo had a fantastic week, I believe this is the first week where he really took control of his focus and he did great. He finished all his writing and contributed a lot to the verbal parts of my class. He and I will both be sure to continue his improvement in and outside the class.

Devon improved a lot with his writing speed, lets hope he keeps it up!

Julia's English speaking is unfolding very quickly now, and its great to see that she is taking it on her own initiative to ask when she doesn't understand something.

Hanna is continuing to work hard on her vocabulary comprehension! She just needs to keep working on not talking out of turn.

Timmy was sick this week, I hope you feel better soon and hope to see you in class next week.

Tony is doing great with the vocabulary and I love that he enjoys reading and answering questions in class. He still needs to work on how many outside comments he makes in class since at times it can distract other students.

well, hope everyone enjoys their weekend! Next week is Open House!!

T. Jason

2009-09-11T18:47:00.004+08:00

Hello Tree House Parents,

Its the second week of school, and jaguar class is starting to get used to the schedule and emphasis on their reading and phonics. As we get deeper into the year, I am sure that the class will feel a lot more confident in both their reading and writing abilities.

This week:

Phonics: We worked on the short A sound, the letter M.

Reading: We read the poem, "The Sack" and the story "Quack". Both helped the kids emphasize the short a and ck sound.

English Accelerated Learning: We continued working on families with the focus being on what each family member's responsibilities.

Song- We learned the song "Is this love" by Bob Marley.

Individual comments

Irene did great with her family drawing and with the new song we learned. She just needs to make sure towork at her vocabulary more.

Gwen-is doing great with all the work in class, just needs to learn not to speak without raising her hand!

Andrew- This week, did well with writing but needs to work on lowering the amount of side comments he makes in class.

Yo-Yo is working harder on his writing significantly, and is doing great with the phonics.

Devon loves to draw and did great when we were working on Families. But can improve on paying attention in class.

Julia contributed a lot more in class discussion this week, hope she keeps it up!

Hanna has been great, she works hard on her vocabulary and loves to contribute in the class.

Timmy showed great improvement with his written work this week, not just with understanding but speed too! We loved learning the song,"Bob Marley- Is this love" and really got the other kids excited with his enthusiasm.

At first I was worried about Tony since he is a bit younger than the rest of the class, but those fears never amounted considering he is at the top of our reading comprehension.

Well, hope everyone has a good weekend!

T. Jason

The start of a fantastic New School Year!

2009-09-04T21:11:00.002+08:00

Hello Tree House Parents,

My name is Teacher Jason and this week has been a great pleasure thanks to my new Jaguars class. My goal is for my students to know they have the confidence to read and that I will notice all the effort that is taking place in and out of the classroom.I am already really excited cant wait for all the experiences we will have together throughout this year.

This week, we started our reading book which emphasized the short a sound and got familiar with all the basic sounds of the alphabet. We also worked on the concept on family and talked about how important and how we contribute to our everyday family life.

Individual comments

Irene has a very warm personality and seems excited to learn! In class she can be a bit quiet and I can tell she feels self conscious when speaking out loud. But I am positive this will change as she feels more comfortable with the other students and as we push on through the year.

Gwen is great! I rarely have to remind her to stay on task and she loves to put in her two cents into any discussion we have. I love her bubbly nature!

Andrew is incredibly hard working and is always one of the first ones done. I have to say that i am really glad that Andrew is in my class since I had spent a great deal with him over the summer. During that time I witnessed how hard he always pushes himself to learn which is truly rewarding for me.

Yo-Yo is much more talkative this year which really is great since this has made my communication with him a lot easier! Like I have said before, he reminds me when I was younger since the fact that he and I both were easily distracted students. I know that the needs that come with this, and will be working on showing Yo-Yo how to increase his focus.

Devon's humor and all around happiness is spreading through the class like a virus which definitely makes him a great addition to the class. He has a bit of a hard time focusing but moving him to the front of the class has already shown to help with the situation.

Julia is very similar with Irene. At first she was very hesitant to speak even to me but she is already gaining confidence in and outside of the classroom which is already allowing me to teach her individually. She is very artistic and I am glad that she is already starting to warm up to me!

Hanna is one of the quickest learners in the class! I am really happy to she that even at a young age, she picks up some of the more difficult content matter up with no difficulty. I cant wait to see how much she grows over this year!

Timmy- Behaviorally is the best in the class. He is always sitting up straight and has no problems inside the classroom in this sense. He also understand the verbal material well but I will be focusing on his speed of his writing, since he tends to drift off.

Well, hope everyone has a good weekend!

T. Jason

2009-07-10T19:59:00.001+08:00

Dear Aztec Parents,

This week we completed:

Reading: We read the Knee- High Man skit. The children definitely enjoyed this type of reading since they could act out characters and it allowed them to be silly yet kept them focused on learning new words.

Phonics: we learned that when A, I, O, U is added with an E at the end, it makes a long vowel sound.

Accelerating English Language Learning- We learned about neighborhoods and the community. The kids learned that a community is made to help all the people that living in one means helping out your neighbors and businesses around their houses.

Individual Student Comments:

Phil- verbal skills are improving every week; he seems to love to read out loud.

Irene- had a great time doing the vocabulary games and won most of the activities! She has again been a lot of help to the students who had problems reading.

Aston- His behavior improved a lot and when reading he now can pronounce many of the words. To continue his reading improvement, he needs to do is spell out each letter then attempt to say the words that he doesn’t know. By doing this I am sure he will be more confident while reading in class and continue to do well.

Gwen- is doing great with the written work but I believes she needs to work on participating more so her speaking skills can improve.

Benson- I noticed that now he seems to enjoy actually speaking verbally and its really nice to see since he is usually very shy in class.

Eason- his behavior has really improved a lot inside the class and is picking up the phonics and vocabulary very quickly.

Yo-Yo- has paying better attention in class and it really shows because now he comprehends more of the questions asked and has no problem participating!

Leo- this week was the best at the vocabulary understanding and I was pleasantly surprised that he brought his vocabulary home to study on his own just to improve. That kind of drive will definitely cause his English to continue to improve!

Henry- Loves the new drawing game for vocabulary and its helping him definitely add to his understanding.

Till next time,
-Teacher Jason

Week 20

2009-06-26T08:33:00.009+08:00

Dear Aztec Parents,

This week we completed:

Reading: We read The Shopping List, which illustrated how we make grocery lists and the different items that the market has to offer. We also did related workbook classwork which helped solidify the vocabulary we had this week.

Phonics: This week, we learned some different sounds like Qu and Sh, also the student know the letter Q always is followed up with the letter U.

Accelerating English Language Learning- We learned two chapters this week, which were Family Values and School.

Individual Student Comments:

Gwen- Has been great with her written work this week. What she needs to improve on is reading out loud more and studying her vocabulary.

Eason- Did well with vocab even though he missed the first Tuesday. Also, I need him to work on how he interacts with others in class. He sometimes says words about others that are not nice.

Irene- Has been excellent all week. She helped other students with their reading workbook and she did great with vocabulary review.

Aston- Overall this week, he has behaved a lot better. He was speaking less out of turn and was paying attention a lot more in class.

Phil- Was well behaved for the most part, but did not study his vocabulary at all.

Leo- Is doing well with his reading. Keep up the good work!

Benson- Participated a lot more in class this week and had no problem following along with the reading. He does, however, need to pay more attention to his vocabulary.

Henry- Was paying better attention in class but needs to work on the speed of his written work.

Well, Have a Great Weekend!!

-Teacher Jason

Hello Aztec Parents!!

2009-06-19T09:47:00.006+08:00

As I'm sure you know by now, teacher Annie had to leave back to the United States and now I am the active teacher for the Aztec class. After my first week, I can already tell that this is going to be a great class to teach and excited to see each student's development!

Andrew- I can tell already that he is a smart boy who is clearly eager to learn. What I have noticed though is he understands concepts well but takes quite a long time when asked to do written work due to him being so incredibly detailed.

Yo-Yo- Very eager to contribute to the class and reads well. He is easily distracted though and needs reminders in order to finish his work.

Gwen- I love that she has a very bubbly personality but this in turn causes her to interrupt the class and causes her to get out of her seat constantly. Also, I noticed that her reading ability improves a lot more once she quiets down and pays attention.

Eason- Has excellent reading ability and can pronounce new words very well. The only difficulties with him so far is his lack of sharing material with others and some attitude problems.

Irene- Another great reader and listens to directions very well. I can see that she needs to work a bit on her phonics skills.

Aston- Has a great imagination and good verbal skills but causes him to speak out of turn very frequently. He has potential to learn a lot faster then most children his age but in order to do so, he really needs to learn how to focus on his tasks.

Phil- Also has great verbal skills and is very self confident. But the problem with that is, he tends to argue back, which resulted in him being disciplined twice this week.

Leo- Listens very well and I was very happy to see that he had no problems when sharing with other students. He is eager to learn and just needs to work on raising his hand before he speaks.

Benson- Incredibly quiet when asked to read in class but I am sure that will change as we increase his participation in class. He behaves great and is very receptive to my instruction.

Henry- Again, I Did not really get to see much of him this week due to him being sick. What I did notice though is he's exceptionally creative when it comes to art.

Also, I would like to apologize for the late post, over the weekend I was recovering from a minor sickness. And Lastly, I strongly encourage everyone to email or contact me in person, if you would like to discuss anything regarding your children.

-Teacher Jason

2009-06-10T22:32:00.003+08:00

On Monday, we read "Snake's Trip," a short poem about a snake's trip to outer space. He packs a cake and a pink milk shake. We reviewed vocabulary from the poem and talked about where we want to take a trip to, what we would pack, and what kind of view we would see from the airplane.

On Tuesday, we read "Sam's Song," a story about a baby owl who learns to sing. We reviewed vocabulary from the story. The class found "gaze" and "fuss" particularly difficult to remember.

On Wednesday, we played review games for the week's vocabulary words. Team Superman (Irene, Yo-Yo, Benson, and Phil) won the first round and Team Fireman (Leo, Gwen, Eason, and Andrew) won the second round.

On Thursday, we did several exercises in our phonics workbooks.

Andrew is very good at understanding and remembering the meaning for new vocabulary. He can be very silly in class, speaking in funny voices and flopping around. Sometimes I have to remind him to stop fooling around. But he is a very sweet boy who is a great learner.

Aston missed a lot of class this week because he was sick. He came back to class (briefly) in good spirits. He has a good spoken vocabulary and already knew the meaning of a lot of the words we had learned.

Benson was acting extra rowdy on Wednesday and had to face the wall for running around in class instead of sitting properly in his seat. He wanted to take a trip to outer space.

Gwen wanted to take a trip to Japan. She said she would pack toys and candy. She had to face the wall for running around instead of sitting in her seat.

Henry didn't want to take a trip to anywhere. He wanted to stay in Taipei. He had to face the wall on THursday for not paying attention in class because he was making little airplanes instead of listening to the teacher.

Irene wanted to take a trip to outer space. She would see a view of spaceships and stars. She was a bit sloppier with her written work this week. Her handwriting is generally very good though.

Leo wanted to take a trip to Japan. He is good at remembering the new vocabulary words when they are in front of him but has a harder time remembering them if he can't read them from a list. I think he just needs a little more practice. He got in trouble for stepping on Eason's foot on purpose because he didn't want Eason to see his book.

Phil got into trouble for hitting Leo when he wanted Leo to stop doing something. We had a talk about how he can be angry about something, but that doesn't mean he can hit people. And people who keep hitting people when they are angry can go to jail for it. Aside from that, Phil is good at memorizing the new vocabulary words, although sometimes he still gets confused about their meaning.

Yo-Yo got in trouble on Tuesday for looking at other people's work instead of doing his own. He felt sick on Wednesday and went to rest a little in the office.

2009-06-03T16:36:00.011+08:00

On Monday, we did several pages of exercises in our phonics book. We also started putting together the pieces of our watermill for

On Tuesday, we read "Snakes," which taught us many facts about snakes. We reviewed vocabulary words from the story, such as damp; tooth; skin; etc.

On Wednesday, we played vocabulary review games and continued to work on our water mill.

On Thursday, we worked on our watermill. It is a very complicated piece of woodcraft.

Andrew knows a lot of scientific facts. He is always sharing things he knows about animals. He brought in his Obama book to share with the class. He had a little trouble putting his watermill together, but eventually got the hang of it.

Aston brought in his Transformers book to share with the class. He had a stomachache on Tuesday and couldn't do his work. He was absent on Wednesday and Thursday.

Benson had trouble remembering the meanings of the new vocabulary words, but was good at sounding them out. He did a good job with his watermill.

Eason was very good at putting his watermill together. Considering that he wasn't in class as much this week because he doesn't come on Tuesdays and he leaves early on Thursdays for swimming class, he finished putting it together very quickly.

Henry complains about being "so hungry" during class. He also gets very sleepy/tired during class. Perhaps he needs a bigger snack before classtime.

Irene's phonics is improving a lot. She is very good at sounding out words. She also won the vocabulary review games. She was among the first students to finish her watermill. After she finished, she was very good about helping Eliza with hers.

Leo was absent on Wednesday and Thursday. He had trouble putting his watermill together when he came back on Friday, but students from Teacher Alice's class helped him.

Phil did a great job putting his watermill together. After he finished, he was good about helping the other students finish theirs.

Yo-Yo was behind on his watermill because he spent all of Wednesday finishing his vocabulary words. But he put his watermill together nicely on Thursday and Friday.

2009-05-27T18:46:00.006+08:00

On Monday, we reviewed the jobs vocabulary and talked about what we want to be when we grow up.

On Tuesday, we did phonics and read "Ann and Nick," a story about a girl and her seeing eye dog. We talked about what it means to be blind.

On Wednesday, we read "Stan's Stunt" and did exercises from our reading workbook. We read "The Raft" and illustrated our own version of the story.

Andrew's reading is very good but he needs to pay better attention in class. He wants to be a cowboy and firefighter when he grows up.

Aston wants to be a superhero and a teacher. He talks a lot during class (when he shouldn't be talking) and had to face the wall for not paying attention in class.

Benson has been pretty quiet in class this week; good written work though. He wants to be a banker and a baker when he grows up.

Eason wants to be a bad guy when he grows up, and he wants to be a doctor.

Gwen has been showing a lot of improvement with her phonics. She still tends to talk too much and not pay attention; she has to exercise more self-control. She wants to be a doctor when she grows up.

Henry has been having a lot of trouble seeing the board, which is hurting his learning. He needs to see an eye doctor and get glasses. He wants to be a king when he grows up so then he can be safe and eat a lot.

Irene is really good at grasping new concepts and applying them. She wants to be a policeman and an actor when she grows up.

Leo tends to act too quickly - e.g. jumping out of his chair, running up to the teacher, calling out the answer. He needs to exercise some self-control. He wants to be a banker and a doctor when he grows up.

Phil has trouble with grammar and fill in the blanks. His reading is generally good though. He wants to be a baker and a banker when he grows up.

Yoyo is still a very slow worker in class. He understands the material but has difficulty focusing compared to the other students. He didn't get to do the "When I grow up" assignment because he had to leave at 6:45.

2009-05-21T18:16:00.006+08:00

On Monday, we read and learned about animals and their homes. We talked about if we were an animal, what kind of animal would we be, where we would live, and what kind of food we would eat.

On Tuesday, we did a wordsearch about occupations.

On Wednesday, we learned about different occupations: actor, artist, banker, carpenter, plumber, professor, etc. We played charades to learn the vocabulary.

On Thursday, we reviewed Wednesday's vocabulary and learned about other professions: minister, programmer, mechanic, tailor, etc. There was a funny misconception that ministers (described as the person who works in the church) are Buddhist. We reviewed the vocabulary and drew pictures to define them.

Andrew would be a beetle. He wants to be a scientist when he grows up.

Aston would be a beetle. He missed some class because of doctor's appointments, but he was good at picking up the new vocabulary.

Benson would be a monkey who lives in the tree and eats bananas.

Eason would be a leopard. He is very good at expressing himself and is very good at understanding the work; he just lacks some basic self-control.

Gwen would be a lion who eats meat.

Irene would be a lion who eats meat.

Leo was absent on Monday and Tuesday. He returned to class in good spirits and learned the new vocabulary. He would be a dinosaur.

Phil would be a snake. He was very good at charades.

Yo-Yo would be a beetle who eats eggs. He wants to be a paleontologist (someone who studies dinosaurs).

2009-05-12T16:46:00.006+08:00

On Monday, we went over new vocabulary words: enough, greedy, protect, shelter, shield, through, touch, tough. We wrote sentences and drew pictures for each word.

On Tuesday, we learned the word "important" and talked about why our families are important to us.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we read about safety in the ESL book. We talked about why safety is important and who keeps us safe.

Andrew was extremely slow this week. He was very distracted from doing his work. Even when he was put in a separate classroom to do his work, he was still very slow. His family is important to him because his mom and daddy will protect him from bad guys.

Aston still talks too much when he should be worknig. His daddy keeps him safe when he is skating.

Benson was rather quiet this week. His family is important to him because they love him.

Eason is extremely verbal and likes to tell stories.

Gwen is good at memorizing the vocabulary words, though she tends to forget their meaning. She was very hyper this week and couldn't stop playing with her pencil and jumping out of her seat. Her family is important to her because she loves her home.

Henry wouldn't listen to the teacher when we were repeating chants. He had to face the wall for refusing to pay attention. His Chinese school teacher keeps him safe when somebody hits him.

Irene was very good at picking up the new vocabulary words. She is extremely good are remembering the meaning of the words after the first few explanations. Her family is important to her because they let her go to Tree House to learn English.

Leo was good at remembering the new vocabulary this week. He understands their meaning and how to read the words. He said that his mommy keeps him safe.

Phil was good at doing his written work this week. His family is important to him because they love him and they can take him to the beach.

Yo-Yo was very slow this week in writing his vocabulary words and sentences. He had to stay after class. His family is important to him because they will teach him how to drive a car.

2009-05-08T10:41:00.002+08:00

This week, we practiced every day for our Mother's Day performance. We took breaks from practicing to do some phonics, free draw, and finish our Mother's Day cards. On Wednesday, we went to the Daan Public Library for a dress rehearsal on the stage. It was a very long day.

On Friday, we will perform our show for the parents. Happy Mother's Day to all the Tree House mothers out there who are so important in their children's lives. Enjoy your special day with your families!

Andrew loves to show things he has brought to Tree House from Chinese school. He is very good at describing things.

Aston continues to be extremely verbal. He loves to tell stories.

Benson got in trouble for erasing the whiteboard after the Teacher had written something on it for other students to copy.

Eason got in trouble for throwing a pencil at the Teacher instead of handing it over nicely, and speaking Chinese during class.

Gwen did some nice work this week.

Henry got in trouble this week for hitting and kicking other students. He has to learn to control his anger and tell the teacher when he is upset. Hitting Aston for looking at Henry's paper, and kicking Benson for touching Henry, are not appropriate responses when the other children haven't done anything harmful to Henry.

Irene is a good student and very reliable.

Leo forgets when it is his turn to say his line during rehearsal. Hopefully, he will get it right by the time of the show.

Phil had a hard time after such a long, hot rehearsal on Wednesday. He can be a sensitive boy. He also got in trouble for speaking Chinese during class on Thursday.

Yo-Yo used his middle finger to point at something in class. We discussed how it was inappropriate and he shouldn't use his middle finger to point at things because it is like saying a bad word.

2009-04-30T10:03:00.010+08:00

On Monday, we did presentations about what we did this weekend. Andrew and Yo-Yo went swimming, Gwen went to Taipei 101, Benson rode his bike, Leo went to the hotsprings, Henry went to kung fu class, Aston stayed at home, Phil went to the park with his mother, and Eason went camping.

On Tuesday, we did exercises in our phonics book and worked on our Mother's Day cards.

On Wednesday, we practiced our Mother's Day scripts and conversational chants. We read about pollution in a science textbook, and discussed the effects of pollution.

On Thursday, we practiced our Mother's Day scripts.

Andrew is very good at sounding out words he doesn't know. He has been a little hyper this week.

Aston got in trouble for copying his neighbor's work when we were doing phonics exercises. He has a lot of difficulty reading. He knows the beginning sounds to letters but only recites them automatically. He might need a special tutor to help him, or some sort of evaluation to determine if he has more specific educational needs.

Benson was late to class because he was doing his Chinese homework for a very long time. However, he was able to make up his phonics classwork.

Eason didn't make it to class very often this week because he was doing his Chinese homework for a very long time. He is becoming a much more fluent speaker.

Gwen has been pretty hyper this week. She had to face the wall because she wouldn't stop making noises in class.

Henry missed a lot of class this week because he was doing his Chinese homework for a very long time.

Irene's reading is becoming much more fluent. When she is late to class, she is good at making up the phonics pages she missed.

Leo has very good class participation. He loves answering questions and reading out loud to the class.

Phil needs to practice speaking more loudly for the play. He delivers his lines well but it is hard to hear him.

Yo-Yo has been doing well in class. He does his phonics work with little difficulty, and he enjoys answering questions.

2009-04-22T12:59:00.003+08:00

On Monday, we did presentations about our weekend, with a Question and Answer (Q&A) period for each presenter. Afterwards, we started an arts & crafts project: making puzzles. First, we drew the pictures for our puzzles. Next, we colored them in.

On Tuesday, we cut out the pieces to make a proper puzzle. We had fun putting our puzzles together, and trying to put together each others' puzzles.

On Wednesday, we did exercises in our phonics workbook.

On Thursday, we practiced our script for the Mother's Day performance.

Andrew is good at correcting other students' grammar and pronunciation.

Aston has trouble staying in his seat and listening to the teacher. He only focuses well when he draws.

Benson made a great zoo puzzle filled with animals.

Eason got in trouble for purposely erasing Phil's hangman game.

Gwen has been good about learning her lines for the Mother's Day script. She had trouble staying in her seat this week and blurting out with loud/high-pitched noises.

Henry does good written work but needs to work on his speaking and pronunciation. He is doing a good job of learning his lines for the Mother's Day script.

Irene has done a great job of memorizing her lines for the Mother's Day script. She's also very good at prompting the other kids with their lines.

Leo lied about speaking Chinese in class. We had a talk about how lying is bad, he shouldn't lie to his teachers or his parents, and if he lies, then next time he will have to have a talk with Teacher Paul and Teacher Paul might have to take him to the police station, since liars have to go to jail.

Phil is good with his phonics exercises. He has a harder time verbalizing and needs to work on speaking more English in general. He got in trouble for erasing Leo's hangman game.

Yo-Yo made a great beetle puzzle. He has learned his line for the Mother's Day script.

2009-04-17T16:02:00.006+08:00

This week, we read several stories: "Home and School," "Ben's Jobs," and "Ruby Bridges Hall." We also talked about what it means to be brave and have courage, what we are scared of, and what our jobs are at school and at home, and things we are curious about. We also did presentations about our weekends.

Phil is curious about fruit (because he likes to eat it) and platypuses. He feels his job at home is to sleep and his job at school is to be quiet.

Andrew is very good at grasping the meaning of new words. He is curious about dinosaurs, and scared of bats and owls.

Aston talks a lot in class and has difficulty reading, both problems that are exacerbated by his difficulty focusing. He is curious about food - whether it's fake food or real food.

Eason asks great questions during the presentations, but lacks self-control when it comes to good behavior; i.e. he is always grabbing at things and jumping out of his seat, etc. He is curious about aliens, and he is scared of vampires.

Yo-Yo is curious about everything. He says he is not scared of anything.

Gwen is curious about lions. She has a bad habit of writing out her sentences by columns of letters, rather than writing the whole thing out sentence by sentence. She needs to start writing them sentence by sentence.

Irene generally leaves class early for dinner, but is good at doing her work within the allotted time. She is scared of ghosts.

Leo is scared of spiders. He is curious about snakes and beetles.

Henry is brave when he sees a big dog. He is scared of snakes. HIs job at home is to clean up the toys, and his job at school is to put away the books.

2009-04-09T19:02:00.016+08:00

This week, we did phonics exercises and went over new vocabulary for the Mother's Day script. We also did several practice read-throughs of the script.

For reading, we read "The Bugs Bath."

We drew pictures of and wrote sentences about what we planned to do or wanted to do this coming weekend.

Andrew still gets distracted, which slows down his work. When we are reading as a class (i.e. students take turns reading the next line), he needs to follow the text with his finger so that he knows where we are and when it is his turn to read. He reads well on his own, but when reading as a class, often gets lost and has to be told where we are. He also got trouble for playing in class when the teacher left the room, and had to face the wall.

Aston continues to lack focus in doing his written work. He tends to talk himself to distraction, despite repeated warnings that he needs to stop talking or else he will be sent to the office. As a result, he has had to finish his work in the office a couple of times.

Benson does great work, understands the material, and reads well. This week he had to go to the office to face the wall for playing with Henry when the teacher left the room.

Eason produces good written work and has a good understanding of the material. He got in trouble for being out of his chair and playing when the teacher left the classroom, and had to go face the wall.

Gwen continues to do good classwork. She needs to work more on trying to sound out the words, instead of guessing at what she is reading. She got in trouble for playing in class when the teacher left the room, and had to face the wall.

Henry continues to create very detailed and imaginative drawings to accompany his vocabulary words. His handwriting is great but he needs to work on his pronunciation, which is affecting his spelling when he tries to sound out how to spell a word (e.g. "plan" instead of "plant").

Irene was great at reading her lines and helping the other students' with theirs, when we were all reading the script together. She was very good at giving prompts (i.e. telling students when it was their turn to read and how to pronounce the words).

Leo has been better this week about not getting out of his chair and asking for help. His pronunciation appears to be improving, or at least, he's getting better at repeating back the correct pronunciation when you have him mirror you. He got in trouble for playing in class when the teacher left the room, and had to face the wall.

Phil is very good when we are reading as a class; he always knows where we are in the story. He also got trouble for playing in class when the teacher left the room, and had to face the wall.

Yo-Yo has been better about doing his written classwork. He is good at following along with the text when we are reading as a class. He tends to get distracted by other students and always wants to know what they are doing, when he should focus on his own work.

2009-04-02T23:34:00.004+08:00

On Monday, we reviewed our clothing vocabulary from last week with a game of Bingo. We also did presentations about what we did this past weekend, and students were encouraged to ask each presenter questions about what they did that weekend.

On Tuesday, we did phonics exercises and a Spring word search. We learned new vocabulary, such as: hatch, sprout, showers, bloom, etc.

On Wednesday, we finished our Spring word searches and reviewed the Spring vocabulary.

On Thursday, we did exercises in our reading workbook and reviewed the Spring vocabulary with chants and individual sentences.The words "warm" and "worm" have proven to be particularly confusing for students.

Andrew has a very good vocabulary and general knowledge base: he told us that "a worm is part girl and part boy." I was very impressed.

Aston talks too much during class. I understand that he gets excited about things, but there is an appropriate time and place for telling stories besides during class time, particularly when the rest of the class is working on a writing assignment.

Benson: continues to do good work, listens in class, and absorbs the material. He is a very sweet and cheerful boy.

Eason has trouble staying in his seat and not bothering the other students. His vocabulary is good, he does good work and understands the material, but he needs to learn to control himself more.

Gwen has been better about controlling herself this week and not getting too hyper. She needs to ask the teacher when she doesn't understand something, rather than remaining silent.

Henry's sentences all too often include unnecessary "the"s, e.g. "I like to play the basketball" or "I go to the kung fu class." Even when asked to repeat after the teacher, "the" still crops up in his spoken sentence structures.

Irene continues to do good work in class, but she can be a little haughty / impatient with the other students.

Leo gets out of his seat too much to ask the teacher questions. He needs to remember to stay in his seat and raise his hand if he has a question.

Phil doesn't like presenting or speaking very much in general. He needs to work on his willingness to speak out loud if he wants to improve his English.

Yo-Yo needs to listen more closely to directions. He often doesn't pay attention and has to have the instructions repeated to him.

2009-03-26T22:20:00.002+08:00

This week had a more varied curriculum.

On Monday, we did presentations about what we did this past weekend, and students were encouraged to ask each presenter questions about what they did that weekend. Benson went to his Chinese school and ate fruit, Phil and Leo watched TV, Irene walked up a hill, Eason went to Yilan, Andrew went to his grandparents’ house, Yo-Yo went to his friend’s house, Gwen went to her friend’s birthday party, and Aston played. We also did several pages of exercises in our phonics books.

On Tuesday, we played a vocabulary review game. It was Optimus Prime (Aston, Irene, and Yo-Yo) vs. Ben10 (Phil, Henry, Gwen, and Benson). The game ended in a tie – 21-21.

On Wednesday, we read Our School, a book that discusses: Our Classroom, Who Works at School, and What Happens at School? We drew pictures of school workers and did presentations about what tools they use.

On Thursday, we went over vocabulary for clothing: shirt, sweater, pants, shorts, belt, shoes, etc. Many students did not know what “shorts” are, what a “sweater” is, etc.

Andrew was the only student who knew what shorts are. He can daydream to distraction, but generally is good about doing his work.

Aston does his written work significantly better if he does it in the office. As we discussed, he will do more of his written work in the office if he cannot get it together and do it in class.

Benson continues to do good work, listens in class, and absorbs the material. He is a very sweet and cheerful boy.

Gwen gets a little too hyper during class and needs to be told to focus on her work. But she is usually good at getting her work done.

Henry is only in class half the time, so it feels like his body of work is a lot more scattered. It would help if his attendance were more consistent.

Irene continues to do good work in class and is eager to answer questions. But she can be a little impatient with the other students.

Leo has been good about catching up on his classwork. But he gets out of his seat a lot to ask questions, rather than raising his hand.

Phil is almost always the first to finish his vocabulary lists. His handwriting could stand to be neater though. He hurt his leg jumping into a table and we had a talk about how jumping in the classroom is not acceptable.

Yo-Yo had to stay late on Thursday because he didn’t finish his classwork because he didn’t focus on his work during classtime. He was upset but was much better about doing his work. Perhaps this will serve as motivation for the future.

2009-03-20T09:18:00.006+08:00

This week, we read a story called Little Gorilla. It was about Little Gorilla, who everyone loved, and one day he grew and grew... and everyone still loved Little Gorilla!

We did several pages of classwork reading exercises, as well as phonics. We did a lot of work on ending sounds.

We also learned new vocabulary from the Little Gorilla story, including: aunt, uncle, forest, through, everybody, began, parrot, etc.

Andrew has been better about focusing and completing his work, though he is still more distracted compared to the other students in the class. He wrote some very good sentences this week.

Aston needs to complete his written work. He is slow because he cannot focus. During a writing exercise, he managed to finish his worksheet around the same time as everyone else, which demonstrates that he is capable of doing the work if he just focuses long enough.

Benson continues to do good work. He is good at trying to sound out the words when he reads. He speaks and reads quietly but clearly.

Eason does his work well but has a bad attitude about doing it and is very disruptive in the classroom.

Gwen has been more distracted this week. As a result, she hasn’t been able to follow the reading as well.

Henry did a very good baseball illustration of a pitcher, batter, and catcher this week. He has the best handwriting in the class.

Irene is very eager to learn: she loves to read and work on her writing.

Leo is very eager to give answers in class. Sometimes he has trouble understanding the directions for classwork exercises, but after doing a few together, he understands the concept of what he should do.

Phil is always among the first to finish writing out his vocabulary words. But he has to work on remembering what the word means as he writes them so that he can remember them better in the future.

Yo-Yo likes to talk instead of doing his work. He has been better about finishing his work when it became clear that he would have to stay after class if he didn't finish his work during class time.

New workbooks & Families

2009-03-13T14:01:00.001+08:00

This week, we received new workbooks. We did several pages of classwork exercises.

We also read a story about families that discussed what families do, what they did for work long ago, and what they did for fun long ago. We learned new vocabulary: care, share, listen, hug, raise, furniture, invite. We talked about how we show our families that we love them and how our families show that they love us.

Andrew continues to do good work. He is very good at learning and remembering the vocabulary definitions. He completes his written work more slowly, but has been focusing better this week. He said that his parents work late and usually don't have time to play with him, especially his daddy, but he knows that they love him.

Aston had to go face the wall because he kept playing instead of focusing on the reading. He is very verbal but his reading is lagging.

Benson continues to do good work. He tends to come in late because he is finishing up his Chinese homework.

Gwen has been more distracted this week. As a result, she hasn’t been able to follow the reading as well.

Henry always wants to free draw. He needs to remember that class is for reading, writing, and speaking English, and that we only draw occasionally. He tends to come in late because he is finishing up his Chinese homework.

Irene has been great. Her classwork is always completed well and she is quick to help her classmates.

Leo gets very excited in class. He has difficulty staying in his seat. His speaking continues to develop. He gets very excited but has difficulty finding the right words to express himself. This week, he shared some candy and cookies with his classmates during break time, which everyone enjoyed.

Phil continues to do good written work, but has more difficulty expressing himself verbally. He tends to come in late because he is finishing up his Chinese homework.

Yo-Yo focuses better on his reading than on his writing.

Our Neighborhood!

2009-03-06T13:19:00.003+08:00

This week, we read Our Neighborhood, a book that explores the themes of “What is in Our Neighborhood?”; “Neighborhood Helpers”; and “Vehicles People Use.”

We learned a lot of new vocabulary that explored new concepts, such as what is a neighborhood, people who work in our neighborhoods, and how people and things travel.

This week was heavy on vocabulary, and group and individual reading. On Thursday, we played some vocabulary review games. Next week, we will try to mix it up a bit more.

Andrew: Andrew continues to demonstrate good fluency in his reading and understanding of the material, but he is still a bit unfocused at times, which is slowing down his work. But he always comes to class with an upbeat attitude, which is great to see.

Aston: Aston was very distracted by his new ruler (which he for some reason continues to call his “stapler,” despite numerous attempts to correct him) and eraser, but after I confiscated them from him, he was better able to complete his work.

Benson: Benson continues to demonstrate a good work ethic and understanding of the material. At times, he plays with his ruler and eraser too much, but he settles down quickly after I take them away from him.

Gwen: Gwen has really shown a lot of improvement. Her ability to retain the vocabulary words has really helped her reading, and she has shown increased fluency.

Henry: Henry has been having trouble controlling his temper and frustration. While he continues to do his work meticulously, he goes to such an extreme with the detail of his drawings that it slows down his work.

Irene: Irene continues to keep up the good work. She is also great at helping other students, such as Aston.

Leo: Leo has become more comfortable in the class. He has been reading well and seems to enjoy it. He has been having trouble staying in his seat.

Phil: Phil continues to keep up the good work. His attitude has improved a great deal and he hasn’t had any tantrums this week.

Yo-Yo: Yo-Yo demonstrates good reading skills but has difficulty sounding out unfamiliar words. He is slow and a bit lazy about doing his work, and is easily distracted. Hopefully, once he gets used to the curriculum, he will be able to focus and work faster.

Swimming, Floating, and Fruits & Vegetables

2009-02-27T13:54:00.006+08:00

This week, we read the poem “A Year Later” and the book Foods We Eat.

In "A Year Later," we learned about a girl who could only float, wear a rubber tube, hang on to a boat, and sit on the shore because she didn’t know how to swim. But one year later – she didn’t have to do any of those things because she could swim!

In Foods We Eat, we learned about how fruits and vegetables get to the supermarket, a recipe for a cheese sandwich, and foods that are eaten in the U.S.A. We discussed our favorite fruits and vegetables, who cooks in our homes, and restaurants we like to eat at.

We played more vocabulary review games this week, with Spiderman (Phil, Andrew, Henry, and Leo) vs. Iron Man (Gwen, Yo-Yo, Aston, Irene, and Benson). Spiderman squeezed by with the win (final score: 25-24). And we did a few rounds of Bingo.

Andrew: Andrew produces great written work; it’s just a matter of getting him to focus long enough to complete it. I separated him from Yo-Yo, so I think that has helped to cut down on the distractions.

Aston: Aston still has difficulty focusing. He needs to talk less and do more written work. He tends to draw pictures unrelated to the assignment, when he should be copying the vocabulary words.

Benson: Benson has been maintaining his usual standard of excellent classwork with a lot less complaining this week. So hopefully this will be a permanent trend.

Eason: Eason has a hard time sitting still and focusing. He had to face the wall because he refused to do his work.

Gwen: Gwen keeps getting out of her chair without permission. She needs to settle down. But her written work is fine. I would like to work more on her speaking.

Henry: Henry produces really meticulous drawings to accompany his vocabulary words and his handwriting is always excellent. However, he threw a fit when the Bingo game began before he completed his board.

Irene: Irene fluctuates between producing excellent work to doing her work grudgingly and sloppily on occasion. Not sure what is the cause for her changes in attitude, but generally, she’s a good worker.

Leo: Leo has been adjusting nicely to class. He completes his assignments and he seems to enjoy the drawing component of the assignments.

Phil: Phil has been producing good written work. I would like to work more on his speaking.

Yo-Yo: Yo-Yo has difficulty focusing on his written work, and is slow to complete assignments. However, he has managed to get more done now that he is no longer sitting next to Andrew, and therefore, is less distracted.

My Friends and I... + Vocabulary Games!

2009-02-20T17:12:00.006+08:00

This week, we read new stories and learned new vocabulary words.

We read Quack, a story about a girl moving houses, and talked about what we would move from our old homes into our new homes. "I would bring my toys," was a very popular answer.

We read What Does Pig Do? and reviewed the days of the week. The students wrote sentences and drew pictures about the things that they do during the week. Many students are currently taking piano classes.

We read My Friends and I, a book that discusses how we play together, how we feel, our bodies, and our toys.

Finally, we read The Path on the Map. Afterwards, everyone drew their own maps and each student presented to the class where the path on his/her map went. A few maps led to Taipei 101, a few maps led to money, and a few maps led to garbage. The path on Leo's map went to America, and Yo-Yo's went to the zoo.

We spent Thursday reviewing the new vocabulary we learned this week with a game wherein each team took turns sending a member up to the board to read one of the week's vocabulary words. It was Dinosaurs (Benson, Irene, Phil, and Leo) versus Beetles (Henry, Gwen, and Aston). It was a close game, neck and neck until the very last word: "drawing." In the end, Dinosaurs pulled through with the win.

We finished our week with a game of vocabulary-based Bingo. I wrote a list of the vocabulary words on the board and the students had to fill their Bingo board with the vocabulary words. We took turns choosing words to cross off, and in the end, everyone had at least 10 Bingos.

Andrew: Andrew is a good student. He reads well, understands the work, and gives clear, intelligible responses. He can be distracted at points, but when made to focus on the classwork, produces good work.

Aston: Aston continues to have problems focusing. He is very verbal and expressive, and understands the work, but has a problem with always wanting to play instead of just doing his work.

Benson: Benson does really great work. He reads well and understands the classwork instructions, and fulfills them well. He spent a little too much time this week playing with his ruler and had to go and face the wall, as a result; hopefully, we will have less of that next week.

Eason: Eason does good work when he commits to doing it; he has excellent handwriting and is clearly very bright. But he likes to play around and his resistance to doing work at times can be really tiresome. But he's new to the class and seems to be adjusting easily.

Gwen: Gwen has been really great. Her speaking and reading have improved a lot since I first met her. I am pleased with her progress. She still gets a little hyper from time to time, but has been better at focusing on her work.

Henry: Henry missed a lot of class this week because he was absent. But when he came back to class on Thursday, he dived right in without needing a lot of directions. It was great to have him back.

Irene: Irene does great work. She always raises her hand, is quick to help others (particularly Aston), and always has it together.

Leo: Leo is a very sweet boy. He appears to daydream a bit and is a little slow with the work, but I think he is still adjusting to being in a purely English-speaking environment. Generally, he has a good attitude, and I am excited to see how he progresses over the course of the semester.

Phil: Phil has been producing really great work. He is very good at writing his vocabulary words and drawing pictures that convey the proper meaning. He's been speaking more and has a better attitude overall with respect to classwork. He still resists public speaking at times, e.g. he was very upset when we did individual introductions and really resisted, to the point of almost throwing a tantrum; but when we presented our maps to the class, he did that very ably. So, I'm not really sure what the exact issue is... but we'll work on that. Overall, I am pleased with his progress.

Yo-Yo: Yo-Yo is a very slow worker, partly because he is distracted, and partly because he just doesn't want to do the work. He is clearly very capable of doing the work itself, and simply needs a little attitude adjusting towards actually completing it.

Back to School - New Semester!

2009-02-13T19:12:00.004+08:00

We started this new semester with a bang, reading two new ESL books - Our School and Family and Home. We read aloud and discussed the different aspects of each subject.

For Our School, we talked about the different people who help us at school and the different activities we do in class.

For Family and Home, we talked about the people in our families, the different rooms in our homes, and what our family members do for work.

After the readings, we reviewed the new vocabulary words and the students practiced writing them five times each.

This week also introduced three new students into our classroom - Andrew, Yo-Yo, and Cody. I had the students go around the room introducing themselves by saying their name and something that they like to do.

Andrew, Yo-Yo, and Cody fit right in and look to be great additions to the classroom.

As for the rest - Aston, Benson, Irene, Gwen, Henry, and Phil - they seemed to dive back into class without a lot of fuss, and I think we had a really good week reading and learning together.

Exam Week

2009-01-22T18:19:00.002+08:00

We've been very busy with exams this week. So far, things seem to be going well. The final exam will be completed Thursday evening. Good luck to everyone and happy new year!

Ice Skating!

2009-01-16T13:43:00.001+08:00

My apologies for posting the blog late this week. I was a little bit sick yesterday so I stayed home to rest and recover. Today, Friday, we’re all very excited about going ice skating. We have been reviewing all this week. Next week, we will have our unit tests on reading and science as well as our cumulative vocabulary exam. Study hard!

If Irisa needs to leave a little early, I’m sure we can work something out. It would be best if she could be in class Tuesday evening.

Iris has been doing solid work. I think she knows that she needs to do some more work reviewing vocabulary for our last test.

Jordan has gained a bit of a reputation for being the strongest student in our vocabulary review games. Everybody wants him on their team. That being said, his score on the most recent quiz was bellow expectations.

Perry has been doing solid work in class and his attitude has shown a great improvement. He scored an A- on his last vocabulary quiz which is not optimal but still shows improvement. I think he knows he has a lot of work to do for our big tests.

Andy has been doing better work this week. He, especially, should put a lot of work into reviewing for our vocabulary test.

Kevin has been doing good work. No discipline problems recently.

Jessica surprised me this week. She has done exceptionally well on our cumulative vocabulary review. Keep up the good work.

Week 19

2009-01-08T16:15:00.001+08:00

We’ve had a very productive week and a few days to go. We learned about rocks and what causes earthquakes and the difference between topsoil and subsoil. We also read a pleasant story called twisted trails.

Perry has been very well behaved this week. He has been doing his work in class.

Andy makes a big deal about how tired he is each day. I think some of it, to be honest, is a performance. He needs to be alert and focused in class.

Kevin came back to class on Wednesday with his homework done very well having written a story about wanting to turn over a new leaf this New Year. He was very well behaved in class. I hope he keeps true to his word and am more than willing to start off with a clean slate.

Jordan has done good work this week. His homework was completed diligently. I’m glad to see that he wants to improve his science scores. He’s progressively becoming more and more talkative in class.

Jessica has been completing her work in class in a timely manner but has been extremely quiet. She needs to be more vocal.

Iris was a little bit rude in class the other day. She has never had problems with in class discipline before. She needs to remember to speak to people with respect.

Irisa has been doing solid work. Keep it up.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T12:29:00.001+08:00

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!

2008-12-26T16:18:00.001+08:00

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!

2008-12-18T10:58:00.001+08:00

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!

2008-12-11T12:34:00.003+08:00

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

2008-12-04T12:42:00.002+08:00

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

2008-11-27T16:37:00.003+08:00

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

2008-11-20T12:16:00.000+08:00

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

2008-11-12T14:01:00.000+08:00

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

2008-11-06T12:30:00.001+08:00

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!!!

2008-10-30T14:30:00.001+08:00

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.

2008-10-23T09:50:00.001+08:00

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

2008-10-16T16:22:00.002+08:00

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

2008-10-09T10:55:00.002+08:00

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

2008-10-02T12:51:00.002+08:00

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

2008-09-25T12:19:00.002+08:00

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

2008-09-18T12:23:00.002+08:00

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

2008-09-11T12:39:00.002+08:00

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!

2008-09-03T21:36:00.002+08:00

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.