Early Morning Classes

We had another great day today, especially in the morning. Today was the first day I've every had three "Show and Tell"s in one day. It happened because I mentioned how much I enjoyed the objects Vivian and Hayden brought yesterday and I preferred students show things that they like and that they made. We were having our first "Show and Tell" which featured Vivian Pan playing the recorder for us. Then the second one came about because I had forgotten to show Nado's dinosaur painting, which he obviously was proud of. Nado said, "They can look, but they can't touch." The third event happened when Richard and Elijah showed their colouring expertise and Vivian Pan and Cherry showed their colouring joint effort.

I told the students three stories this morning to help them get ideas for their writing lesson. This worked great as we had a lot of good writing. Nana, Cherry and Vivian all opted to not draw anything, and just write stories, Nana's story was especially long. Elijah, Sharon and Emily turned their writing into books and Brian turned his into a much smaller version of a book. He often does this and will have to ask him what he is making the next time he does it. Everyone did very well.

Teacher Jojo asked me what was the best way to explain to you (the parents) why the early morning class was necessary. As you know, the office would like to promote the early morning class as an opportunity for the children to learn things to help them do well on their test. For obvious reasons, many of you feel this is not very important, and I cannot help but agree with you. However, I feel that the early morning classes may be useful in one way. In our class, we are trying to provide an environment where the children develop their abilities and pursue their interests. We hope that the process unfolds naturally. We assist them and provide help where we think it is necessary. You may like to think of the early morning class as an opportunity for you children to practice what they have learned in a more academically vigorous fashion.

As I said to Teacher Jojo, I am really amazed by Peter Pan class. Every student has a really high and natural English ability. However, maybe not every one can see this ability like I do, and the extra practice they have at being able to express their understanding would be of benefit to them.

Got to go, it was supposed to be an early night, and I haven't even started working on my assignment this evening,

Good night all, Glen.