Happenings

These last few weeks of 6th grade are going to be exciting!  We've started our Global Collaboration Course through Level Up Village (LUV) based on themes related to Lois Lowry's The Giver with The Anderson School in Gweru, Zimbabwe.  I wrote and piloted the course this time last year, so this is my second go-round! In addition to getting to know one another and discussing the themes of the book, students explore their own personal idea of Utopia as well as research real-world issues that we have in the United States, the effects of those issues, and possible solutions.  Meanwhile, our global partners are doing the same thing! Here's the course description from Level Up Village's website : "Students read and discuss Lois Lowry’s The Giver alongside students in a global partner classroom. Together through video letter exchange, they discuss the impact of societal rules and cultural norms on individual free will, while determining whether Lowry is presenting rea

 Being named a Greenwich Public Schools Distinguished Teacher for 2017 is an amazing honor!  I am so thankful to my two students, Catherine and Patrick, for nominating me. You can learn about all six of this year's Distinguished Teachers in this Greenwich Time article and in this CT Post article .  Learn about The Distinguished Teacher Award or watch the video of the 2017 ceremony on the Greenwich Public Schools website .   My student nominator starts speaking around the 41 minute mark, and my speech is right after!!  My principal and two student nominators My colleague who also nominated me

  Congratulations to my wonderful team of 6th graders who placed FIRST in the Nation in this year's Gold division of the Wordmaster Challenge! What is The Wordmaster Challenge ? The Wordmasters Challenge is a national analogy solving competition that consists of three meets during the school year.  Students study the words and their relationships to prepare for the meets. What are the benefits? Improving vocabulary skills using analogies... Develops verbal reasoning abilities Addresses higher-order thinking skills Emphasizes logic and reading comprehension As a team, my 6th graders have had AMAZING success!! Here's how we have been doing: Wordmasters End of Year Rankings 9th in the nation: 2009 5th in the nation: 2013 2nd in the nation: 2016, 2015, 2014, 2012, 2008, 2007 1st in the nation: 2017, 2011, 2010, 2006, 2005 How do we prepare for the challenge?   I get asked that all of the time! I have started to put together some of m

How Do You Prepare for The Wordmaster Challenge? by Bridget Suvansri Here are some suggestions for getting ready many of which we do in class together. 1.  Make a study tool!  Look up the various meanings, parts of speech, and word forms of each word.  Students like to make flash cards, word webs, or a digital compilation of what they find.  I tell them to make a study tool that works for them! 2.  Use the words in sentences.  Try to drop them in conversations, and try to notice them when you are listening, reading, etc.   3.  Make note of the typical or usual references of the words and the things the words are usually associated with. 4. Connect the words to each other by finding relationships between the words (keeping the part of speech in mind).  Connect words that are synonyms, antonyms, related words, and any ways the words many be connected.  We make categories and give the various categories general titles to help with this step.  Each group adds their brains