Welcome to 4th Grade!

Welcome to Room 111. I enjoyed meeting everyone who was able to stop by open house yesterday. I am so excited to have you in our class this year! I hope you're ready for real life problem-solving -- also known as problem-based learning. YOU are in charge of your education. We will get started the very first day so come in rested and ready to learn!

A few things about our classroom:

• We will have snack each day. Healthy items, please. Examples - fruit, vegetables, crackers, nuts, cheese, etc. Water only, please.

• We will have recess each day so be prepared to go outside and move!

• We learn A LOT every day and we have fun every day.

• We are a family - everyone is safe to learn in our room. We will all make plenty of mistakes and we'll all be very successful.

See you Tuesday!

VISTA

This summer, Mrs. Kaufmann and I participated in the VISTA Elementary Summer Institute. We spent a month working with teachers from surrounding counties learning, creating, and practicing all kinds of great things about SCIENCE! We are excited to implement the problem based learning (PBL) strategies we have learned this summer.

Working with some of the students that came to the VISTA summer camp

One of the wind-powered vehicles that we made 

Being proactive .. scientists wear goggles!

Planning with Mrs. Kaufmann

VISTA stands for Virginia Institute for Science Teaching and Achievement and the program aims to improve science teaching by helping teachers learn to apply the principles of hands-on science, student-centered inquiry, the nature of science, and problem-based learning. This year, Mrs. Kaufmann and I will experiment with using these techniques in the classroom. We also we have the opportunity to have a master teacher as a coach throughout the year who will come and assist in our classrooms.