The First Two Days

Hello Parents, Guardians and Students:

Well, it seems we have all survived the first two days! I think they went very well. The students seem very respectful and polite so far and they seem ready to learn! That will make my job a lot easier. We went over my class information sheet today and that SHOULD be coming home this weekend. I would like a parent or guardian to sign off that they have seen and read the information contained therein. The students can then return the bottom of the yellow letter to me. One class did not finish and did not get the yellow letter so they will get that on Monday.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail or call the school.

Thanks
Mr. Yerington

Back to School Night

Parents, Guardians and Students:

Thank you all for coming to back to school night tonight.  It was so nice to meet all of you.  I am looking forward to a great year this year.  If you should ever have a question, comment or concern, please contact me either via e-mail or call me at school.  I want this to be a great year for everyone!

Thanks again for coming tonight. If you didn’t make it – I will look forward to meeting you later!

Mr. Yerington

The Beginning of Another School Year!

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the “sumer” goes and we arrive at the beginning of another school year.  Every year I promise myself I will update my blog more frequently and it seems every year, time gets away from me, but once again this year I am promising to get things updated!!

Today marked the first day back for most of the teachers in the Muscatine Community School District.  We were treated to a wonderful talk by Jamie Vollmer.  Mr. Vollmer used to be a harsh critic of public schools, insisting the should be run like a business.  That all changed when a high school language teacher listened to him speak and asked some tough questions.  You can read more about it on Jamie’s web site.  Since then Mr. Vollmer has become a great friend of public education.  I encourage you to browse his website – ESPECIALLY “Vollmer’s List” and “The Conversation.”

Now, more than ever, public schools need support from parents, the communities in which they operate and the public in general.  Many in this day and age are quick to “bash” public education, not understanding where we are coming from and what we do day in and day out.

I enjoyed Mr. Vollmer’s talk today and hope those reading my little blog will check out his web site.

Thanks

Mr. Yerington

Updates…

Hello Parents, guardians and students:

I realized I haven’t posted anything in quite awhile, so I thought I better get on the ball.  Not only that, but there is A LOT of things coming up!!

Let’s start with this week.  On Wednesday, November 10 we will be dissecting our sheep eyes.  This activity is great for helping the students learn the parts of the eye.

Then, on Friday, November 12 we will be taking our final test over our cells, brain and eye unit.  The online practice test is already online on my web site.  Or, you can just click to access the test!

After the test we will be beginning our next unit on Levers and Pulleys. This is  FOSS Kit and has NO book.  However, students WILL be keeping a notebook that they can bring home anytime so you can see what they are working on and they can study.

We also have a very special event going on on Wednesday, November 17 and Friday, November 19.  We will be taking all of our sixth graders to see the “Springs, Sprockets and Pulleys” exhibit at the Muscatine Art Center.  We will be taking two groups each day (one in the morning and one in the afternoon).  The students will be told the week of the trip what group they will be in.

Wow, that’s a lot!!  As always, if you have questions please contact me anytime!

Thanks

Mr. Yerington

Scientific Inquiry PowerPoint

Here is our second PowerPoint presentation that we covered in class.  This is over chapter 1, section 2 of our book.

New Feature – PowerPoints Online!

Hello Parents, Guardians and Students:

I have had many requests for this feature, but until our inservice speaker wasn’t quite sure how to make it happen.  I am pleased to announce that, starting today, you (or your child) will be able to access ALL the PowerPoint presentations that I deliver in class.  So, if your child is absent or doesn’t get all the notes written down they can view my presentation and take notes and/or get help with their homework assignments.  I hope this helps.

Here is the first PowerPoint which covers Chapter 1, Section 1 of our Introduction to Science unit. 

I would love to have feedback from those who use this feature so please feel free to comment!

Thanks

Mr. Yerington

About Our Books

Hello Parents and Guardians,

OK, at the time I write this I realize school hasn’t even started yet, but I figured I would get a jump on things.  I didn’t do so well updating my blog last year anyway, so maybe this will be the start of a better year!  I wanted to take a moment to tell you about the books your child will be using in my science class this year.  I always seem to get a lot of questions about that so maybe this will help everyone know what’s going on.

First, we only use TWO books during the whole school year.  Most of our units are “kit-based” which means they don’t come with books.  However, our first unit of the year IS book based.  It is officially called “The Nature of Science and Technology” although I generally call it “Introduction to Science”  The book for that unit is purple in color and looks like the picture below.

We will use this particular book for about the first five to six weeks of school.  As I will tell the students, I only have a classroom set of these books, however, for those of you who have internet (which, if you’re reading this, you must!) the book IS available online to assist with homework.  You can click on my page titled “Accessing Books Online” to see more information about doing this.  If you need the access code please feel free to e-mail me.  Your child can pick up a letter at school with all the information as well.

The other book we will use this year is our ScienceSaurus book.  This book is a general reference for all things science related.  We use it mostly to help with our Daily Science papers which WILL be homework this year.  Students will get a double sided Daily Science paper on Monday and will have until Friday to complete the page with the help of their ScienceSaurus book, the internet, etc.  The ScienceSaurus book is green and looks like the picture to the right.

I hope that will help clear up the confusion on what each book is for.  However, if you have any further questions, please fell free to contact me via e-mail, telephone or stop in to West and visit!  I look forward to a great year with your child!

Mr. Yerington

Testing ScribeFire

OK, so I just downloaded the new Safari 5.0.1 and checked out the extensions.  One of them was ScribeFire that allows me to post to my blog without having to actually visit my blog’s admin site.  This is just a test to see if it works….

Link to Sunrise/Sunset Data

Hi

For those who want to practice finding local noon for our quiz tomorrow here is the link to the US Naval Observatory web site:  USNO

Hope that helps!!

Mr. Yerington

Mr. Yerington — Now Appearing on Twitter!!

That’s right folks, in an effort to add even more technology to my life I now have a Twitter account.  For those that don’t know, Twitter is for short, quick posts about what you are doing.  If you have a Twitter account you can follow me!!  Also, since I found out my Blog allows me to add Twitter to my widgets you can check my latest updates right here.  Just check the left hand side underneath my “Recent Comments” widget!

If you want to check out my latest updates just go here!

Enjoy

Thanks

Mr. Yerington