Ms Courtney's Class

Prior Knowledge assessment This week students completed their prior knowledge assessment of themselves are a learning. We used My map book by to help us with some ideas. Students were asked to draw a map of themselves including all the parts of their bodies they use to learn and some places and ways they like to learn. We will revisit these maps at the end of the unit to see your growth. Seb's birthday On Tuesday we celebrated Seb's birthday! Happy Birthday Seb, we hope you had a fantastic day. Bio Poems The students have published their bio poems and uploaded them to Seesaw. The students worked hard to complete these and are a great insight into each student. Gardening Our second unit of inquiry is about how planets grow. We started this unit today by planting some vegetables in the garden. Hopefully by the time we officially start the unit we will be able to see our carrots and corn growing. Homework Thank you for sharing your children...

We began to delve into our first unit for the year this week. We started with a challenge for the students to make a folded piece of paper the same as mine. They were allowed to look at the paper from any angle, but could not touch the paper. While they were trying to make it I recorded some of the comments that I heard the students say as well as filming them. After 10 minutes we looked at the list of comments and watched the video and wondered if these would help us to complete the task. This was a difficult challenge and many of the students found it hard to complete. After hearing our responses and watching ourselves we starting talking about Growth Mindset. Growth Mindset is the study of Carol Dweck she believes: If you have a growth mindset, you believe that with work, practice, and perseverance, you can improve – whether it’s your academic performance, or any other skill. (Those with the opposite, a fixed mindset, believe that our intelligence and talents are pre...

What an amazing week we have had in Grade 2. The students have all settled in so well, we welcomed three new students to ISPP on Monday, Akrai, Seb and Leah. The students have started swimming, PE, Art and Music lessons. They have also begun their foreign language or Mother tongue classes. In the classroom we have spent a lot of time getting to know each other, learning how to use Seesaw and setting up routines for the year. Thank you for coming to the Hopes and Concerns meetings over Thursday and Friday. These are valuable meetings and I appreciate your openness and honesty during them. On Wednesday we celebrated Molly's 7th Birthday! Happy Birthday Molly.

This year Grade 1 and Grade 2 are using Seesaw, which is a digital portfoilo of their learning. Students have their own learning journal which parents are able to see via the Seesaw Family app or website. It is completely private, all posts need to be approved by the teacher and only parents who have signed up can view the post. Once you sign up, you can download the Seesaw Family app on any device or access your child's journal on the web. Below is a brief introduction to Seesaw video I am going to walk you through how to set up your account. I am still learning, so there may be different (and easier) ways of doing this.  1. When you recieve the email from me click on the link provided. It will take to you a page with all the students names in the class. Click on your child's name.  You will then need to create an account. At this stage I will recieve an email to approve your request. Once I have approved it, you will be able to view your child...

Dear Families, Welcome to Grade 2 at ISPP! My name is Courtney Smedes and I am your child’s class teacher this year. I wanted to introduce myself and to share a little information about our class. This is my third year teaching Grade 2 at ISPP. I come from Australia and have a Bachelor Degree in Primary Education and Masters of Education, Cognitive Psychology. My husband, Jonathan, is also a teacher and works in the Secondary school. We have two children. Gabe is 6 years old and in Grade 1 and Leon is 4 years old next week and in Early Years 2. Prior to ISPP I have worked at Vientiane International School, Laos. Medan International School, Indonesia, and in Melbourne, Australia. The other class teachers in our Grade 2 team are Mr. Johnny and Ms. Karyn. We are also supported by a wonderful group of teaching assistants – Ms. Dalish (who will be working in our classroom), Ms. Yin, and Ms. Chanty. They are an experienced group of assistants who are very approachable an...

If your child is no longer in this class, you can unsubscribe from this blog by clicking the unsubscribe link in your email notification about this post. Please see where the arrow is pointing in the sample below.