Dear Parents,
Hope everyone had a great year 2009, and is excited for the arrival of the new year 2010!
This week, we completed:
Reading – We read, “Over the top of the world”. It talks about an expedition in the ice cold north pole. The author wrote a series of journals to record the details of the journey.
Science – We learned about "Stars", and the vocabularies, "constellation", "magnitude", "parallax", light-year", "nebula", supernova", "black hole".
Writing – This week our topic is "My New Year's resolution".
This week,
Anne – She is more outspoken in class, and gets along with her classmates. She does her work nicely.
Betty – She takes her work seriously and is attentive in class.
Howard – He speaks with confidence in class, and he has a good comprehension of what he reads.
MJ - He took this week off from class, but we see him at school, helping out with the school's renovation.
Irisa – She does her work nicely, and she has good comprehension of what she reads. She also speaks in good sentences.
Teddy – He takes his work seriously, and he has a good sense of responsibility in terms of finishing the required work.
Wishing you a joyful year of 2010 with great health and prosperity!
Teacher Jennifer

Dear Parents,

Happy Holidays!! This week, our school is getting renovated, pretty soon, you'll see a bigger and nicer school.

This week,

For reading - We read about a Greek Myth, "Bellerophone and the flying horse". It is about supernatural and heroes.

For writing - We wrote a myth about heroes facing challenges, life and death.

For Science - We learned about "The outer Solar System"

We also played a game, "Topics for Debate" that we picked a card, it either says "agree" or "disagree", then the person provides reasons why he/she agrees or disagrees on the topic.

This week,

Anne -She is more talkative in class this week, and she has a sense of humor.

Betty -She likes to share her good thoughts with her classmates, and she does her work neatly.

MJ- He started his holiday, have a great one!

Irisa - She reads and writes well. She wrote an interesting myth.

Howard - He does his work neatly, and did well on Science.

Teddy - He concentrates well and does his work neatly.

Merry Christmas!!

Teacher Jennifer

Dear Parents,

This week was very busy due to the Christmas show, we didn't have class on Wednesday, so we moved it to Friday; therefore, there was no fun day today. The Christmas show went really well. As Christmas is approaching, the weather has gotten really cold these two days, hope everyone stays warm!

For this week,
Reading - we read "Child of the Owl", about a girl moving to her grandmother's house to live with her in Chinatown, San Francisco. The girl and the grandmother learned alot from each other. For example, the grandmother told the girl that the "face is a map of the soul". A beautifully curved eyebrows like silkworms, means that the person is clever. The grandmother also learned from the girl that radio stations could be switched and turned back to the same station. Furthermore, we wrote down some new vocabularies and their meanings. We also wrote a story about what can old people learn from the young and vice versa.
For Grammar - We worked on the workbooks and learned what are Pronouns, Antecedents, and Contractions.
For Science - We took a test on Chapter 5, and we started on Chapter 6.
For writing - We brainstormed and wrote on a topic, "The best thing I've ever learnt..."

This week,
MJ - He is expressive and likes to write poem. He concentrates well, and he always like to share new ideas with his classmates. He got 90% on his Science test.
Teddy - He is more talkative in class, yet he is polite, he worries alot about grades. He got 82% on his Science test.
Howard - He laughs alot in class and he is often cheerful. He got 98% on his Science test.
Anne - She takes things seriously and she would correct her classmate's grammar. She is helpful to her classmates. She got 96% on her Science test.
Irisa - She concentrates well, and does her work nicely.
Betty - She is a sweet girl, she writes and expresses herself well.

Have a great weekend!
Teacher Jennifer

Dear Parents,
For this week’s reading, we read about Astronomy, and we worked on the workbooks. We imagined and thought of what would it be like if we were to live on the moon. We also read about “Mummies, Tomb, and Treasure: Secrets of Ancient Egypt”, and learned the ancient Egyptians’ beliefs; that a dead person’s spirit could live forever if the body was preserved as a mummy. And most Egyptian upper-class citizens and royalty had fancy burial customs; that their tombs contained luxurious items and possessions such as food, games, water, which they believe those possessions are needed in afterlife.
For grammar class, we learned Complex Sentences and Clauses, and distinguished the difference between independent clause, a sentence that can stand alone, and dependent clause, a sentence that cannot stand alone.
For science, we learned about “The moon in motion”, and the vocabularies, “Phase, “Lunar eclipse”, “solar eclipse”, and “tide”, and we also worked on the science workbook. We reviewed the whole Chapter 5, from lesson 1 to 3, and its main ideas. We are going to have a Science test on Chapter 5 next week.
For writing, our topic was, “What is global warming? And how can we protect the earth?” Each student expressed his/her thoughts well. We also had discussions about something interesting, such as, “If you were to write a book for your age group to read, what would it be about?” and “If I had three wishes, they would be…” Through these discussions, I can better understand each student's character.
For fun day, we went to Da-An Park and played games, one of the highlights of the games was tug-of-war, teachers against students, and after some hard pulling, the students won! Everyone was excited and had fun.

For this week,

Betty – Through her writing, it shows she is a sweet person.
MJ – He likes to share thoughts with his classmates, and he expresses his thoughts well. He also writes well.
Howard – He is active in class and likes to ask questions.
Teddy – He is friendly, and he is also diligent. His reading is improving.
Irisa – She reads fast and well.
Anne – Most of the time she is quiet in class, but she likes to tell jokes and make her classmates laugh.
Have a great weekend!
Teacher Jennifer

Dear Parents,

Hi! Today is my third day taking over Teacher Sandi's Stormtroopers class. I am surprised to find out that each student is well mannered.

I have asked each student to write a self-introduction about himself/herself in order for me to better understand and know him/her better. Then, we worked on the reading workbooks. We also had a class discussion and covered topics on Community and Social issues, such as, "What rights should a child have and why?", "Does watching violent TV programs make a child think violence is acceptable?", "Do certain types of pop music teach the wrong values?, etc. Everyone in class shared and exchanged interesting thoughts and opinions.

About each student:

Anne - she does her work nicely.
Betty - she seems a bit shy.
Howard - He is friendly.
Teddy - He is outspoken.
MJ - He is confident.

Have a great weekend!
Teacher Jennifer

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you all have a great weekend! This week was test week, so the students had to write their tests for chapter 3 in Science, and also their reading comprehension, listening, and vocabulary tests. The class average was 87%. Most of the students did a great job.

MJ is a very smart and capable student, however he seems to not care about his tests. I often wonder if he studied at all. He should study before the test, not during the 5 minutes before class starts.

Irisa did very well on her reading and vocabulary tests. Good job Irisa! She is still making a few mistakes when she is writing, but she is improving all the time.

Anne's writing is fair but she seems to make a lot of the same mistakes over and over again. She seems to struggle with verb/ tense agreement. She did, however, get a very high score on all her tests, she studied and it showed.

Betty did well on her tests. I think she may have wanted to study a bit more before the day of the test, she seemed reluctant to take the tests.

Howard did an excellent job on his tests. Howard is a very smart boy, however, he can be very disruptive in class, and very loud! Howard needs to learn to lower his voice. Also, when Howard is writing, he often jumps from topic to topic completely ignoring the question. The essay part of the reading test was the only thing he failed and it wasn't because of his grammar, it was because he did not answer the question, and instead wrote about whatever he felt like.

Teddy did a good job on his tests this week. His writing seems to be improving. Teddy has a tenancy to cause a scene when he enters the classroom. He needs to remember that there are other students working and he should be quiet.

Happy Friday everyone. It's good to be back after not feeling well last week. This week we finished the new vocabulary definitions and read a new story in the reading book. In science class we stared working on "DNA" and "genetics." This concept of dominant and recessive genes is difficult for some students in class but they seem to be catching on nevertheless.

Teddy is showing more maturity in the last week, although he still has to be reminded to not be silly during class discussions. He has expressed some concern about not fully understanding the DNA unit in science. I will do my best to make sure he has a clear grasp of "dominant" and "recessive" genes.

Howard is a smart kid as I have said before, however I find his constant bickering and silliness very distracting. I would like to see him taking classroom discussions more seriously.

MJ is progressing very well. He takes his time in answering questions thoroughly and pays attention to grammar as he is writing. Good job!

Anne always contributes to class discussions in an intelligent manner. Sometimes her writing is a bit confusing. She tends to leave out subjects and nouns when she is writing in her journal. I have, however, noticed an improvement in her writing and I am very pleased.

Betty is doing well in class. She is an avid reader and a very good writer. I always enjoy reading her compositions. She is a mature and responsible student.

Irisa's written work is improving all the everyday. She corrects her work and always does her best to pay attention to grammar while she is writing. She is also a very creative girl with a good imagination. I enjoy reading her journal entries very much.

Have a great weekend and don't forget about the vocabulary and unit tests next week!

First of all, my apologies for the late blog. It was great to have the older kids help out during the haunted house. I am always so pleased to see how helpful my class is during school functions. They are a great group of kids. The week ahead will be a bit busier as we did not have class on Thursday due to the Halloween activities. Last week we read a story together from our readers and I enjoyed hearing the progress of the students public reading. They are sounding clearer and more confident while reading out loud. We have a vocabulary quiz coming up next week so I will be doing review this week and also some review for the next unit test.

Irisa's voice is very pleasant to listen to. Her accent and diction are almost flawless. Her written work last week seemed to be improving and she made less mistakes in her writing than in her previous written exercises. Keep up the good work.

MJ has been showing a lot of restrain in class. I am happy to see him behaving in a more mature manner and not being so silly. He produces good work on a consistent basis and he is a very talented writer.

Anne makes some grammar mistakes. She has some trouble with sentence structure sometimes but I am noticing an improvement and she seems to be paying more attention to her work.

Betty has a lot going on academically and I am very impressed with her attitude and work ethic. It seems very important for her to not fall behind in class and she puts in a lot of effort to stay on top of her studies. Good job Betty.

Howard has made big improvements in his behavior over the last few weeks. He has really shown a more mature and responsible side to himself and he is paying more attention during writing class.

Teddy has also become more attentive to his written work. He seems to be slowly obtaining a wider knowledge of English grammatical rules. If he maintains his focus, he will excell in writing and speaking English. Keep it up Teddy.

Please don't forget the vocabulary quiz next week in case you want to get a head start on the studying. We will be doing in clas review for the next unit test and I would also like you to encourage your child to do some independant review as we will be covering quite a bit of material.

Happy Friday everyone! This week we read a story called Painting the Stars about the Nazi occupation of Denmark. We talked a bit about Nazi Germany and discussed our thoughts on what happened. I was impressed with the maturity of the conversation. For our writing topic I asked the students about the nature of good and evil and had them write down their thoughts on the subject. I was particularly impressed with Teddy's response. He gave some well thought out points and I enjoyed reading his work. In Science class we finished the unit on cells and we discussed the chapter as a class.

Teddy has been writing a lot more during our writing time and as a result he is making fewer mistakes. There were several times this week where I was very impressed with his overall work. Keep it up Teddy!

I am often surprised by Howard's intelligence. When he applies himself the result is extremely good. Sometimes I feel like he gets lazy and tries to find the fastest way to finish his work, and as a result the ideas behind his writing aren't always thought through, however his grammar is very impressive and he has a very good grasp of English tenses. He also has a thorough grasp of metaphor and he is quite witty at times.

MJ had intelligent things to say this week during our discussion of cells. I was happy to see him engaged in a classroom discussion about human cells and how they are affected by the things we eat, and the things we absorb into our bodies. I always enjoy hearing MJ's commentary (when he is being serious).

Irisa excels in writing and speaking. My only comment to her is to pay more attention to what she is reading when she is completing independent work in her workbook. As I was correcting her book the other day, I noticed that there were many times Irisa misunderstood the question in the book. This week Irisa brought me a page of her writing to correct, please let her know that I am available to correct her writing anytime.

The other day we were looking at pictures of bacteria in class and Anne said: "oh, so cute!" This made me laugh. I always enjoy hearing from Anne, even when she is tired and in a bad mood. Anne has very good concentration and she is always ready to work even when others around her become noisy and distracting. Good job Anne.

Even though Betty comes late to class I always see her reading or writing to catch up on what she missed. She is a very keen student and I think she handles her work load in a very mature manner. She takes responsibility for the work she misses and is often the first one to hand in writing assignments even though she is only in class for the second hour. I am very proud of you Betty!

I would like to thank my class for all their help at the barbecue last Friday. They all worked very hard and I was proud to see how eager and willing they were to lend a hand. They are very considerate young boys and girls.

Hi everyone.

This week the Stormtroopers had their first unit test. Although they did alright, I was hoping for a higher class average since all of my students assured me that they didn't need any more review! I was so impressed with their vocabulary tests the week before that I was hoping for that kind of performance on the unit tests. I will go over the answers next week with the students so we all know what I expect on the next test. awesome work on the science charts we did in class on Thursday. They were very well done. I would also like to congratulate the class on the improvement in their behavior. I seem to be teaching a more mature crowd these days. The song for this week was "A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash. We discussed the plot of the song in class and talked a little bit about Johnny Cash. The class found the song entertaining and thought it was quite funny at times.

MJ set an example this week and refrained from any inappropriate conversations in class. It was nice to see a less sarcastic side of him. I was impressed with the written portion of his English test. He really payed attention to the grammatical details. He just needs to pay a bit more attention to his punctuation. Keep up the good work MJ, I hope your head is feeling better!

Teddy seems to be experiencing the same problems with past tense. Perhaps it would be helpful for him to memorize some phrases, often this can help non-native speakers create a sort of language template in their minds. I will be sending home a CD on Monday, please encourage Teddy to listen to it when he has some free time.

Howard has been behaving in a more mature manner this week at school. I was very impressed with his tests. He studied and it showed.

Irisa made very few grammatical mistakes on her test last week. Sometimes she confuses English expressions but this is a very minor problem. I am looking forward to seeing more of her written work this semester.

Betty Still has to finish her testing. I was very impressed by the care and effort Betty and Anne put into their in-class science project on Thursday. Good job girls!!

Anne's English test was a little bit weak. Her reading was good, but she made some mistakes in her written work. I have pointed out the grammatical errors in her test booklet, so please remind her to review her mistakes. I am confident that she can overcome these small grammatical obstacles.

Have a great weekend and I'll see you all on Monday. Don't forget we have a vocabulary test on Tuesday and we will be reviewing the words on Monday!

We've been reviewing for the test this week so I hope you guys are all ready for Monday!

The vocabulary test on Tuesday went well. The class average was 95, and as promised, this means that I will be bringing the best pizza in Taipei for my class on Tuesday AFTER we write the test. My students have worked very hard this week studying for the test and I am very proud of them.

Teddy has been practicing his written grammar during our 20 minutes free topic time. It is taking a while for him to remember the present and past tense rules and I think this is his major problem when it comes to writing. We will continue to work on it and I will continue to make him revise his work with the corrections. I know he can do it!

Irisa's writing is quite impressive. She has quite a good grasp on grammar and her speaking accent sounds almost native. I would like to focus on essay writing with Irisa in the future. Keep up the good work!

Howard is very good when it comes to science. He has an incredible memory for details of our science lessons. I am impressed with his level of knowledge. He needs to pay attention to his grammar a bit more in his written work, particularly tense agreement.

Anne got a very high score on her vocabulary test and the sentences she wrote showed me that she had a very good grasp of the meanings of the words. There is some tense confusion in her written work but I will continue to help her in this area.

MJ has a flair for creative writing. He sometimes makes mistakes in punctuation, such as using run-on sentences or forgetting a comma but his vocabulary and grammar (for the most part) are very impressive. Keep it up MJ!

Betty has been working very hard over the past few weeks and she's been doing a great job. Her test score for vocabulary was very high, and quite impressive since she often had to catch up on work she missed because she came to class late. Keep it up Betty, you're doing great!

Have a good weekend and study hard! See you on Monday!

This week in we started our new novel "Life of Pi." Please read as much as you can for next week. Every Monday and Tuesday the class has 20 minutes at the beginning of class to write about whatever they want. This gives me a chance to assess each students weaknesses and strengths in writing. In science we finished chapter 2 and we got a chance to discuss ecosystems and different biomes. Next week we start review for the unit test, and there is a vocabulary quiz on Tuesday. Please study!

Howard's concentration is improving. I did not have to remind him so many times to pay attention and stop talking. I am pleased with his progress. Howard needs to work on his tense agreement when he is writing. He often changes back and forth from present tense to past tense in the same sentence.

Teddy's concentration is improving also. I have isolated a few problems in Teddy's writing and I hope to help him overcome these obstacles in his written work. He needs to pay attention to his tenses and make sure he is consistent with past and present tense. Also he needs to watch for spelling errors that occur because he is rushing through his work. He often leaves out letters in words. Finally, he must make sure that there is a subject in each sentence. He sometimes leaves out the subject of his sentences completely, such as "because walking the dog and then the dog got lost" instead of "because HE was walking the dog and then the dog got lost."

I always enjoy reading MJ's free topic writing. I admire his attempt to use English turn of phrase and expressions. He experiments with metaphors in his writing and I think this is very good practice. My only suggestion is that MJ take class a bit more seriously.

Irisa has a good grasp of paragraph structure and grammar. She makes some mistakes in tenses sometimes but we can work on that. Keep up the good work.

Anne has been more focused this week and she has worked very hard during class time. She has the common problem of confusing her tenses sometimes but I think she can improve with some practice and more attention to detail.

I only see Betty for half the class and I feel this hinders her from finishing her work. I am trying to find a way to maximize her learning in the short amount of time we have. Often by the time she arrives to class, we are already working in our workbooks and she has missed the whole lesson. Perhaps she can find time while she is at Tree House to read her science book independently.

I look forward to reading more written work and seeing how the class does on their unit test. See you next week.

It's always a pleasure to teach my grade 6 class in the evenings. This week we worked on finishing our novel "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime." We also read a short story called "Last Summer with Maizon." We discussed the theme of loss and grieving and I gave the class an essay assignment. In science we read about vertebrates and invertebrates. I gave the class a vocabulary quiz on Tuesday and I am happy to report the class average was over 95 %. Way to go! We will be finishing up our new vocabulary definitions early next week and starting our next novel, the "Life of Pi." I am looking forward to discussing it with your very perceptive children.

Teddy is a very smart kid but he has a hard time listening to me when I tell him it is time to work. I would like to see him focusing more on the task at hand and not engaging in loud and disruptive conversation with Howard.

Howard is a very smart kid but he has a hard time listening to me when I tell him it is time to work. I would like to see him focusing more on the task at hand and not engaging in loud and disruptive conversation with Teddy!

I would like to count on MJ to set an example for the other boys in class, however lately he has been bickering and talking out in class with Howard and Teddy. He sometimes can become silly during class, and while it is okay to have some fun, I think he needs to remember where to draw the line.

Irisa is quiet and always finishes her work. I was impressed with how well she did on the vocabulary test.

Anne always gets her work done, however she sometimes becomes distracted by things on her desk when she should be focusing on her work. I often have to remind her several times of what she should be doing.

Betty always applies herself to her studies. She is a very hard-working student and very respectful of the class rules.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I look forward to seeing you on Monday!

We had a good week last week. The class is finishing up their first novel of the year and looking forward to their next one. In science, we talked about the animal kingdom and learned about different classifications of organisms. I was impressed with the student's ability to apply their knowledge to their workbooks. This week we also did an essay-writing assignment and I was impressed with how well they put together their short essays. We ran through vocabulary review very smoothly and the class seemed to have no problem with the definitions. So I will be expecting 100 % from everyone!!

MJ is very hard-working. His ability to focus even while other people are talking is quite impressive. He shows maturity through his academic independance and he always has something to contribute to class.

Howard and Teddy like to tease eachother in class. They have improved slightly since the beginning of the year but still need to be reminded not to bicker in class. Overall their work has been adequate although they sometimes fall behind in class because they are talking or fooling around.

Anne finishes her homework regularily. She is an avid reader and she has interesting things to say during novel study class. She is usually very focused and ready to do her work.

I never have to ask Betty where her homework is. She gives it to me as soon as she gets to class. She keeps up with class material even though she has to come to class late. I am very pleased with her performance.

Although I only see Irisa on Monday and Tuesday her performance is extremely impressive. She has advanced reading skills and her grammar and writing are very good. I would like to work on more complex essay-writing skills with her in order to challenge her a bit.

We had another great week and I am pleased to see the intrest and attention the students give to their studies. I amm continuously impressed with their budding minds, and I am looking forward to the rest of the semester.

Hope you had a great weekend!

I hope everyone had a good weekend and that you are well-rested for the week to come.

I am continuously impressed with my class and their performance. I love to hear their thoughts and ideas about our reading material and I am very happy that they all love to ask questions. We are in the third week of classes now and my class seems eager to learn and very interested in the novel we are doing.

Anne did well last week. She is a very mature student who takes her studies seriously. It's nice to hear her laughing and having fun sometimes too. Keep up the good work Anne!

Betty is a very hardworking girl. She always has her homework finished when I ask for it and she always comes to class prepared. I am sure I will see great things from Betty in the months to come.

Irisa seems a bit shy when it comes to socializing with the other students, however her work is impeccable. I am very impressed with her reading and writing skills. Keep it up Elisa!

MJ is a very bright and mature young man. He remains focused for the duration of the class and always has amusing and intelligent input to offer. He rarely becomes involved in the silliness that sometimes transpires between his classmates.

Although Howard had a rough couple of days last week because of his tendency to become silly and bicker with Teddy during class, I was very impressed with his improvement in Thursday's class. He proved that he can excel when he puts his mind to his work.

Teddy also straightened up during Thursday's class and I was impressed with the drastic improvement. Keep up the good work Teddy!

See you all in class on Monday evening...

Hi and welcome back!! I am very excited to be teaching this class of wonderful teenagers and I am looking forward to the year ahead.

This week was basically an introduction week for science. We read the introduction of the science book and discussed scientific terms. We also covered the first story in the reader and did chapter one of both the grammar and practice books. We also covered the vocabulary for this week.

We are well into our novel-- 100 pages already!-- and the kids seem to like it. We also discussed a song called "The Origin of Love" which deals with a story in "Plato's Symposium."

It was nice to finally meet Howard. He really added something to the class. He's a very funny kid. Make sure you catch up Howard!

Teddy is a great speller :) He is a very smart kid. I really enjoyed reading his responses to the questions I asked about the novel.

There is no question that MJ is at the top of his class. He seems to breeze through the grammar book and catches on very quickly.

Anne started out quiet in the class but seems to be warming up now. She can be very funny when she wants to be, and she has really great ideas to contribute. Keep it up Anne!

When I gave a creative writing assignment to the class, Betty was the first person to finish it and hand it in. I loved reading her creative work and I thought she showed alot of maturity in her writing. Way to go Betty!