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.