This was a wonderful week for our class. We got through our material quickly and efficiently. We read a myth about why we have day and night, and on Thursday, made up our own myths and wrote them down. I sent them home for you to read and sign. It is some the best writing they have done so far. They made some grammar errors, but the way they formed their stories well and used their imaginations to write a story that was obscure, but not silly; just like a myth is supposed to be.

Ashley's writing was excellent and so was the work she did in her practice and grammar book. She even used what we learned in grammar class about quotations marks in her story and did a great job. She just forgot to put the commas in sometimes.

Jordan at first seemed not to want to get going and said that he didn't know how to write the myth. But once I got the ball rolling for him he was unstoppable and wrote a very nice piece.

Ben is also holding his own in class. His story may not have been as original as some of the others, but it was well written in mostly the right tense. All in all great work this week from Ben.

Harrison has drifted off in class only a couple times. In Science we are learning about the solar system and he was very interested in lots of things about the universe and asked lots of questions about it. Lots of great questions. Good work Harrison!

Happy Newyear! I hope you had as good a holiday as I did. The kids are back and they are refreshed after a nice break and the atmosphere in the class has improved because of it. I feel like this week was one of the best we have had together and we got a lot of good work done because of it. We even had enough extra time to look at the pictures I took from my vacation and we learned how to take care of some of the new animals we have at school. This week was our turn to clean out the hamster cage. It was funny watching the students try to catch the little guys.

Ashley did very well this week and used her time in class wisely. She got all the work done she needed and is very organized in the way she goes about it.

Ben and Jordan missed the first day of class and missed out on reading the first story. I'll have to find some time for him to read it with him so he knows it for the first quiz in two Mondays.

We will also have to find some mor time for Jordan to catch up in his practice and grammar book since he missed Tuesday as well.

Harrison got all his work done. He had to stay a few minutes after class on Thursday to get his sentences done but he did it without complaint, fairly neatly and with few mistakes.

This semester is already off to a great start. Lets keep it up and encourage the students in a positive manner.

Well that's it we did it! After struggling through the middle part of the semester the class pulled up their socks and came through with flying colors! The class average for the end of the semester test was 90% and I am very proud of them. Next semester will be even better. Now that I know the class well, I will have a curriculum that is far better tailored to the students. And more hands on experiments that are fun for the students and I.

You should get your final progress reports soon. I trust you will be pleased with the progress they have made this semester. Let's make even more next one!

Last week of class and it's a big one! After all the tests I plan on taking the children out to play golf. The class has taken two tests so far and so far, the scores have been very good. Only one more test to go and you will have the results for your students for this semester. Congratulations Barbarians!

This week we started a new chapter in science and did two lessons in it. I brought in some rock samples to show the children the difference between some of the rocks we find on earth. We also took part of a class to go out and dig out some rocks and see if we could classify them. We took some time for each of them to write a story that they chose the topics to. And worked on the book we are writing, about animals.

Jordan forgot one of the books he needed for class on Thursday and wasn't able to work on his assignment in class. I gave him some extra science work to do and told him he had to do it on his own time or else he had to come in on Saturday. He did his work on his own and did a good job.

Ben did very well when we did a review activity in class for all the words we learned this year so far. He got a lot of points for the class.

Joe understood the science lessons this week, but when he encounters some of the vocabulary words, especially the more difficult ones, he struggles to pronounce them properly when reading them. I will ask him to repeat the words more often in class.

Ashley was in a good mood all week she worked hard on her project and her writing was very neat and well written.

Richard's writing was beautiful. His hand writing is even neater than mine. I love how even when Richard makes a mistake and has to do something over again, he does it without complaint.

Sean is very creative and has lots of good ideas in class.

Harrison is getting better in class. As long as I keep a close eye on him he is okay, but he can be a bit sneaky, so I have to keep a very close eye.

I am very proud of the Barbarians! Last week we studied very hard for our quizzes and this week the class pulled through with flying colors! The class average for the reading test we took is around 90% with a similar average for our VOC test. I am planing a surprise for the students for all their recent hard work.

Ben has great scores on his quizzes and should be proud of his achievement.

Ashley did well in her tests. She needs more practice with her reading comprehension.

Jordan did well but at first he didn't put enough effort in his writing. After I gave it back to him it was much better.

Joe has not given a 100% effort and is easily discouraged when he has a hard time. I would like to retest him in reading because it seems like he just guessed all the answers to one part of the quiz. He did quite well on the rest, but it's the parts that he quits on that make him fail.

Richard worked very hard and did very well. He wrote beautifully on all 3 tests.

Harrison has surprised me with his VOC score. He did VERY well in all his tests and his paragraph writing has shown huge improvements. Congratulations.

Shawn has also done exceedingly well this semester and his work ethic shows. It has from the start and it will continue to. Great work.