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Welcome to the 5ALL wiki! We are SO excited for a totally awesome year in 5th grade. We will use this wiki for school work throughout the year.

ABOUT ME:

This is my 11th year at Runkle, my 9th year of teaching 5th grade. I am a religious studies graduate of Hamilton College, and I received my Master's in Education at Simmons. While at Simmons, I participated in the Simmons internship program with Brookline Public Schools, working in Emily Gaberman's 5th grade class. After a year of working as an one on one aide in an early version of the Runkle PDD program, Emily Gaberman became vice-principal and hired me to teach 5th grade.

I am the father of a 3 year old daughter named Macari (you may have already heard about her). Macari visits Runkle for 5-10 minutes every other Monday. 

I also have two beagles, Louie and Annie:



When I'm not teaching, I enjoy playing guitar, cooking, rooting for the Bruins, Sox and Buffalo Bills (dare to be different!) and spending time with family and friends.

TEACHING:

The Runkle 5th grade team makes a concerted effort to synchronize our curriculum so the classes will explore and develop topics and materials at the same time. We feel that it is important for our curriculum to be consistent across the grade, and we are working together to ensure that we are "all on the same page." We feel our efforts to collaborate strengthen our own understanding and reassure students that everyone is learning and growing at the same pace.

Arriving on time every morning is critical to your child beginning the day in a positive and organized frame of mind. Besides early morning routines involving handing in homework, we also have early morning work, which must be completed before the day begins. If this work is not finished, your child must finish it at some point during the school day. It's important that everyone arrives by 8:00 AM in order to get a good start to the day.

Presentation is a big part of fifth grade. We encourage students to take pride in their written work, including nightly homework, and to take the time necessary to make their work look neat and clear on the page. A focus on writing guidelines establishes a standard of how their writing should look all the time. In addition, pre-planning and design elements are emphasized in all projects, large or small. There is considerable emphasis on how projects look and discussion about strategies to create attractive, thoughtful products. A variety of media will be encouraged for presentations throughout the year.

Homework assignments are given regularly Monday - Thursday with occasional work over the weekend. Some assignments are due the next day, others are long term. Our hope is to increase each child’s ability to structure and plan his or her time to meet these various deadlines. At the beginning of the year we review the process of managing a long term project with the goal that that process becomes internalized by the spring. Each day we spend a substantial amount of time reviewing the night's assignments ensuring everyone understands what is expected each evening. Every day homework is written down in your child's assignment calendar and you should feel free to look at the calendar to see what has been assigned that night or week. If your child forgets to bring in an assignment, or is unable to complete the work, s/he will bring home a form to be signed by you stating what was not handed in and whether it was completed during the school day or should be brought in the following day. Your help at home in providing a quiet, well lit space for your child to do homework is essential to developing good study habits.

SUBJECTS:

SCIENCE:

SOCIAL STUDIES:

MATH:

LANGUAGE ARTS: