ROOM 13 ROUND-UP
SEPTEMBER 2012
UPCOMING DATES
October 4…Naturalist visit assembly
October 18…Literacy Night (7:00)
October 4…Pizza Day
October 22-26…Red Ribbon Week
October 5…2nd Grade Bat Day (Please wear black)
October 22…Guidance Lesson
October 11…Scholastic Book orders due
October 24…Guest Reader – O’Neill (11:50)
October 12…NO SCHOOL (NEOEA Day)
October 29…Guest Reader – Slyman (11:50)
October 17…Guest Reader – Pichola (11:50)
October 31…Halloween parade and parties
October 18-19…Goldwood Recycling Drive
November 1…Hale Farm field trip
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Excellence is never an accident.”
WHO IS MR. SALCO, ANYWAY?
I was born in Tampa, Florida, but shortly after birth, moved and grew up in Westlake, Ohio. I
am a 1996 graduate from Bowling green State University. Last year I completed my fifteenth year as
a second grade teacher here at Goldwood Primary School. It has been an amazing experience thus
far, and I am happy to say that I am back for more! Twelve years ago, I completed my Masters
Degree and continue to take courses related to teaching in the classroom and computers/ educational
technology. I am also a certified SMART (Board) teacher/trainer.
I am also a soccer coach. Although I have taken a break from coaching soccer for Rocky
River High School (7 years ago), I continue to coach my son and daughter for Internationals Premier
Soccer Club and Avon Lake Soccer Organization, and work for various soccer camps throughout
Northern Ohio.
My wife, Mary and I reside in Avon Lake. We have a son, Cameron, who is 11 years old (6th
grade) and a daughter, Adrian, who is 8 years old (3rd grade). My wife is a fifth grade teacher at
Gilles-Sweet Elementary School in Fairview Park.
Teaching is a HUGE part of my life and I love what I do! I look forward to working with all of
you and your children. I am extremely confident that we are going to have a great year!
MATH
This year is our ninth year with our math series called “Everyday Mathematics.” The children
seem to be enjoying the math and are doing well with it. I have used the SMART Board and tried to
bring in many different manipulatives and teaching styles to help every child.
We have also covered concepts such as time, counting coins, greater than/less than, finding
sums, and odd/even numbers. I continue to encourage all of the students to consistently practice
flash cards. Any extra help in this area at home would benefit your child greatly.
The students in room 13 are doing quite well on the weekly timed tests. There are several
levels of the timed tests. In order to pass on to the next level your child needs to have a perfect score
and be able to complete the test within five minutes. My main emphasis is not on how fast they move
through the ranks of these timed tests but improvement in accuracy and time. I have seen a lot of
improvement and am very pleased with the results.
LANGUAGE ARTS/SPELLING
Our main focus for language arts this month are the parts of a sentence and using the writing
process. Another area that I am putting emphasis on is proofreading. Thus far, I think we are making
wonderful progress in the writing process. I am very proud of our fine writers. Journals are another
important piece of our writing this year. Four times a week the children will have a journal entry to
write about. They then turn it in each day for me to check. I like to see how the children are doing
and fix any misspellings. I feel this is a great way to work on spelling and developing vocabulary.
Spelling is a weekly routine that consists of a pre-test on Monday and a test on Friday. The
tests currently consist of five sentences that contain the unit words within them. I encourage the
children to practice writing the sentences several times throughout the week. I will gladly provide
paper or anything else that you may need to work on this at home with your child. I also encourage
the children to bring in the practice work from home for me to check. I will be glad to look it over and
reward them a sticker for their efforts.
READING
Reading groups are finally in full swing and are working out very well. Currently, all of the
groups are reading stories and working on skills from our basal series. Our reading series provides
the students with authentic award winning literature and illustrations. The children are working on
identifying main ideas, main characters, settings, and plots of stories. We have also been working on
drawing conclusions, sequencing clues and phonics/decoding skills. In addition to the basal reading,
we have also been doing some whole group reading activities.
I do my best to try and read aloud to my students every day. Children love to be read to and
the students of room 13 are no exception! Some of the books/series I have read so far are Dr. Seuss,
Wayside School (Sachar), Freckle Juice (Cleary), Junie B. Jones, Weird School (Gutman) and Magic
Tree House (Osbourne).
TECHNOLOGY - SMART BOARD. IPODS and IPADS
Perhaps you have heard your child talk about the SMART Board and have asked, “What is
that?” Five years ago, I attended The Ohio E-Tech Technology Conference. While at the conference,
I had the opportunity to see a SMART Board in action. It was from that moment on that I made it a
point to get one! So, four years ago, I wrote a grant, and I was very fortunate to have that grant
accepted by the Rocky River Education Foundation. Through their generosity, I was able to purchase
one for my classroom. Since that time, Goldwood has been very fortunate to have SMART Boards
installed in every classroom.
What does it do? The simple answer is… Anything that can be done on a computer can be
done on a 77” screen with the touch of a finger (or pen/stylus). That means that at we have over 250
colors, over 6,000 images, any website, over 500 songs, 100 sound effects, and countless number of
video clips and movies at our fingertips any time we need them. It is amazing how the SMART Board
has enhanced my lessons and the children’s learning. And because it is completely interactive, your
children use it just as much as I do!
Thanks to the Rocky River Education Foundation, I was able to get 6 iPods and 2 iPads for our
classroom. The students currently work on educational apps during their seatwork time. The students
work on apps dealing with social studies, science, math and language arts. Once we have our wi-fi in
place and working, I am hoping to utilize these devices even more!
STARS OF THE WEEK
September 3…Daniel Achour
September 24…Sean Connelly
September 10…Gunnar Anderson
October 1…Henry Demers
September 17…Kyla Banzhaf
THANK YOU to all of you for sharing so many neat picture, awards, and show-and-tell with us!
AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER BIRTHDAYS
August 18…Kelly O’Toole
August 25…Sean Connelly
Happy Birthday to Kelly and Sean!
CHECK OUT THIS AWESOME CLASS
Mr. Salco’s 2012-2013 Class List
Daniel Achour
Giovanni Elinsky
Julia Mafrici
Alaya Price
Gunnar Anderson
Matthew Esdon
Nathhyn Marius
Joey Reich
Kyla Banzhaf
Owen Ganor
Patrick O’Neill
Ava Romell
Sean Connelly
Fiona Kelly
Kelly O’Toole
Mac Scott
Henry Demers
Rayna Kishna
Owen Patton
Madie Shoaf
Emma Dewey
Sophia Loparo
Blair Pichola
Evander Yuen