All students passed my Netiquette course and exam. In honor of their hard work, they each earned badges during our special ceremony.

Unfortunately, just a day later we had issues on the bus to the field trip in which students were not using their NetSmartz. Those kids have had their badges taken away and will have to earn them back. The one positive thing that came out of that situation is that it led to great conversations about how easy it is to be tempted to say mean things about people when you're looking at a screen instead of the person's face.

Here are some pictures from our special ceremony.

In Washington, we have something called a rain shadow effect. On Monday, we conducted a simulation in which the "clouds" gathered water over the ocean as it evaporated, then they released some of the rain over the Olympic Mountains, a little bit over the Western Lowlands, then lots of precipitation over the Cascade Mountains. By the time the clouds get over the mountains, they are out of precipitation and eventually they dissipate, leaving just sun over eastern Washington. That in essence is the Rain Shadow Effect.

PTA Reflections program kicked off this week. The theme is "Together we can...". Students can submit literature, visual arts, photography, music composition, videos, and a dance. Each student in our class has written a poem/paragraph that we hope to submit. Next week we will publish the final pieces, have parents sign the permission slips, and then turn them in. Any addition projects that your child would like to do at home need to be submitted with a permission slip by October 26th. For more information contact Kathryn Cowan at rynkatha@yahoo.com.

In social studies, we are continuing on from geography to focusing on Washington's 5 regions. This unit involves many GLAD strategies (visual and kinesthetic strategies combined to help all children take their learning to a deeper level, especially ELL students).

Today students looked at Observation Charts to help them access their background knowledge, so they could apply to what they would be learning about the 5 regions. Students also worked as groups to sort images that had something to do with Washington. You can see them doing these things here.