I thoroughly enjoyed my first two days with your sweet, helpful, talented children and am looking forward to many more! Now if I could only get used to waking up at 5:15 am ... Okay, that's not happening. I'm just going to hate my alarm for a few minutes every morning and move on. Fortunately, there are a lot of exciting events in the works that will motivate me to get out of bed!

- This week, we are using "The Adventures of Ali Baba Bernstein" to review the basic elements of stories (character, setting, and plot). We are especially focusing on identifying plot events to prepare for our work on summarizing next week.
- I will introduce a few of our Word Study routines and terms this week as we listen for the differences between long and short vowels. This should be pretty simple for most students; this is just laying the groundwork for the more complex words they'll study in the near future.
- We're completing classroom job applications, emphasizing the need to support our main idea ("Ms. Matthews should choose me for this job!") with strong, specific supporting details.
- In Social Studies, we are conducting a brief overview of the diverse regions and social groups that comprise the U.S.A. with the goal of answering the question, "Is E PLURIBUS UNUM a fitting motto for our nation?"
- On Friday, we have a guest speaker! Click the "Upcoming Events" tab for more information on that front.
- Finally ... OUR NEW HAMSTER IS HERE! OUR NEW HAMSTER IS HERE! Right now I'm referring to him as "Mr. Hamster." However, due to the fact that "Mr. Hamster" is a completely lame name, the H5 community is working on an alternate title and should be voting on that by the end of the week. The important news for you is that H5 families can take him home starting this weekend! ... In fact, I am BEGGING you all to sign up to take him home, because I own 2 cats who would like nothing more than to munch on a tiny, bewhiskered rodent. So, if you want to hamster-sit for the weekend (and earn my undying gratitude as a bonus), shoot an e-mail to [email protected], and I'll put you on the schedule.

It's going to be an outstanding week! Time to go set that alarm clock ...

This glorious summer has swept by, and the first day of school is looming nearer with every second. August 23rd, that juggernaut of dates, cannot be dodged, ducked, jumped, or side-stepped, not even by an Olympic athlete. One imagines it approaching steadily, inevitably, accompanied by the theme from "Jaws" in the background. It is coming soon to an elementary school near me, whether I like it or not!

Fortunately, I'm a giant dweeb, and I SUPER like school.

I'm Allison Matthews, 4th-grade Language Arts/Social Studies teacher at Catawba Trail Elementary. This will be my third year of teaching, and I could not be more thrilled. I love my job and am relishing the feeling of being not QUITE as much of a newbie as I used to be. I'm looking forward to implementing several changes in my management and instruction this year, and one of those changes is this very site! I have never operated a class website, invited my students to blog, or interacted with families online before, so, of course, I'm going to attempt all three ventures this year. I envision Live from H5 as a forum where I can post important announcements and information; where students can share their learning, wonderings, and projects with each other; and where parents and other loved ones can get an up-close and personal look at what we do all day ... and share their own thoughts!

So, as those hipsters who run the local college radio station like to say, "keep it locked!" Live from H5 is comin' atcha soon!

Duh nuh ... duhhh nuh ... duh nuh duh nuh DUH NUH DUH NUH ...