Something's Rotten In the State of Virginia

William Shakespeare edged out Gandhi as the name of our new fish.

We hope that Shakespeare has better survival skills than Leif Erickson did, because Miss Conradi seems to be terrible at keeping them alive.

We are looking for a fish-expert who could maybe give us some consultations.

HELP KEEP SHAKESPEARE ALIVE IN THIS URBAN CLASSROOM!!!

We have good news. We have bad news.

Good News: 800 dollars has been pledged towards our Read-A-Thon! We are being honored at City Hall tonight AND we were in the newspaper last week.

Bad News: Leif Erickson died. "Does he get to go to heaven?" One student asked today. Another said, "Well, I think we should just get a new fish and name him Leif Erickson, too. Because that was a cool name and I don't want to forget it."


Thank you for being a part of this work. They are so beautiful.

Read-A-Thon for Katrina

"The more we read, the more we'll know.
The more we read, the more kindness we will show."

We're taking a little departure from the exact wording of that Dr. Seuss quote, but the Second Graders at our school have decided to have a READ-A-THON for Katrina. From 9/12-9/26, we will try to read as many books as we can. We're looking for people---you?--- to commit a money amount for every book we read. There are 75 students participating. We would love it for people to sponsor us a nickel or dime (or quarter or dollar) for every book read. We will be doing this as part of Richmond City Schools' BEACON OF HOPE, a city-wide effort to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina. If you are interested in helping us, please contact Miss Conradi at kconradi@gmail.com. Thank you for helping us help others.

School and a Fish

What a great bunch of students I have! Room 12 consists of 8 boys and 8 girls this year and it's an active, enthusiastic bunch. (Enthusiastic, incidentally, was our word of the day today!)

We have spent the last two days establishing routines. We have two class rules this year:
1) Be your best.
2) Do your best.

We figured out that everything falls under those two rules. We have done an incredible job following those rules so far.

We have noticed some interesting things, too. When I read a book during Calendar Time or Read-Aloud Time, Leif Erickson stops still in his bowl. At first we thought he was dying, but now we think he's modeling how-to-be-quiet-during-storytime behavior. WHAT A GREAT PET! :)


Look for pictures, soon! The kids are beautiful.