We returned from Christmas break this past Monday. I have found our students willing to work hard. They seem relaxed and much more focused than the entire month of December.
If I could set the school calendar, I might close down from Thanksgiving to New Years and then close school for the year at Spring Break. It seems that those are the best time for students and we make the most progress then.
However, no one has asked me for my opinion on the ideal school calendar.
We have started this week learning the DISSECT Strategy. DISSECT is part of the Word Identification Strategy from the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. It teaches work attack skills for adolescents. My students have really taken to it this week.