Well, we have hired a new co-teacher to work with me. Jane has worked with me before in developing curriculum. We are in very much agreement philosophically. I think we are going to have a great year. We have already started our home visits. The visits allow us to spend some one-on-one time with family and child before school starts and get acquainted. It helps us to learn more about the child and her interests so we can consider this as we begin planning for the year. Of course, since our children spend two years in our class, many of them know us but it is still wonderful to spend this time with them and catch up on their news.

This summer I have read several math books and have been particularly intrigued by Share and Compare: A Teacher's story. It is about helping children become problem solvers in mathematics by Larry Buschman. He argues that giving the children one problem to solve a day and then having them solve it, represent their solution in multiple ways, and explain it helps children to develop as mathematical thinkers. Jane and I are considering exploring this idea with our children this year.

We are also trying to make decisions about what research/practice we are going to be able to accommodate from our college collaborators this year. We have 5 proposals from college faculty to work with our children in addition to an already on-going (and long term) involvement with the development of a physical education model/curriculum with Grant and Nick. We are definitely accepting the proposal from a member of the Chinese language faculty to teach Chinese to our children on a weekly basis. Even though all the other proposals are great each one adds another transition to our week. It has been my experience that too many transitions makes for difficult days so we will have to carefully consider options and turn some people down. I hate to do this because we have worked hard over the last 6 years to build relationships on our campus. The increasing number of proposals from faculty indicate that we have been successful in that regard.