Were you unable to attend this morning's Becoming a Panther Day or the Parent Technology Training? Download the documents below for the information that was shared. 

Technology Training for Students and Parents

Welcome Back Panthers!

I have loved every minute of my years teaching students at School 81! Old photos and blog posts will remain on this website for families who are looking for memories of our time together. 

I am excited to announce I'll be starting a new adventure at North Park Community School 50, but it's bittersweet knowing I never got a chance to say good-bye to my 2019-2020 friends. We had an unprecedented and abrupt end to our year and I wish we had gotten a sense of closure.

Please know once my student, always my student. If your child needs anything, or if there's anything I can help your family with during the year, feel free to email me. And fair warning, if I run into any of my old friends in the neighborhood there will be plenty of hugs, fist bumps, and high fives (socially distanced if needed). I hope I'll get to see what great people they turn out to be.

Love,

Mrs. Gompah

The last two months have flown by! We spent our time studying important figures in Black History such as Ruby Bridges and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We also memorized large sections of Dr. King's I Have a Dream Speech and put on an AMAZING performance at the School 81 Black History program. Were you unable to attend? Check out the video below: 

We welcomed a new student teacher to our class. Her name is Ms. Blackburn and she will be here until the middle of March.  We also took a winter field trip to the new Explore and More Museum at Canalside. Students enjoyed exploring the three floors. Thanks to all the parents who attended. I'll post more pictures of the event on my class slideshow.

Finally, this February we've been participating in a Valentine exchange with students around the country. It's been great fun whenever we get another Valentine in the mail. We're displaying them in the hallway. 

Your children continue to delight and amaze me with their growth and hard work this year. Thanks, families for your continued support. 

This December, an elite group of surgeons operated on words to form contractions. Here was the scene before my team of doctors arrived:

And here's a peek of a contractionectomy in progress:

Students enjoyed working together to demonstrate their learning, and took their jobs seriously. I see future careers in medicine for this class. 

November just flew by! In math this month, students continued studying place value. We used base ten blocks, place value disks, and even snacks to represent three-digit numbers. 

We celebrated Native American Heritage month with a great assembly in the auditorium where some students were called on stage to participate in cultural dances. Mr. Jud and Ms. Hill, the Native American coordinator for BPS, also visited our classroom to lead a game of Bingo with a twist, the numbers were called out in the Seneca language. 

We read the book Balloons Over Broadway, a story about the beginning of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.

Then students constructed their own balloon characters (they kept STEM journals during the process of planning and constructing their creations), and we put on a parade for the first and second floors. I'll post pictures of all the projects on my photo page.

I'm thankful this November for such a great class and such a supportive group of parents. I'm so grateful for the people who volunteered on parade day to blow up balloons and help students bring their creations to life.  I hope all my friends have a happy, restful Thanksgiving break! 

Report cards come home next week. I've set aside time during the next two weeks to have parent conferences with any parents who'd like to meet. Please use the sign-up link below, or follow the link in my Remind message to schedule a conference. 

This is such a fantastic time of year. The students have learned our class routines and they are working hard to grow their brains every single day.  I always brag that we are the hardest working and kindest class at School 81 and my friends consistently strive to live up to our reputation.

In math, we've started learning about place value. Our unit began with me spilling over 1000 popsicle sticks on the rug. The students had to work together to bundle them into groups of ten and then into groups of one hundred (Mod. 3 Lesson 1). 

Students were polite and patient with each other as they worked together to make their bundles. 

The last week of October was full of fun. We enjoyed a field trip to the BPO (a complete stranger approached our class to compliment us on our behavior) and a Halloween parade and party. We also took some time in reading groups to read and respond to The Headless Horseman by Natalie Standiford. Be sure to ask your child what he/she thinks ever became of Ichabod Crane.

Students did a great job on their spider science projects this month. I'll post a few pictures of them on the slideshow page of this website. Finally, we welcomed a pet fish to our class. After soliciting a few name suggestions, students decided to call him Darwin.

 A pizza poses with Ms. Piazza (our music teacher).

I know it's been a few years since I've posted on my blog, but our district website changed and I couldn't figure out how to update my page. The good news is, I made it my summer project to finally figure this thing out and now we're back in business for the 2019-2020 school year. Watch this space for fun updates!

Also for families from the 2018-2019 year, I'm going through my cell phone and finally posting pictures of my second graders in the photo sections. Look for them there.