As many posts previous, I’ve talked of Max’s 5th grade teacher, we’ve talked of his great lessons in learning, his great work in the community, and just how he teaches in not only the “old school” way, but in a way where he tries to make it fun.
I think the latest assignment, the History Research Paper, really stumped Max. He was VERY intimidated by it, he of course felt it was unfair that only his class had to do such a hard assignment.
But he took it one step at a time… first he had to make a very thought out decision on his topic, he had many he was thinking about, and narrowed it down to El Salvador. He then had to write a thesis statement, what was he going to “prove” in this research paper? He decided he would talk about the effects of the Salvadoran Civil war on tourism. And then the work began. The assignment was given just before the Christmas break, and due Feb 12th.
Max worked hard for so many hours on every step of the report, he struggled, he cried, he read and read, he typed his little heart out, every single word of the 21 page report!
He read books and watched videos on line. He put pictures of dead people in his report, realizing that 70,000 people died in this war. He had great talks with Donato, about the topic, he formally interviewed him, and this was in the report as well. In the end, he was proud of his work, he was proud to say he did his best, and did it all on his own, and most of all, he really learned about the topic.
His teacher made sure they knew, he would be able to tell if they didnt do the work on their own, he would be able to tell if the work was copied out of books. And his teacher made each parent sign a release saying we did not type any of the paper. It was brutal!
But of course in the long run, Max was proud, as proud as a 10 year old could be for writing and typing a 21 page research paper on a country he has great interest in.
Today Max received his paper back.
He had a right to be proud…
He had a right to say he worked hard and it was worth it…
The teacher had a right to give him an A+
wow… he got 100%, not that it matters, but he was THE ONLY one!
Which means he did all 16 of the elements correctly
including the ever confusing bibliography!
proud moment for his Mama!
)Max had a great long birthday celebration, Thursday the 12th was celebration at school. Friday 13th (actual bday) was spent at home having a treasure hunt for his presents from us. All the Rock Band 2 parts were individually wrapped, and the 3 Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Then a-l-l day was spent learning how to play the drums… of course… now mastered it. Nothing this kid cant do! Friday night we all went to the movies, saw Mall Cop, cute movie, and then tried a new restaurant, Pueblo Chico, pretty yummy.
what a great game most in the house were cheering for Arizona, and it made for an exciting game!
