New classmates, new classroom, new year!

         September 2015

Dear Parents & Guardians,

I am so incredibly excited to be your child’s teacher and part of the Duanesburg Elementary fifth grade team!  I am looking forward to getting to know each and every student and parent. With your support, I hope to make this academic year a successful and fun-filled one.

 I was born in Princetown, New York and graduated from Schalmont High School. I pursed my undergraduate and graduate degrees from the College of Saint Rose. I have taught many grades and districts from Pre-K in Albany to High School English at Schalmont, but I enjoy teaching fifth grade at DES the most. This will be my seventh year teaching and am very happy I get to pursue my dream and passion daily.

My expectations for conduct and standards for academic growth are high. Students will be given weekly homework assignments including reading an independent reading book at home. Having a special time and place for your child to work will help develop good study habits and organizational skills.  Double checking your child’s work and assisting with difficulties will help to impress upon your child the importance you place on his/her accomplished work.  Your child will receive a student agenda notebook to record daily assignments and things to remember, which can assist you in this process.  Any substantial problems that are encountered at home should be brought to my immediate attention, so that the material can be clarified or re-taught.

At this year’s Meet the Teacher Open House (Thursday, September 17th at 7:10 PM) I will share more information about the school year, as well as, your child’s expectations in the classroom.  I hope that I will see you there!  If you have any questions and/or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at cstryjek@duanesburg.org.  Thank you in advance for your cooperation and support.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Christina A. Stryjek

Prezi and devices

Students completed a final project this year using a new technology program called "Prezi". They researched online using their devices five influential figures who led slaves to freedom. They took notes on them and they took this and transferred it onto the Prezi. Finally they presented their findings with the other groups to inform them. I was so proud of this class for taking on this new idea of using devices in class for education and they showed great responsibility and efforts in this and I will utilize it more often next year. 

Reading Incentive

I am SO proud of all my students! You all had a wonderful year and grew leaps and bounds from where you were in September. This year we had 10 students read between 25-49 books and 2 reading between 50-74! The rest of the class read between 8-24. You all have done an amazing job and you should be so proud of yourselves. Please enjoy your summer and don't forget to read, read, read!!! 

Cells culminating activity

The students created a plant cell using candy, a crazy straw and beads. They all created their own cells while chanting the part and its job. We then made one GIANT class cell together in two plastic baggies representing the cell wall and cell membrane. We used the same candy for the same parts and added a nucleus (pink gum ball), cytoplasm (vegetable oil), and a vacuole (pink balloon filled with water). They loved chanting the jobs of the parts and touching the cell. Today they got to use the Mimio votes to answer questions based on this project. Great job class!!!

Force culminating activity

The students of all fifth grade classes were split into groups of three to four people. They were asked to create a car using all the same materials and were asked to applying their knowledge of force to the creation. All their hard work paid off because at the end the three classes discussed why the car that won was using force, gravity, momentum, and aerodynamics to its advantage. We all had a blast learning!

Our winning car for all of the fifth grade goes to:

Exciting day for Science in 5th grade!

Today was so exciting! Mr. Tygert came to talk to the students of all the fifth grades. He spoke about his job in hematology, cells, blood banking, viruses and laser technology. They all left the assembly excited about science! This is what it is all about.  Bringing real life experiences into the classroom to inspire the next generation. Thank you Mr. Tygert for putting on such a great presentation for DES and thank you students for being such a great audience with great questions. I could really tell you were both interested and paying attention from the wonderful questions you presented Mr. Tygert with. 

Here is a little about Mr. Tygert (AKA my little brother):

Graduated Schalmont 2008. Graduated Albany college of pharmacy and health sciences in 2012. Worked in hematology at Albany Med for two years. Have worked in cellular immunology department at Albany med for one year to now. Program representative for two years at acphs. My title is MLS(ASCP). Which stands for Medical Laboratory Scientist accredited through American Society for Clinical Pathology. 

Force projects and new playground equipment!

The students were set up in groups and they had to build cars with all the same materials: tape, two pieces of paper, four paper clips, four straws, and four lifesavers. Tomorrow we will be racing the other fifth grade classrooms AND having (my brother) Mr. Tygert come in to give a prevention to all the classes a presentation on cells and his work in the lab at Albany Med. 

We have new equipment on the playground! We are all so excited about it!! Thank you DCS staff and crew :) we are demonstrating being respectful, responsible and safe by going one at a time, waiting patiently for our turn, and cheering each other on!