Welcome to Mr. White’s Fifth Grade Website! We have had a great start to what I expect to be a great year! I will spend a lot of time building community in our classroom, and talking about what it will take to make our classroom successful. My goal in Room 4 is to create a safe, welcome learning environment where all students can succeed. I strongly believe in a team approach to education, not only in the classroom, but also between parents and teachers. Your child is my main focus and I welcome you to play an active role this year!

Our goal is to become excellent readers! We have a lot of work to do, but everyone will improve and reach their own independent goal!

All Children are Gifted - Some Just Don’t Know It, Yet! A child’s brain is a marvelous thing. Think what it can do if it is whole and fed the right information, nurtured, and given opportunity to grow. Only a small fraction of its power is ever used. That’s where we, as teachers and parents, can make an incredible difference! Remember some children run through their timetable of learning faster than others, but that doesn’t mean a slower child will accomplish less. It might just take a little more time.

The success that your child will enjoy in my classroom starts at home. As parents you have built images in the mind of your child. You become the model that your child will imitate. If you show interest in his/her education you will be creating a very powerful model for your child to follow. I am just a facilitator of this learning process for your child. I’ll try to treat each student as a unique individual, guiding and supporting them as needed. My expectation level will be high all year. These kids are little miracles, and don’t forget that! A valuable gift you can give your child is setting a good example for them to follow. Remember to encourage them every day because they do want to succeed.

Did You Know... Teachers and peers don’t always recognize creativity and imagination in young children. In fact many children don’t enjoy or excel in school, finding it boring and mundane. History is full of examples of people who didn’t take, or weren’t given, the chance to experience the joy of learning during their school years. Did you know that...

-Albert Einstein was four years old before he could speak and seven before he could read.

-Beethoven?s music teacher once said of him, "As a composer, he is hopeless."

-F.W.Woolworth got a job in a dry goods store at age 21, but his employers would not let him wait on customers because he "didn?t have enough sense."

-Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college.

-A newspaper editor fired Walt Disney because he had "no good ideas."

-Abraham Lincoln entered the Black Hawk War as a captain and came out as a private.

-Louisa May Alcott was told by an editor that she would never write anything that had popular appeal.

-Winston Churchill failed the sixth grade.

-Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school.

-Thomas Edison?s teachers told him that he was to stupid to learn anything.

-Wernher von Braun flunked ninth grade algebra.

-Admiral Richard Byrd had been retired from the Navy, declared "unfit for service," when he flew over both poles.

FAVORITE QUOTATIONS

He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own. Confucius

We can do no great things, only small things with great love. Mother Teresa

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a manner that when you die the world cries and you rejoice. Indian Proverb

The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others but ourselves as well. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

What do we live for, if it is not to make the world less difficult for each other? George Eliot

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. Winston Churchill

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. William Arthur Ward

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. John l5:l2 RSV

If any lift of mine may ease the burden of another, God give me love and care and strength To Help my ailing brother.

I am only one, But still I am one. I cannot do everything, But still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. Edward Everett Hale

One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve. Albert Schweitzer

Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction. Anne Sullivan

Treasure each other in the recognition that we do not know how long we shall have each other. Joshua Loth Liebman

We must view young people not as empty bottles to be filled, but as candles to be lit. Robert H. Shaffer

Abraham Lincoln had great difficulty getting an education--but what can you expect from a guy who didn’t play football or basketball

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. Mother Teresa

With a sweet tongue and kindness, you can drag an elephant by a hair. Persian Proverb

That we are alive today is proof positive that God has something for us to do today. Lindsay

vWe often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude. Ozick

The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those who sang best. John James Audubon

Speak kind words and you will hear kind echoes.

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. Will Rogers

It is when we forget ourselves that we do things that are most likely to be remembered.

Nothing is so strong as gentleness; nothing so gentle as real strength. St. Francis de Sales

There is no better exercise for strengthening the heart than reaching down and lifting up another.