Welcome Back to School, 2014!

This is our third back-to-school video; it’s becoming a tradition!

When I was growing up, my family always went out to eat, frequently at a restaurant called The Ground Round, which gave you baskets of peanuts and popcorn and projected old movies on the wall, on the night before school started.  I loved that!  I also put all my clothes out the night before the first day so I would be ready to go in the morning.   Unfortunately, that was a first day only tradition rather than a daily habit.

Do you have any back-to-school traditions in your family?

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18 thoughts on “Welcome Back to School, 2014!

  1. Do you have any back-to-school traditions in your family?

    Sort of, when I buy my back to school things a little after tax free weekend I start going to bed earlier to get ready for waking up at 6:30 for 5 days a week for almost 10 months. What do you like most about back-to-school shopping?

    -Johnny

  2. Hey Mrs. Donofrio!
    My back to school traditions are taking a picture in front of my house and posting it on Facebook, and going shopping for new clothes. Those are my back to school traditions! What is your favorite part of the back to school weeks?
    -Raina

  3. Hi Mrs.Donofrio!
    Before school starts my dad and I like to eat breakfast together as a family before I start a new year of learning. Do you have any traditions?-Sydney

  4. Hello Mrs. Donofrio!
    The Ground Round sounds really cool! Every year, on the morning of the first day of school, my mom takes a picture of Julia and I in our uniforms. We also go to the beach the weekend before school, but we didn’t this year because of the bacteria. As a teacher, do you have any back to school traditions? Blog you later!
    ~Megan

  5. Hey Mrs. Donofrio,
    Sadly I have no traditions for the first day of school but I do always go school supplies shopping. The Ground Round sounds like a really fun place. Do you ever think about starting new traditions with your family? Hope to blog you later!
    ~Hannah

  6. We were talking about the fact that you are going back to school at the moment, where here in New Zealand it is the middle of our Winter and we are looking at finishing the year at Christmas in December! We’re very happy that we have our audience and classrooms from the USA back online as we do suffer a dip when you are all on your summer breaks! We’re really looking forward to following what you can do and come up with this year, and watching your work from the other side of the world.
    Mr Webb and Room One, Auroa Primary School, Taranaki, New Zealand
    mrwebbauroa.blogspot.com

    • Hello Mr. Webb and Room One!
      We are thrilled to connect with you once again! Mr. Webb’s was the very first class we ever connected with when we began our blogging journey two years ago. We will take some time today to visit and catch up with you on your blog. Today is our third day of school, so we are busy getting reacclimated to our procedures and organizing ourselves to begin work. This year every middle schooler will receive an iPad; I am excited for that because I think it will make our blog posts even more interesting. It will probably make it easier for the students to document and write about more of their activities.
      Thanks so much for stopping by to say hello! We will visit with you soon on your blog. It would be lovely to do a project together sometime before Christmas! Let’s put our thinking caps on!
      ~Mrs. Donofrio

      • We would also love to do a collaborative project together – that would be a great way to learn from each other. Great that you are back online as we have said. We are going to be 1:1 with ipads in 2015, however we also have a lot of devices at the moment and are nearly there.
        Mr Webb, Room One, Auroa Primary School, Taranaki, New Zealand
        mrwebbauroa.blogspot.com

  7. Hi Mrs. Donofrio!
    It’s Cogan here and I was just stopping by to say hello! I have just started high school and it’s so much fun! Thanks to your fun and wonderful way of teaching I got into Honors English!
    Blythe is so excited to start school and be in your home room! I can hardly believe that she is already in 7th grade!
    Well I got to go know but I hope to see you later!
    ~Cogan

    • Hi Cogan,
      I’m so glad to hear that you are having fun in high school. I’m also happy to hear that you are doing well in English. Your hard work in middle school is the reason why you excel in class, but thank you for the kind words. I’m looking forward to seeing you soon and hearing all about your high school adventures.
      ~Mrs. Donofrio

  8. HI Guys,
    It’s Lauren! How was your first day of school? Mine was amazing. Me, Ellie, and Joseph wish you guys the best of luck on your school year!
    GOD BLESS YOU GUYS!
    From your old classmate,
    Lauren

    • Hi Lauren,
      We are so happy to hear from you! I’m not surprised to hear that your first day back to school was amazing because you are amazing! Today we started to learn about Ancient Greek Mythology. We are planning to read The Odyssey this year. We also did a little work on a QR code webquest with our iPads. What has been your favorite lesson of the year so far?
      Tomorrow we will be blogging, so I’m sure lots of the kids will write to you then. Have a great day at school!
      ~Mrs. Donofrio

  9. WOW! I loved this video when I first saw it at school and it was so different then others I’ve seen. How did you make it? Was it a Prezi?

    • Hi Kyle,
      I made this video on Animoto. This is an app I hope to have you kids get on your iPads. We have lots of learning to do this year! Thanks so much for your nice comment. Do you know how to make a Prezi?
      ~Mrs. Donofrio

  10. Hey Mrs. Donofrio!
    Just thought I’d stop by to say a quick hello. Looks like things are running well over there and it’s cool to see some new faces. It’s awesome to see how much the blog has grown since my years there. If you may be wondering, high school is just peachy…. My English Honors class is quite difficult, but since I had such a great teacher prior, I think I’ll do just fine. In my family, we don’t have a tradition before school starts besides shopping on tax free weekend which I’m sure most people do. Did Epiphany get any new technology this year? Oh, and one more thing, say HI to everyone there for me!

    ~Louis

    • Louis!
      So GREAT to hear from you! This is one of the reasons I love blogging: staying in touch with old friends. I’m so glad to hear high school is going well. Your blog comment is well-written, so I know you will do fine in English Honors. I hope you have smooth sailing in the rest of your classes as well.
      Epiphany middle schoolers have individual iPads this year. We just received them on Friday, so we are still working out the initial kinks. New experiences require adjustments and patience, as I’m sure you know from your first week of high school. However, we have already begun using them in language arts; we began a QR Code web quest. The kids are taking photos of notes on the board. They are also using Notability for class notes. Tomorrow we will all use Educreations to practice some diagrams. I think it will be cool to record our grammar lessons; the kids will each be able to bring home an audio recording of the lesson which they can use for help with homework if necessary. We’ve talked about using FaceTime if a student is absent, too. I think as time goes on, we’ll find a lot of ways to use the iPad in the classroom. Do your teachers use technology much in their daily lessons?
      Well, Louis, I’m sure I’ll see you soon. Will you be going to the dance Mr. Morganelli is organizing? This year’s theme is Hollywood. It should be fun!
      Keep up the good work at Venice High. Thank you so much for writing. Stop by often!
      ~Mrs. Donofrio

  11. Hello Mrs. Donofrio,
    My first day of school tradition is staying up until about 11:00 pm on the night before school starts as a ” last day of freedom ” sort of thing. Normally, I will get home from school, stay in my room for a couple of hours doing home work, reading, watching TV ect. Then I spend the rest of my evening with my Mom until 9:00 pm, but the night before school I get to watch movies,eat junk food, and have control of the TV remote for as long as I want until 11:00 pm. I wonder when most kids my age go to bed normally?
    Sara

    • Hi Sara,
      I like your tradition on back-to-school night. It’s a last hurrah before the work begins. How did this tradition begin? Have you ever thought of taking a poll on bedtimes to see what the average time is? My kids used to go to bed at 9:30 on school nights when they were in middle school; now that they are in high school, they often stay up much later than that doing homework. Sometimes my oldest two daughters (ages 16 and 17) got to bed after midnight. My son, 14, hasn’t had that much homework yet, but he likes to watch football fairly late.. Sometimes I let him; other times I tell him he’ll have to read the results the next day on-line. My 11-year-old still goes to bed at 9:30. I wish I could say the same for myself, but rarely do I get to bed before midnight. There is always so much to do!
      ~Mrs. Donofrio

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