I am a fourth grade science teacher. My students have Mrs. Slone for math, Mrs. Barcelo for social studies and Mrs. Goings or Mrs. Spahr for language arts. I graduated from Slippery Rock University in 1989. This is my eighth year at Holmes Elementary School. You can contact me at 937-283-7740 or by email at rich.garnai@wilmington.k12.oh.us.
I will be updating more information on this page before school starts.
Classroom Mission Statement The students in room 22 will do our best, be ourselves, and strive to be a smartacle; by listening in class, read, do our homework, be respectful, be responsible and acting safely: so that we can create options and opportunities to enjoy our life as we grow. Social Studies Information There are seven strands that we will be studying throughout the school year. The strands include History, Geography, Economics, Government, Citizenship, People in Societies, and Social Studies Skills. Throughout the school year we will be doing a variety of different assignments to study and assess the progress of the students in class. I believe that the students learn best when they are challenged in different ways. This could mean that some students learn best by doing paper and pencil activities whereas another student could learn best by being given the chance to express themselves in front of their classmates. I also think the students are more attentive when we do different activities. The activities could include taking tests and quizzes; memorizing the fifty states, Preamble to the US Constitution, or Gettysburg address; completing economics vocabulary assignments; participating in a short classroom play: participating in a computer simulation; working with a small group to complete a project; studying previous OAT questions; or looking for definitions to vocabulary words. I may also allow students to select their own activities for a unit if they do well on a pretest for unit. Not all of the units will have a pretest. There will be homework assignments but not on a regular basis. The students will have to study for some tests, complete written assignments, and/or collect research for homework. I may give some tests and quizzes without announcing when they will be. The students will be responsible for studying the material as we are investigating a unit.