aquarium visit

We were very lucky to be visited by the local aquarium last week.  They focused on tide pool creatures and proper exploration techniques at the beach.  Perfect connection to our big project this year!  The primates were exposed to familiar vocabulary that we've been using in class & on our trips to Palmer Cove--tidepool talk!  And we learned a lot of new words too.  They got to touch and observe the animals and practiced taking turns, sharing, listening to and following directions.  They did a great job and I was a proud teacher.  Some highlights:

                                                           moon snail

                                                         hermit crab

periwinkle

                                   mussels, quahogs, scallops, barnacles, an oyster, periwinkles

horseshoe crab

where we're at

Time is moving along at lightening speed as usual.  We are rehearsing for our annual tradition of performing the story 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving at Stew Day--our whole school celebration the day before Turkey day...also my favorite day of the school year (maybe tied with the last day of school?haha)  It's a wonderful celebration of our school community filled with performances, crafts, fun activities of all sorts, and of course, stew.  Last year, we interpreted the story through movement and dance to the theme from "Superman".  This year we are taking the more traditional route and acting out the story as I narrate.  The primates are ecstatic, and every year I find this is a wonderful unifying project for our class.  It's also wonderful to know that my primates from years past will watch and remember what fun they had when they performed the story, which is a reminder to honor the turkeys we'll gobble up the next day!

Trips to Palmer Cove have been on hold for a variety of reasons, and I am bummed out about that as I had high hopes of making weekly trips.  Many things this year seem to be taking much longer than usual--goal setting, opening new choice centers, establishing reading groups, and just getting things off the ground in general, but every group is different and presents different challenges and experiences.  So I'm taking it as it comes, slowing myself down, and really just focusing on what each day brings and allows us to accomplish.  Not easy for a "full steam ahead" multi-tasker with big plans, but I am nothing if not flexible, so, this year is what it is...and so far, there have been a lot of wonderful moments.

Upcoming events include another annual tradition--our dog biscuit fundraiser for the local animal shelter.  We will advertise, collect & tally orders, and then spend many days baking dog biscuits and creating cat toys for people to purchase for the pets in their lives.  Always a big success!  Last year was the first year I did not do this project....even when on maternity leave I came in to do this project with little Chloe snuggled in the baby Bjorn!  Since having my own kiddos, I have been forced to scale down here and there in order to keep my sanity, but this year I really want to do it and it will augment our economics study very nicely.  The primates noticed the "pet sale" bin I took out this morning to assess what we'll need, and everyone was freaking out that I had plans to sell our class pet turtle...who do they think they're dealing with here?!  NEVER!!!!  I want to tell them about it, but I think we are overloaded with excitement as it is, so I'm trying to keep my big mouth shut for now!  more to come......

One thing I really want to write about is drumming.  This is quite a rambunctious group, and we struggled tremendously with settling down for morning meeting in September.  So I pulled out my "gathering drum" and one day just sat on the rug and began drumming.  Suddenly, every primate was on the rug, clapping along with the pattern I was drumming.  WOW--I expected this would grab their attention, but I never thought they would actually gather and start drumming along with me.

I just love when the primates lead me, so I took inspiration from this impromptu activity.  Each day, morning and afternoon meeting begins with my drumming a "sound pattern" and everyone gathers (although a bit slower now!) and for about 2-3 minutes each time, our whole group is moving in unison, sharing the moment together as one noise making unit.  I LOVE IT!!!!  I am not by nature musical in any sense of the word.  Music brings more of a linguistic pleasure to me--I love song lyrics, and the memories some songs evoke...like this old Irish tune we first heard in a pub in Killarney, which brings me right back there every time I hear it.  And, I am terribly tone deaf--just ask my poor children who have to listen to grossly off-key lullabies nightly!  So here is an area of definite challenge for me, and a goal this year is to really try to incorporate activities that require the use of musical intelligence.  I'm NOT talking about singing the habitat song (more of a mnemonic device than use of an intelligence).  I am talking about things like the drumming.

First, it is a non-verbal signal that meeting time is beginning.  Second, everyone has to join in the pattern which fluctuates--dum-dum-DUM, dum-dum-DUM, then da dada da, da dada da, etc., and follow it.  I'm starting to get a little stale with my limited repertoire, so I plan to utilize the musical intelligences in the group by asking different primates to drum.  This will exercise creativity in creating a pattern and require attention and concentration to follow it.  THAT is using one's musical intelligence.  We solve the problem of getting everyone gathered on the rug and create the product of a group moving to and following a rhythm.  It's really quite magical when it happens just right.

I pointed this out to the primates a few days ago, as I noticed the vigor dwindling in the group.  It has since been restored, and I look forward to the many days ahead, beginning and ending with this beautiful group experience.

Now I need to figure out how to use a fat separator to make gravy before next Thursday.  Wish me luck and any & all advice welcome!

read with caution

It's been quite awhile for me and while I had great expectations of catching up with all things work related this past week off (our extended school year gives us a blessed break in Oct!), I found myself blissfully focused on all things mommy.  And it was a WONDERFUL week!

I think part of my reluctance to blog is the craziness that is happening in education right now.  And all the national lunacy, shameful politicizing, and inexcusable neglect that is all over this country is really hitting home--to all of us.  I read several teacher-authored blogs, and have teacher friends from all over the US, and no matter where the location is, the story is the same.  And the problems are systemic--starting at the very top, yet all the blame I hear is placed on the ONLY people actually taking any action--the teachers.  Bad, bad, bad things are happening and for the first time in my career, I truly feel utterly hopeless about education.

Thank goodness for the primates, who despite all this ridiculous adult crap, still enter the classroom eager and excited and willing to learn and laugh and share their lives.  And that is what I want to focus my blogging on--the good.  Last year the weaving project and the blog were a great escape for me, a chance to focus on all the GOOD that happens in my classroom vs just venting about all the crap from above that is constantly piled on top of everything I try to do as a teacher.  I need to have a place where I can reflect and focus on the real matters at hand--teaching and learning, and I'll save my venting for comments on the blogs of the other frustrated, worn down teachers who are brave enough to speak out.

But please, read with caution.  Please keep in mind that with every valuable teaching and learning moment I may write about, there is a whole other world of education outside our classroom that is crumbling and taking many good and great teachers down--not to mention the effect all of this has on our students.  It's not enough to say "we value teachers" (not that anyone is saying that these days), our society needs to take action against using the education and well-being of American students as political tools or news stories.  I'm sure every now and then my frustration will spill into a post, but my goal is to talk about the GOOD, and I hope that this focus will sustain me as a teacher this year and show an alternative, realistic view of what does happen in a classroom.

I don't want to leave this post all gloom and doom, so here's a start of concentrating on the brighter side:

blind contour drawing

Here's one of our first lessons in sketching, specifically "blind contour drawing", which requires sketching something without looking at what you are drawing.  We used "shields" to help us "not look". I heard many cries of "this is too hard!"...but no one quit.

Our subject matter was gourds to align with the current season, autumn.

Some chose to concentrate more time on one gourd and others chose to make several attempts using different gourds.

 Many primates felt frustration with this task and frustration is an unavoidable--maybe even a necessary--step in the process of learning something new.  And everyone experienced frustration with blind contour drawings.  The learners were frustrated, yet motivated, and that's a successful learning experience.  So we'll continue with this task a few more times, and it will be interesting to see how frustration/motivation unfolds in the individual primates in other areas: reading, writing, math, science, socially.

Ahhhhh, feels GOOD!

the adventure's begun

Well it's day 11 and we have officially started our curriculum project.  In the days prior, we have been getting to know each other, establishing routines, working out kinks in the schedule, endured interruptions for fire drills and bus evacuation practice, laid some groundwork for beginning our project....now we can get down to business!

The primates wrote poems about autumn today.  I've read three poems to them so far and we've read & reviewed the book: Sky Tree by Thomas Locker several times.  We've shared personal stories and observations about fall, and brainstormed a list of autumn words, which is posted in the classroom.  This is a very brief intro to poetry because I intend for these poems to  serve as a baseline assessment--what can they do with little direction?  what do they know about poetry and how are they able to translate that to performing the task of a poet?  A few days ago they drew pictures of autumn after brainstorming a list of autumn colors.  They used these pictures as a reference as they wrote today.  The class gathered on the rug and those willing shared their work.  We practiced audience etiquette and how to show support for the very brave act of sharing one's work with a group.

This is a time of major observation for me--getting a sense of my new 1st graders and recognizing growth in my 2s.  As a whole, the group seems excited about poetry and about our subject matter--fall, which is a good sign for how engaged they'll be during an extended poetry study.  Plus this is a wonderful opportunity for primates to share stories from their personal lives and make connections with each other.

We also began our first sketching session.  We discussed finding shapes in objects and explored dried gourds, chestnuts, pinecones, acorns, and seed cases.  Each primate chose one object to sketch--starting with basic shapes.  We established the routine of writing name, date, and the name of the item in the upper right corner.  This is important because we will mark our journal entries in this way.

We are also reading The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony Di Terlizzi and Holly Black.  The primates' imaginations are running wild with mysterious, trickster creatures of the natural world.

Off we go!

welcome

The new school year is underway and it has been.......interesting to say the least.

Occasionally I attend these collaborative assessment meetings at Harvard where educators from all parts of the world and all facets of the field gather to consider and discuss student work and current issues in teaching and learning.  After 9/11, the facilitator began reserving the last 15 minutes of discussion to ponder what it means to be an educator in a time of war.  This question has evolved in the years since to: "what does it mean to be an educator at this moment in time?"  A very powerful question with complex and multiple answers.

What does it mean to be a parent in this moment in time?  What does it mean to be a child at this moment in time?

Summer is such an amazing season of sunshine, warmth, and outdoor adventures.  But autumn's cool  and colorful days are my favorite, and as we all settle into a different rhythm of work and school and longer nights, I am considering these questions.

I'm also thinking about how to use the blog this year.  I'd like to include podcasts, and I hope people will respond to the surveys and posts with comments.

I'm listening to the gubernatorial debate as I write this...sigh...educating in this moment of time......

doing good

Just returned from a refreshing day of curriculum planning for our very exciting year long study this year, and my husband is home from his first day with students, so the conversation around here is quite lively tonight!  We are also preparing for our son's first day of Kindergarten next week at a Waldorf school (our daughter will be starting nursery at the new school too!).  Waldorf is a private school guided by the work of Rudolph Steiner.  It is about as opposite as you can get from public education in America, so this promises to be a very interesting school year for all of us!

Our discussion (as is usual) turned to test prep mania and the devastatingly disappointing direction "Race for the Top" is taking us, and I have a few thoughts to share.

First, there is no "race" in learning.  A race requires winners and losers.  If there are no losers, there's really no point to the "race" now, is there?  So this alleged ed reform actually demands losers, and who exactly are we willing to give up on in this country?  which children get to be the losers in this race?  On the flip side, if every teacher in the country meets or exceeds "bonus pay" requirements, is the government prepared to fund all of those bonuses?  Of course not, so again, there must be losers.

The question I think we, as parents and as teachers, need to ask is, "do we want children to be computers, or do we want children who can re-invent computers?" Computers regurgitate facts and figures, robotically decode (rather than read), and perform on demand.  Creative problem solvers and inventors solve problems and create products that matter to society.  As we look toward the future, skills for the 21st century fall into the latter category.  So it is all of those robots, who, incidentally, will most likely perform very well on standardized tests, and will, in the end, not win this race.

Just to clarify what I mean when I talk about not winning: I mean a generation that is consumed by manipulative advertising and media, a generation that can go to college but reads less and less--because a joy for reading was never developed, and a generation unable to cope with the serious environmental and societal problems that are already getting worse.

My husband works with a teacher who travels to the Dominican Republic every summer "vacation"--(a true teacher is never more than one thought away from the classroom by nature, hence the need for frequent and extended breaks), with her family to build houses, construct wells for clean water, and other  work towards bettering living conditions for poverty stricken families.  He commented on how amazing her stories are from these family experiences, and that her children authentically learn to "want to do good."  This makes me think of what "doing good" means to our students...or really what we (as a society) teach our kids "doing good" means.  Doing good on a test?  Doing good for others?  Doing good for the environment? Doing good for yourself and your family?

Personally, I'm not in a race.  And that is not an easy choice to make in public education today, but it's the only one I can live with and feel like I am "doing good".

I have so much more on my mind--still want to do a final reflection on last year & weaving!--but for now I have to figure out how to turn a holy mess of a classroom into a welcoming learning environment before next Thursday!

how do you know?

While I remain steeped in summer bliss--warm days, staying up late, letting the day unfold, the beach....every now and then September creeps into my mind.  I'm updating the look of the blog and have more plans of how to use it next year, but for now I want to reflect on a question my son asked me tonight. Over dinner, (yummy grilled pizzas--love having time to cook!), he asked, "Mama, how do you know so much about nature?"  I paused to think about this answer honestly.  I replied, "Because I ask a lot of questions about nature and I read about nature, but mostly I think because I observe and think about nature a lot."  As soon as I answered, I began thinking about implications for teaching and learning...asking questions, reading, observing, thinking...this is how I want to spend my days in the classroom this year, and I hope to create an environment which will support and encourage and facilitate this for my primates too.

I find the first part of his question--just "how do you know?" sparking ideas about assessment too.  I asked him, " How do you know I know a lot about nature?"  He answered, "Because you talk about it a lot."  Talking....

So that's my planning for the new school year so far.  I look forward to days spent asking questions, reading, observing, thinking, and talking with a new group of interesting individuals.

But for now, I'll spend a couple more weeks happily trailing behind this duo with my best friend & love of my life....