Science Self Evaluations

I was grading papers this weekend and had the pleasure of reading the kids' self evaluations for science. We are almost half way done with our Land and Water unit using stream tables (STC Land and Water) and at this point their workbooks have them fill out two pages about how they are doing - how they are working with their group members, how they are performing on their own, what they are doing well and what they can improve on. They had some great things to say, and I feel really proud of them.

Here are some particularly cute excerpts in response to the question, "How well do you think you and your partners are working together?"

"Good and bad because one time I worked with girls and it turned out nice but when i work with ____ it is terrible! When I was working today I was overjoyed." - Dem

"Well I think we work great together a lot of team work is involved." - Nol

"I think we are working good together because I am understanding what is happening." - Tia

"When I was in my group I learned a lot more!" - Eth (YAYYYY!!!! I was so excited to read this... Eth did work really well in his group during this and I'm glad he is able to recognize it as well.)

"Horrible!!!!" - Har (Yes, that's 4 exclamation points - I wrote him a note to come talk to me about this and I hope he does.)

"I think that my partners and I work together well because we share everyones ideas and we write them down and everyone gets to talk." - Moh (Double Yay for taking notes on each other's ideas!!)

Everyone answered some variation of "I did really well on my observations and my record sheets" - for the most part, they are right, I think they have been doing really well, and their observations are definitely improving.

It seems that they write more, say more, think more, and are more excited during science than during any other time of day. They love the "hands-on" (or, as NLB would say, "materials-based") aspect of what we are doing, but I am not always sure that they are really getting all the points we are trying to make about how stream tables represent real life watersheds in our world. I know they are having fun and enjoying the activities and working well together - they make beautiful drawings of the stream tables and are able to label and describe what they see.

I guess I'm just concerned that they're not fully aware of the big picture. This is the first time that Mrs. C is teaching Land and Water using stream tables like this - and we're both kind of figuring it out as we go. I would really like to teach it again next year, I hope that I will get to do it with my class. now that I am familiar with the unit I think I would be much better prepared and would be able to make it more fluid and cohesive.

Harvest Festival

So, right after our Awbury field trip, we got back to school just in time for Harvest Festival. I had heard a lot about Harvest Festival - it is an M School tradition - but I really had no idea what all it entailed. Wow. There were huge tables set up along each hallway with more food than you can imagine - turkey, mashed potatoes, salads, mac and cheese, lasagna, the list goes on and on. Tons of food, mostly homemade by parents and teachers at our school (several teachers spent all evening on Tuesday roasting turkeys!) and it was all really wonderful. The kids got big platefuls and went from room to room hanging out with friends, seeing old teachers and just generally socializing. Everyone was so well behaved and there were so many parents who came for the feast.

As part of Harvest Festival, Mrs. C had the class turn in their Native American journals - WOW - they were incredibly beautiful and I was so impressed! They obviously spent a really long time working on them. THey all wrote 10 or more entries from the perspective of a Native American child around the time of the first Thanksgiving - they've been working on these at home for weeks. They apparnetly did a lot of research into games and foods and activities common for Native Americans and incorporated so much historical information into their journals. Most of them tried to use natural materials - some dipped paper in tea or coffee or put it in the oven to make it look old, some wrapped their journal in leather or bound it with twigs and glued leaves all over the cover. Here are all the journals lined up on our back table. I was completely blown away by the extent of their efforts.



When the big feast was winding down, they all took turns wearing the headdress that Mrs. C created and sitting in the big chair in the front of the room to read a journal entry from their work.



Their hard work was really apparent - however, some were a little more accurate than others. Here's an excerpt:

"I am a Native American girl, and I am 9 years old. My name is Flying Bird and my brother's name is Jumping Deer. I live in the woods with my family. My father does a lot of hunting and my mother makes blankets and baskets. Today I was walking through the woods and I found a beautiful tree with colorful leaves. I love it here, but I am also sad because it is hard being in a new place - we arrived on the Mayflower three weeks ago."

Hmmmm... we may have to revisit our lesson on the Mayflower. (I have to keep reminding myself that just because we taught it doesn't mean they learned it!)

Field Trip Success!

(Playing Lenape lacrosse!)

So, Wednesday's field trip to the Awbury Arboretum was MUCH more successful than my first field trip experience (ie: losing poor Eth in the Franklin Institute). It was so fun to have the kids outside in the woods looking at leaves and trees and learning about the Lenape tribes that lived in our area. They got to make cool little clay pots and play Native American games (like lacrosse! who knew?) and learn about the ways that the Lenape used different materials from their natural enviroment to hunt and build and take care of each other.


(Listening quietly to our guide, S)

They were all so well behaved, they asked questions, they took notes, they helped each other and shared and followed directions. They didn't wander off or get lost or anything. It was great. :) I feel much better about field trips now - thank goodness, since we're going on another one on December 2nd (to the Penn Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology) and then another one on December 8th (to the Philadelphia Zoo!). Crazy, but awesome. The kids do learn a lot from them - if our class wasn't so well behaved and small we wouldn't be able to do so much field tripping.



(Making clay pots!)

Discourse is just how you get there

In an earlier post I talked a lot about TALK in the classroom, but after reading "Choice Words" by Peter Johnson for my literacy class (it really applies to all subjects, not just literacy), I've realized that what I really want is for my kids to gain a "sense of agency" and talk is (in my opinion) the best vehicle for getting them there.

I want my students to become people who figure out things and solve problems and ask questions - and, maybe more importantly, to see themselves as such. I want them to see themselves as readers, as writers, as mathematicians and scientists. As Johnson says, "When you figure something out for yourself, there is a certain thrill in the figuring. After a few successful experiences, you mihgt start to think that figuring things out is something you can actually do. Maybe you are even a figuring-out kind of person, encouraging an agentive dimension to identity."

I realize that this is idealistic, but I really think that the best classrooms are the ones where the teacher talks the least. Where the teacher gives kids space and tools to figure things out for themselves, to discuss what they read, to respond to each other, to teach each other. There is nothing quite as good as feeling a sense of accomplishment. "I want children to see themselves not only as inquiring individuals, but as inquiring individuals who are part of a diverse community that inquires, whose members, through their active participation and diversity of perspective, contribute to each other's intellectual growth."

One of my favorite lines (can you tell I'm in love with this book?): "If nothing else, children should leave school with a sense that if they act, and act strategically, they can accomplish their goals."

Election

So, I should have written about this yesterday, but I kind of needed a day to decompress.

As I mentioned, we were supposed to do science for the last part of the day on Wednesday - I had an awesome hands-on (rather, materials-based) lesson planned, and I'm sad that it got scrapped. Instead, Mrs. C let me talk to the kids about the election for the last 20 minutes of the day.

Whoa.

They were so into it. They were all involved, they were all listening, they all had so much that they wanted to say about what they saw on TV, about their parents reactions, about what they were hoping for and excited about and how they felt. They may not grasp the full magnitude of what happened on Tuesday, but they are definitely listening and watching and aware that this is a big deal.

Els made a great comment - "I listened to both John McCain and Barack Obama talk last night, and I think they both did a really good job. McCain has a lot of experience, and he is a really good leader even though he did not win. I hope that Obama asks him to help him run the country now that he is president. It would be really good if they could work together, they both have good ideas and are good people, even though their campaigns said mean things before the election." She has been thinking very seriously about the election and I think she is very interested in politics and current events in general. She and I have had a couple conversations about the election, and I love what she has to say.

Els is right - and I really tried to emphasize this to the kids. No matter who you supported, no matter who your parents supported, now we need to work together to fix the things about our country that are broken. Both sides have good ideas and good leaders and Democrats and Republicans need to work together - fighting just hurts everyone.

Kal said, "I think this is really important because we've never had a black person as President before."

I tried to help them understand that what Kal had said was incredibly important. They get so little social studies, and they really have no concept of the fight for civil rights. I told them that only 40, 50 years ago, when my parents were kids, black people weren't even allowed to vote. And black children and white children couldn't go to school together. They couldn't use the same bathrooms, or the same drinking fountains, or the same entrances to hospitals, or sit in the same area on the bus.

Cam asked, "Wasn't slavery a really long time ago though?" ... Yes. Yes it was. And between when slavery ended, and when black people got the right to vote, there were 100 years where black people had very few rights and were considered second class citizens - and a lot of people, including Dr. Martin Luther King (who they've mostly heard about) fought long and hard for black people to have the rights that they deserve.

I tried to explain this to them, and they were shocked. Reb said, "Really? Black kids couldn't use the same DRINKING FOUNTAIN???" Yes. Yes. Horrible, and now, so hard to believe. In 50 years, we've come so far - we have a black president. Talk about CHANGE.

My eyes welled up with tears talking to them about this. Dem said, "Ms. Gallagher, are you CRYING?" Yes Dem. Yes I am. This is a huge deal, I am so proud to be an American, I am so proud of our country and of the change that is possible here. You can be anything. You can DO anything with your life. And I hope you change the world.

Time

I can't believe how fast this year is going. It's already November, and we turn in our Masters porfolios on May 1st. 6 more months. Crazy.

Also on the subject of time, there is not enough time in the school day. Also, I feel like a lot of our time is poorly organized due to various assemblies, music lessons for some kids, MG (mentally gifted) for an hour and a half on wednesday mornings, Fleisher Art Memorial on Thursdays and Fridays for an hour and a half in the morning, in addition to an hour in the library, two prep periods of Art, one each of computer, PE, and music throughout the week.

The kids are always leaving class for one reason or another - when do we have time to teach them? We get half the review for the math test in and then a handful of them have to leave. I really appreciate all of the extracurricular and non-academic stuff that M School offers, it is a wonderful school in that way, but its frustrating when you're trying to do group work or teach something new and you keep losing your kids! I end up taking a group out in the hall to re-teach the stuff they've missed.

I had a great science lesson planned for yesterday afternoon about streams and water speed and erosion. I had the stream tables all set up and had rummaged through the FOSS land and water kit to get everything I needed. The kids had been building up to this with other investigations on the properties of soil components (gravel, sand, clay, potting soil), how those components react when they're in water, etc.

But, by the time we got back from the unannounced 2:00pm assembly, it was 2:45, and they start packing up at 2:05 to go home. 20 minutes is not enough time to do that big investigation, so they didn't even get science yesterday.

"You can vote however you like"

Here's to the kids of the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta for WRITING and PERFORMING an awesome parody to TI's "You can have whatever you like"... (Thanks for sending this Anne!!)

Here's the CNN interview, and below is the full performance. How cute are they?
(Note: They'll also perform on Good Morning America on Monday, Nov. 3rd! Check it out from 7-8am)






The Ron Clark Academy is doing some great work in Atlanta - providing every kid in the school with a laptop, super high tech classrooms, music and arts infused curriculum, awesome field trips - all for mostly low-income kids. And their test scores are good too. :) Check them out at www.ronclarkacademy.com