Adventures Beyond the Classroom Walls

How would your students like to sit beside the Amazon River and learn about the layers of the rainforest?  Integrating content helps engage and motivate!  Connections are made that are natural and relevance seems to peek out of every corner.  Learning sticks when it’s enjoyable.  It’s inviting.

Recently at Scales, the third grade team took on a project that their students will never forget.  Explaining it would sell it short.  I’ll let the video tell you the rest of the story.

Step outside of the box.  You might find YOU like it just as much as the kids do.

Simple Machine Valentine Box

What a fantastic day I had at Cason Lane this week!!  I am always amazed at the talent lurking in our schools.  I get so excited when teachers combine hands-on learning with layers of thinking, with a little choice on top!!  Instant motivation and engagement.

Ms. Jackson is having her 4th graders design Valentines boxes that include 6 simple machines.

Now, THAT’s making use of every opportunity to learn!!

Which Comes First?

Learning or thinking?

While doing some prep work for tomorrow’s appointments, I began searching good ole Google.  (How did I survive all those years?  I LOVE having answers at my fingertips.)  I had questions and wanted to see what the world had to answer them.

Then, I found her (actually she is using HIS work).  An article that defines “reflection.”  It’s long.  It’s scholarly.  So I’ll differentiate.  I’ll pull out some phrases that are AWESOME, and I’ll provide the link.  You can choose your route. (Isn’t choice nice?  How often do you give your students a choice?)  Hopefully these pieces will spark your interest enough to dig into the article called, “Defining Reflection: Another Look at John Dewey and Reflective Thinking” by Carol Rodgers.  Here are some highlights:

• My purpose is, quite simply, to provide a clear picture of Dewey’s original ideas so that they might serve as we improvise, revise, and create new ways of deriving meaning from experiences-thinking to learn.
• “What (an individual) has learned in the way of knowledge and skill in one situation becomes an instrument of understanding and dealing effectively with the situations which follow.  The process goes on as long as life and learning continue.”
• …other kinds of thinking is stream of consciousness. It is the thinking all of us are involuntarily awash in all the time….This is often the only kind of thinking teachers have time for.
• …moves the learner from a disturbing state of perplexity…to a harmonious state of settledness.  Perplexity is created when an individual encounters a situation whose “full character is not yet determined.”  That is, the meaning of the experience has not yet been fully established.
• An additional source of motivation is curiosity, without which there is little energy for the hard work of reflection.
• The store of one’s wisdom is the result of the extent of one’s reflection.
• Formulating the problem or question itself is half the work.  As Dewey says, “A question well put is half answered.”
• Reflection must include action.
• Dewey knew that merely to think without ever having to express what one thought is an incomplete act….The experience has to be formulated in order to be communicated.
• Curiosity about and enthusiasm for that subject matter is essential to good teaching.  Without them a teacher has no energy, no fuel, to carry out reflective inquiry-much less teaching itself.

There is great information in this article.  It helps to define true reflection, its purpose, and the importance of disciplined reflection.  Eye opening.  I hope you’ll take the time to read the article for yourself.

Rodgers, C. (2002). Defining Reflection Another Look at John Dewey and Reflective Thinking. Teachers College Record, 104(4), 842-866.

Super Cool Science Activity for Symbiosis

I was visiting Ms. Browning at Discovery School this week and what I found was SO MUCH FUN!!  The kids were so involved and the activity required creativity.  You can find the activity here.

Want to beef it up and push creative thinking a bit more….give them squiggles.

Anyone have a website for squiggles?

SCAMPER for a Book Giveaway???

At a recent conference at Vanderbilt, we discussed the strategy called “SCAMPER.”  Each letter represents a way to think more creatively.  Substitute.  Combine.  Adapt.  Modify/Magnify/Minify.  Put to other uses.  Eliminate.  Reverse/Rearrange.  Before releasing this strategy, it will need to be model with the students, then used for independent work.  (Sometimes we forget to set the strategy up for success.  For example, independent learning plans require research skills.  We need to teach those skills before releasing the ILP.)

I recently received an email from Mrs. Davis at Scales.  This week she used SCAMPER and focused on substituting and eliminating.  (Great way for kids to plan a fractured fairy tale for creative writing.)  A student eliminated the brick house and realized that brought a short life for the 3rd pig.  Another student searched his thinking and worked with eliminating the bond between the pigs.

At the conference, a few of us from MCS began with Pinocchio.  Using the words from SCAMPER, we modified Pinocchio.  He was then Pinocchi “ette.”  We substituted lying with bullying.  Cyber bullying to be exact.  Geppetto was NOT trying to help.  He was actually encouraging her actions which happened to be against (combine) Cinderella.  We adapted the end when Pinocchiette realized how wrong it was to bully…etc.  You getting the picture?  The amount of discussion and flexible thinking was extraordinary!

This could be used in all subjects.  Math included!

I found this  neat rubric to accompany this strategy.  It’s found here.

NOW…all MCS employees…how could you use this in your class?  To all MCS teachers that comment, sharing an idea for using SCAMPER, each will be put into a drawing for a copy of “Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire.”  I’ll have the final give-a-way in January when we return.

Happy SCAMPERING.

Lions, Tigers, and Bears! Oh MY!

Assessment ideas.  Strategies. Writing across the curriculum.  Vocabulary tips.  Oh my!!!  My personal interest right now is “STEAM,” and I ordered a book called STEAM Point.  The chapter on assessments gave some  websites with resources.  Immediately I thought “blog”!  Happy exploring!  Personal favorites were using RAFT across the content area for writing, formative assessments strategies, and vocabulary games (like the board game Taboo).  Be sure to check out response logs, too.

Teach21

Formative Assessments

Disasters!!!

I like the idea of this critical thinking task that is multidisciplinary!  Be sure to check out the other resources on the site, too.

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=126258

 

Children’s Museum…Units of Study

While looking for information about early settlers and the effects on the land (meshing the lesson with ecosystems during a close read), this resource appear in my path.

http://www.childrensmuseum.org/units-of-study

I’ve had “STEAM” on my mind for a few weeks, and I have been dabbling in a little research which lead me to this site.

http://educationcloset.com/2012/11/01/steam-resources-for-any-classroom/

But this one…super fun to explore!!!

http://www.howtosmile.org/

Why is this such a big deal?  In my opinion, the integration of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math represents the real world.  THIS is what our students will face, even more so than we do, because of the speed of technological advances.  That reason too “educational” for you?  Okay.  The simple reason?  Relevance.  A student will no longer need to say, “Why do I need to know this?”

Interested in discovering more?  Georgette Yakman speaks on the topic at this link.

http://www.steamedu.com/

What do I have to do to get you to comment?????  Anyone out there?

 

Discoveries From the Discovery Center Trip

As I stated in an earlier entry, Sheri and I took a field trip.  As we toured the Discovery Center, there were many resources right at our fingertips.  I wanted to call this list “The Top Ten”, but I couldn’t rank them.  So, here’s “Ten.”

1.  A STEAM lab is on it’s way!

2.  Curious George is, too!  Which happens to be the #1 traveling exhibit in its category in the nation.  It will be the exhibit that replaces the current exhibit called, “It’s a Nano World.”

3.  “It’s a Nano World” is the current exhibit located upstairs (catch it before it leaves).  Magnification and the power of 10 are a few things you will find in the exhibit.  (Thanks to the WONDERFUL Jones Foundation for providing so many opportunities for children.)

4.  There is a tiny town that has a replica of downtown Murfreesboro,  AND it will be decorated for the holidays!

5.  A field trip to the Discovery Center can be in addition to your TWO yearly field trips.  That’s right.  It doesn’t count as one of the two.  Hey! Hey! Or they will come to you.

6.  There’s a  wheels and wings exhibit.  Nissan sponsored. The wheels section has a car on a lift, complete with mechanic supplies.  How cool is that?

7.  Construction is almost complete…a new outdoor play area…with a water table!

8.  Field trips are conducted by education specialist AND they will supply a pre and post test.  The education specialist will help you find resources if you call and ask.

9.  They also have a shed full of rubber boots for exploring in the water outside. Oh, oh, I almost forgot.  They’ve seen otters in the water with their babies feeding on the fish.

10.  A science bus is being designed and built that will be traveling around to the Murfreesboro City Schools to teach science to 4th graders.  Now that’s cool!!

So if you haven’t thought about taking your class to the Discovery Center here in Murfreesboro, I encourage you to look into what’s going on there.  Pretty neat stuff.

http://explorethedc.org/exhibits/

A Peg is for Hanging Stuff

“All words are pegs to hang ideas on.”  A quote by Henry Beecher popped off the page as I looked for a way to enter into this blog.

Over the break I attended the Tennessee Association for Gifted Conference in Nashville, and yesterday Sheri and I visited the Discovery Center of Murfreesboro.  It’s safe to say, I am in need of pegs for hanging the I’ve ideas collected over the past 10 days.  Perhaps I’ll find the words to share some of the magnificent things I have seen!  I’ll spread it out over a few posts.

I must start with something that’s happening at the Discovery Center in Murfreesboro.  I just registered my own child for an engineering program being offered there.  Engineering for Kids is partnering with the Discovery Center and holding sessions that provide a hands-on learning environment.  The current session focuses on aerospace engineering.  Sadly, it was full.  BUT CHECK OUT THIS ONE!!!  LEGO ROBO BATTLES.  I certainly didn’t want to miss out on this one!  I have officially registered my son.

If you have kids in your class that are into engineering, let the families know about this opportunity.  With STEAM (STEM + Art), what an awesome after-school activity.  Explore this the link for more information.

Engineering for Kids

Not familiar with STEM or STEAM, google it.  That’s your homework.  I am personally choosing to research the concept better, too!

What are you doing in your classroom to incorporate STEAM or STEM?