Last month I had posted about an art project the class was beginning that would mimic Canadian artist Ted Harrison. This past week all the paintings have been completed and I would like to showcase some of the results:
I am very pleased with the effort put into these paintings by the students and am excited about using this technique in future art projects.
Over the past two weeks our class has begun to discuss components of how to be safe online. Since this topic can become very vague I wanted to make it very specific to the students. With that in mind we decided to look at how to be safe when utilizing Facebook, chat rooms/msn, email and finally using other social networking sites (Twitter, MySpace, Blogs).
In order to have all students share their opinions but to save time (at least this was the plan) I set up two separate Wallwishers for class use. The first wallwisher had students sharing when they thought it was appropriate to use their real name online. The second site had students responding to a comment by a United States principal who believed middle aged students should not be allowed on Facebook.
Overall I would say I was dissatisfied with using Wallwisher for this project. To main problem we encountered was this screen which we saw every time students tried to load the website.
Oops! A glitch....
This meant that on a few occasions the students emailed their responses to me and I later posted them on the site. Another problem students faced was when they tried to backspace during the typing of their answer it would erase all their work. For some this lead to extreme frustration. The finale problem which bothered me the most was I would move sticky’s around only to load the page later and see them back in another spot!
To summarize I would not use Wallwisher again unless these problems were easily corrected (maybe there is a step I am unaware of). I believe my students did not gain the benefits I was hoping for since they were less focused on reading and sharing answers because the website was providing everyone with a major headache.
“Today class, we are going to pretend we have just landed on a deserted island” was how I planned to start my new science unit on simple machines. I will admit that I was concerned that some of my “too cool for school” middle years students would sit there groaning about this role-playing activity, but I decided to go ahead with this start mainly because I still found it amusing. Much to my surprise I had a class full of engaged students with their eyes open in excitement. Who knew that 13 year old students still enjoyed the small thrills of being a child, such as exploring the imagination.
anyways back to the actual lesson which was exploring the concept of friction. Currently in my science training I am of the understanding that science is to be completely inquiry based with the students first learning the concept through explanation and then later taught in a more direct way. So for this task the class was assigned these things:
-1 bucket of supplies
-1 spring scale
Then they were asked to explore these four surfaces:
-rocks on the playground
-the asphalt outside the door
-the classroom floor
-the hallway floor
By attaching the spring scale to the bucket they were to pull the bucket 10 steps and record the amount of Newtons (N) shown on the scale. After that we were going to determine which surface created the least friction and which one the most friction.
Checking the friction while dragging the object on rocks
Checking the friction while dragging the object on asphalt
Checking the friction while dragging the object on the hallway floor
Checking the friction while dragging the object on the classroom floor
After the exploration we met as a class again to discuss our findings and if this could answer the question ‘what is friction?’ I was very impressed with how the students connected their discovery learning to the word friction. They were able to realize that amount of friction is based on a number of characteristics and also pointed out that our group results were different because the variables for each group changed.
I plan to continue this style of learning for the rest of the unit even though I have concerns about the frustration that sometimes correlates with learning through experimentation. Hopefully this class will be able to have moments of enlightenment that will continue to peak their curiosity and be enough encouragement to work through the more challenging situations.
After wasting the last hour of my already limited time browsing around on Facebook I decided that after my somewhat tumultuous day today I needed one of those pre-made quizzes that seem to be all the rage right now (my personal favourite being what Harry Potter character are you. . ) that would provide me with some insight about who I am as a teacher.
Being only two days into a 3 week full time stint in the classroom, I have already questioned myself on numerous decisions being made. There are two moments however that I seem unable to find a reason for my actions, and of course they both happened today while I was already feeling overwhelmed and underqualified. The first moment I encountered was during the last 25 minutes of my math class. Dealing with a chatty group of students I found myself chunking their task into smaller sections -which I found has worked best and assigning a specific time limit. However I then stated if the questions are not complete before the bell you will stay in for recess. It wasn’t until later reflection that I realized saying that was completely against everything I had ever believed in! I do not think that keeping kids indoors during recess is beneficial, especially with all the active learners I have. Why then did I say this? I suppose it may have been just for the threat but I believe it may have been because I wanted the work to be done and had no clue when the time would be found elsewhere. Needless to say this dilemma currently has no solution.
Incident number two happened later on and thankfully I caught myself much quicker. I will briefly outline the conversation:
Me: “Okay so the title is Before Telephones. What might be some questions you have when reading this title?”
Student A: (raising hand)”I want to know when the telephone was invented?”
Me: “Good question! Okay so let’s write. . “
Student B:(shouting out)”I know it was Alexander Graham Bell”
Me: “SHHHHH *evil look*”
WAIT A MINUTE! Did I just shush someone for showing the answer to a question another student had? Why would I do this? Is the idea of school not to share our knowledge with others? If I knew the answer I would want to say it, so why exactly did I stop another student from doing that. My best guess is that I got up to the front of that room and suddenly BAM I was a proper teacher who needed quiet in the room. Thankfully this dilemma has a solution and it is this; I need to be comfortable with whatever classroom I choose to create and if that means the students appear noisy to others, oh well!
Phew, I feel as though I just spent an hour in therapy (which I have actually never done but imagine I would enjoy oddly enough) and feel a little more relieved. However I am still struggling with how to handle these situations if they arise next time so I pass the question on to you and would accept any insight given unless it is the correct answer then I may shush you.
For my upcoming (as in starting tomorrow) 3 week block I have been preparing a multi-unit approach to environment, technology and machines. I realize that I should be already fully prepared but that just isn’t the case so here is where I am at now.
A snapshot of my map
You can also view it here. Sadly I cannot get the embedding to work yet, nor can I enable editing which I was hoping for but it will showcase where my thinking is at. I also must mention the tremendous amount of help I got today from colleagues on this, definitely would have been stressing if not for them. Thanks!
With today being a Sunday it was a no brainer that it become my “productive catch up on everything” day, and but everything it really just means all the planning I have to prepare. I went into the school ready to go:
My first to do list
The second more focused to do list
I create myself a broad to do list and then narrow it down to what I can complete in a certain time. Then from there I need to also set specific time limits or I will get distracted and work on one project for much longer than necessary. When at the school I find myself using the timer.
Each task gets a set time
I had never paid much attention to my habits before but it has recently come to my attention that some students do not have the skills to manage their tasks in a given time frame. Because of this we will need to assist students in developing these skills. Starting this week, I will be providing checklists for certain students.
An example checklist for a math period
This will be written up for each subject and then given to the student. It will be their job to check off what items get completed. Then I will collect these cards after the working period.
Using the back for notes
I am then going to record any necessary notes such as the time it took to work and also if there were distractions. I also would like to record any questions or concepts the students struggled with for use later. I then am going to hole punch the cards and keep them for records. Hopefully this will help assist students to stay on task and will also be another visual reminder of what needs to be accomplished.
The current weather condition
I am finding it rather difficult to blog about our situation today as I am still recovering from the lose of feelings in my fingertips. When I reminded the class that we were going to head out and try our luck at geo-caching again I said it would be dependent on the weather. Then today upon waking and seeing the first snowstorm of the year I began to make quick changes to fill in our double science class. I had yet to make up my mind about going until I went out at lunch and was nearly blown away -or at least it felt that way. However returning to the class after lunch I became bombarded with questions about if we were still going geo-caching. It seemed as though the students were up for the challenge much to my dismay. Then I made a decision to which I half am happy with and half upset.
The students were beginning their ELA unit on persuasive writing today and I decide they should make the decision about going outside. I began by explaining to them that I had no intention so spend time outside as I have no love winter and the weather it brings. They were then provided with a persuasion map (similar to the ones found here), and told they could try and persuade me to either stick with my decision or change my mind. Since I had made them this promise I knew I would have to stick with it, but honestly I am a stubborn character and had very little doubt I would change my mind. Then, I read some of the responses:
- It would be a challenge to search for items in the snow so you could push yourself harder and that would improve your skills.
- We need to get fresh air while we can before it gets too cold.
- We need to learn to work together to find something and also we would still be learning because this is learning coordinates.
- We will learn to be more naturalistic and that will help round out our multiple intelligence styles of learnings
And if those were convincing, one student tried a different tactic
- My mother wants me to wear my new hat and it was $24.00 so I want to make sure I use it a lot
Needless to say I decided to go with the majority of students and venture out 
into the cold. Although once we got outside most realized that maybe choosing outside was not the best choice, strictly due to the blizzard, I will imagine they learned through this activity. They were given the responsibility to choose the learning activity and I hope those skills will carry over into other situations. If not, at least they learned that Miss Kiefer is right to hate the cold!
Ready to go!
“Don’t worry Miss Kiefer we just took off our socks and shoes we walked through the water…”
A group working together
And that sums up just one of the adventures that our class had while embarking on their first geo-caching experience.
The idea first came into formation when the students were working on a book in Social Studies about longitude and latitude lines. They seemed rather engaged in learning that there are markings across the globe that create individualized locations for every spot on the map. So with this interest I contacted our local school board and had 12 GPS units sent to the classroom.
After that came a few days of preparation. We did some geo-caching sheets in math where they practiced their math units using the format of what the mult-cache might look like (Here are the sheets we used: Grade 5 Math Geo-Caching, Grade 6 Math Geo-Caching, Math Geo-Caching Level 3, Math Geo-Caching Level 2, Math Geo-Caching Level 1). They also spent some time in Social Studies using Google Earth and finding locations around the world and understanding what the longitude and latitude lines meant.
Finally after much anticipated, the night before the big hunt arrived. For me, that meant organizing all the items to be hid. Now I realize that a real geo-cache would be using the items already hidden but there were none easily available in the area when I searched so I had to improvise. Instead I created puzzle pieces that matched their GPS number. Each group was then responsible for finding their four bags hidden around the trails.
The planning
The plan was that if each group had seperate bags to look for it would create less congestion around one area and would allow the students to work in pairs as opposed to simply “following” one large group around.
Checking our trail sheet and GPS
When it came time to the event, which was highly anticipated by the students, there were a few challenges we did face. For starters, some of the GPS units would be accurate within 5m while others were 15m. For students this posed a problem as they expected to simply reach the spot and be able to quickly find the puzzle. We also had the compasses not leading us in accurate directions. I am unsure if we changed a setting that would correct the problem or maybe as one student suggested “the satellites just weren’t having a good day.” However with that being said I believe we still had lots of fun. The students spent 45 minutes being physically active on a beautiful fall day. We also learned how to work cooperatively in pairs and that sometimes you need to try things another way to make it work.
Searching for the cache
It was decided at the end of the day that we would attempt a new hunt next week. As a group we are going to try and find the remaining pieces still out there. We can only hope they remain where they were hidden over the weekend but that is a risk we must take. I believe part of the fun is all in the hunt and am hoping the class would agree with that as well!
Recently I was doing some much needed self-reflection and I begun to realize that with the school day being filled beyond capacity at times, there are moments where I find myself moving students forward and ignoring the possibly tangents we could be taking.
When I was growing up I loved when my teacher would change the lesson to match any questions we had come up with during the day. She always listened to what we wanted to say or ask, never once making it appear as though there was a rush to finish any of work. While I was reflecting upon this I had two thoughts come to mind.
1) I started school year off not remembering the special moments that can occur when we just stop and wonder.
2) There is plenty of time to change the pace and learn to slow down and listen.
Thankfully the world threw a coincidence my way as I was chatting with another intern at my school. She had a friend who wrote a lesson plan that included the use of a wonder wall for learning. I asked her more details and she provided me with all the basic supplies needed to install one of these in the classroom.
The Wonder Wall
The joy of the Wonder Wall is that it can function without necessarily taking extra time out of the day. There will be Question and Answer sheets located directly beside the wall for students to access whenever a time suits them. The questions can be about anything related to school subjects (which in my opinion means any question can be asked) and the answers can be found using any resources available.
An example question
An example answer
I will be showing this wall to the students tomorrow and hopefully they will see the benefits for finding time to wonder in the classroom.
A work by Ted Harrison
Today our class embarked on an all new art project. As a class we are going to learn to appreciate the styles of various artists and learn from the techniques they use in painting. Our focus to start with is on Canadian artist Ted Harrison. Best known for his work of the Yukon, the students will spend time exploring the understandings of another culture. For our own work we are going to replicate the skyline that Harrison most commonly uses.
The theme of our paintings will be Haunted Halloween and will contain basic silhouettes of a haunted house, leafless oak tress and gravestones. The intended background should be mostly muted and darker but some students are exploring all colours and may end up with more pastel backgrounds. The technique we are using to achieve this look is by using watercolours. After one class, here is a sample of where one Grade 5 student is at:
Step 1: Practicing the basic shapes
Step 2: The first rough copy of the painting
Step 3: The final drawn copy of the watercolour paper
Step 4: Starting to paint the skyline
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