A friend on twitter reminded me that there is beauty in the space between knowing and not knowing. I’ve been thinking about that a lot since his reminder. As much as I try to embrace the ‘yes, and’ mindset, I find myself trying to sneak in a ‘yes, but’. What I’m realizing is that it comes down to control – maybe power?- and who has it. The first time I used @Ed_by_design’s quote was doing design challenges with students and…
I’m floundering. I’ve been avoiding writing, which is my form of reflection, avoiding planning, avoiding work of almost any kind. I feel like I should be doing so much. I feel tired but I have no reason to be. I feel restless, but unable to focus. To Do lists help with my day to day tasks: make the car appointment, order daughter her oboe book, request library book etc.. But the bigger ideas and thoughts are uselessly swimming in my…
Awhile ago I came across this article on twitter: https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2019/06/08/dear-teachers-please-dont-make-your-lessons-relevant/#4c5aa11552f5 It reminded me of a science conference I went to years ago about animal dissections. The speaker challenged the participants to know their why for (or against) dissection and own it. His advice stuck with me. I deeply considered the pros and cons and refined my opinion to form my solid why. It came in handy multiple times, but mostly for myself. It felt refreshing, almost freeing to have this…
I’ve been thinking a lot about identity lately. I have been a teacher – specifically a science teacher- for 24 years. I love my job and am passionate about many aspects of this career: teaching through inquiry, being a part of the discovery process with students, connecting ideas to larger concepts and seeing our role in the greater world. I also enjoy talking about my work with others. Secretly, I am pleased with the admiration others would give when learning…
I was recently asked to contribute to the NSTA Early Years Blog. I am pleased to share the post that was recently published on their website: http://nstacommunities.org/blog/2019/01/15/rolling-from-inquiry-into-engineering-design/ I enjoyed taking the time to write about this experience. I also found myself thinking about additional experiences and questions that could be explored or documented from this: Add some data collection by having students leave each item where it lands, letting us see which one rolls the furthest. Offering additional shapes to…
Usually by now, I am having students use found nature items to make a boat, or looking for symmetry in nature. But this year, we had a two hour delayed start due to fourteen more inches of snow just this past Monday – April 16th! This has forced a bit more creativity in outdoor lesson planning. I don’t mind repeating lessons, and think it’s good for kids to experience the same learning, but at a different time of year. This…
Last week I brought a first grade class outside to build on some recent work they had done around settings. To get them excited about seeing the outdoor classroom through a different lens, we used the Creaturizer App from PBS Kids http://pbskids.org/apps/plums-creaturizer.html On this app, kids tap to both create and modify an imaginary creature. Each body part is able to be switched out (legs, tail, wings, mouth, head, horns etc…). I modeled how to do this before taking the…
I was doing so well at writing these posts to help me reflect and document this year, then suddenly it’s April and three weeks have passed. Ok, well only two weeks of school since spring break was in there. And even though it’s April, I am sitting in bed with the cats at my feet nearing the end of my fourth snow day of the year -a new record for me. So it felt like the perfect time to do…
We had a staff development day on Friday and I was lucky enough to be given 90 minutes to share ideas with my colleagues. For nearly a year now, we have had a focus on the 4 C’s of learning: Critical thinking, Communication, Collaboration and Creativity. A variety of resources have been used throughout the year to lead us toward a greater understanding of how these skills might look in our school and classrooms, including: Design thinking, such as: The…
Last week, I worked with a colleague to participate in #kindergartenbioblitz. This week long adventure to get kindergarten students outside paying attention to their world was started by Rob Ridley in Ontario, Canada. I came across it by chance on twitter and it seemed like a good chance to get kids outside and get connected to other classes. We had a great week exploring different parts of our school yard. The focus theme each day inspired us to dig deeper…