I have been able to work alongside students at Park Street for 1/2 hour each week as they choose, research and present on a topic of their choice through creative education. The goal is to have students learn in-depth (see work by Kieran Egan) on a topic of their choice over their school career and achieve an in-depth knowledge of that subject. This video highlights a few topics chosen by students in various grades:
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For student-led conferences this week we chose an activity for each subject. One challenge was introducing parents to the new reciprocal teaching method that we have been using with our students. We often use this method when we are doing our read-aloud time in class. To mirror this experience for parents, as they were being led through the activities by their child, I recording the following podcast of the current chapter of Holes that we are on. Since this chapter is new to students they were able to show how they predict, summarize, question and clarify during our read-aloud time. Using an audio splitter we had students, with families of up to 6, listen to this book on headphones that were connected to our class iPods. It was so encouraging to watch them guide their parents through the read-aloud process. Listen to my "Holes Ch. 14" podcast now:
As you may have already noticed, I love making my lessons interdisciplinary! When I came across a section of my science curriculum that discussed exploring shadows (location of light source to the item crating the shadow, etc) I was excited by the possibilities. I created, from my own mind, a lesson that shows students an amazing shadow dance/skit and then has them create their own. The goal was for students to explore how shadows can change the size of any object being viewed. Students are asked to create a skit in which at least one item is made much larger or much smaller than it is in real life. Below, you will see images that include a pylon as a volcano and a mini stuffed elephant as a giant elephant. Students were very creative and even added their own flair and characters (Harry Potter and a Giant Leprechaun). I recommend recording the fun on a camera for whole-class review later. So much fun!
Students can use a literary piece to ignite their imagination for a watercolor painting. This lesson also can be used to fuf
Newspapers are a great tool for students to explore history as well as make comments on current events and possible futures. The image below is an example that I created for students as they study explorers. They can use existing newspapers as the format for their own, or they can create one using the main elements of a newspaper. Another great use is the regular creation of a class newspaper to present student writing to parents.
After reading a story about monsters, we designed our own monsters. Students then wrote a description of their monster and they presented them to our class at our next author celebration.
This fun hidden door foldable is a great tool to assess student understanding of various topics. Here I have used it to assess understanding of key story elements in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.
This is a video I created to help other teachers understand the struggles of young people facing Muscular Dystrophy. Though it it a sad reality for some, teachers can be supportive in many ways to help students facing these challenges.
After all of the fun we have been having with modeling clay in our guided reading I decided to gift my students, and a few colleges, with some homemade gingerbread and peppermint molding dough. It was a hit and I had so much fun making it!
I have learned how much a document camera can help me with my teaching. I often use it now to read at the mat, show students how we use our math manipulatives, etc. I recommend this technology to anyone working with children, it has made it much easier for students to see what we are learning and is a great tool for students with visual impairments.
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