A Great Start

Every teacher spends time over the summer thinking about how to make the school year great....and we all know that a great start goes a long way towards helping students get excited about the year and invested in their learning.  In the enrichment classroom I am lucky to see students once a week as we plan and learn together.  Even though I spend a lot of time over the summer reflecting on the previous year and learning about new ways to engage and work with students, I believe strongly in the idea of using the first days of class to meaningfully reconnect with all of the students.

When you enter my classroom the first few days of school, we aren't going over rules or jumping in to curricular content.  What you will see is students playfully exploring a huge range of materials.  You will observe me meeting individually with every student.  Our discussions will give me a chance to make sure every voice is heard as we discuss: What have you been doing since I last saw you?  Do you have new news or ideas to share with me?  What are your goals and ideas for this year that will make learning awesome for you? Do you know how important you are to me as a teacher, and to our learning community?

These conversations are invaluable to me as a way to connect with students, but also because they provide a backdrop for how and what we will learn.  Of course lots of conversations are based around a students trip to the fair, or time they spent with extended family...but they are also a time for students to share grief or worries.  I want students to know that we are teaching the whole individual person and my investment in time to listen to them is intended to provide a safe and welcoming environment.  I believe that relationships and mutual respect are the cornerstones of meaningful education, and I want my year to begin with those values front and center! 

Now those first few classes are behind us...I have met with hundreds of kids and talked...but mostly listened.  Now we will begin exciting learning in a huge variety of areas. Student input has helped me to get a vision of what our year of learning will look like--and it is going to be great!

If you have ideas about how to make enrichment programming at RES better----please reach out to me.  Community voice is also important as we plan our great year.

An Engineering Challenge: Design a PaperClip

This week in enrichment students in Grades 1-3 spent time participating in an engineering design challenge. At the beginning of the year I like to use these challenges to build teamwork as well as to have students use their creativity!  This is the first year I have done this challenge, and it is  a lot of fun.  First we watched a film about how paperclips are made. Next we looked at other student paperclip designs...and then the challenge:  Build a unique paperclip that holds five pieces of paper.  

I know that RES students are creative, but their ideas and creativity really blossomed.  It was also cool to watch students iterate their designs through the class period if one strategy did not hold paper, OR to create another type if one worked.
Students brought their paperclips home, but here are a few pictures of their work:



My idea for this challenge came from:  http://stemactivitiesforkids.com/2017/06/27/quick-stem-challenge-kids-engineer-new-paper-clip/

An Amazing Learning Extension!

Last year in fourth grade students participated in a combined library and enrichment class in which they were supported in developing research questions based on their own interests, finding the answers to those questions and then developing a project to share what they learned.  The process we used with students is documented on this blog:  https://thinkcreatecollaborate.blogspot.com/

The work that students completed during this capstone process is always amazing and unique because it is really driven by their own interests.

Last year one student decided to work on the question:  How do we remember things?

http://images.all-free-download.com/images/graphiclarge/human_brain_picture_165499.jpg

It turned out that this was a question that his sister and he had been discussing at home and that she had submitted to a podcast show for young learners called Tumble Podcast http://www.sciencepodcastforkids.com/.   He thought that instead of waiting for their response he would find the answer and create his own podcast!  His work was great and at the end of the school year he had completed his podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZMQUN1hP2o

His podcast was shared with our school learning community at an in person celebration and posted online. Normally this would be the end of the capstone process as students move to the middle school for Grade5!

But in this case, the exciting part is that at the same time the Tumble Podcast had also decided to explore this question. They created their own podcast with the input from expert scientists...BUT they also included our RES students' work as well (his family had shared his work with the podcast producers!)
Here is the completed Tumble Podcast with our RES student featured!
https://art19.com/shows/tumble/episodes/a7e1b749-9440-49b9-b26b-589b78f4b067

When students pursue their interests their learning is always amazing, but this extension beyond the classroom adds to the idea that we build knowledge as a community of learners -- within our school community but also with the support of family members and experts.  I love playing just a small role in a students' learning journey as they navigate their interests and new knowledge.  As a teacher I believe that it is important to support student interests. Each student is the reason I became a teacher, and this connection to the real world is a reminder to me of how we all play a role in the education of our kids. It is inspiring to see how students have the same questions that other adults pursue as careers over a lifetime.  I am so lucky to learn next to such amazing, thoughtful students!