Welcoming a Volunteer!

Last Monday in the enrichment room we had a new volunteer who will be joining us to support student learning and exploration. Martha Colyer was an art teacher at RES several years ago and has volunteered to work with me on Mondays to support the enrichment curriculum. Martha has a BA in Studio Art and Art Education, and a Master’s in Education. She also has Montessori training and many years of teaching experience, AND most importantly she is enthusiastic!

I feel very honored that Martha is volunteering to spend time in the enrichment classroom and I am excited for the opportunities that it will offer to our students.

Are you interested in volunteering? I welcome participation in my classes on a regular or one time basis! Please contact me to make plans to visit.

Third Grade Racers in Europe

Third graders are continuing their amazing race on the continent of Europe. After identifying the capital and Prime Minister of England students travelled across the Channel to either France or Poland to complete a team challenge. Students watched videos on their country from the National Geographic Kids website, where you can find videos and presentations on a huge number of countries:
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/places/find
Next they selected to either construct the Eiffel Tower out of Legos or do a Polish paper cutting technique called Wycinanki.

We are approaching the end of our world race, and I am proud of the excellent teamwork and perseverance that I see each week. Students are solving problems and working together!

A National Geographic Floor Map at RES

Swimming the Atlantic Ocean, surfing in the Pacific, walking around the entire perimeter of the United States--and all in the same day!! Students  will be doing each of these things, and a lot more with the National Geographic Floor Map which has been installed at RES on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

Darcie Rankin, enrichment teacher and Linda Riell, physical education teacher have been working together to share the giant floor map with students from all grades.  The map of  North America covers most of the gym floor and allows students to experience geography through physical movement and play.  In the younger grades we have focused our time on identifying major physical features of the continent, as well as finding our home state and areas of student interest.  In the upper grades we have connected our exploration to classroom learning. Third graders are mapping the Oregon Trail as a connection to their unit on Westward Expansion and fourth graders are identifying states and capitals via a team relay to connect to their study of the various states.

The traveling map was brought to Vermont thanks to the Vermont Geographic Alliance and teachers across the state working together to transport the map from location to location.

We hope this will be a memorable experience for students that is both fun and connected to their learning!

AfterSchool Enrichment Session 2

Each enrichment session begins with a flurry of activity as students get settled in to a new routine. It is always great to walk around the building the second week and see all the great learning. We have some new teachers supporting us this year, including a breaker!

With each Enrichment session I am reminded of all the people that put in extra time to support this opportunity for students. We have many staff who teach classes-- but there is also a whole group of people that work behind the scenes to make it a great experience for everyone. Mary Marcotte keeps track of attendance and gets all students to their buses at the end of the day. Susanne Parent works in the front office to answer questions and make sure everyone is helped and cared for. Julie Crenshaw continues her nursing duties even after the end of the school day to support our program. Diane Kane provides guest teaching when needed, and has even driven students home to make sure they can participate. The enrichment program is an excellent example of the community working together to provide opportunities for RES kids, and I am thankful to all those adults who make this happen!

Teamwork

In first grade this week we are continuing to talk about working together--especially listening to each other. We have moved from our peer interviews to working in small groups to create a mural. Students were asked to work together to create a large square of a wall mural that will represent the idea of teamwork. We will then be able to combine all the great pieces to have a teamwork mural!

During this exercise, students have to work together to decide how they will represent the concept--- will they use pictures or words?? How will they show the idea? Who will draw or write and where on the paper? During this creation process I moved around the room helping students to work through these questions. I made a few interesting observations:
*some students chose to divide the paper into parts so that everyone could do exactly what they wanted without compromising their ideas
*some students talked for a very long time before using any materials--the idea of the mural was very important
* some students picked a simple plan such as writing teamwork, while others had complex pictures with various ideas embedded

Students observed:
"Teamwork is hard because you do not get what you want"
"When I work with other people I have to be OK if they mess up because sometimes I mess up too"
"Sometimes I feel like no one listens to my ideas"
"I think it is easier to work by myself"
"We would have never been able to finish this if we did not all work together"
"I really like what we made together"

These comments made me feel that students are really starting to understand teams and how they work, and sometimes how they do not work.

Airplanes and Collages

Kindergarten students continued to lead more great interest driven centers this week. One student brought in material scraps and cardboard and students created collages. The discussions at the table were great as students decided whether to leave spaces or not and which colors to use.

In another class a student used his interest in airplanes to create an airport, as well as a paper airplane making and flying station.

Students have done amazing work in thinking about how to share their interests with others. One of my favorite parts of the day is when K students stand up to introduce their center to the class. Their peers ooh and ahhh, they ask great questions and they are EXCITED to learn from their friends! Today when I asked students which centers they were choosing, they ALL wanted to go to the student driven center!

Sharing Skills

Today some second grade students spent their enrichment class in the computer lab teaching Kindergarteners how to use a reading program called RAZ Kids. The RAZ Kids program provides an electronic set of leveled reading books. Students are able to listen, read and take quizzes on line. This program is great because it is individualized and accessible on any Internet web browser with flash.

The second graders did an excellent job sharing their skills and knowledge about the program and helping the K learners to engage with the technology. My favorite part of the learning experience was seeing K students reading books with their new student teachers!