Voyage

At my school, we take our students on Outward Bound type trips that we call Voyages. On these trips we might hike, camp, snow shoe, sled, rock climb and/or do team building activities. The trips start small in Kindergarten and build in challenge and length as the students reach 6th grade. In first grade, we go on one overnight trip in the fall and then take two one day trips in the winter and spring. Today my crew went on our last Voyage day of the year. We went hiking and rock climbing. This is my favorite trip of the year. You can get a taste of what our day was like in the Haiku Deck below. (If you get this post by email, you will need to go directly to the blog to view the deck.)

Worms, Bees and Haiku Deck

I have been wanting to write a blog post for my classroom blog that tells a little bit of the story of our most recent Expedition called Down to Earth. I also had heard good things about a new app called Haiku Deck and wanted to learn more about it. Yesterday I merged these two items on my "to do" list and came up with the Haiku Deck below. The app is very easy to use and I think the final product looks nice. I will be posting this Haiku Deck on my classroom blog next week after Spring Break to give the parents a view of how an Expedition works.

More on the Joys of Expeditionary Learning

My previous post was about my student, Owen, and how Expeditionary Learning has engaged his interest, thinking, and motivation. This week Owen got his own worm farm in the mail (just like the one we have in class) and now he is even more excited.

He wrote a blog post tonight about his worm farm, My worm farm. This post shares some of his excitement.

He also made a short video in which he shows and explains how worms use their bristles. The video is embedded below and can also be found on Owen's blog.

The Joys of Expeditionary Learning

I teach at an Expeditionary Learning school. While we do try to follow much of the Expeditionary Learning philosophy, we are also part of a larger school district and sometimes make modifications to how we teach to fit district requirements.

This morning during our Morning Meeting one student, Owen, shared his Expeditionary Learning notebook during share time. What makes this special is that this is not a notebook that we created at school. He created this at home because he is so involved in our latest Expedition.

Our first Expedition was a comparison of families. We began by studying our own families and then branched out and studied and compared our families to families in China. Owen was enthralled with China. He spouted facts about China, made books, drawings and banners with Chinese characters - both in school and at home. His mom told me how fascinated he was with the Chinese culture.

Then we began our second Expedition about interdependence between plants and animals. Our first case study is about how worms and soil depend on each other. Owen is once again enthralled with our topic - worms. He has already completed many self-assigned projects on our new topic. The notebook he shared this morning was just one of those projects.

His mom and I talked again and she said that now she thinks that what is inspiring or motivating him is how Expeditionary Learning works. He is drawn right into the topic by our mystery piece, by generating our own questions, by building our background knowledge, by having discussions around our guiding questions, by reading expert texts and more. I think that she is right. Owen is a learner and Expeditionary Learning blends nicely with his personal style of learning - it tends to do that for most students.

Owen with his homemade Expeditionary Learning notebook.

Owen's worm puppets and backdrop from his presentation on how worms move.

Owen's notes on his learning about worms.

ShowMe Showcase 2 - Math

The following post was cross-posted on my classroom blog. I wrote it to highlight how we use the ShowMe app in our classroom. The original audience is parents. I thought I would share it here, too.

ShowMe Showcase 2 - Math
Yesterday I shared some of the crew's ShowMes that were about books that they have been reading. Today I thought I would share some Math ShowMes with you. These are also posted on each student's individual Kidblog if you would like to leave them a comment. Enjoy! (If you get this post by email, you will need to go directly to the blog to view the ShowMes.)


Leyton shows us how a function machine works. Henry also shows us how a function machine works. Cheyenne shows a fact family using the numbers 4, 5 and 9. Logan shows us a different fact family. Rylan tells us a number story. Ashlyn explains a name collection box. Abby also explains a name collection box. Charlie teaches us how to count by 25. Asher shows us a little about how to tell time. Caleb shows us 11:30 on a clock. Trey shows us another fact family.

ShowMe Showcase ~ Reading

The following post was cross-posted on my classroom blog. I wrote it to highlight how we use the ShowMe app in our classroom. The original audience is parents. I thought I would share it here, too.


ShowMe Showcase
For today's post, I thought I would share a few of the more recent ShowMes that some students have created. The ShowMes in this post will be all about books and reading. Students have been taking pictures of their favorite books or pages in their book and then recording their voice telling why they enjoyed this book. I love this type of ShowMe. I can see what books the crew is enjoying and I can listen to them talk about their favorite parts or summarize the story. I can learn so much about what a child knows about reading from watching these. I can also see that they have been watching the older crews very closely as they share "Good Reads" during our All School Meetings - our crew is using the same language that they use. These are also posted on each student's individual Kidblog if you would like to leave them a comment. Enjoy! (If you get this post by email, you will need to go directly to the blog to view the ShowMes.)

Reese shares her favorite book in the Magic Tree House series. Cutter also shares about a book from the Magic Tree House series. Jonathan shares his favorite part in an Elephant and Piggie book. Phoebe tells us a little about her favorite Henry and Mudge book. Matt tells us all about his favorite book in the Cork and Fuzz series. Sophia shares a book from the Boxcar Children series. Van also shares his favorite Henry and Mudge book.

Attitude Adjustment

We are having a blizzard today and I used the quiet time this morning to give myself a bit of attitude adjustment. Actually, this attitude adjustment started on Friday when I really worked to shift my focus back to what I love best - helping my students. I watched my crew very carefully and really thought about what they need and how I could help them in the best way possible.

I have been worrying about some of my reluctant readers and so I asked for our Reading Recovery teachers to come in and watch me and model for me some ways to help these readers. (I need to remind myself that I feel like this about this time every year.) I felt so jazzed after these sessions with my support staff. I can't wait to go to work tomorrow and refocus my attention in new areas.

I have also spent some time this weekend browsing some of my favorite books (One Child at a Time by Pat Johnson and Catching Readers Before They Fall by Pat Johnson and Katie Keier) and favorite blogs (A Year of Reading, Reflect and Refine, Two Writing Teachers, To Make a Prairie and Our Camp-Read-A-Lot) and following the #dublit13 hashtag on Twitter. (This annual conference always makes me want to move to Ohio.) All of this has left me feeling uplifted and ready to move forward.

This morning I spent some time watching and listening to some ShowMes (created using the ShowMe app on the iPad) that my students have created in the last week or two. I can't even begin to explain how listening to them puts me in a better frame of mind. Seeing them share what they have learned makes me smile. I now have created two blog posts for my classroom blog for the upcoming week so I can shine the spotlight on these ShowMes for parents. I think I will cross-post these posts onto this blog later in the week also so I can share them with you, too. I am ready to begin sharing again.

This doesn't mean that I have a better handle on all of the "stuff" that I mentioned in my last post but now I am going to focus on adding it in piece by piece while still focusing on what matters most first - my students. I will work hard to keep everything from overwhelming me again. I think know I can do it.