I also continue to be thankful for my visits to classrooms. In Mrs. Finkle's 4th grade Science class this week, students were involved in learning about the relationship and patterns between the sun, earth, and moon as part of their Science TEKS; there were a variety of aligned activities to keep the engagement high. I saw partner reading and the intro to student created Phases of the Moon flip books, as well as a model demonstration by Mrs. Finkle on the tilt of the earth and the relationship to the sun (think seasons), with students making inferences and self-reflecting on their learning. I enjoyed speaking with Mac and Trevor following the teacher demonstration and hearing their thinking about how our natural world is connected. Per Mac, "without the tilt of the earth, people in areas without sun would not be as healthy or as evolved. It would affect crops, livestock, everything". Trevor further decided if this was the case he could take his "NASA spacecraft out of the darkness..." and this led us to briefly discuss what our earth would be like if we were indeed forced to live in smaller areas of livable space. Hmmmm....big ideas and no easy answers. Before I left, Mrs. Finkle did manage to pump up the volume with a Phases of the Moon rap video, with all (yes, including teacher!) joining in a truly rap-tastic dance. Fun!
There were a variety of other things taking place this week in and around campus. I visited Mrs. Kolodziej's fifth grade social studies class one day in order to see her graduate intern from UT's theater department leading a lesson. Mr. Williams had students charting their ideas on "What are Taxes?" as a part of the Revolutionary War unit of study. Students were discussing various acts, leading up to the use of a DBI (drama based instruction) strategy - role play between "a 12 year old boy and a colonist". Building empathy, becoming a character, real or imaginary, gives students a much deeper understanding of perspective and the "why" behind the history they read. Thanks Mr. Williams for working with HP!
Finally, we had a very informative math presentation at our PTA general meeting on Tuesday evening, courtesy of fourth grade teacher Mrs. Finkle and fifth grade teacher Mrs. O'Donnell. This presentation was designed to give parents information about our school's implementation of Ms. Math and Singapore Math computation methods in our classrooms, methods we've incorporated into our math program for some time now. These research-based whole-number computation strategies give our students other math tools to use besides traditional algorithm methods; students, through their use, are forming the foundations of learning and understanding of math concepts (think numbers rather than digits) through problem solving, justifying their answers, and explanation by using different methods of computation. Both teachers talked about three important concepts: use of strategies that are number oriented rather than digit oriented, strategies that are left-handed rather than right-handed, and strategies that are flexible rather than rigid. Our take-away from the evening was that more of these events need to take place on our campus and we still have need to share information about Model Drawing (also Singapore Math) as it relates to problem solving. Students learn in a variety of ways as we all know and as Mrs. Finkle stated, "the traditional algorithms are there for use, but it's sort of like stepping back a bit, keeping the training wheels on, so students have a firm grasp of the concrete concept of numbers before moving to the abstract of digits". Those of us there were truly thankful for both Mrs. Finkle and Mrs. O'Donnell and their presentation on behalf of our campus.
One last picture which will make you thankful you took a look. Below are student created turkeys on display outside Mrs. Goldsmith's first grade classroom. They are creative and unusual turkeys as you can see and always draw me in for a moment as I head down that hallway. Think King Pig turkey and Princess turkey to name two. Check them out if you are need of a smile. Works for me every time!
One last picture which will make you thankful you took a look. Below are student created turkeys on display outside Mrs. Goldsmith's first grade classroom. They are creative and unusual turkeys as you can see and always draw me in for a moment as I head down that hallway. Think King Pig turkey and Princess turkey to name two. Check them out if you are need of a smile. Works for me every time!
Lots of good to be thankful for this week, especially the staff, students, parents, and community of Highland Park. Thank you for making HP a really cool school for all of us to enjoy.
