Winding Down (or gearing up?)

I cannot remember school going by this quickly when I was a student. It seems that each day just flies by as does each week and each month. Part of it has to do with 2nd period being my prep period; the rest of the day is a sprint to the finish.

The kids put a great deal of effort into their state tests. Just by walking around I could see pages being filled on the open-response essays. Kids were asking for extra sheets (of course we couldn't give them any). You could tell that they were putting forth tons of effort--even with the last sections of each day. I'll be surprised if we don't meet our school's goal.

We are on an exciting weather unit right now that the kids find fun. Most of the resources are from DSM kit that I received from our science resource coordinator. We collect daily weather data, put it in a chart, and make predictions on the weather. It's a concrete and relevant way of understanding the scientific method. Of course, it also allows the students to get a little bit of time outside, which is very helpful with testing over and warm weather.

I've found many grants to get resources for the classroom. I just applied for a minigrant that almost every teacher who applies gets it. I have another in the work for a laptop, projector, and interactive remote system. That last thing is where students have remote controls (essentially) and they are asked a set of questions. The students use their remote controls to send their answer to the computer. As a result, the teacher is able to see the exact response from each student. The results are not displayed directly on the screen for all students, but you can have survey results displayed (eg polling the audience in "who wants to be a millionaire). It seems as though the questions are stored on the computer but can be given in paper form. As a result, giving tests where a section is multiple choice would allow those sections to be instantly graded.

What's great about these systems is that you can get daily feedback on where each student is and the effectiveness of your lesson. It makes differentiation and frequent assessment feasible. It's a task for any teacher to give daily assessments that are then tracked by individual standards and students (on top of lesson planning and grading). The system will work well as a behavior management system as students will be a bit more engaged with using technology instead of simply writing out answers. Of course, the remotes can be taken away if students act poorly (they would do their work on paper). I'm excited and I hope the grant goes through.

I'm also excited about the materials I've found for next year. I wish I had known the amount of stuff I would've needed to do good labs during this past year. I've been able to find a hands-on resource for almost every standard I teach in the large science catalogs that I've looked through. Now it's a matter of writing the grants, but I hope to have a completely inquiry-based science classroom next year (and for any teacher who comes after me). Pedagogically it makes sense as students need to have a concrete experience before going to higher abstract levels of knowledge. I have many students who prefer activity in the classroom and need something to manipulate or see.

With more of my time free, I hope to keep you all updated on my ongoing projects.

Opossum and the Mississippi

At recess, my students found a clue to the mystery smell. The kids saw a large opossum exiting the vent outside of my room. A large group gathered and one of my kids even picked up the opossum by its tail. The student hunts and is around animals all the time so it did not scare him. Luckily, another teacher saw him do this, he put it down, and it did not harm him. After lunch, there was then a campus-wide announcement that a opossum was loose on the grounds and we were not to touch or go near it. We haven't seen the opossum recently and the smell is not as strong as it used to be in the room.

While it has not rained much down here, we are seeing the effects of the rain from the north with the Mississippi's waters rising. The level of the water is hitting some pretty high levels, but most residents are staying pretty calm.

I'm starting to look forward to next year and part of that process is finding more resources for the classroom. I'm looking into writing grants for some pretty cool yet costly items, namely FOSS science kits and a document camera/lcd projector. The kits would allow me to do inquiry based science on a regular basis with a curriculum backed up by solid research and endorsements. I would then be able to leave the kits for the next teacher who would only have to get replacement parts for the exhaustible materials. The technology items would just make class easier. The document camera allows any object to be displayed on the wall rather than needing it to be in the form of a transparency. Book pages, photographs, and experiments could be easily seen by all in the class from anywhere in the room. The projector would allow me to not only display websites, movies, and DVDs but to also use the school's SmartBoard. I've found many grants so far and my goal is to work from a basic outline that I will tailor to each one. As a result, I can maximize my chances through applying for many at a time.

Our state tests are coming up and the school is in preparation for them. It's not too crazy as our principal and consultant see us as on track to stay out of school improvement. We'll know the results later this summer. There isn't too much else to report; the year is going by quickly.