The last couple of days have been spent at Band Camp. We are privileged enough that all of our grade sixes and sevens spend two years at this awesome camp. It is so inspiring to see kids work in a creative/musical context rather than merely in my classroom's four walls. Fears are faced; lessons are learned; and many common memories are built that will last throughout the year. Moreover I love that my school values this experience so much that we get to do it every year! Plus, we get to chase kids in a late night game of mission impossible! Can life get better? I submit that it cannot.
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This is one of my favourite ways to start of the year in writing. I love gathering students ideas on what makes good writing, and all the different ways you can write. As you can see they thought of a lot (though interpreted through my short hand). We had great discussion and these kids really have a sense on what makes good writing. We looked at some example story starters. They especially liked Ender's Game, and I have to say, I can't blame them. I am deeply encouraged how much this group likes to share. If I let them say every response, we would be here for hours! I used the great Which One Doesn't Belong from Mary Bourassa to instigate a conversation about relationships (actual human relationships). It was so great to hear students reasoning and discuss how different people give us a different outlook on the world. Our Health and Career curriculum is about healthy relationships and I discussed how we might not always see something and we need to hear from others and get feedback from them in order to help us broaden our perspective. It was a great hook and I hope that we can come back to it later. I am tired of NOT blogging so I am going to get to a 180 blog. Hopefully this will get back into the frame of mind necessary for blogging. I did number talks today! It was awesome. I have never seen students so excited to share in math. I chalk this up to these reasons: personal reasoning, low starting threshold, and multiple strategies are honoured. I can't wait to keep trying these. If you want to know who the real pro is at these knock on Chris Harris' door! |
180 BlogsIf you have never heard of a 180 blog, let me fill you in. #teach180 is all about sharing your daily life in teaching. It is a way of small form blogging, reflecting on what you are doing, and sharing with the world. Check out these... Archives
November 2017
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