Hat Day at Kimmel Farm

Photos by Mrs. Kibler!

Life After Toy Story!

One of the most anticipated movies of this summer is Toy Story 3, the third in a series of Disney/Pixar movies where the main characters are Woody, a cowboy, and Buzz Lightyear, a space ranger, are the favorite toys of a real boy named Andy. Undoubtedly most of our students at Kimmel Farm Elementary will see the soon to be blockbuster. But it was the convergence of the plot of this movie and the plot our students will live out with their future careers that got me thinking.

In Toy Story 3, Woody, Buzz and their their toy-box friends are placed in a day-care center after Andy, now grown, goes off to college. Andy is moving on, doing the admirable thing, following the track, continuing his education. He is following the accepted path for success to which most of us have long held. But for our current and future students will this be the pathway to successful careers in their futures? Certainly education will play a part, but what should this education empower us as learners to do?
After seeing this video from the dean of Pixar University, Randy Nelson, I wondered if the typical track (high school degree, college degree, post-graduate work etc.) is really going to be the one that generates future success. Pixar is the animation studios that brings Toy Story to life, and they have a very progressive way of working and looking for talent. Nelson talks about two core principles I believe would serve our students well as they learn here at Kimmel Farm - accept every offer, and make your partner(s) look good. It's that kind of collaborative spirit that has made Pixar a success.
It's no longer enough to have a strong resume. Nelson speaks of the promise of a resume versus the proof of a portfolio. His comments prompted me to ponder how we look at the "success" of our students with the snapshot of an End of Grade Test (a resume), versus how much deeper we could go with an ongoing portfolio assessment. There's a lot here to think about, and it's worthy of reflective thought. For more, here's the link to Edutopia with insightful comments from educators.

Sir Ken Robinson: Bring On the Learning Revolution

Food for thought.

A virtual trip to the NC ZOO

On Wednesday, April 28, 2010 Kimmel Farm's kindergarten and fourth grade students participated in a collaborative learning experience. Kimmel Farm Elementary and Asheboro High School's Zoo School teamed to provide a mutually beneficial virtual field trip with a focus on polar animals and animal adaptations.
Asheboro High School students were the teachers, and created a slide show presentation to share with Kimmel Farm Students, which we showed on our flat panel plasma display. Our video conferencing was accomplished using Skype. It was great to see students working together to teach and learn and it was the first attempt at pulling off a truly 21st Century learning experience. We also Ustreamed this over the Internet so classrooms all over our building and worldwide could tune in to see what was possible.
The experience wasn't without it's technological issues, but overall it demonstrated what kind of learning community we strive to create here at Kimmel Farm Elementary. This was a powerful way to engage students and create an opportunity for Asheboro High's Zoo School students. Special thanks goes to Heather Soja, head of the AHS Zoo School, for working with us for quite some time in getting planning this event. We hope to continue to provide these kinds of experiences for our students and enjoyed partnering with AHS!

Cows at Kimmel Farm

Thursday, April 15th Kimmel Farm Elementary became just that - a farm. Cows from neighboring property got free from their pastures and made their way onto school property. They were corralled in our school's playground area and the owners came and took them home. The visit from the cows prompted one kindergarten student to ask if it was our school's Chick-Fil-A night. It was quite a site, and just another highlight from our first year in existence. Here's is the blog post from Mrs. Ellington's class blog written to record the event for posterity.

As I was teaching math Thursday morning, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I saw about 6 cows come up over the hill into our bus parking lot. It was a sight to be seen and so was the excitement in my students. They were amazed to see cows right outside our classroom window. The cows made their way to the back of the school and luckily ended up in our fenced in playground area. Of course there were frantic teachers (me included) running outside to capture this miraculous moment with digital cameras and flip videos. This was the most exciting teachable moment I have ever witnessed. Needless to say, the rest of the day was all about COWS!! Now we know why our school was named "KIMMEL FARM!!!"