With the first quarter now complete the second leg of the school year is underway. Time passes quickly. Students were home last Thursday and Friday, but teachers were at school working hard to complete report cards, wrap up first quarter data and look at where their classes were headed in the second nine weeks.
Amazingly, many teachers added building their class blog to the to-do list during those teacher work days. We've been talking about the educational impact they can have, and how it's a very connected way to involve students in authentic reflection and writing.
With one workshop offered on Thursday and one on Friday 15 class blogs were created and readied for student use in the second quarter. There are numerous ways these blogs can be used in the classroom and many teachable moments can and should come from teaching students to blog. The On an e-Journey with generation Y blog has a list of 20 reasons why students should blog, and they are all good reasons. I just need one to convince me the work involved with having a class blog is worth it all - authentic expression. Allowing our students to respond says we care about what they think, and that it is important enough to be published.
Students don't reflect enough on what they've been taught or on what questions they still may have after the teaching. Blogging is a way to do that individually, or with a collective voice as a class, and on a platform that invites responses in return. Check out our Blog List on the right side column to visit our classroom blogs. This list is incomplete and will grow - and so will our students.
Building Blogs
Keeping Kids Engaged in Class
I recently read that if you aren't keeping your students engaged you might as well be talking to a brick wall. As an educator who has been around for a while I find there's a lot of truth in that statement. There are many definitions of what it means to be a 21st century school, but really what it all comes down to is keeping students engaged in authentic, real world learning tasks. The timeliness of this Edutopia article entitled How to Keep Kids Engaged in Class was too relevant to many of the collegial discussions we've been having at Kimmel Farm Elementary. I had to blog about it. I think it applies to every educator at every level, and while there are some tried and true methods outlined here, there are some new ones that I'm going to try. (Photo courtesy wooleywonderworks via Flickr under a Creative Commons 2.0 license)
An Appeal To Governor Perdue
How often do five year-olds engage in the political process? Probably not very often. But here at Kimmel Farm Elementary one kindergarten class is already lobbying for policy change at the state level. It involves protecting the honey bee.
After the class pumpkin plants failed to produce pumpkins, Mrs. Madison's students decided to investigate why. Using the model of problem based learning Mrs. Madison shared books, and researched with her students how pumpkin plants produce pumpkins. It was a truly authentic educational process. Their conclusion was there were no honey bees to pollinate the plants, and without pollination no pumpkins can grow. This extended the lesson, prompting student-driven research about how important the honey bee, our state insect, is to agriculture and our economy.
The concerns were forwarded to our school's Curriculum Coordinator, Carolyn Layton, who recommended the class contact Governor Beverly Perdue to report their findings and lobby to protect the honey bee. Kimmel Farm's Media Coordinator, Walter Carmichael, has a wonderful post on his blog detailing this project entitled Problem Based Learning is at Our Core. The video appeal from Mrs. Madison's class to help our honey bees is here.
The Case for 21st Century Schools
The facts and figures change rapidly, but the trends and themes outlined in this video make the case for
- educating our students in an environment that is problem based
- requires critical thinking
- requires oral and written reflections
- teaches students how to use technology (integrating their oral and written reflections)
- and is "connected" - globally.
The video is courtesy of The Fischbowl - Karl Fisch's blog. Karl is Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado and he is certainly a leader when it comes to forward thinking and 21st century school development. He, along with Scott McLeod, JD, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota have worked on developing the "Did You Know" series of presentations to keep us all looking at "the big picture. They've been used as conversation starters all over the world and especially in schools who are thinking about where we are headed. Watch and reflect. What does all this mean for students - even at the elementary level?
The Journey Begun - The Enormous Task
Today marks the 25th student day. The journey has begun. Kimmel Farm Elementary School opened its doors to students for the very first time August 25th, 2009 and the rest is history - in the making. Kimmel Farm offers to all who attend and teach there a fresh start in a state-of-the-art 21st century learning facility. What has happened over the course of the last 25 student days, and the teacher workdays leading up to it, is nothing short of amazing.
In the months leading up to the start of the 2009-2010 school year the core team worked together to lay the foundation for success. Their many hours of labor, their insights, and their keen decisions helped set the stage for a smooth start. Somehow "thank-you" doesn't seem enough. A new faculty and staff assimilated from many different schools formed Kimmel Farm's first faculty. The final stages of construction were completed, teachers moved in, classrooms were assembled, and the doors were opened to students.
There's no way to measure the amount of work that has already gone into opening our school. What is most significant is the spirit with which that work has been completed - by everyone. There's a synergy among our educators. They're already collaborating, using technology new to them the best ways they know how, teaching each other new ways to use it, and they're willing and eager to do even more. They seem to understand the enormous task of building the 21st century learning community for which we feel Kimmel Farm Elementary was built.
What we want for our students is to be able to clearly and effectively communicate, to be problem solvers, to develop interpersonal and collaborative skills, and to have civic pride and a global awareness. What our building does to facilitate this kind of education is give us and our students the tools. What will ultimately set us apart will be how we as educators collaborate, how we create authentic opportunities for this kind of learning, and how we allow ourselves and our students opportunities to reflect on the process.
The start of this blog is well overdue. I know we've missed opportunities to share the small, and not so small successes we've already encountered in just 25 days. However, there was work to be done. Now in development this blog will become the space where we share our successes, our insights, and reflections. The journey has begun, and so has the task.
