Time to Fly-Lessons Learned

I felt with the end of school near it was a time of reflection for the year and all the great learning that occurred. One thing I realized as I looked back through pictures was that my class learned compassion and empathy, in addition to content.

OUR STORY 
It started in the fall with learning about bats, specifically White Nose Syndrome in bats. A disease that is killing our brown bat population.  What we aimed to do was educate ourselves and others on this deadly disease and the impact it is having on the bat population.  98% of bats affected die. Without these creatures, our insect population isn't controlled which can also effect our crops.  With no natural predators, farmers have to rely on insecticides. Most kids and adults are scared of bats.  The students looked past their fears and misconceptions and began to want to help. 

Lesson Learned:  Respecting nature teaches respect of all living things and the important role they play in the world.

FALL

About this time is when I found out that a special student of mine was going to have a Bone Marrow Transplant and soon would be leaving our classroom. The kids didn't really understand what was happening, they just kind of went with it.  She was very brave as she sat in my classroom and explained what would happen and why she wouldn't be back at school for the remainder of the year.  I was in awe at this eight years old bravery and courage.  My problems certainly didn't compare to hers.  Her spirit and determination was truly something I will never ever forget.  Her only worry as she spoke to us was that she couldn't be with her friends at school, and with me in third grade.  My heart swelled with the love this child had for learning.  I discussed it with her mom and we decided to stay in contact all year by having live skypes.  She couldn't actually be in the classroom, but we did everything in our power to make her feel she wasn't missing anything.  There were days she was in the hospital not feeling well, other days she was just bored, and yet others she just missed her friends.  After every skype her mom told us how much this simple task meant to her, how her spirits rose just because she felt connected. She left in November but she came back to visit us just over a week ago and it was like she had never left. The kids accepted her with open arms. They treated her with compassion, empathy, and love.  Our connection was so strong even though she had been gone most of the year. 

Lesson learned: It's the little things in life that bring you the most happiness.

  

'

SPRING-A TIME OF NEW BEGINNINGS

We moved into Spring and explored plants and butterflies.  We planted milkweed and observed the growth and change of this plant as well as our painted lady caterpillars.  We learned about the importance of pollinators and how nature is connected. We planted our garden and now we will be able to watch it grow and bloom, just as we have this year.  

Just as a butterfly goes through it's change, I can say my class is ready to fly. 

  

This year is symbolic in a lot of ways , but some of the lessons my class learned aren't in a book or on a test, or something they can memorize. They learned how to support one another, be compassionate, kind, caring, and empathetic.  They learned with their heart and their mind.  I truly believe the lessons they learned this year will have a lasting impact and as they continue through life, impacting who they become.

LESSON LEARNED: We are here to see each other through. 

Time to Fly-Lessons Learned

I felt with the end of school near it was a time of reflection for the year and all the great learning that occurred. One thing I realized as I looked back through pictures was that my class learned compassion and empathy, in addition to content.

OUR STORY 
It started in the fall with learning about bats, specifically White Nose Syndrome in bats. A disease that is killing our brown bat population.  What we aimed to do was educate ourselves and others on this deadly disease and the impact it is having on the bat population.  98% of bats affected die. Without these creatures, our insect population isn't controlled which can also effect our crops.  With no natural predators, farmers have to rely on insecticides. Most kids and adults are scared of bats.  The students looked past their fears and misconceptions and began to want to help. 

Lesson Learned:  Respecting nature teaches respect of all living things and the important role they play in the world.

FALL

About this time is when I found out that a special student of mine was going to have a Bone Marrow Transplant and soon would be leaving our classroom. The kids didn't really understand what was happening, they just kind of went with it.  She was very brave as she sat in my classroom and explained what would happen and why she wouldn't be back at school for the remainder of the year.  I was in awe at this eight years old bravery and courage.  My problems certainly didn't compare to hers.  Her spirit and determination was truly something I will never ever forget.  Her only worry as she spoke to us was that she couldn't be with her friends at school, and with me in third grade.  My heart swelled with the love this child had for learning.  I discussed it with her mom and we decided to stay in contact all year by having live skypes.  She couldn't actually be in the classroom, but we did everything in our power to make her feel she wasn't missing anything.  There were days she was in the hospital not feeling well, other days she was just bored, and yet others she just missed her friends.  After every skype her mom told us how much this simple task meant to her, how her spirits rose just because she felt connected. She left in November but she came back to visit us just over a week ago and it was like she had never left. The kids accepted her with open arms. They treated her with compassion, empathy, and love.  Our connection was so strong even though she had been gone most of the year. 

Lesson learned: It's the little things in life that bring you the most happiness.

  

'

SPRING-A TIME OF NEW BEGINNINGS

We moved into Spring and explored plants and butterflies.  We planted milkweed and observed the growth and change of this plant as well as our painted lady caterpillars.  We learned about the importance of pollinators and how nature is connected. We planted our garden and now we will be able to watch it grow and bloom, just as we have this year.  

Just as a butterfly goes through it's change, I can say my class is ready to fly. 

  

This year is symbolic in a lot of ways , but some of the lessons my class learned aren't in a book or on a test, or something they can memorize. They learned how to support one another, be compassionate, kind, caring, and empathetic.  They learned with their heart and their mind.  I truly believe the lessons they learned this year will have a lasting impact and as they continue through life, impacting who they become.

LESSON LEARNED: We are here to see each other through. 

NSTA 2016

Excited that I was able to use my grant money to support one more trip to the National Science Teacher Conference.  I think what motivates me is the passion for science that is represented at this conference.  It makes me appreciate being a teacher even more.  This unit was designed to integrate literacy with science and technology. Being able to share exciting things with my peers, learn from others, and extend my professional learning network are a few of the reasons I was blessed to attend.

For my session this year I presented my Presidential Award Finalist Unit from 2014 "Memoirs of a Goldfish."I really wanted to model how to engage students so I took my session to the hall.  WiFi was only available there. This was an impromptu decision that turned out amazing.  I'm glad I did this because I presented at 5pm, the last session time of the day,  it was apparent engaging my group from the start brought the session to life.

I used the Nearpod App for my presentation. If you haven't used this app it brings a powerpoint alive, enables participants to answer questions, draw examples,  watch videos and much much more.  It's a great tool for gaining immediate feedback, and forces engagement for all participants.  Here is one way I engaged participants right off the bat.  They had to make their favorite fish face and take a fish face selfie.  As I looked out on my group of attendees they were smiling like kids, hamming it up, and taking a risk. After all, inquiry does require risk,  there aren't always clear expectations or answers, we often have more questions than we have solutions.  It's the journey and learning that makes it so impactful.

The Memoirs of a Goldfish Unit was designed for students to understand the difference between learned and inherited behavior in animals.  In order to do that students designed a plan to train their goldfish to ring a bell.  They created their training devices, came up with training schedules, recorded and analyzed data, and took care of their new little pet. In addition to learning the design process, we also studied the life cycle of the goldfish, and how offspring often don't resemble adults.  We discussed why not all goldfish look alike, and we journaled daily in our Memoirs about "fishy" behavior.  We started by observing respiration in goldfish using Gulping Goldfish from Aims Science.  In this activity students observe and record goldfish respiration.  The first thing they observe is goldfish in their environment with no outside impact to the water.  They record the respiration rate. Next we agitated the water by swirling it with a spoon, which adds oxygen to the water.  Again, students counted the gulps to determine the respiration rate. Lastly, we floated a bag of ice on top, waited for the water to cool, then measured the breathing rate.  This is a great experiment for kids.  It taught me that kids need to be shown what observation is and how to observe behavior to draw conclusions.  We often take for granted that children understand what they are looking at, but this often isn't the case.  

As a springboard for this unit students used the book Memoirs of a Goldfish as the inspiration and a little help from Dory and Nemo. Students had to prove that goldfish had a memory longer than 3 seconds. Students began planning using the design process. We went through the process together discussing and clarifying what the goal of the unit was "to prove goldfish have memory longer than 3 seconds."  Research shows that goldfish actually have a memory of up to 5 months, but this isn't shared with students.  

The unit itself lasted about 5 weeks.  Students practiced training goldfish daily and recording their observations.  The actual training part happened for 5-10 minutes a couple of times a day.  Students wrote Memoirs of their experience. They captured pictures and videos of the training as evidence of their success. They used these artifacts to create a book using the Book Creator App to showcase their learning. This unit took my love of literature and science and married them!

I know I got to share my passion that day, it's one of the things that makes me the happiest.  I love watching kids learn, engage, and problem solve.  It truly was memorable.