The Rookery

I couldn't resist the allusion…but it is very appropriate for the Herons these past few days.  We are getting ready to teach all of you at our culminating event on Monday and the Herons are full of energy…yes, perhaps even a force.  We started a week ago, filling the white board with all of the things we wanted to teach our visitors about.  This brainstorming is part of my assessment, actually, what do the students remember?  What are they excited by?

Each child chose what he or she wanted to develop into an exhibit and we decided that we would "take over the school" creating a Yangtze river trail for everyone to follow with things to do as you traveled up and down the river.  Then they were off.  Each child created an organizer that explained what they would teach and how they would teach it.  They determined what they would need to make and what they would need to find.  They also decided what they would do for "sparkle" (the extras you do if you have time.)  We made a command center on the side whiteboard that had what everyone needed, where everyone was teaching and a "team sparkle" list – the things we would do for the project if we had time.

Students worked independently, gathering supplies from our room or the art room.  They encountered problems…and solved them.  And this is what I love most about preparing for a culminating event.  The sum of our effort is so much greater than what we could do if I was "in charge" of all of the pieces.  I truly move to the side and act primarily as a hunter/gatherer as they decide what they will be doing and how they will be doing it.  Often, when they encounter a snag I'm off trying to find red paper or glue or moon cake molds, and they have to figure things out for themselves.  And they do.  I love wandering through a culminating event because I am always surprised.  So many things have been created that I was not a part of.  There is no greater thrill for a teacher.

But even in the midst of preparing for Monday, we weren't done learning.  Stephen Mohring and Josie Rawson came in to create gourd amulets with us.  In a fortuitous alignment of historical fact and role playing fiction, the gourd was considered good luck in ancient China and good luck charms were often made in gourd form.  With Stephen's guidance, the Herons created molds for plaster amulets, learning about the chemistry of plaster, tension vs. compression, positive/negative space, and reflection symmetry along the way.  We also processed silk cocoons, unraveling the hard cocoons into long strands of silk (something you'll be able to see on Monday.)

On Friday we continued to work feverishly on the culminating event.  Six students furiously painted a fifty-three foot scroll depicting the Yangtze.  We had learned about the Weng scroll which was created by a court artist in the 1600s and the Herons wanted to recreate it for our culminating event.  Through an abundance of enthusiasm, our scroll is ninety-nine feet long!  Students also got to see the fruits of their writing labor:  The Kublai Khan Academy.  Each Heron contributed a paragraph about something we had learned about during the theme.

So, we're ready (almost) to teach you.  The energy of preparing for a culminating event is not sustainable – we could never spend every day like this – but it is a very special time in the Herons classroom during which students learn how to make their dreams a reality…all by themselves.

And finally, a few bonus pictures – the Herons enjoying dried crystal fish as we traveled down the Yangtze.  Over half the class said they would like to try boiled silk worms which I procured today.  Hoping to find a good recipe for us to try them together on Tuesday.  We'll see…