The Rookery

Last week, right after the honoring fair wrapped up, the Herons went down to our Dove bird buddies to help with their initial personal project research.  The Herons helped their Dove buddy record questions of wonder and then they read information books together. Their work had come full circle.  The…

This is one of my favorite weeks at Prairie Creek.  The students would probably say, "That's because you're not doing anything!"  And there is some truth in this.  I'm not the teacher this week…they are.  And what a joy it is to see them take on the role of "expert"…

Testing season is almost upon us – and, as always, it is ironically juxtaposed with Honoring Week where our children truly demonstrate their learning.  I feel very grateful that I'm at a school in which test prep is put in what I consider its proper perspective.  We don't ignore the tests…

Today's New York Times had an essay  by Angela Duckworth about character education.  She, along with Carol Dweck, a major proponent of the "growth mindset," have been leading voices in the recent conversation about developing "grit," resilience and character in schools. At Prairie Creek character education is nothing new.  The focus…

Our trip to the science center was great.  For the first part of our trip we focussed on rivers and then had time for exploration of other parts of the museum.  The Herons were far from done with their field trip when it was time for us to board the…

  Treasure hunting. I need to be up front.  I would like to keep this class for at least five more months.  We have a lot that we need to get to and our "to do" list seems to grow every day.  Right now, here are the topics that have come…

Fourth grade and honors projects are humming along nicely.  We have had many mini-lessons on how to organize note-cards into categories and order the notecards in a way that makes sense to teach your reader.  Students try to find about 4-5 pieces of information that work together and these will…

This year, the Prairie Creek staff is experimenting with a peer coaching model called "Teaching Rounds"  The group I am a part of is looking at developing rich inquiry based math classrooms.  Specifically, I am examining math conversations (which touches on one of our non-academic goals, conversation skills). Amy Narveson…

The Herons have been really into puns recently which made this one very hard to resist.  Waaaay back in January we had the distinct pleasure of having a group of St. Olaf biologitsts, under the leadership of Emily Mohl, come and teach us about invertebrates.  It's amazing how much one…

We are having a great time – here is what we think our mentees will like next year.