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Continue reading →: Unearthing Joy Along the Silk RoadThis month, the teachers at Prairie Creek are focussing their work in professional development on Unearthing Joy by Gholdy Muhammad. Its central premise is for teachers to be culturally and historically responsive by ensuring that our instruction is rich in five different domains (or pursuits as she calls them). This…
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Continue reading →: Forest School – A Heron TraditionCollecting Nature's Notebook data When the Herons started heading outside for Forest School on Wednesday, I had no idea we would still be doing it ten years later. The very first day was not auspicious – cold and rainy, we settled in for our independent reading period which ended thirty…
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Continue reading →: “It Seems Like We Never Left!”The Herons welcome the new year As we headed out the door on Friday, one of the fifth graders observed that it felt "like we never left" for summer. Indeed, even by the second day of school, everything seemed "normal" (except, perhaps, for my need for a nap!) How could…
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Continue reading →: Juneteenth – An Opportunity for Conversations"The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them."' – Ida B. Wells This quote stopped me in my tracks when I visited the National Museum of African American History & Culture. It's written in foot high letters on one of the most prominent walls…
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Continue reading →: The Freedom to Fumble
Potential… A few weekends ago, Hidden Brain had a show about play and the importance of independence in real children's play. The guest, Peter Gray, posits that children need to have the opportunity to test things out for themselves and problem solve without adult intervention. He believes that play with the…
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Continue reading →: Opening Up New Worlds – The Power of Presentations
Personal project presentations take a long time. We devote three full mornings and an afternoon to watching student work. That could seem like a lot of instructional time – until you realize how much learning is going on in the audience. In the past week, the Herons have gotten a…
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Continue reading →: The Power of Mistakes
A leyden jar stores static charges (at least it's supposed to) They are never the moments you want on your highlights reel – the lessons that go off the rails, the epic classroom fails. This past week as we began our electricity unit, I unearthed a leyden jar in the…
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Continue reading →: The Power of Having a Book at your Fingertips
Margit and Pandora at our library ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday. On Friday, the Herons got a tour of the "brand new" 4/5 library. Volunteers Pandora, Margit and Kendra have spent many, many hours organizing and culling our "big kid" library. They organized all of the fiction which had…
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Continue reading →: Wrapping Things Up – Why We Culminate the Way We Do
The Herons rehearsing "Our Wonderful King/Our Horrible King" in preparation for our culminating event. The pandemic affected our teaching in myriad ways – but I think the one I most lamented was the loss of culminating events. There's a T.S. Eliot line "not with a bang but a whimper" and…
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Continue reading →: The Story is Never Simple
The re-enactment of the Boston trial. One of the most exciting things about teaching fourth and fifth graders is their new found ability to understand perspectives other than their own. Young children cannot understand that another person may have an experience different from their own. But for fourth and fifth…
Hello,
I’m Michelle
I teach fourth and fifth graders at Prairie Creek Community School. We’re a public progressive school in rural Minnesota. I use this blog to share moments in our classroom and to reflect upon my practice.
The Rookery 