The Rookery

Today we did a brief highlight share after our adaptation zoo.  The students were happy but tired and I was proud of how professional they had been — it's not easy to be "on stage" for over an hour as they were today.  I drew a quick sketch of an…

Not sure of what half of the students will be interested in, I try to begin the school year with a theme that can go in a lot of different directions.  This year, I chose "adaptation" and was prepared to explore biology, human technology, or social curriculum (how do we adapt…

The Video Helpers that we've been creating for the problems of the week are being used by an increasing number of families.  Thank you for letting us know how you're using them at your house and for letting us know what's most useful.  We're learning a lot about making them…

The first weeks of school look a little different for the 4/5s than they do for the rest of the school.  After the first week, our older students choose an area in which to specialize and lead the rest of the school.  Each group participates in three training sessions. Those…

  You may have noticed that my explanation of our project doesn't match the image above. One actually alternates positive and negative fields, always increasing the number of "other" pixels by one. One of the Habits of Mind is to "Respond with Wonder and Awe."  As I plan my math…

At about nine o'clock on Friday night, I looked around at the Heron faces lit up by our campfire.  We'd spent the whole day together learning and laughing and slogging.  In just those few hours away from the routine of our classroom, I'd seen kids make new connections to each…

In preparation for some future work, I had the Herons review and sign our Internet and Computer Contract.  We begin with learning the importance of asking questions and understanding everything before you agree to a contract. We talked about safe searches and about viruses.  We talked about sites whose information…

I had the privilege to sit in on some of the Herons' spanish class last Thursday.  It was fascinating to watch the students engage in this new way of learning a language.  Señor Witt speaks only in spanish.  If a child does not understand, he repeats what he's said with…

In fourth and fifth grade students begin every math class with 15-20 minutes of work in their foundation math groups.  Students work on foundational skills such as computation algorithms and math vocabulary application.  We liken these skills to recognizing sight words in reading.  The more fluently one can apply them,…

These videos were created to support your child’s math work at home.  New videos will be uploaded here as well as sent by e-mail.   Algorithm Videos Partial Sums (and an quick explanation of traditional U.S. Addition algorithm)   Area Model of Multiplication (1st Algorithm) Partial Products Multiplication Traditional U.S. Multiplication…