The Rookery

The Herons began a new theme last week.  The year is 800 and they have been asked by Charlemagne to travel to Seres, the land of silk, and discover the secrets of silk making.  Each member of the group has a specialty and will contribute to the success of the…

One of my favorite math subjects to teach is probability (the Herons groan when I say that…whatever we're doing in math I tend to declare my favorite.)  Probability is especially fun with fourth and fifth graders because they are intellectually able to comprehend mathematical probability but developmentally they are not…

Recently, I've been reading a book called Wild Play, by David Sobel.  In it, he encourages parents to allow their children unstructured time in the woods with as few constraints as possible.  He feels this allows children to discover the natural world more authentically and more deeply.  He also feels…

Today the 4/5s were introduced to the on-line version of the math MCA.  It's early in the year and we took care to remind them that this was an opportunity to get used to the tools and the layout of the on-line test.  It's also a chance for us as…

Voting went very smoothly today with over 98% of registered voters turning out to vote.  Students manned the polls all day long and then a team of election judges counted the votes…(audio file of drum roll): 59.5% of votes went to Crecentia Alata of the Poligourds and 41.5% of the…

It's been a very, very busy week in the Herons (and the school for that matter).  We've had an uprecedented flood of campaign media.  We've had a debate.  We've had lunchtime/recess/anytime conversations.  Many gourds have changed their minds then changed them again.  For us as teachers, it's been very exciting…

This week in our exploration math workshops, we're working on solidifying algorithms.  We throw around the word "algorithm" a lot.  Simply put, an algorithm is a step by step method for doing something.  In math, it's a way to keep track of computations that are too complex to do in…

Elections can be tricky.  They provide wonderful teachable moments — but discussions about them can also devolve quickly into personal attacks.  It is hard for children to debate the actual candidates without getting very personal because many of their political views mirror parent views and therefor a criticism of their…

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…