The Rookery

The Herons begin our morning with independent reading.  Each child reads a just right book or article — one that is interesting with the right amount of challenge. Already in class, we've had several discussions about finding your learning zone (zone of proximal development for all of you Vygotsky fans). …

Today we planted a lot of seeds – surveys, accountable talk, truchet tiles, Morning Girl (our read aloud book.)  We started talking about what it meant to be a Heron and what might be the guidelines we wanted to live by.  We talked about leadership and the special work of…

As a faculty, we begin every school year reviewing key elements of our practice.  Some things, like the required OSHA training about extension cords, are good reminders but not necessarily inspiring (to be fair, it's about more than extension cords.)  But we also look at the teaching standards we've agreed…

My home read aloud right now is The Summer Book by Tove Jannson.  It's a slow and lyrical book with no plot to speak of but it's also profound (and funny) in its way. It follows the everyday lives of a girl, Sophia, and Grandmother on a small island in the…

Yeasty Mystery A week ago Wednesday when we were trapped inside by a Thunderstorm, we set up some experiements with yeast.  The first balloon to expand with CO2 was from our 20g mashed banana and yeast bottle (at 116 degrees).  Soon, the other sugar and yeast bottles caught up to it,…

Yesterday the Herons received a yeast pet (well, many billion yeast pets) and were given a chance to choose the temperature of their water as well as what food to give them.  We observed what our yeast were doing and heated up their water or added different food — trial…

Yesterday I shared in our morning message that Sudan was on it's fourth "president" in a week.  Sudan had had caught the students' attention during our geography work because of the newness of South Sudan as a country – a country younger than they were!  Here was another expectation shattered…

The irony of our project presentations directly preceding MCA season is not lost on us.  However, in my more generous moods, I can see them as related.  Both are ways of showing others what you know.  Granted, I think that a project presentation is a more authentic demonstration of a…

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…

The master chart we use to keep track of our work. Today (Monday) was a great day – three Herons rocked their honors project presentations and the four fourth grade presenters more had such a good time presenting that one student told me, "I'm so sad that I'm finished!"  But…