atychiphobia

Stories from Room 226: Erosive Behavior

In Ohio, part of the 4th grade science standards relates to being able to understand how forces like erosion shape the surface of the Earth.  In my district, 4th grade science teachers have these resources called "stream tables" that let us design experiments in which the kids can "see erosion in action."  While setting and cleaning up these labs quite be quite cumbersome (imagine about a zillion grains of a sand/clay mixture floating around your classroom for months, kind of like the pine needles of your Christmas tree that miraculously appear in the middle of your living room in July) the excitement generated by water laying waste to a model plateau is rather hard to beat.

Basically, the kids level the earth then with the aid of a cup with a strategically placed hole pour water onto their plateaus and watch what happens.  Over the course of the roughly 10 minutes the water is running a minuture river begins to do its magic by carving out a canyon and creating a massive delta.

During the time the kids are observing, recording notes and taking pictures or making mini movies, I stop by the groups and listen in on their conversations and provide some clarification in their thinking.  Below is a list of a few quotes and scenes that happened this week:

• "Whoa! Look at how fast the water is moving through the channel.  It's like my little brother on his way to the bathroom."
• "So we just saw this tiny little sand canyon being made in about 10 minutes, it's no wonder it took millions of years to make the Grand Canyon."
• "I wonder what would happen if we brought in a hair dryer.  Do you think we could make some mini hoodoos in our canyon?
• "If we have two cups (of streaming water), I bet we could make a mega canyon"
• Picture a dissapointed group who was the last to have delta formation carefully studying their plateau in silence as the rest of the groups are busy chatting about their deltas.  Then from across the room in unison, "YEEESSSSSSS!" when the water finally cleared the edge of the plateau and the delta began to form.  This was immediately followed by one boy yelling. "WE GOT A DELTA! WHOOHOOOO!"
• "So yesterday when the sand was bone dry we had 500 mL of runoff (each group got 1 liter of water to start) and today we have 800 mL of runoff.  Tomorrow I wonder if the plateau will be able to absorb any water at all"
• "This is so awesome, I wish we could do this everyday"

Not being a scientist by trade I am really not sure if building sand canyons and running water across them is a solid model for how water can shape the surface of the earth, but as a teacher of 4th graders I do know the excitement of doing these relatively simple experiments help the kids understand some fairly complicated ideas.  I can't imagine trying to teach all of the concepts I am supposed to teach in this unit by just using textbooks, website articles or even movie clips.  Part of me thinks the reason these experiments spark so much joy and wonder is that in an era where 10 year-olds are expected to learn and synthesize scientific processes that most adults can't articulate well, playing with sand and water is just good old-fashioned fun.

Later,

Tony

Tech Prognostication in 4th Grade: Slice of Life 3/8/2011

My class has iPads thanks to a grant I wrote last spring.  I haven't shared much about my or the kids' learning curve with these devices primarily becuase writing about the process would take from my time to actually learn more about how to use these tools in a way that meshes with some of my beliefs about education in general.

However am moment happened at the end of class today that had "Slice of Life" written all over it.  During the 3 to 5 minutes between the time my bussers and walkers are dismissed, the walkers and I have some fairly interesting conversations that have little to do with school, but it does afford me the opportunity to get to know this group a little better.  Today I learned that like many of the super-tech insiders that post amazing claims the upcoming "next-best-things" some of my 4th graders want to feel like they are in the know by spreading their own version of information.

The converation went a little like this:

J: "Did you hear that Apple is making an iPad 3?"

Me: "You can't even buy an iPad 2 yet, are you sure they are making an iPad 3?"

E: "Of course you can buy an iPad 2, it's all over the Apple website."

Me: "Well, the previews are all over the website, but you can't buy one until Friday."

J and E (at almost the same time): "What!?!?!?"

Me: "Yep, I looked at the info over the weekend, in fact my Twitter stream was filled with updates about how awesome the new iPad will be."

B (who had opened his iPad, to check the Apple website): "Look guys.  Mr. K. is right you can't buy one until Friday."

Now imagine 6 kids craning necks to confirm what I had just told them.

J: "Well, I know Apple is making an iPad 3 and it will be cooler than the iPad 2."

E (looking at J): "Will it have cameras like the iPad 2?"

J: "Definitely, I also heard it might have 3d built in."

Me: "Now that would be cool."

J: "Well, they will have to come up with something better than just cameras or people won't buy it."

H: "Did they even make an iPad 1 yet?"

E: "H, that's what we have right now."

H: "Oh, why didn't they just call it iPad 1 if they are already making iPad 3?"

J: "Can we start calling our iPads, iPad Ones?"

Me: "Sure if you want, but I doubt if I will."

So, just in case Techland or Mashable read this post, leave a comment if you want to get any more wisdom about iPad 3 my class will probably be willing to share.  We'll get back to you.

Later,

Tony

On Purpose

Earlier in the week, during an indoor recees, I heard a student exclaim with gusto, "You did that ... ON PURPOSE!"

After helping to deflate the debate over how we share dominoes in our room, the words ON PURPOSE still lingered in my mind.  I wasn't thinking so much about how kids, or adults, intentionally do things to annoy each other.  Which considering the lack of civility in our society right now, that would have been an easy mind trip for me to take.  The itch in my brain was more related to the purpose of education in general.  

I flashed back to a recent discovery of a call to action by some UK educators at the site pupose/ed.  When I found this site over a month ago, it was late one night and I read several posts thinking not only about the purpose of education, but my purpose.  Somehow I forgot about it and didn't go back.

The recess comment, remembering the website and then a question at lunch the next day sparked connections that made my brain go into full double esspresso mode.  The innocuous  question, "What is the purpose of flour in cookies?"  came from a student who was reading the ingredients of his Oreo snack pack.  I quickly replied, "I think it's probably the ingredient that holds everything together.  But I'm not sure so let's check."

Another student who Googled, "What is the purpose of flour in cookies?"  the first hit was from wiki.answers.com

Flour is in cookies to add mass and also the yeast in the flour turns into gluten which rises.

Not the best answer nor did it confirm my thinking, but "Shazam and thank you very much!" Through connecting some rather strange dots (really thought provoking website ... two students arguing over dominoes ... the purpose of flour in cookies) I saw a very simple answer to a question that I have pondered for a while.  What is my purpose?  And thankfully it is not to add mass.  I have done enough of that in the last year already.

I  and, I imagine we all, could create a I-haven't-been-to-the-grocery-in-a-month length list of our purposes.  Things like:

Loving parent, spouse, son, daughter, sibling

Protector

Mentor

Learner

Friend

Shoulder to cry on

But when I saw the phrase, "which rises" I somehow knew that my primary purpose was to rise to greater things and help others rise to greater things.  I need/want to be like all-purpose flour. Well not the bleached and pre-sifted parts, but the enriched parts that help cookies to rise.

I wrote recently about the desire to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly.  I think I have been doing a better job of that (with the exception of some twitter taunting with dear friends).  This idea of "rising" like flour in great home-baked cookies is very interesting to me.  I know I am rambling and maybe losing my audience by this time, but when I can focus my energies on one big idea instead of the gazillion little things that fill my day, I am usually in a better place.

So what would it take for me to be a little more like the all puporse flour pictured above and RISE?  I am not quite sure.  But I am going to start with making sure that I actively seek some new challenges and actively help those around me rise to a place they might not have thought was possible ON PURPOSE.

Later,

Tony

 

 

Great Overheard Conversation

Last week I vented a little about potentially losing the love of reading if we focus too much on navigating the genre of standardized reading tests.  Today though, I overhead one of my "quasi-reluctant readers" talking to a classmate about Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson.

I have not had the joy of reading this book yet, but based on what I heard, the book is now on my must read list.  Picture a boy holding the book up to talk to a friend as we are rushing to clean up at the end of the day.

M: This is a great book, but if you read it right before going to bed it freaks you out!

R: Why?

M: Because this really happened.  Booth really shot Lincoln and he gets hunted down.  There's real picutres in here and you get to see what people actually did.

R: Well, this book can be kind of freaky too (holding up Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix).

M: Yeah, but not like this one, really man, who gets scared by Harry Potter anyway.

R: Yeah, you're right.

I loved hearing this conversation for so many reasons.  Just the mere fact that a boy in my class, who came into this year being adept at reading based on assessment scores, but struggled to find good books that engaged him is trying to sell a book to is friend is undeniably awesome.  Hopefully an excerpt from this book doesn't appear on a reading test and we have to determine what the word "vain" or "depressed" means by applying context clues.

image remixed, original image from josefnovak33's flickr photosteam

 

Later,

Tony