Winter break is over, but winter is not. A typical January in Sacramento is a grey, grey time (see above, doesn’t that morning commute at the top right look fun?). We may have palm trees, but we do also have a lot of fog. But I feel the seasons more keenly than in the ocean moderated San Francisco Bay Area. We’re on a major bird migration fly-way, so twilight features the sound of geese heading south. Enough of my musings, the days have been grey, but my classroom is a happy place. Here’s what’s happening:

Be careful what you ask for…

Often on Friday’s I do a math workshop, where I give an open-ended assignment, usually for students to work in groups and develop a problem using the concept or skill being we’ve been working on. In the case, it was adding and subtracting decimals. I generally ask that they “illustrate” the problem. Here was one response…

I had to remind students they were illustrating the “mathematical” problem, NOT the emotional or psychological one. I’m sure this could make one of those infamous “Common Core” math posts, but this is the thing, it’s the sort of problem that can always come up when you’re giving kids “open-ended” problems. But, it shows why they can be ill-suited to standardized tests, and better done in formative or informal settings where the students are in an ongoing dialogue with the teacher.

Writing online…

We’ve moved pretty fully into doing our weekly writing online in a closed wiki I’ve set up for the class. I’m happy with what I’m getting and I think that students are getting more fluent in writing online. I still prefer having them start the year on pencil and paper, but I also want them comfortable with basic keyboarding and short-response writing on a computer.

Hands on…

We’ve done one activity with Oreos, and Ferraro Rocher candies to talk about the structure of the Earth and plate tectonics. We also had a visit from our Art Docent, and learned about perspective and did some drawing work to illustrate this. Next week, we’ll make playdough and use it to make models of the Earth.

Visual learning…

I’ve been featuring videos that help with the subjects we’re studying, Earth’s structure, ancient India, and taking a stand. We started the chapter on India from Michael Wood’s series on Early Civilizations. The kids have done a pretty good job with Hinduism, and we’ll be learning about Buddhism this next week. We also watched National Geographic’s Amazing Planet which is very fast paced (almost frenetic), but has lots of repetition which makes it good for getting the points across. Coming up, we’ll be starting The Abolitionists from American Experience, which is always an emotionally charged, but meaningful experience for students.

I will be at CTA State Council this next weekend, so I’m likely to skip posting for a bit as I attend, and then decompress from that experience.

Image Credits:
tule fog by emdot, on Flickr
fogged by Lisa Ouellette, on Flickr
365-013 fog like thin ice by Robert Couse-Baker, on Flickr
Untitled by Will Wilson, on Flickr