Walker's Wanderings

This summer I am going to Africa again with Miss Smith. We are going to help teachers in a couple of schools in beautiful Zimbabwe with literacy (reading and writing). We will use the creative books that you, our lovely 5th graders, created. While we are there Miss Smith and I are going to blog about our trip. I would love for you to follow our blog,  just click  here, read all about our summer in Africa.

I am giving you one final challenge, before you are a grown up, mature 6th grader.  I challenge you to blog, at least two times, about your summer adventures.  I would love to read and comment on each of your blogs. So, if I am going to make a commitment to comment on your blogs this summer, please, I beg you, make your posts exciting, put pictures up, use awesome adjectives and vivid verbs to describe your summer! (and do not forget to edit!!!)

Hope you have a wonderful summer, see you in the blog world!

Click here to watch a video that I showed some of the fifth grade student’s during science class. It fit into our human body unit and I hope it was a source of inspiration for all of them. It is about Kyle Maynard, a guy I went to high school with. I doubt he even knows who I am, (that’s what happens when you go to a school with over 3,000 people!) but I remember him. Kyle was born with no arms or legs. I can remember seeing Kyle in the hallways and being amazed by him. His determination was something I wish I had, and I often wondered what I would have done if I was faced with the same challenges he conquered as he grew up. He continues to amaze me as he defies the odds as an athlete and shows true honesty as a motivational speaker. Watch the video and take some time to reflect. What do you think when you see his determination and no excuses attitude? How does it make you feel?

Title: Parachutists leap off tall buildings for Leap Day

Source: http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/parachutists-leap-off-tall-1367166.html

Who: Jeff Provenzano and other jumpers

What: Provenzano jumpd off The Water Club to celebrate Leap Day and promote an energy drink. Other people also completed similiar jumps today.

When: February 29, 2012

Where: Atlantic City

Why do we care? To make up for the time we miss as the earth rotates around the sun, we have added an extra day to our calendar every four years. Today to promote an energy drink and celebrate Leap Day, people around the US leapt off tall buildings as an adventurous part of the celebration!

To find out more about Leap Day and why we add an extra day every four years, click here to see a short but fun video!

Can separating boys and girls in school help them learn better? Is it important for girls and boys to learn how to work together in school? There is no right answer to this question, it is something people have been in a debate about for a long time.

In math class, Mrs. Eyles is researching the answer to this hot topic question by seating you, her 5th grade students, in gender groups. During this time you have worked on math assignments and projects in groups of your same gender. We want to know what you think about same gender groups; since you have worked in math this way for several months.

Do you like sitting in same gender groups? Why or why not? (be specific!) Do you like it better in just math, or do you wish all of your classes would seat you in same gender groups? Why or why not? Do you think schools should all be same gender schools or should schools have mixed genders? Why or why not?

We look forward to reading your comments!

This holiday season we encouraged our 5th grade students to give the gift of time. They were supposed to some how help anyone they chose by walking the dog, doing the dishes, feeding the homeless, or whatever they dream up! I began to think about how we challenged them to help others and I thought, why shouldn’t I do the same? So this year while planning the usual baking of cookies as holiday gifts for my coworkers I decided to give the gift of time instead.

I gave them a “gift certificate” of sorts which states that I will do a duty of their choice! I haven’t actually done any duties for them yet, but giving them the certificate made me feel so good. I loved seeing the looks on their faces and knowing I was giving them time, which is something we all desperately need. I know that is more personal and something they will appreciate more than the cookies I could have made them.

Here’s the coupon:

Cookies and sweets, you’ll have a lot,

so I think this gift will hit the spot.

I will take a duty for you on any day,

The gift of time is heading your way!

Redeem this coupon and I will take any duty for you on any day next semester!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Melissa

Have you ever given the gift of time? What did you give? If you haven’t, this is a challenge to think of something to do. It’s not too late to give the gift of time!

The holiday season tends to make me very sentimental. Christmas songs I hear, the smell of cookies baking, and twinkling lights all remind me of Christmas as a child. So this week I challenged my students to write a poem about a favorite holiday tradition. This inspired me to write a poem of my own. Enjoy!

I can

remember wearing

my mom’s old tattered Alabama

shirt, which fit me like a dress. I was snuggled

up with blankets sitting in our dark green van, full of

 anticipation. Our giggles filled the air with excitement. We stared

out our windows at the bright lights as my dad drove slowly through different

neighborhoods. “STOP” I would yell. My eyes sparkled in the reflection of

all the Christmas lights that covered the houses. Now my mom’s

Alabama shirt fits me just right,

and we have new family traditions,

but that will always be one of my

favorite memories of Christmas as a child.

Hope you have a blessed holiday season! What are some of your favorite  holiday traditions?

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I hate to be cheesy, but as we approach Thanksgiving I can’t help but think about being thankful. I know I can get caught up in everything else going on during the holiday and forget the real meaning of Thanksgiving.  We skip right to the yummy turkey and dressing, sweet pumpkin pies, and traditions that our families share. Some people even skip right over Thanksgiving all together and dive straight into Christmas, which can tend to be all about getting, instead of giving (but that’s another post for another day).  This year I want to be try and really think about being thankful, about every moment. I want to let the “first world problems” take a back seat during this holiday and I challenge you to join me!

Are you ready!? A couple of years ago I did an exercise where I had to write down 100 things that I was thankful for, in 5 minutes. This list can include people, things that we take for granted, special traditions and why they are important, or simply just being alive. You will be surprised how easy it is to come up with a list and how much it will help you think about the small things we can all appreciate more. The second part of this challenge is talking about your thankfulness. Take your list and go and thank the people on it or the people who have given you the things you are thankful for!

So this Thanksgiving season I challenge all of us to have a thoughtful, grateful heart and pass it on. You will be surprised at how it can change your heart and the hearts of those around you. Please comment below about your experience and some of the things you are thankful for. I look forward to reading your comments!

Happy Thanksgiving!

One of my biggest wanderings was going to Africa this summer. I had the wonderful privilege to travel with 6 other Trinity teachers to the country of Zimbabwe in southern Africa. We were given the opportunity to help in 6 primary schools in the Matopo Hills area.

That trip changed my life. I have visited other countries before and seen poverty around the world, but never have I seen poverty like I saw in Zimbabwe, especially in the schools. One of the many things that blew me away was the joy I saw, in spite of the poverty surrounding these small children’s lives. If you want to read more about our trip and see some awesome pictures click here to get to our trip blog.

Yesterday, along with the 6 other teachers, we put on a whole school assembly sharing about our trip to Africa. We wrote a book about our trip, which we read out loud to the whole school, we had African dancing, and the whole school participated in African drumming. It was so much fun getting to share our trip with the people we see almost everyday and seeing their reactions to our pictures and experiences. It also made me miss Africa so much and the friends I made during my time there.

What is a big trip or experience that has changed your life? What was it like to share your experience with others? How did it make you feel?

In class today we watched this video.

The first time I saw this rap video, made by a teenager, I felt ashamed and humbled. Many of the “problems” he was rapping about are funny, but then I think about how this can look like a typical day for me. Yuck! How many times am I frustrated because I do not have my power cord and my lap top battery is about to run out? How many times do I find myself really annoyed or angry about silly things, that are just simply first world problems?

I remember the first couple of weeks after my trip to Zimbabwe, I found myself taking nothing for granted. Every hot shower, ice cold Diet Coke, full grocery store, and drive through everything, was a reminder of what the people in Zimbabwe did not have. Now, I do not think anything about grabbing a Diet Coke or a hot shower whenever I feel like it.

This video reminded me this week to be thankful for all the opportunities I am given, just living in the first world. It also made me think, what can I do to help the third world?

What about you? What are your thoughts or reactions after listening to the rap?

In our 5th and 6th grade Science classes we have the awesome opportunity to use video iPod touches. Originally Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. Burton purchased the iPods to give students assessments (tests) in a different way, but we have discovered we are going to be able to do much more with them! We have already used them during River Kids, just last month our 5th graders were interviewing each other while they were testing the PH levels in the Chattahoochee River. Our fabulous Director of Technology, Mr. Morrison, has been a huge help with brainstorming some inventive ways to use the iPods in the science classroom. Yesterday, we went and visited Atlanta Girls School, right down the street from Trinity, to see how they are using iPods in their classrooms. AGS has been using iPods to enhance their teaching instruction for about four years, so we were eager to get some fabulous ideas from them!

They were so helpful and offered some great advice on using iPods in the classroom.  One teacher uploads videos, articles, or podcasts onto an iPod for a student to watch, then as they are doing the assignment she has them taking notes on their computer, which is projected up onto the Promethean Board. Students can then see what their classmates are thinking as they are reading, watching, and listening. She also prints those out as notes for the students to use, what a great way to get students sharing and learning together through technology!

They also shared some apps that they use, and you better believe I wrote all of them down. Just a few great ones are ResponseWare (allows you to upload questions and outlines onto the iPods for students to use), Project Noah (identifies plants animals or insects you do not know), and PI83 (a full graphing calculator).

We were also inspired to set up a Twitter account for Science, so while we are out of the classroom (perhaps in Jekyll Island or by the river) we can share what we are doing with parents and other teachers (who can tell their students)! So follow us on Twitter (trinity_science) and see what we are up to!

Stay tuned to see how our iPod experiment goes! Do you have any cool new ways that we can use our iPods in science class or can you share your experience using iPods at school?