Sixth Grade Teachers

In my trek across the country (Boston to Atlanta, Atlanta to LA) today and my flight across the Pacific (LA to Kahului) tonight, I will have plenty of time to process my experience at BLC this week. I feel encouraged by what we are beginning to do at Trinity with education and technology. Obviously, there’s so much more out there, but the sixth grade team of teachers and students jumped in last year with enthusiasm and courage. And, as a result, we have great stories of success.

In Ewan McIntosh’s Keynote, he asked us to think about three questions as the week progressed. I wanted to include them here, as I’ll try to address them in my mind and hopefully in writing over the course of the next couple of weeks.

1)      What simple tools make learning become remarkable?

2)      How can one create a shared awareness of learning goals?

3)      What changes could be made to get small, passionate groups creating themselves?

Overall, I am most excited about the connections I made this week. I already feel as though my network is expanding, and I am anxious to learn more about teaching and technology from people like John Davitt, Laura Deisley, Clarence Fisher, Darren Kuropatwa, Ewan McIntosh, Brian Mull, Bob Sprankle, and others.

I am challenged by so many of the things I learned as well. Alan November’s presentation (and book) on Webliteracy has inspired me to teach the grammar of the internet with the same gusto that I teach English grammar (and sentence diagramming!). Jessica Flannery’s KIVA presentation on Wednesday caused me to re-think the way I teach my students about community service. I see the implications of this new approach directly affecting the focus of my explorations class next year. My conversation with John Davitt at lunch (as well as his presentation) inspired me to think about how my students can live in both the digital world and the real world. How can their writer’s notebooks, art sketchpads, and blogs be combined to capture and reflect on the world as they see it? 

Although it’s tempting to broaden the scope of my thoughts to Trinity School and the total sixth grade experience, I know that I need to think about 2246 and my class of sixteen students. I want to make a measurable difference by changing and shifting, not by adding. To do this, I have a lot more thinking to do…

Luckily, I have many miles to travel before I sleep…

The time I spent in Kenya this summer will have a lasting impact on who I am. I love the country, the people, the culture. It is a place where joy truly thrives. 

Since I had an opportunity to travel to Kenya this summer, I especially enjoyed teaching our social studies unit on African empires. As a culmination to our unit, sixth graders completed an “African Adventure” with one of the sixth grade teachers. One group learned about symbolism in African art with Mrs. Bauer and made clay masks with beads, cowrie shells, and raffia. Another group studied endangered animals with Mr. Parrish and used their understanding of scale to enlarge a photo of their favorite African animal. Mrs. Berry taught a group about African music and dance, and the students carefully created their own rendition of a tribal dance with drums, costumes, and all sorts of instruments!

My group explored a variety of current events occurring in rural and urban areas on the African continent. After learning about deforestation in Ghana, the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, economic decline in Zimbabwe, and the illegal ivory trade, students researched an environmental, political, or social issue that is affecting the African people. After conducting research, students worked individually or in pairs to craft a narrative that highlights how one person (male or female, adult or child) is personally affected by the environmental, political, or social issue. The narrative, told in first person through the eyes of the imaginary character, was recorded in a Windows Photostory.

I will link to all of the photostories in another post, but I wanted to highlight Lizzie and Mariam’s work because of its connection to Martin Fisher, a definite hero of mine and social entrepreneur. I had the pleasure of meeting Martin when I attended Renaissance Weekend in Charleston over Thanksgiving break and his work is affecting hundreds of thousands of people. His commitment to ending poverty in Africa and KickStart, his non-profit organization, give me great hope for the continent which I love so much.

Mariam and Lizzie have both written posts about the impact that Martin Fisher’s work has had on them. Their posts are powerful and well worth reading. Additionally, their photostory is articulate, creative, and moving. I am proud of these girls and their interest in what is happening in the world around them.

KickStart

Although I have a few more report cards to write and (what feels like) miles to go before I sleep, my thoughts keep jumping to the exciting things that are happening in the sixth grade hall. This list is more for me since I haven’t posted in over a month, but I am making a March resolution to post much more often. It’ll be my own March madness of blogging since the UVA Cavaliers have no hope whatsoever. Anyways, here’s a quick list of the things that are inspiring me (in no order)…

• - White Lilacs (the novel), our class discussions around hard topics (prejudice, racism, civil rights), and my class’s engagement and excitement about their work on the WL wiki

• - field trips to the Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, the Joseph Sams School in Atlanta, and the Breman Musuem in Atlanta

• - a very intelligent and interesting student in Mrs. Bauer’s class, Graha, and his independent posts

• - my PLC at Trinity (and the potential to do some innovative things next year with the Trinity community)

• - my own learning as a result of PLP with Will and Sheryl

• - overwhelmingly positive feedback from my class on their experiences with maintaining their own blogs (when I am in need of inspiration, I read their reflections on what they have learned about themselves, their classmates, and this new medium of making connections) which initiated an article in TTW 

• - the Africa Adventures project (14 students are writing narratives and making photostories about current issues facing places and/or peoples in Africa)

• - Isaba, Grawh, Emmre, Jonbr, Erith, Linsc, Welde, Phojo, Allla, Chrke, Stebo, Emmku, Annmc, Ausmc, Tanch, and Heljo – sixteen kids who are doing some amazing web 2.0 work on top of everything else they have on their plate