Tell me again why do they have to sit in chairs?

Here's what I think makes an ideal classroom...at any age!

*Movement
*Laughter
*Connections- to real life, to the past, to the environment...(art, music, drama) connect the dots
*high interest
*hands on
*Make it motivating
*Care
*hit all modalities

*MOVEMENT- unless you are deeply engaged in a great book, life and the learning year is to short for the ongoing, total lack of interst, I'm writing notes secretely, doodling to hold my attention, did I remember to feed the dog, lecture. This week students in 5th grade were creating a simulated colonial village, cutting, sewing & designing colonial outfits, and designing a village shop with items to sell and activities to teach. They have been busy all month learning about the 13 original colonies, the economics of the time period and the reasons and effects individuals colonized throughout North America. As our grade level sat down to feast on a colonial meal of stew, biscuits, homemade butter, lemonade or tea (oops, we forgot the salad in ye olde frig) students expressed their contentment and enthusiasm for the day. They understood the basic concepts of supply & demand (if you set your price right, colonists will come) if you have a cool product more colonists will come than what you may be prepared for!!
There is nothing more frightening in fifth grade than being asked to DANCE, being asked to dance with a partner of a difference gender is enough to send goosebumps up and down your spine (or so I have it on good authority from a couple of young ladies and one gentleman who asked to remain anonymous) but dance they did, 99 of them, and they were good!

Long story short, get up out of those chairs and let authentic, exciting, empowering learning take place. "Only the curious will learn and only the resolute will overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligent quotient.

Wordle...a cool new application

As a teacher trying to find exciting new connections for my students and my own children I LOVE WORDLE...
I love how you can take any form of text and create amazing word art, I love that children can take passages and text that fascinate them, excite them or they just have some type of connection to and create powerful, fascinating, amazing art! word clouds are FUN!!!


WWW.WORDLE.NET

Can a book be as good if someone else reads it?

Well, my student teachers last week to teach is next week and I am pretty excited about getting to teach full time, all lessons, my way, again!! So, I've been pondering how to kick off my lifebooks/morning writing prompt in an engaging way. I would like to see them excited about interactive poetry and I'm thinking if I have any time this weekend I would like to create a wiki site that students can add their thoughts about poems to. I don't know where people find all the time to be on a computer, shuffling through the heaps of websites to find "the perfect" few.

A second thought might be to use online books (storyline online, lookybook, etc) and have students work on their writing techniques. I can't commit but if I have any free time this weekend I'm going to search for some intereactive sites for poetry that my students might really enjoy.

On a different note, my friends Denise & Darin shared their injured chick with my clan this week. So far, she seems to be getting along pretty well and taking her to class with me appears to be a BIG HIT! The kids can't wait to take her outside for her daily exercise routine and she appears to be in fairly good health and behaving just like a chicken ought to pecking, drinking, cheeping even with the brain injury. If we can get her to have been control of her legs she'll be out of the woods I hope. Last night we put her into bed and she let out the most outraged peeps you have ever heard (I think she may be spoiled already). She's cute as a button though and apparently an Italian chicken so I'm sure Granny Ann will approve!

Finally, I have got to start adding some pictures to this blogspot...I am going to work on improving the style of this spot and step 1 is getting pictures. My goal: add pics of new baby hen (Xena, Princess warrior, chickadee) possibly Snickerdoodle (who is outside screaming for attention right now) Montana & the goats. If I ever get to Easter pictures a pic of yours truly might be an option too!!!
Alrighty, Ken's up, Alex is sick and Val's getting ready for work. Let the day begin :^)

Oops, don't you hate it when you arrive late to movie and you have missed the beginning...well, you didn't miss the beginning here because I DIDN'T WRITE IT! So, let me begin by saying that I have never, ever written a blog before but I really wanted a way to track both my school life and the anecdotes of my three fabulous children at home and my 29 cuties in my classroom. This is my way to chronicle life's ups and downs, the humor that only children (be they 8 or 18) can bring to your life, and share my day with all the wonderful children that I have been blessed to share each and every day with! A BIG SHOUT OUT to Kimberly for inspiring me, humouring me and being my techie (you rock!!!) TH

I can't believe that spring break has come and gone! How can 9 days go by so quickly!!!! I know that I will have 29 smiling faces waiting at my door tomorrow, mostly smiling, I'm sure there will be a few that greet me with enormous yawns (but I won't take that personally) because my night owls won't have gotten use to their early morning routine YET.



This year is flying by with record speed, only 9 weeks left before my little nest of falcons fly off to the BIG TIME in 6th grade, and my little Val becomes a graduate of high school. I can't remember who said it but that quote is a good one I think "Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend." and this year has been well spent by both Valerie and my class of cuties too!



Well, everyone at my house is settling in for the night, which means I need to get busy preparing for the upcoming week of learning. SWEET DREAMS :)