Friday, November 9, 2012

Owl Pellet Dissection

We dissected owl pellets for science today.  WOW!  What an amazing experience for the kiddos.  They were completely engaged and there was that buzz in the classroom...  you know, the one where the room is humming and the kids are working and you're thinking, WOW!!  Even my most distracted student was humming!  

I have a student who has attendance issues.  She doesn't come to school on Friday for many reasons.  Today she showed up at 8:45 a.m., about one hour late.  She told me that she woke up late, mom told her she wasn't going to school, but she made mom drop her off.  All because she couldn't bear to miss this lab.  Whatever the pellets cost, it was worth it because school became relevant for this student.  For her, the learning was incredible... inferences and connections.  It was the moment that makes you realize how important school is and how thankful I am that I became a teacher!




Monday, October 22, 2012

Getting Started

Okay, I am completely new to this and feeling very uncomfortable as I write this post.  I created this blog awhile ago, stalked a lot of blogs, and waited for the inspiration to come to me!  No such luck...  So, I signed up to be part of an awesome postcard exchange and one of the rules is that I need to have a blog - there it is, my inspiration and motivation to start blogging.

This year, our school is using Habits of Mind (anyone else using this?).  One of the habits is Taking Responsible Risks.  As I teach my students to be risk takers, I need to listen to my own lesson and be a risk taker.  I will do that by writing this and opening up my classroom challenges, successes, and failures to others through this blog.