I thought I would give you a quick update on my progress toward my PGP goals.
1. Inquiry: The Buck Institute Project Based Learning 101 has propelled me into a new level for inquiry learning. I am striving to teach and assess both curricular outcomes and 21st Century Leaning skills. Our Recess Fun Project has come to life with my students. Just yesterday, a pair of my students told me that they found someone who was lonely on the playground and invited them to play. They reported that they were all having fun. Outside classroom application of learning makes my heart sing. Oh happy day!
2. Smart Learning: We continue to build our skills by practicing partner talk and thinking about the coaching cards. We have been working on a Sequence using The Hockey Card. To my surprise, the students did not have much connections to hockey cards. They did however have connections to Montreal. This sequence became a lovely way to tie in Social outcomes regarding rural and urban communities. I love how Smart learning uncovers prior knowledge of individual students that can be shared and built upon for the whole class.
3. Gender Based Differentiation:
I have a few male students who are really struggling with literacy and numeracy. I have seen some exciting "aha moments" for them. Interestingly, these transformative moments have been happening during times when students have been building or exploring learning in non-traditional ways. For example, one of my kiddos has not been able to count past 13. When he built an enormous vehicle during center time and showed me, I asked, "How many wheels does that vehicle have?" He counted 18 without any hesitation. Oh happy day!!! (Oh how I wished that there had been a few more wheels to count).
I will share another example from show and tell. We use a format that has somewhat of an element of competition. Students hide their show and tell item and give clues to the class. The students ask questions and try to deduce what the item is. It has become a prestigious thing to "stump the class." During show and tell time, I noticed one of my students standing off to the side of the group saying "t, t, t, t". He had heard an initial sound. This was already an "Oh Happy Day" moment, but it got better. I asked, "Which letter says t?" He thought for a second and replied "t". I am amazed at how this young man's brain is able to grasp difficult concepts during active learning times.
Although these students are not "at grade level" yet, I am so encouraged to see them making significant strides toward our learning goals. I am motivated to learn more so that I can facilitate more of these productive learning times for all learners.
