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December 3, 2009: Teachable Moments
Sometimes we end up at strange places in our classroom conversations. Today we discussed some of the medical practices of the Corps of Discovery (Lewis and Clark Expedition). Students learned more about Meriwether Lewis’ medical training for the expedition, conducted by Dr. Benjamin Rush.
Dr. Rush is a fascinating historical figure. He is one of four doctors who had previously signed the Declaration of Independence, and now, around 20 years later, he was the leading doctor in the U.S. He is also known as the father of American psychiatry, which brought up a visit I made to St. Joseph a few years ago.
One of the creepiest and most interesting museums in St. Joseph is the Glore Psychiatric Museum. This museum showcases some of the earliest methods of dealing with psychiatric patients (which would have then included physically handicapped people, people with Cerebral Palsy and other conditions, and autistic patients). The methods used sometimes seem arcane and primitive. In fact, the methods displayed have a similar feel to them as a medival torture chamber, but anyone with experience in current methods and tools of psychiatry can see similarities.
Today, methodology is softer and appears more humane. Today, with all the research that has been done, more and more of the people treated are functioning in neighborhoods and even in our schools. With Cecil Floyd School accommodating many of our community’s autistic students, these subjects are near to our hearts. Students hopefully understand a little more about the needs of our neighbors and friends.
It’s not where we were headed at the beginning of the lesson, and it wasn’t in our plans for the day. It was a teachable moment that was too good to let pass.
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December 2, 2009: Talking Across Time
We had the rare opportunity, today, to talk to a Civil War soldier – Yes, from the 1860s. Through the magic of technology, and with help from Virent Broadcasting in Ohio, we crossed the space-time continuum.
The Yankee soldier showed and described to us his uniform, his equipment, and life in the military. Ask your child what was presented.
Traditionally, we learn about the Civil War during the spring, but when you get to talk to the 1860s from 2009, you have to take it.
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November 29, 2009: What’s Happening?
I’ve just added lots of photos of our recent classroom events. Some pages in our Show-and-Tell galleries have been updated; others have been added. Enjoy!
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November 28, 2009: MAPping Difficulty
The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) reports the Nation’s Report Card. You can read the details in this thorough report for yourself, but suffice it to say that the report indicates that Missouri’s fourth assessment, the MAP test administered in the spring, is the second most difficult of all 50 states. Conversely, Oklahoma’s PASS exams for the fourth grade are the second easiest of the 50 states.
At times it can be difficult to report different results from two bordering states that have such a broad range in the levels of expectations. The challenge of NCES is to level the playing field and report their findings. NCES allows us to feel a smidgen of relief in that our leaders expect more of our students, and that we continue to raise our achievement levels.
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November 27, 2009: Holiday Activities
While Christmas is approaching, the educational process must continue. We have very little time remaining before the Christmas Program, and I have a few homemade Math and Reading projects to do, as well.
Last year, I finally made the decision to create some activities that addressed the skills fourth graders in Missouri are supposed to develop. As a result, we will be doing some measuring of the North Pole and all its glory. We will begin with linear measurement and then slide into perimeter and area. Finally, we will take a stab at volume.
There will also be an opportunity to extend our geometry lessons. We haven’t gone deep enough with geometry, but during the next weeks, we will revisit and introduce this important set of lessons.
We have a couple of art projects planned, but primarily we will be trying to finish all the units we have begun (Motion and Design, Hoggatt Cave, Geomepalooza, etc.) in order to begin fresh in 2010.
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November 23, 2009: Academic All-Stars
It was an honor just to watch my students (both last year and current) cross the stage in tonight’s Academic All-Stars. You can view the event on JET-14, our district’s cable channel.
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November 12, 2009: News and Notes
We sent notes home, yesterday, asking parents’ permission to include their children in our Christmas program on Thursday, December 17. This year’s program promises to be one of the best productions our school has ever seen, but we need your students to be in the show. If you have no objections to this sort of program – one about Santa, the elves, reindeer, toys, and some dancing snowmen – please return the note to me tomorrow.
Also, the PTO is sponsoring a great night of food, fun, and fellowship, next Thursday at 6pm. This is a PTO Parent Night, and includes door prizes for attendees. Please plan to attend.
Unfortunately, I will be out of town next Thursday and Friday for the state teacher’s convention. I am one of three voting delegates from Joplin Schools, and we typically decide important positions for Missouri’s teachers. For this reason, there will be no homework next week (also no homework the following week because of Thanksgiving). We will, however, have a spelling test next week.
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November 5, 2009: Good Morning
We are fully into our Motion and Design unit for Science, and students are enjoying themselves quite a bit. Initially, our investigations were focused more on designing vehicles, including constructing a vehicle (using K’Nex building pieces) from a technical drawing. Yesterday and today were focused more on variables that could affect the movement of the vehicle. First, students constructed a drop-weight system to test the affect changes in force have on the speed of the vehicle. Then today, we added a load to the vehicle, again to discover the affect on the speed of the vehicle.
I had thought the addition of stopwatches, blocks of wood, and graphing results might be too complicated for the class, but every group took the investigation seriously. They cooperated very well, and I heard several comments about how much fun it was and how much they like learning in this way.
All in all, our morning has progressed very well, and students have remained engaged for most of the time. Hopefully our afternoon will go as well. If we get things to the point I have planned, we have a little surprise activity planned for tomorrow which combines Motion and Design with the Corps of Discovery (Lewis and Clark).
