5E Day, 2011 version

So, I’m still thinking about 5E Day. (see earlier posts here and here). I followed the same format as before. I showed the Daniel Pink book trailer video for Drive which asks “what is your sentence?”. I gave some examples. I allowed about a week of think time. I waited. Once again, great success. This [...]

First Day of School 2011

So, I’ve been thinking about how I haven’t posted anything here in a really long time. I’ll try to write about that later. But, today was the first day of school. Besides going over the boring basic stuff, we made labels for our cubbies, listened to this Yoyo Ma tune for a little dancing, and [...]

Transformation

So, I’ve been doing a lot of planning for the next weeks and new year and it’s seeming like this year is going to be a big change. I know, it’s after winter break and I’m a little late to be noticing this key fact. (Since I started this post ages ago, it’s really been [...]

Game On!

So, I’ve been thinking about the great conversation I had with my class yesterday. It was the kind of conversation we don’t usually have until a lot later in the year. I’ve been thinking about why it went so well. First let me tell you what my definition of “going well” is. In 5th grade [...]

My Version of Identity Day Update 1

So, I’ve been thinking about my class version of George Couros’ “Identity Day.” I heard him describe it at part of the Reform Symposium. (Catch the archived version here.) Let me give a little background. I showed this video as a start to our conversation about ourselves. The video is a book trailer for Daniel [...]

Packing for Back to School

So, I’ve been thinking about getting ready for school. We had our first half day on Wednesday, but with the holiday on Thursday, we didn’t have a real, full day until Friday. (I am happy to report no one bailed after that first 1/2 day.) I’ve done the standard getting ready stuff: arranged the room, [...]