This I Believe, 2012

So, I’ve been thinking about our recent “This I Believe” unit. I tried to develop it into a collaborative projectand a few other classes signed up, but it didn’t get as much traction as I had hoped. There’s always next year. Anyway, I forged ahead myself. I teach in a classroom that is usually self-contained. [...]

The Power of Discovery

So, I’ve been thinking about how my students learn things–things that I’ve been trying to teach them, repeatedly. The other day we were doing some writing connected to our “This I Believe” study. (See here and here for more details.) As usual, we had talked about the assignment. Students had worked on a planning sheet. [...]

Sometimes Plans Just Work Out

So, I’ve been thinking about how impressive 5th graders are sometimes. I wrote about my new unit plan the day before yesterday; I know 2 posts in 3 days?! You can read about the whole thing here. But, the point of this post is that yesterday my students were writing “This I Believe” type pieces, [...]

5E Day, Update

So, I’ve been thinking about our class climate. In the beginning of the year I had what I called “5E Day” with my class, which was loosely based on George Couros’ Identity day. (Read about it here and about its impact here.) One of the comments to my description of the resulting class tone wondered [...]