Quick like a cockroach

How do you motivate students after five tedious days of testing? I challenge them to a race.

Actually, I'm not sure how it happened. I think maybe they issued the challenge--two of my boys (a second-grader & a first-grader). "Don't forget to bring your running shoes!" they reminded me multiple times. Well, of course I forgot yesterday, and then they were trash-talking me: "I bet Ms. S. runs like this" (accompanied by slow-motion running pantomime). I think I heard the "Chariots of Fire" theme song.

This morning, they checked to see if I brought the shoes. "Are you wearing THOSE shoes for the race?"
"No, I brought some different shoes."
"Yeah, remember she has those green shoes?" True--last year's running shoes (they laugh when I call them sneakers: "SNEAKers! Ah, ha, ha, ha!") were green, but those have long since been replaced. I haven't worn them since summer when they got swamped wading through a tidal cave in the Bahamas! How do they remember these things?

There was diligent work all morning, with children urgently reminding each other that they wouldn't want to miss the race at recess, and much speculation about who will win. "Ms. S. has longer legs than you."
"Yeah, but I'm lighter and gravity doesn't pull on me as much. So I'll be light and fast like a cockroach." Hmm, not the simile I'd choose for myself, but there ya go.

I was sure they'd beat beat me, but I did manage to motivate two wiggly little boys for a few days and provide much entertainment for the rest of the class. "Can we make signs for you?" "What's your favorite color?"
"Hey! How come their sign is bigger than mine?"

With much cheering and hand-made signs attached to rulers, the race was on! One lap around the track.

"Ready, set, start! They ran and ran. Then Jalen fell over! And then Jalen takes the lead and Nkozi stops! What?! He starts to walk. Then Jalen comes in 1st, Ms. S. in 2nd, and Nkozi in 3rd, and the crowd screams and asks for autographs."--JB, 3rd grade

It was not the sound defeat I expected. Jalen fell and I had to go back to check for blood and tears (no, on both counts), but I received a second place "ribbon" with my name on it, handmade with my favorite color of construction paper. "That's STILL pretty good, Ms. S. Way to go!" Jalen's "trophy" was a construction paper foot (picture a cross between Italy and a cowboy boot). Then, there was an onslaught of pretend paparazzi, wanting to take my picture, and real requests for autographs. "You should write about this on the blog, Ms. S." There is already talk of a re-match.

Magnify your world

Early last week, Mrs. D. overheard one of the children say, “I can’t wait ’till our microscopes come.” My sentiments exactly! Thanks to generous contributors to our DonorsChoose project, we were slated to receive a stereo microscope, in addition to a durable Magiscope and padded field case to take along on field trips.

Later in the week, when our secretary stopped to tell me, “There’s a box in the office with your name on it, and it says ‘Fragile,’” I could hardly contain myself. Even though I knew what it was and we were testing that morning, I had to open the box. Mrs. D. says I’m funny when I open packages. Must be something about the squealing and hand-clapping involved . . . . . . . OK, sometimes, there’s also a bit of a dance.

"I think using a microscope is fun! We get to see things (crystals, humus, hair, etc.) up close! It's very exciting that we get our own microscope."--EN, 3rd grade
“To use a microscope you have to use it properly. First thing, don’t put the lens too close to the material. There’s a part where you adjust it so your eyes are comfortable. And on the microscope there’s a plate that has a black and a white side. You can change it when you have a dark or light object. The dark object goes on the white side and the light object goes on the dark side.” –CJ, 3rd grade
I pulled out a hair, and we examined it on the black side of the stage plate.

Looking at a piece of printed type, we discovered that the Magiscope inverts the image of the letters. “It’s upside down!”

We brought in aphids, who are currently attempting to devour the Mexican Butterfly Weed in our garden. We could see them in their different stages, crawling around on the seed pod. A surprised smile of discovery spread across the face of each child, as s/he brought the image into focus. “Oh, wow!” “Awesome!”

A first-grader dissolved into angry tears and when he was finally calm enough to tell me what was wrong, it developed that our third-grade self-appointed bug handler had done what most of us would do to dispose of a cockroach. Crunch! “But I [sniff] wanted to [sniff] look [sniff] at the cockroach [sniff] moving [sniff] under the microscope!”

I can sympathize. When a friend who is currently living in India wrote to tell me that she, her husband, and her cat were all playing host to an ungrateful group of biting mites, I couldn’t help thinking, “Eewww!” immediately followed by “I wonder what they look like under the microscope!”

Testing . . . testing

. . . testing

“I’m not sure how I feel about testing today. I am sort of excited and sort of nervous. If there is a feeling of those feelings, I’d call it excivous. So I am excivous. But mostly excited.”—EN, 3rd grade.

Actually, our students enjoy testing far more than their teachers. Frankly, I think there is no quicker way to numb the mind and dampen the creative spirit of a teacher than to pile on the tests. One principal I admire points out that we wouldn't think of yanking a carrot from the ground on a daily basis to check if it's growing. Obviously, this would make growth a challenge for the carrot. Yet somehow we spend more and more time checking to see if children are learning and less time allowing them to learn and explore.

I think I understand what happens. When teachers leave the classroom and become administrators, they get nervous. How can I be sure that the students for whom I am responsible are learning? Far removed from the classroom, they can’t see the children’s curious faces or hear their thoughtful questions. So we put learning on Pause and administer tests: TPRI, High Frequency Word Evaluation, Stanford 10, TAKS, but it doesn’t stop there. When the stakes are high (and bonuses are on the line), they become even more nervous and issue tests to see if we’re ready for the test: TAKS release tests, CBAs, common assessments. With all these tests, the only thing of which we can all be certain is that there is less time for learning.

We do what we can to help the children relax and do their best. In an increasingly data-driven culture, good test-taking habits will serve the children well for the rest of their educational careers. The children treasure our testing traditions. We begin the morning with a snack and journal-writing.




Each child visits the restroom, and then we go for a quick jog/walk around the track to get the blood flowing.




Next, we gather our chapter books and water bottles and hunker down behind partitions for a long morning of silently sitting in rows, bubbling in answers. In between test sections, we take a break to stretch and breathe.

Two more days to go . . .

Holes

When I announced to the class that we were going to go outside and dig a hole, I was met with spontaneous applause. 'Yay! Digging a hole!' I didn’t think much of it because excitement about science is not uncommon in our classroom, but after school Mrs. D. laughed that only my class would cheer about digging a hole.




My plan was to quickly dig two holes, one near our building and one near the garden, measuring the depth and taking samples as we dug. Then we’d move on to the real learning—examining the samples and comparing the soil components present in the two different holes. Once again, I miscalculated. We only got as far as digging one hole that day, but that one hole provided wonderful discoveries:







Soil forms different colored layers.
There’s clay down there!
That looks like a brick!
Digging became more difficult as our hole grew deeper. “Boy, it really would be hard to dig a hole to the other side of the world!”

I had no idea that the digging of the hole would be such a learning experience. I guess children don’t dig holes anymore. We filled in the hole because my wise and thoughtful students worried it was a safety hazard for other children, but Ms. A. dug it up again so that she could show her students during after-school tutorials. A couple of students who happened to pass by were so intrigued that they joined her group for the afternoon.

The following week, I invited any interested students to join me during recess to dig the second hole. Only three dedicated souls joined me.

Our first attempt at the second hole failed miserably. Even when one of my diggers hopped up and down on our shovel, we weren’t able to penetrate the grass. I was ready to give up and wait for another day when I could bring a more heavy-duty adult-size shovel. Undeterred, one of the children suggested we try in a spot where the grass was browned and largely dead. Bingo---much easier digging!

Not long into the digging, one of my diggers observed, “Only girls wanted to dig. Maybe boys don’t like science as much.” “I think the boys just like to play more,” suggested another. I suspect this is closer to the truth—we’d been testing all morning and the lure of running and playing was too much competition for digging holes—but I am heartened that my girls are so blissfully unaware of conventional gender stereotypes.

“I wish I could keep a chart of this in my mind.” Great idea! Scientists use illustrations to record what they see and to help them think as they work. Soon, she was running inside for paper, clipboard, and colored pencils.

When we finished the hole, we called the class together so that the girls could share their observations:
There are roots and other living things in this hole.
The soil in this hole is darker.
The soil in this hole is looser and easier to dig.
Why might the soil in the two holes be different? “Maybe because it gets more water?” (The hole near the building was under an overhang, while our second hole was open to the sky and the rain.) “Maybe building materials were dumped near the building.”

“There’s a worm!”
Hmm. We didn’t find any living things in the hole near the building. Why might that be?
“There’s less sun there.”
“It doesn’t get as much rain.”
Mrs. D. shared the sad truth that there may be another reason. Our custodians have been known to dump mop water, floor stripper, and wax from summer floor-polishing in the spot by the building. Not so good for living things, I think.



What we're reading:
Kids Discover Soil
Dirt by Steve "The Dirtmeister" Tomecek (National Geographic)

What I’m reading:
Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv

Yes we can!

It’s a funny thing, the way scarcity and determination spawn creativity. Yes we can! So often is the case with teaching. Back in November (first thing in the morning, the day after Election Day), I reserved a television for today.

This morning, I managed to fashion an antenna from a paperclip and a borrowed coat hanger so that we could actually use the television to watch the inauguration. ‘Can you see it now?’

Yes, we can!

We watched the crowds with awe and amazement at the vast number of people who willingly stood in the cold to participate in this historic event.



We watched as President Elect Obama, with tears in his eyes, waited to enter and be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.

As President Obama made his eloquent inaugural address, I wondered how many children fully understood the meaning of his words. Whether or not they understood his speech today, I am grateful for the paperclip and coat hanger that allowed my students to see him give it. I know they appreciate the courage it takes to be a "first." I still remember gathering in a classroom to watch the launch (and explosion) of the Challenger Shuttle, as Christa McAuliffe was to become the first teacher to travel to space. Today is a joyful day that I hope will become one of those “Where were you when...” moments embedded in the children’s memories. Celebratory shouts (from adults) rang out on our campus, followed by celebratory cupcakes, sponsored by our PTO.

What advice do the children have for our new president?
“I would tell President Obama not to make any crazy rules. On 2nd thought he’s a very smart and intelligent man so that he probably won’t do that.” “If I talked to him before the inauguration I would tell him to do good, give it your all, and do your best. I would tell him he’s a great man and I am very proud of him for trying.”—CJ, 3rd grade
“To live in a better place we shouldn’t have others littering on school grounds because who would want to live in a trashed world?”—MH, 3rd grade
“I would tell him to end the war and get people’s jobs back.”—JB, 3rd grade
“I would tell our soon-to-be-president Barack Obama that maybe he should use peaceful problem solving words. Martin Luther King didn’t start war, did he? (I think not.)”—EN, 3rd grade

We watched until George W. Bush stepped onto the helicopter to officially depart from the White House. Our nation is changing before our eyes, and I am hopeful for a bright future. Wheels up!




What we’re reading:
I Have a Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Underground Railroad (KIDS DISCOVER)
Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine
Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles
Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
Dinner at Aunt Connie's House by Faith Ringgold
Civil Rights (KIDS DISCOVER)
Growing Up in the Civil Rights Movement (AppleSeeds)

Please pass the borax

Note: The children asked me to delay this post until after Christmas, so as to keep the gifts a surprise. One student later told me she checked December 26th to see if I had posted anything yet. Well. I certainly intended to . . .

As December approaches, Mrs. D. and I are on the look-out for creative homemade holiday gift ideas. This year, Kat Havens at the Houston Museum of Natural Science supplied the perfect solution (pun intended). Homemade crystal ornaments—science activity and holiday gift in one! Three cheers for Kat! We were already deep into geology, and then, just to make our crystal study even more relevant and exciting, it snowed! You see potential snowman, I see fabulous crystal lesson—potāto, potŏto.

"You have a few steps to make the ornaments we're making now.
Let's go over the safety rules. There will be hot water. You may step back when that step comes. You have to buy borax and save glass jars and have pipe cleaners and yarn. I think you can find borax inside Walmart in the washing materials section.
1) You make the shape of the ornament with pipe cleaners. Make something that fits in the jar without touching the jar with the pipe cleaners.
2) Second you need to make HOT water and pour it inside the jar and put about 6 or 7 scoops of borax. Stir until the borax dissolves.

"When you mix a solid and a liquid, that's called a solution! Solutions are fun!" --WL, 3rd grade
3) Tie the pipe cleaner to your pencil or pen and put the pipe cleaner in the glass jar. Make sure your ornament does not touch the bottom.
4) Let it stay in the jar for like 2 or 3 hours. You will need something on your hands while carrying the glass jar.
5) Then take it out and there will be crystals everywhere on the pipe cleaner. Then we will put a ribbon on it and after all that hard work you should have a nice ornament. Hang it on the Christmas tree or give it as a present. Happy holiday!!!"--CJ, MH, WL, KE, 3rd grade

The crystals we produced were hugely varied, and we got curious about why. Why did some ornaments sport large crystals and others develop tiny powdery crystals? We checked our ornaments and the same type of pipe cleaner had produced both varieties of crystals.

The same shape had produced both large and small crystals.

What could it be? We turned to what we know about geology. Volcanoes form a variety of crystal sizes in igneous rocks, depending on cooling time. Could THAT be what is affecting crystal size?


To check, we developed an experiment. How could we test whether cooling time affected crystal size? What could we do to speed up cooling time? Put it in a cool place---maybe the refrigerator, suggested a student. What could we do to slow it down? Put it in a warm place . . . or put something around it, maybe a towel. Another child pointed out that some of our jars already had crystals attached to the wall (leftover from a previous round of ornament-making) when we mixed the solution. Maybe that caused the difference in crystal size? We were careful to clean both jars before beginning our experiment. We used the same size jar, mixed a borax solution in a single container and then shared it equally between the two jars, used the same type of pipe cleaner, and formed the same shape with both.



With both jars equally full of borax solution and with their pencil/pipe cleaner/string combos installed,

we wrapped one with hot pads (a crystal cozy!)

and placed another in the refrigerator.

Hmm--not a lot different. Maybe something else is going on. Could it be as one first grader suggested, that some of our jars already had crystals attached to the wall? Could it be that some ambitious youth put more borax in the solution than others? Back to "the lab" for more experimenting! I smell a Science Fair project!



More of Kat’s creative Christmas crafts:
Christmas chromatography
Marvelous marbled ornaments
pH paper from a poinsettia

Houston, we have a problem

In the classroom, it is easy to get busy and fail to notice a growing and unsightly mess.

We had to laugh when we saw one of our smaller children literally dive into the mess with both hands and her face, in an attempt to locate her "finished work" file. Unless we intend to outfit everyone with a snorkel, something must be done.

Everyone must sort their work, choose samples to save in their portfolios, and take the rest of it home. However, we just can't bring ourselves to shove mangled stacks of work into the children's Communications Folders.

Art to the rescue!

The children are busily creating beautiful printed envelopes so that the work can be presented to parents with pride.

Peace on Earth

"Preventing conflicts is the work of politics; establishing peace is the work of education."
—Dr. Maria Montessori




Exiled by Mussolini during World War I, Maria Montessori moved to Spain until the Spanish Civil War broke out. She then lived in the Netherlands until 1939 when she was forced to extend a visit to India, due to World War II. After a lifetime of political conflict and violence, Montessori was convinced that the only path to peace is through the education of children. President Obama will have his work cut out for him when he takes office in a few days, but it is the work our young people are doing right now in elementary classrooms that has the power to ultimately bring about a more peaceful world.

A friend who teaches three- to six-year-olds at another Montessori school asked me not too long ago, "What happens to them when they get to Elementary? We send up these sweet, quiet, polite little children and then something happens to them." I know what she means, and I've often suspected that Early Childhood teachers quietly think we ruin the sweet little people they send to us. The truth is they become social creatures, struggling to find ways to negotiate encounters with the other people in their world. This is not always easy. "Be nice and don't hurt people" (JJ, 1st grade) isn't always enough. In our Elementary classrooms, we are working to empower children with the tools they need to become peaceful citizens who can calm themselves and find ways to solve problems without resorting to violence. But this is not always sweet and quiet and orderly, and it takes lots and lots of practice.

One of our third graders points out, "We have the paper we all signed at the beginning of the year with a lot of ideas about how to keep our classroom peaceful" (EN). The first day of school every year the children brainstorm the rules they think we need for a peaceful classroom, where everyone feels safe enough to learn and make mistakes. I am always heartened by the wisdom of their rules.

We also brainstorm appropriate ways to solve problems, without hurting each other and without first asking the teacher to intervene. "Tap the person and tell them to lower their volume in a nice way" (SM, 1st grade). "If you're mad at someone, you can tell that person with an 'I message' or you can write your feelings on a piece of paper" (CJ, 3rd grade). "If someone's feeling sad you can ask them what's their favorite thing and you can say 'Do you want to try it and see if you feel better?'" (DO, 1st grade).














Helping children to independently solve problems is not always the most efficient method--
"Are you tattling or are you problem-solving?"

"What could you do about that?"
"Have you talked to her about how that felt?"
"Did that solve the problem or did it keep the hurt going?"

--but developing this independence is one of the most important tasks we tackle at this level. Sure, it would be easier and faster just to tell the children what to do (or not do), but that would leave us with children, and ultimately adults, who rely on someone else to tell them what to do.

We talk about ways to calm ourselves. One of our third graders writes, "A peaceful classroom feels nice and sounds beautiful. We do a lot of things to make this classroom that way. We work hard and enjoy our work, also enjoying the sound of the music.







If I was feeling bad about something I'd go to the peaceful table instead of causing a problem in the community" (MH).



"We can go do yoga or if you're frustrated with someone you can go in the back and squeeze the blue ball" (CJ, 3rd grade).
"You can have a silent moment where you just sit at your desk and close your eyes" (SM, 1st grade).




Class Meetings continue throughout the year, the necessary work of maintaining our class community. "We sit together in a class Meeting and share our joys and sorrows and we acknowledge everybody who's doing things to help the classroom" (JB, 3rd grade). "We share class concerns to see about the problems we have in the classroom and think about how we can fix them" (MH, 3rd grade). I have turned these meetings over to the children. A third grader acts as facilitator, guiding us through the components of our Class Meeting: working to resolve Class Concerns, Acknowledgements to appreciate those who have done something helpful, sharing Joys & Sorrows, following up on our Great Questions, and reading what our Historian has recorded in the Class Journal.

Traditions and celebrations help us cultivate community. We also build community by caring for the classroom together. "We clean the shelves together so we don't have messy work" MM, 2nd grade.

Like the physical space of our classroom, peace requires maintenance. We work at it every day.