December Update

It is hard to believe that we are just hours away from our winter break!  This year has been flying by.  Here is an update from the Explorers Classroom:

6th Grade:

We finished mummifying the chickens, and they have been sent to the afterlife.  The kids did a fantastic job on this project.  Not only did they learn about the customs of the ancient Egyptians surrounding mummification, they were also able to DO mummification, instead of just reading about it.   The chickens were sent on via the "dumpster of the afterlife" in our parking lot. When we debriefed the project almost all of the students were disappointed that we needed to throw the chickens away, especially after all the work to mummify them.  They wanted to somehow keep the chickens!  Maybe next year some lucky family will get to become the owner of a mummified chicken.  Only in Explorers...

We are also working on a unit about historic and modern pirates as we read the book Bloody Jack.   This critically-acclaimed book is new this year for Explorers and replaces Treasure Island (which almost every student in the last several years found too slow and very boring).  The students are also learning to make their own websites (they have a pirate theme of some type).  The students are using wix.com to create their sites.

7th/8th Grade:

We are still in our Science Fiction unit.  We have completed the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.  Students are giving their project presentations now, and they have been very creative.  

The students are also in the thick of film making.  This is now crunch time with the approaching deadline (Jan. 8th).  Many of the groups are now editing.  I have seen some of the raw footage and much of it looks very good.  Now the hard part: how to edit the shots into an interesting story or documentary.  I can't wait to see the final films.

Students have also been submitting films and pieces of writing to the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards.  The deadline for the forms to be postmarked is January 6.  Please let me know if you need any help getting these submitted.

Today we had a great experience in the 1st/2nd period block.  We were able to participate in a "Virtual Field Trip" to the headquarters of the Solar Impulse plane project.  This was done via Google Hangouts (like Skype or Facetime).  Google runs these virtual field trips for schools.  The students got to hear from Solar Impulse engineers and one of the pilots (he was in the middle of a 72 hour simulation).  We also got to ask questions .  The cool thing: the headquarters for the project is in Switzerland!  This is an example of the real power of technology.  Click here to see a recording of the Hangout, including questions from the Explorers classroom)

The new technology director for the district, Forrest Baker, also joined us.  He told the kids that the district is trying to find ways to harness technology for the classroom, and has found Explorers as a great example of how it can be used. 

Students or Learners?

I was reading a blog about technology in the classroom from another school district.  I came across this chart that explains the difference between "students" and "learners":

	Students	Learners
Relationship with educators	Students are employees, required to obediently follow instructions.	Learners are citizens with a vested interest in the learning society.
Relationship with other “Students”	Students are competitors	Learners are collaborators
Motivation	Obligation: Students are culturally obliged to work for the teacher & for compensation (below)	Responsibility: Learners are motivated by an understood and realized “value” in their work, especially when it is valuable to others.
Compensation	Institution defined grades and gateways to college (another institution) and a good job (another institution)	A sense of ongoing accomplishment that is not delivered but earned, and not symbolic but tangible and valuable — an investment.
Mode of Operation	Compliant, group-disciplined, objective-oriented, and trainable	Persevering, self-disciplined, group- and goal-oriented, resourceful, and learning in order to achieve rather than achieving learning.
Why?	Compelled	Curious
Equipped	..with packaged knowledge and tools for recording packaged knowledge — prescribed and paced learning	..with tools for exploring a networked variety of content, experimenting with that content, and discovering, concluding, and constructing knowledge — invented learning
Assessment	Measuring what the student has learned.	Measuring what the learner can do with what has been learned.

I try to help kids be "learners" rather than "students".  Imagine if schools and districts could shift to the learner side of the table.  It would be amazing!

To all of you who made it to conferences, thank you!  It was good to meet the new parents, and good to catch up with the returning families.

 

Due to the three day week we did not have a podcast last week.  We will have a new episode this Friday.  Stay tuned for some exciting stories!

 

Our 7th/8th graders have all gone through the film "pitch" process and are now working on scripts.  We have some very interesting  films in the pipeline, from a documentary about a Middle Eastern women (now living in Walla Walla) who escaped an arranged marriage, to a comedy about people with very odd addictions, to a drama about a girl who loses her sense of adventure as she grows up only to rediscover it.  I can't wait to see these films!  Students will soon be checking out equipment.  Please help your child with equipment safety and proper use. 

 

As part of the filmmaking unit the 7th/8th graders will visit the CrewSpace media lab at the public library this week (block 1 on Thursday and block 2 on Friday).  This space is open to the public.  I hope the kids are able to make use of the equipment and expertise available there.

 

The 7th/8th graders will also be participating in the 2013 Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards program (see email from last week).  This is a first for any class in the Walla Walla school district.  It will also be exciting.

 

The 6th graders are working on their research of "intentional communities", where people live and work using a central guiding theme.  They will write, produce, and record podcasts for each community.  These will be added to our Pioneer iTunes podcast page.  I will send an email when they have been uploaded.  In addition, 6th graders are learning about the origin of human civilization and societies.  We will soon start our study of ancient Egypt, a unit which includes the very popular chicken mummification project!  More on that as we get closer.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  And, as always, thanks for your support!

How to study smarter! 

by Lauren

With the start of school and the stress of more homework, its easy to spend a lot of time on school related projects. If you follow these easy tips, your study time can be put to good use without eating up your whole afternoon!!

1. Space out your studying over time If you study something once and then study it again right away, its still fresh in your mind the second time. Its better to study once and then re-study it later (one hour, one day, one week, etc.). That gives your brain time to forget and strengthens your memory over time.

2. Make reading active Before reading a chapter or paragraph in a textbook, ask questions of what you are looking for and search for the answers in the text. Or, skim read the text first and note the main points, then read in depth to get more out of it. Underline, highlight, take notes in the margins (remember not to write on school textbooks!), star things you don’t completely understand and you will get more out of your reading.

3. Talk with your parents or teachers If you don’t understand a concept or idea, don’t be afraid to ask! Your teacher and your parents want you to feel confident about what you're learning so you have a good foundation to go on for life. They would be happy to help you with whatever is causing you difficulty.

4. Recite as you study If you are studying for a quiz or a test, it’s great to recite the information while you work.  Saying the words out loud helps you to memorize the material better than reading or listening.

and finally...

5. Learning is in your head!! Having beautiful notes doesn’t matter if you don’t understand the information.  Don’t be afraid to get a little messy while scribbling ideas that can connect the information to your head. Use notes and books as a resource for learning not the end result.

Now with these helpful tips you can get the most out of your study time and have more time doing fun things! :)

What Makes a Person Human

We were having a great discussion on the book Positronic Man this morning. A question came up about what is the line between being a robot and a person. This lead to a philosophical discussion of ethics, personhood, and the definition of the words "human" and "person". One of the kids gave her thoughts on the topic and then added "how cool is this? We're talking about robot ethics!" Just another reason to love Explorers.

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Students started writing podcast stories today.  We hope to have our first ever Explorers podcast on-line next week.  Stay tuned!

Fantastic Discussion

One thing I really love about Explorers is how the students continue a debate or discussion as they are walking out of the door after class is over. Today we had one of those discussions. There is a group called Global Future 2045. They have a very interesting view on how the human race should progress. We watched a YouTube video today by this organization, and the resulting discussion was amazing! After watching the video I simply asked the students one question: Do you agree with this group's vision of the future? I encourage you to watch this video and answer that question for yourself.

 

 

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