What Would You Do With Ninety-Nine Years?

My grandfather has filled those years with learning. 

 

When he retired from farming, he decided to take up pottery.  He bought himself a kiln and a potter’s wheel, and taught himself how to do it.  After awhile he wanted to try something new, so he took up wood carving.  The items he carved weren’t simple, basic shapes, but animals and people.  He learned what kinds of wood worked best and how to look at the wood and see its potential.  Many carvings later, he decided to look into building bird houses and butterfly houses.  He confided to me that people would actually pay up to fifty dollars for one of the butterfly houses and smirked as he said that that gave him enough money to get the materials for two or three more.  

 

He wondered what it was like to tap maple trees and get syrup.  He tired that and was successful.  The next year he decided to try it with poplar trees, which are much more plentiful in our area.  This, too, was successful.  Growing giant pumpkins, raising fish, gardening — all things he has learned to do since his “retirement”.

 

A few years ago, when he was already in his nineties, he asked for and received a spinning wheel for Christmas.  He got some wool from one of his grandchildren who raises sheep, and taught himself how to card it and spin it into yarn.  Then, he needed something to do with the yarn, so he learned how to knit.

 

At his birthday party last night, I asked him what he would like to do next.  “Paint”, was his response. 

 

I think his interest in learning is part of the secret of his longevity.  What an example of a life-long learner for all of his many, many descendents. 

 

Happy birthday, Grandpa!  I can’t wait for your 100^th next year.

Considering Audience

In June of last year I sent home a survey to the parents of the children in my classroom to get an idea about what they thought about our classroom blog.  The comments were mostly positive, but I misfiled the responses and so I didn’t get a chance to reflect on what the parents had to say as I would have liked to.  I did later find them (Easter this year), but it was a little late to do the thinking I should have for this school year.

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a researcher in Israel who was interested in parents’ reaction to their children blogging at school.  She wondered if I would be interested to send home a survey with my students that would help her with her research.  I took a look at her questions, and since they were very similar (but with much better wording) to the ones that I had asked the year before, I agreed to send it home instead of the one I had prepared.  She asked if each parent would fill out a survey, and so with 22 students in my class, I received 36 responses.  Each student returned at least one survey.  I did offer prizes to those who returned their surveys, and the children also received flags and bookmarks from Israel.

I will probably save my real thinking about this until the summer holidays, but the first couple of questions caught my eye.    All of the parents indicated that they were aware of our classroom blog, and all but two indicated that they had access to a computer with the Internet.  The next question asked how many times they had visited the blog this year.  Here are the responses:

More than 20  14

11 – 20             6

6 – 10               6

3 – 5                6

1 – 2                2

While I would like to think that all of the parents are hanging on my every word, this is obviously not the case.  I am not complaining about this.  We are all busy.  As I have been musing for some time, although I write the blog with mostly the parents in mind, they are clearly not our major audience.  Does this change what I put on it?  I think it does.  How it changes it is the question.   I’m not sure what the answer is.

What Would You Tell Her?

More thoughts from the Microsoft Innovative Teacher’s Conference. 

 

The attendees at the conference included innovative teachers from Manitoba and teachers from across Canada who have been chosen as one of Canada’s Innovative Teachers in past years.  The Innovative Teacher Award is a great experience!  Jacinthe Robichaud, who is the director of Partners in Learning in Canada, has chosen, as a prize, to give the experience of a lifetime to the teachers who win this award.  I was fortunate to be chosen in 2006, and was sent, all expenses paid, to a World-wide Innovative Teacher’s Conference in Philadelphia, and to the Asia Regional Innovative Teacher’s Conference in Cambodia.  Indeed the experience of a lifetime.  The opportunity to talk to and work with teachers from around the world still impacts my practice today. 

 

Jacinthe hosted one of the sessions that I attended at the conference in Winnipeg, and she spoke of her desire to create an “innovative student” award as well.  She asked for feedback about what criteria she should use to chose, what would be an appropriate award and even what to do about primary students and students with special needs. 

 

The obvious award from a company involved in the development of technology is a computer, but Jacinthe spoke of her desire to instead give the students an experience they will remember for a lifetime, just as the teachers are. 

 

I think that this is a great proposal.  What would you suggest to her?  Criteria?  A suitable award?  Primary students and students with special needs?

Photo:  2006 Innovative Teachers in Cambodia

Me and the “Heavy Hitters”

This past week I was fortunate to be invited to the Microsoft Innovative Teacher’s Conference in Winnipeg.  While there, it was a treat for me to be in discussions with some heavy hitters such as Clarence Fisher, Darren Kuropatwa, Chris Harbeck, and Ben Hazzard.   Although the presentations were excellent, I feel that I learned the most from the discussions with these talented teachers.

Darren started one discussion by musing that “kids learn best when they are in survival mode, outside and moving”.  We kept coming back to this theme in our discussions.  As we discussed Darren’s three criteria, I was struck over and over again by how often this type of learning is not represented in most classrooms, including my own. 

Dr. Rick Van Eck provided some insight into how this type of learning can be achieved in a classroom in his presentations about the importance of gaming.  Playing a game can put a child’s brain into survival mode.  It is also an opportunity for children to use problem-solving skills which exercises more of their brain than listening to a teacher does.  Do children automatically transfer these problem solving skills from the game into other problem solving situations?  Rick Van Eck’s answer was a definitive “no”.  They need to be shown how to make those links.

I have often used games to reinforce concepts that I have taught in the classroom, but I less often use games to initially teach a concept.  I hope to change that.