Kicking Off Genius Hour

Last spring, during our morning Genius Hour time, one of my students had a small container with her when she entered the classroom. I asked her what she had and she said happily, "My Acorn Cap Collection. I am going to run a workshop this morning teaching people about them."  She proceeded to gather magnifying glasses, markers paper and sticky notes. She quickly made a sign and invited people to the table to learn about ways to observe acorn caps.  It was quite a popular spot in the room that morning and I thought, "This is what Genius Hour should look like every day!"

This year, as I thought about Genius Hour, I knew I wanted to change it a bit from last year. Last year,  students found areas of interest and spent time learning about those and sometimes creating things to share their learning.  I wanted it to be playful and purposeful.  But I wanted it to be more for this year and this Acorn Cap workshop gave me some ideas.

This year, we are changing the name of Genius Hour to "Wonder Workshop". We have Reading Workshop and Writing Workshop and Math Workshop so having a Wonder Workshop makes sense. Our students know what a workshop is and they know their role in learning in a workshop.  And a Wonder Workshop seems to make sense to 8 year olds.  This will be a time that we explore those things we wonder about each day.

This year, when I think about Genius Hour/Wonder Workshop, I wanted it to be a combination of so many things.  I love the Genius Hour movement and I also love the possibilities around Maker Space and Passion Time. I wanted to create a time that made sense for 8 year olds, where they could explore and learn. I wanted a place where they could sometimes be the learner and sometimes be the teacher. I wanted a place where anything was possible and where kids were in charge of their own learning.

To kick off Wonder Workshop, each child is creating a workshop for the class. We spent time talking about those things they love, things they are good at, things they want to teach others about.  So, every day, for 2 weeks, we are learning from each other.  For homework last week, kids prepared 10 minute mini-workshops on a topic of their choice.  For 2 weeks, kids are rotating to workshops, learning from every other child in the classroom.  So far we've learned:

• how to play guitar
• how to make fortune tellers
• how to braid hair
• about the sea
• how to make clay animals
• how to make puzzles

And these are just a few of the things we've learned about!

As students share, the audience members are jotting down new things they are learning and questions they have. They are also jotting down things they want to try.  I am hoping that we are setting the stage for a Wonder Workshop that has us thinking about the following questions.

• What do we know? 
• What can we teach each other? 
• What can we learn from and with each other? 
• What are you interested in/good at now?  
• What might we be interested in later in the year?

There have been some added perks. The idea of  "research" is already being discussed as something far more than finding the right answer.  Students are seeing themselves in various roles and the variety of the presentations will give us things to build on when it comes to writing and communication for much of the year.  They've also built a community around learning that I can see grow each day by listening into the questions they ask of each presenter.  Each child is not only discovering new interests, but they are also discovering things about their classmates.

I'm excited to move forward with the idea of a Wonder Workshop after spending a few weeks exploring our interests and learning from and with each other.   I imagine much of workshop will be a continuation of some of these workshops at first--kids are already wanting to try out and build on the things they are learning.  Just as with any workshop during the first few weeks of school, I am listening in, observing, and thinking about how we might build on the amazing things that kids are already doing!

Poetry Friday -- Cherry Tomatoes

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CHERRY TOMATOES
by Anne Higgins

Suddenly it is August again, so hot,
breathless heat.
I sit on the ground
in the garden of Carmel,
picking ripe cherry tomatoes
and eating them.
They are so ripe that the skin is split,
so warm and sweet
from the attentions of the sun,
the juice bursts in my mouth,
an ecstatic taste,
and I feel that I am in the mouth of summer,
sloshing in the saliva of August.
Hummingbirds halo me there,
in the great green silence,
and my own bursting heart
splits me with life.

First, there are the plants with no fruit. We wait and wait for the first green marbles to ripen.

Then, suddenly, there are so many that we just about can't eat them all. I consume them carelessly, by the handful. 

Now that the end of the productive season is in sight, I am back to savoring every one.

Such is life, no? The longing, the time of plenty, the loss.

Happy Friday -- enjoy a tomato today, and head over to Renee's place at No Water River for the roundup.

Life-Changing

My new favorite commuter audio experience is the NPR TED Radio Hour. In classic NPR style, a set of 4-6 TED talks on the same theme are excerpted, contextualized by interviews with the speakers, and interspersed with perfect musical bites (like they do in the show Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me). TED talks. Through my ears. Perfect. (I use this not-free but highly-rated podcast app.)

And the thing is, every (EVERY) episode I've listened to so far has been life-changing. That both makes me want to listen more, and afraid if I listen again it won't happen!

In the show, Growing Up, which AJ and I listened to as we island-hopped across Lake Champlain from Vermont to New York last summer, and which is the show that hooked me, Gever Tulley's segment made me sure that I would do Genius Hour.

I played a portion of Margaret Heffernan's segment from the show, Making Mistakes, to my math class to emphasize the importance of the mathematical practice of talking and listening before I asked them to form groups comprised of not a single classmate they'd worked with the day before on a complicated place value problem we were trying to solve.

In Simply Happy, Matt Killingsworth's segment confirmed for me that I am on the right path with my "Trout a Day" project.

Sugata Mitra's segments in Unstoppable Learning changed my math lesson from a demonstration of how decimal expanded notation works, followed by a variety of practice, to a challenge to my students to figure out three different ways to show decimal expanded notation by using the activities I had curated for them. (Best. Math lesson. Ever.)

Last week, in our study of characters, my students read nonfiction books featuring an animal hero. This week, I will play Diana Nyad's segment from Champions while I model note taking. My students will chart and then write about the ways two or more characters (from the books they've read, our read alouds, and/or this audio segment) are the same and different.

As soon as my monthly credit at Audible rolls in, I'm going to dive into David Mitchell's newest book, The Bone Clocks. But you can be sure that one or two days a week, I'll be putting that one on hold so that I can catch up with my NPR TED Radio Hour episode!

Nuts to You

"Nuts to you" might have been what I was saying on Saturday when the class cold hit me so hard there was nothing I could do but lie in bed and create a mountain of soggy kleenex on the floor beside me. When I felt better enough to sit up for some soup and hot tea with honey and lemon (and more than a small splash of Old Charter), I picked up this recent library reserve and within 20 pages was laughing out loud and thanking my class for sharing the germs that stopped me from doing anything more than sitting up in bed reading:

Nuts to You 
by Lynne Rae Perkins
Greenwillow Books, 2014

This story was ostensibly told by a squirrel to the author. That may or may not be the factual truth, but since it's a rollicking good story, let's just go with that. Like another favorite Perkins title, As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth (my gushing review here), there are interruptions by the (human) author, footnotes, and illustrations that clearly demonstrate that Perkins has done her fair share of squirrel-watching.

The story begins when the grey squirrel Jed is carried away by a hawk, manages to trick the hawk into dropping him, and lands fairly softly on a dog and then in a pile of leaves. (Journey #1) Luckily, his friend TsTs sees where he lands and sets off with another squirrel friend, Chai, to find him. (Journey #2) Along the way, they discover that the rumblings they've been hearing are a crew of humans who are clearing the trees from the "buzzpath" (power lines). And the crew is headed right to their home grove. After they find Jed, they have to get back and warn their friends and family. (Journey #3) Convincing squirrels to do anything as organized as run away from a danger they cannot yet see is as easy as herding cats (apparently). But Jed and friends manage. (Journey #4)

Fun stuff. Perfect middle grade (grades 3-5) novel. Will be a fabulous read aloud.

You're welcome.

Open a World of Possible --A Wonderful Gift from Scholastic

I was honored to be asked to contribute a piece to Open a World of Possible published recently by Scholastic.  It is a FREE ebook that collects the stories of readers. As a reader, it is a great read--love hearing from other readers about their unique reading lives. As a teacher, it opens so many possibilities for the classroom.

Years ago, I happened upon a book of celebrities sharing the stories of their reading lives. I forget what it was called and I forget most of the specifics but I know that I used many excerpts with students as we thought about our own lives as readers.  I've lost the book and haven't been able to find anything like it. So when I found out Scholastic would be creating a collection of readers' stories, I was thrilled. This book far exceeded any expectations I had for it.

Open a World of Possible has come at the perfect time--the beginning of a new school year.  Building a community of readers is such an important part of our work. And I find that for that to happen, students need to begin to build their own identity as readers.  I want them to know themselves as readers and to live their lives as a reader, both in and out of school.  For them to become lifelong readers, they need to see themselves as unique readers.

I spend much of the first several weeks of school having conversations around our reading lives. I share my life and stories I've discovered from others. Open a World of Possible is a great resource for expanding this conversation in classrooms.

I love the quote that goes along with Scholastic's publication. It ends with these words:

Finding the right book at the right time can light an emotional spark within children that motivates them to read more, understand more, and read joyfully. When that happens, the world opens. Everything becomes possible.

I love the book and have marked several excerpts to use with students now and throughout the year. Every story will start an amazing conversation and give our students new ways to think about their lives as readers.

I am also sharing some of the student videos on the World of Possible site.  The kids in the videos talk about favorite books, places they love to read, etc. Great 30 second clips to continue this conversation.

Scholastic has invitations to join the online conversation around this book and your stories about reading. You can join at:

Facebook  
Twitter: @Scholastic and @ScholasticTeach
Instagram:@ScholasticInc
Pinterest

This is a must read for all readers!

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Scholastic's mission is built on helping children learn to read and love to read. We believe that independent reading is a critical
part of children's learning and growth. With support from teachers, parents, and schools, children choose from Scholastic
the books they want to read, and discover the pleasure and power of reading. Finding the right book at the right time can
light an emotional spark within children that motivates them to read more, understand more, and read joyfully.
When that happens, the world opens. Everything becomes possible. - See more at: http://www.scholastic.com/worldofpossible/#sthash.PgxldLg8.dpuf

Scholastic's mission is built on helping children learn to read and love to read. We believe that independent reading is a critical
part of children's learning and growth. With support from teachers, parents, and schools, children choose from Scholastic
the books they want to read, and discover the pleasure and power of reading. Finding the right book at the right time can
light an emotional spark within children that motivates them to read more, understand more, and read joyfully.
When that happens, the world opens. Everything becomes possible. - See more at: http://www.scholastic.com/worldofpossible/#sthash.PgxldLg8.dpuf

Poetry Friday -- Wonder

Wonder Eye from Wikimedia Commons

WONDER

5:30 in the morning
I'm walking along
in the dark neighborhood
my brain already full of the day ahead
not paying the kind of attention
that will keep me from
stumbling into a skunk
by accident
when I look up
and see a very large dog
in the park
that resolves into a fawn
whose sibling and mother are across the street
not quite hidden in the shadows of the front yard
and it's as if the plug was pulled
and my brain is empty of everything
except the here
and the now.

I continue walking slowly down the sidewalk
toward the fawn
who bobs its head
looking at me
assessing my threat level
until suddenly its tail flags and it
floats silently
across the street to its family
on impossibly thin legs and tiny feet
and I struggle to keep the wonder
hold the moment
stop the everyday thoughts from flooding back in
but the pure animal focus
is gone.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014



Laura has the Poetry Friday Roundup today at Author Amok.

Inspired by Caine's Arcade

Perhaps you know and love the story of 9 year-old Caine's cardboard arcade, and what happened when a filmmaker stopped at his dad's used auto parts store in East LA to buy a door handle for his car.

But do you know what has happened since then?




In case you don't have time to watch right now, I'll summarize:

This whole thing got huge. Caine's college fund has exploded into The Imagination Foundation, a "non-profit to foster creativity and entrepreneurship in more kids like Caine."

There's a Global Cardboard Challenge going on in September and culminating in a Day of Play on Saturday, October 11.

Let's save a bunch of boxes, give our kids time to make stuff with them, and then share our photos and videos #cardboardchallenge.

Genius Hour, here we come!

August Mosaic

Row 1: These three photos exemplify our flyfishing trip to Vermont: the Orvis Outlet store, where I got my best "catches;"  the river where I probably would have caught a trophy trout...if it hadn't been for that thunderstorm; the Ben & Jerry's factory, where everyone goes on a rainy day in Vermont. We drove in, found a lucky parking spot, used the facilities, just about got nervous hives from the crowds, and left.

Row 2: Reading nook at Thistledown Inn, Thistledown hen, Lamoille River out the back door of Thistledown Inn,

Row 3: Thistledown Inn's namesake, just starting to bloom. Another beautiful VT river where I didn't catch fish.

Row 4: Signs of aquatic insect life (shell of stonefly nymph that started life as a water critter, then crawled out on this rock, completed metamorphosis, and now lives out of the water...it was actually an aquatic entomology class at Stone Lab on Lake Erie that sparked my interest in flyfishing -- the lures we fish with are tied to imitate insects like this at various stages in their lives), same river, Snowflake Bentley museum.

Row 5: On our way home -- island hopping through Lake Champlain to get from VT to upstate NY; torrential rains on I-90 near Batavia, NY; in our room at the Historic B&B in Medina, NY.

Row 6: I had fun with a couple of photo apps this month. This one uses Color Cap to add text to photos. Reading nook, animal heads on table legs.

Row 7: Niagara Falls, secret shut-off valve for Niagara Falls (that's our story and we're sticking to it), Niagara Falls with Color Cap.

Row 8: Preying Mantis in the land lab, mantis with Color Cap, veggies at the Worthington Farmers' Market.

Row 9: This app is called Waterlogue. It turns your photo into a watercolor painting! Last two: even though it was a school night, and even though it was the night after the second day of the school year, and even though I had already spent from 4:00-8:00 at the Orvis store representing CFR for a flyfishing event, I couldn't say no to the opportunity to hear Throat Culture, a local A Capella group, at Natalie's Coal Fired Pizza. They were FABULOUS!!!

Row 10: Then the reality of the school year kicked in and I didn't take another photo (except in the classroom) from August 11-31!



You can see these photos on Flickr.



Almost every month, inquiring minds want to know: How do I make my mosaics?

First, I take thirty or more (and sometimes less) pictures every month.
Next, I make a set on Flickr.
Then, I go to Big Huge Labs and use their Mosaic Maker with the link to my Flickr photoset.
Finally, I download, save, insert, comment, and publish!

Learning About Blogging!

We are getting ready to start our blogs at Kidblogs this week. These blogs will be closed to our classroom as students learn the power of blogging and connecting with others through writing.  This week, we'll spend much of our writing workshop time learning about blogging.


Learning to Study
One of my goals for the first six weeks of school is learning the power of study and mentor texts as writers. During these first six weeks, I want my students to learn to live their lives as writers, noticing all they can. And I also want them to begin to learn the power of mentors.  Studying quality texts and thinking "I'd like to do that in my writing." will be important throughout the year.  Our conversations this week will build on the bits we've already talked about in the area of study and mentor texts.

At the beginning of the week, we'll take a look at some blogs. We'll talk about the following questions:

What is a blog?
What is a blog post?
What is possible in a blog posts?
What makes an effective blog post?
How is this blogger unique?
What is the focus of this person's blog?
What can we learn from this blogger?

We'll take a look at a variety of blogs and blog posts written by kid bloggers. Some blogs we'll look at will be:
Behind the Scenes of the Cooperstown Bat Factory
DIY Locker Door
5 Interesting Facts about Electric Eels
Sunny Days
Baseball with Matt Blog
Tissue Flower Kit
This Kid Reviews Books
Lil Dog Whisperer

(I've found some of these on Blogs By Kids, which is a great resource for teachers looking for blog posts by kids.)

Paper Blogging
After some study, we'll do some practice.  I didn't buy into practice until I read Lee Kolbert's post on Paper Blogging and Learning to Comment a few years ago. I've followed her thinking for the past few years and it's led to some great blogging. We'll take a few days creating paper blog posts and we'll comment on each with sticky notes. This will take a few days but I've found that after this, kids are ready to blog and anxious to share their writing in a digital space!

Learning to Comment
Before we comment on the paper blogs, we'll watch this video by Mrs. Yolis's 3rd grade class. I have used it for a few years and it is a great conversation starter about good commenting.

Of course, we'll continue to build on this initial conversation but I know that commenting is as important as posting so I want kids to see what's possible in a comment. This video is part of a blog post on Mrs. Yolis's Classroom Blog: How to Compose a Quality Comment.

Moving Forward
We'll continue to study mentor blogs throughout the year as an integrated part of our writing. We'll look at classroom blogs as we work together to tell our classroom story.  We'll look at blog series such as Celebrate This Week, Poetry Friday,  and It's Monday! What Are You Reading?. These will serve as invitations for students who want to focus on their blog writing more seriously.  (I'll show them two series that past students have created--Ben's Book Reviews and Time to Interview.  We'll talk about Blog challenges and blog plans. I might eventually share this blog schedule to start the conversation about the importance of planning as a writer.

I'm anxious to see where this group of students goes with blogging. I am always amazed and surprised by all that kids find to do in the digital world as writers and this first step is always an exciting one.

This post was cross posted to Click Here Next.

Math Monday: Padlet

Visit Mandy at Enjoy and Embrace Learning for Math Monday link up!

(This post is cross posted at Click Here Next)

I don't remember where I saw Padlet used for math but I kept the idea in the back of my head.  This week,  I wanted to start embedding technology into our work across content as a natural part of the process. I didn't want to teach a lesson on Padlet or talk directly about the tool but I did want kids to begin to experience various tools could support thinking and learning.

So before school began, I started a padlet with the problem we'd be solving.  I didn't share it with students yet but, as students were working on a math problem, I bopped around as I always do, looking a student work and finding a variety of strategies. I decided to take photos of 4 students' work and add photos of each to the padlet. About 3-4 minutes before I gathered the class to share, I invited these 4 students to look at the padlet and to add their words to their work--what had they done to solve the problem. I had each child use a different computer so as the rest of the class gathered for share time, they could see the 4 students simultaneously adding to the padlet.  The talk was around math and the strategies each had used, but the power of the technology was evident.

Because we'd been talking about how we could learn from each other and how we might want to go back to a past problem to solve a new one, I wanted to make this something kids could easily go back to if they want to later in the year. I also thought it was a great opportunity to write a quick shared post on our class website. So we added our Padlet to the math section of our Weebly and wrote a quick blurb about the activity.  This hopefully gives students an anchor for talk at home about learning at school.

This was really simple and the addition of Padlet took no extra time.  The focus was still on math but Padlet helped us look at the possible strategies and to hold on to those in a way that we couldn't without technology.  By putting this on our class website, this resource can be accessed whenever a child thinks it might be helpful.