Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Fifth Grade Forward Movement

We're reading Out of My Mind as we prepare for Draper's visit.
Overall we had a great day in fifth grade today. During math we studied plane geometry with lots of drawing and word work. Later we'll use hands-on projects and problem solving to study plane geometry more. At the end of the day, I had the chance to peacefully watch the students play a great game of basketball--there's many wonderful basketball players in my class.

I'll spend the rest of the week at ECET2 Conference. I'm looking forward to the learning and new ideas that I'm sure will impact my teaching/learning journey to come.

As it stands now though, next week we'll meet the author,  +Jarrett J. Krosoczka and learn all about writing books.


We'll also make our own foot-long and decimeter-long rulers as we begin to review, study, and learn more about decimals, fractions, and percents. Students will continue to create their digital math story problems, and we'll continue reading Draper's book, Out of My Mind. 

Community building will continue to be a focus as we work together to keep the room clean and welcoming, and support one another as everyone learns and collaborates. As far as professional learning goes, there's a parent-student meeting, local union meeting, child study meeting, and a local teacher naturalists event. I plan to be back at #edchat after a two-week hiatus due to school and family events too. Further, my alma mater, The College of the Holy Cross, is hosting an educator event too. I'm looking forward to joining educators who have graduated from Holy Cross to discuss our roles as educators and how that connects to our experiences at Holy Cross which for me was a terrific opportunity. Finally our team will meet again to solidify plans for Character Day, write and send another newsletter, one that includes videos of our Rube Goldberg Theme Day and upcoming field study information, and discuss other upcoming learning/teaching events and plans.

The plans are set for next week, and now the mind is free to embrace the big ideas and teacher connections at ECET2. Onward.