As I think about next week's study, I want to be mindful of what I hope to learn in order to deepen our grade-level program.
Teamwork: Survival of the Most Compatible
Our efforts last year pointed to a great need to help students learn how to work as effective team members. Teamwork at fifth grade takes time and attention. I want to notice how teamwork is encouraged and organized next week, and I also want to hear what the other educators have to say about their successful work with regard to building and supporting effective teamwork. Then on my own and with colleagues, I'll create a series of teamwork lessons to integrate at the start of the year to get us off to a good start in this regard.
Outdoor Education
We have been increasing our efforts to teach outdoors, and I want to increase that more. First, the more I read, the more I realize that students need to learn about their local environment, and that the environment will offer them inspiration and understanding of themselves and the world around them. An understanding of the environment also provides students with a great foundation from which to create Earth friendly solutions to problems and needs we face as a people--solutions that work in harmony with the environment and our lives rather than working to complicate, harm, or obstruct good living. We've noticed in our past efforts in this arena, that students are sometimes uncomfortable or unprepared for outdoor education--we want to make students more comfortable, prepared, curious, and attuned to the local environment so I want to observe and experience how the leaders of this course do that for me, and then replicate those efforts when I return to the classroom in September.
Patterns of Study
I want to observe and experience the patterns of study we engage in during the course as I want to establish positive study patterns with my students. Once students have learned a few good study patterns for science, we can spend more time on the study and less time on remembering and following the optimal study patterns.
Study Problems
I want to revise some of our science study to focus more deeply on standards-based engaging, meaningful, and relevant problems/questions. I will be thinking about the central questions we'll study as I take the course next week.
Initial Plans
Initially as I look ahead to the science/math year, we will begin by setting the stage for compatible, adaptive learning and leadership. We will learn about the physical space and materials available, then work together to create protocols to create and lead an optimal learning community, one where we prioritize trusting relationships, inclusion, support and respect for one another, goal setting, and learning strategies, mindsets, effort, and support that leads us to reach our collective and individual goals. To achieve this overarching vision, I want to embed lessons that include these components:
- Survival of the fittest versus survival of the compatible? I want to introduce this idea to students, and idea I learned of from John Warner's Ted Talk. Students love to discuss big ideas, and once the idea is introduced, we'll likely return to that again and again.
- Adaptation: We'll revisit this concept, a concept students learned a lot about in fourth grade, and think about how nature adapts for survival, and the many ways we adapt for survival and good living too.
- Looking for answers/ideas in the ecosystem--an introduction to biomimicry. I'll introduce students to biomimicry, then we'll take a walk outdoors to find examples of biomimicry.
- Is teamwork better than working alone? We'll discuss this big idea and then we'll take a walk outside to notice how examples of how plants and animals work together both positively and negatively in the ecosystem--we'll discuss that relationship and use it as a framework for our own classroom connections, teamwork.
- What is a system and how do systems work? We'll specifically dissect the word ecosystem, and then work to describe our local ecosystem with as much specificity as we can. We'll return to this concept again and again in all disciplines. It is a main theme of fifth grade.
- Greening our learning environment? We'll discuss what it means to learn in a green environment, and we'll talk about ways that we can better green our environment. Some ideas we'll explore include the following: no plastics, composting our plant-based snacks, reuse/recycle/reduce, heating our snacks with solar ovens, water conservation, reusable packaging for lunches, snacks, classroom plants, classroom projects/materials. . . .
- When is learning outdoors better? Looking for opportunities to learn in our many beautiful areas just outside the classroom.
- Interdisciplinary Outdoor Learning: Reading Hatchet, writing descriptive paragraphs, writing survival stories, looking for geometric shapes in nature, using coordinate grids to map a space in nature, learning/practicing measurement in nature, understanding the history of place--what has happened over time on this land where our school exists. . . .
The goal is for students to recognize the environment as a rich source of learning, ideas, inspiration, and peace, and to recognize that it's advantageous for both the environment and humans to live in harmony--humans can protect and care for the natural world and the natural world provides a rich support and lifeline for humans too.
