2013-11-20

Tina Turkey Learns a Thanksgiving Day Lesson




Tina Turkey Learns a Thanksgiving Day Lesson

     Bella and I have written and illustrated a cute little Thanksgiving Day story that we wanted to share :-) The illustrations came out a bit light but we did put Grandma Bette into the story. This book is a labor of love between father and daughter and 100% of the proceeds are going to our Pennies to Paris Dream Trip in 2016! Thank you to everyone who helps make this dream come true!! We hope you enjoy our story, Adam, Bella and Grandma Bette :-)


2013-11-06

A Native American Myth & Play ~ Animoto video

A Native American Myth & Play


I'm always telling my students that there not in school to absorb knowledge during the week and spit it back out on a test on Friday. That's what copy machines are for.

I ask them to USE the knowledge by applying what they're learning to a project, experiment or activity.

Last week we were learning proper nouns. Pretty non-exciting stuff, unless you turn it into a Native American myth and play, using proper nouns.

We even went downstairs to use the stage! Every kid loves getting out of that seat and playing. All I'm getting them to do is play with knowledge :-)

I wish I could show you a video of how much fun they had. We're not allowed to post pics or videos of students. But I can show you the results of such playing with knowledge:

Almost everyone got an A on the test and the average grade was an 84%!



To paraphrase Plato,


You can't teach by force or harshness, but by finding what amuses their minds. And in this way a teacher is much more likely to discover the genius of each child they teach.