Hey Everyone!
I just realized that we are nearly half way through our trip already. Where has the time gone? The past month has seemed to pass by in a flash second, yet I have tons of memories and experiences from these past few weeks that will last me a whole lifetime. It's unbeleivable really. Just a few weeks ago, I felt like I was thinking so long term as far as the rest of the trip. Now I feel like I am almost rushing to make sure I cover all those things I said I would do "at some point on this trip." Funny how that works!
The newspaper project continues underway. We are slowly making progress but I have needed to teach them so many unexpected things as we go along so the process is taking awhile. That's alright though, I'd rather cover my material well thean try to race through it and have the whole thing become meaningless for my students. We have done mini lessons on simply how to interview, how to write al letter asking permission to interview, how to puncuate an interview properly in a report, how to come up with and document information from questions in an interview, how to design a newspaper page, how to come up with catch and exciting headlines, what the parts of a newspaper article are, and more. My agenda in particular for the end of this week has been so set my students up for success in their interviews. I made them work really hard as teams to accomplish a list of 4 things to prove to me they were ready to conduct their investigations. 1) They had to establish who was going to take on which roles (easier said than done for 9-year-olds!) 2) They needed to tell me what information they were setting out to find (who, what, where, etc.) 3) Who they were interviewing and what they were going to photograph, and 4) What questions were they going to ask the interviewees based on #2. I wanted them to show me these things so that they wouldn't be aimlessly wandering without direction looking for information to report on. This has been a challenging project for them and it has really tested a lot of their social skills personality-wise. But I truly beleive that learning to work as a team despite differences in opinion is a key life skill that extends far beyond memorizing facts in school. It will be a skill these students need to have for the rest of their lives.
In other news, I am now guest-judging for Swanson's Got Talent during lunch times throughout the week. It is a really fun way to get involved outside of my own classroom and partake in school-wide events.
This weekend Laura and I are hiring a car and driving 3 hours each way to Waitomo for a 3-hour Black Water Rafting Adventure. Should be amazing!! The only challenging part will be learning how to drive on the left side of the road but on the right side of the car. It's all opposite! Wish us luck ;) haha.
Cheers Everyone!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
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