Hey there Mini Coursers! This week, you're working on making connections (and finding contrasts) between the fictional Tocowans, the fictional desert region where they lived, and real indigenous groups in our nation's southwest. I was lucky enough spend some time this past November in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a portion of the southern part of Colorado, when I few out there for the NAGC Conference. I got to know a few teachers from those areas and spent some time visiting several cities, small towns, and national parks. It was an incredible experience, and I tried to document some of the culture and landscapes of the region. You'll notice that I have a special love for public art/ graffiti - I was especially taken with the fact that all of the "spray can art" found in the region held decidedly Native imagery and messages. We are so removed from that influence here in North Carolina, even though - as we are learning in this Mini Course! - these groups of people were here long before English-speaking people were in this country, calling it "America." Several years before that, my family took a road trip out to the western parts of Texas and the southern parts of New Mexico, where we also visited a variety of historically, geographically, and culturally important places. Below are a few interesting links and a photo gallery to help you learn more. This week's homework asks some questions about this blog post, so spend some time "soaking up" the information here. Be sure to leave a reply on this blog post to earn extra money for your group! I hope you enjoy learning about this area, its history,and its people much as I did! Areas I traveled in November: (each is a link to a website) Albuquerque, New Mexico Santa Fe, New Mexico Canyons of the Ancients National Monument Mesa Verde National Park Areas My Family Traveled to in 2016: (each is a link to a website) Big Bend National Park White Sands National Monument Petroglyph National Monument Guadalupe Mountains National Park Photo gallery - Mrs. Taylor goes to New mexico and colorado, fall 2019:taylor family road trip through west texas and southern new mexico, summer 2016:
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Wintertime has pushed our gardening efforts to the wayside (although third grade has made some valiant efforts with bean plants recently), and forced us largely indoors these days.
What have we been up to? Second grade has been studying water and its properties for quite some time, and has recently delved into understanding the secret to "sink or float?"- DENSITY. After some experimenting, theory-development, and discussion, students made their own boats from Maker Space materials and tested their ability to float. Students were able to extend on their design tests to see how much weight their boats would hold, as well, which has made for further excellent thinking and discussion. Third grade grew a variety of beans (lima, black bean. black eyed peas, and chickpeas) from seed (after dissecting and analyzing seeds), to varying degrees of success. The first round of plants died quickly or outright refused to grow, so we conducted autopsies and tried again. The second round of beans were thriving for quite some time, and we documented their growth and the properties indicating health. Third grade is now transitioning into studying states of matter, working to discover what properties best distinguish solids, liquids, and gases. Fourth grade has been delving into in-depth studies of electric circuits and magnetism. They took apart broken appliances and analyzed the parts, reassembled flashlights, and then created their own complete circuits from bulbs, wires, and batteries. They have been comparing and contrasting insulators and conductors, and investigating the overlaps between electricity and magnetism. Fifth grade has been very interested in recycling and "upcycling" and has launched several campaigns around the school to collect and repurpose junk. They are now transitioning into studies of phenology, investigating sunlight, the seasons, and the related cycles of life on Plannt Earth. Learn a little bit about 5th grade's various inspirations here: Recycling Projects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr_WHW_tGSE https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/entertainment_life/article_f058eb9d-3c51-53ce-a019-1aa5fbe8291a.html Phenology and Photoperiod: https://journeynorth.org/sunlight-seasons https://journeynorth.org/mclass/index.html The second quarter’s Mini Course experiences were book clubs, with students reading novels of their choice at their instructional level, discussing them with peers, and responding through short films. In their small groups and as a whole group, we discussed literary language, character development, and authors’ word choice, then worked to translate the written stories into a visual medium.
Students reached varying levels of success in terms of the finished product, but I am extremely proud of the depth of thought, creativity, and overall work ethic students demonstrated. This was a challenging project requiring a great deal of time and effort through both high tech and low tech means. You can check out some of the students’ films and some documentation of their process on my school youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaYrO8bj4p8b0W4Q8hYbGgQ?view_as=subscriber My Film Crew is currently working to finish editing some additional video, so keep checking for more footage. For this Mini Course experience, students examined the probability of various games, from the most basic and simple (rock, paper, scissors, anyone?) to the most complex (Chess, and various collaborative games such as Pandemic and Photosynthesis). We analyzed the probability of landing on various spaces in Monopoly and discussed how that affects outcomes and strategy (The information comes from this Business Insider article I found: https://www.businessinsider.com/math-monopoly-statistics-2013-6#-24) and investigated the probability and physics of creating and "rigging" carnival games. A few resources connected to those concepts are "Caine's Arcade" and Mark Rober's "Carnival Scam Science." "Caine's Arcade" is a cool short film about a child who creates his own arcade games that we watched and discussed last week: http://cainesarcade.com/2012/04/caines-arcade-short-film/ There is more information on this site if your child was really into Caine's work and would like to see where is he now! We also watched and discussed Mark Rober's "Carnival Scam Science" and using his techniques to do some analysis on our own games. Some kids may be interested in digging more into these ideas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk_ZlWJ3qJI
The experience concluded with a "No Fair Fair," where students created games that showcased their learning. Their parents, teachers, and classmates were invited to come in and see their work. Projects ranged from board games to carnival style games of chance, with students showcasing subject areas they are particularly knowledgeable and passionate about and finding ways to "stump" their audience. Many students even created prizes! This is an example of what Joseph Renzulli calls an authentic audience, which is an especially important aspect of the Renzulli Schoolwide Enrichment Model. Check out the entries on some of our other recent Mini Courses to learn more about what makes an audience authentic, and why this matters. It's been a year or more since my first group of botany-enthused students began digging into the study of plants, pollinators, and the amazing intersections between all forms of life within an ecosystem, including an urban landscape like the one surrounding our school!
One of the things I love most in elementary school is experiencing the yearly cycles of the monarch butterfly. I've nurtured monarch caterpillars every year since my very first year of teaching in the mountains of southwest Virginia, and it never lose its magic. This morning, a beautiful, healthy female monarch emerged from chrysalis I'd given to the kindergarten classes. She was my first attempt at tagging a butterfly (and a successful one, at that!), and the kindergartners and their teachers released her to begin her long trek to Mexico.
Last year, I was fortunate enough to receive a grant from Monarch Watch, granting our school free milkweed plants. My Mini Course students created a plot of milkweed on our playground, which attracted mama monarchs, who laid eggs which hatched RIGHT as school started! Students engaged in field science, observing and taking notes on the caterpillars on the plants, and as their time to pupate drew near, we brought them inside. Enrichment classes have been observing them closely and responding to their observations in writing and art. Each grade level has something specific to connect to their science standards - second grade studies life cycles of animals; third grade studies plants and their cycles, making milkweed an interesting launch point; fourth grade studies the structural and behavioral adaptations that make certain animals suited to certain environments; and fifth graders study ecosystems. Fifth grade is currently studying weather, so, naturally, we have also been doing some research into the path of the monarchs' migration and its intersection with the paths of hurricanes and tropical storms. All grade levels are soaking in the magic and wonder of our monarchs, as well as two black swallowtail caterpillars I found. We will be tracking our own monarchs as we tag and release them (and I am happy to pass along extra tags to families who know they will be having their own monarchs - just reach out and let me know! Check out this resource we use in class to learn more about monarchs and their migation: https://journeynorth.org/monarchs Learn about Monarch Watch, their conservation efforts, and their citizen science program (and even track our very own tagged butterflies) here:: https://monarchwatch.org/ Learn more about monarchs and their life cycles here: https://www.monarch-butterfly.com/ Check out the gallery below with photos of the students at work on these projects! This weekend, I was lucky enough to wrap up my summer by seeing one of my favorite artists, Beck, perform live. I was accompanied by my 5th grade son who is also a fan. Also on the bill were two other bands we love a lot, Cage the Elephant and Spoon. We got rained on but it was totally worth it, as immersive, shared experiences like concerts nearly always are. I love watching artists share their passion with an audience. I especially love sharing those experiences with my son who is developing his own passion and talent for music - seeing live music through his eyes is absolute joy. I was also fortunate enough to spend much of my summer traveling, learning and teaching in a variety of different settings, each amazing and inspiring in its own way. I started the summer road-tripping with my family through Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Maine, camping and exploring cities and wilderness and everything in-between. We were immersed in learning our nation's history and experiencing spectacular natural spaces. I then spent a week at University of Connecticut for Confratute, an intensive learning institute run by Dr. Joseph Renzulli himself, where I was immersed in learning more about the Renzulli Schoolwide Enrichment Model. After that, the kids and I spent three weeks at Eagle's Nest Camp, an amazing experiential learning camp in gorgeous Pisgah National Forest near Brevard, NC. And.... now I'm back! I'm so excited to begin a year inspired by all those experiences and by the sentiments of Beck's new single, "Saw Lightning," which is probably the rockin-est serendipitous ode to Renzulli's Gifted Behaviors that ever happened. As many of you are aware, Dr. Renzulli defines giftedness somewhat differently than many theorists of gifted education and illustrates this through the triad of gifted behaviors - a sort of triple Venn diagram showing the overlap of above-average ability, creativity, and task commitment, which is where real genius happens. The idea is that while superior ability is worth noting, simply having superior intelligence doesn't really add anything to our society. We remember those who create - great inventors, artists, writers, speakers, humanitarians. Those who have high ability but also have a drive to use that ability and the skills to put their passion into practice. This is why, when you walk into our classroom during Enrichment or Mini Course, you will find kids planting, building (or taking apart), debating, discussing, filming, programming, changing and evolving every day. The goal isn't for them to answer test questions well, although I have found over the course of my 16 years as an educator that authentic learning generally helps with those test questions, too. The goal is for them to be the kinds of citizens that know what they believe in, what they care about, what they're good at, and how they can contribute, and that they have a wide range of skills in their "tool belt" to help them achieve whatever they set their minds to, So, full circle now, back to this weekend's concert: Beck took a moment between songs to express, quite genuinely, how much he enjoyed coming out each night of the tour to watch the other acts, how inspiring that was and how it brought him such joy. He talked about how much beauty there is in the world, and especially how beautiful is it when inspiration - LIGHTNING - strikes. How sometimes it all comes together just right and it just hits you. That's the most amazing part of my job, day in and day out - when the lightning strikes. Welcome back, families! This school year is going to be an amazing one! I hope it will be full of joy, inspiration, and learning for all of you. May you all SEE LIGHTNING. Hey there DTS students and families! It's summer break! What are you up to so far?
Earlier in the week, I participated in a Playwork Training with Linda Kinney from the NC Zoo Kidzone (a cool place to visit this summer if your family is looking for something to do). I'll be posting more about this initiative soon - check out the DTS Play Project page for more information! I'm excited that my family is heading on a big road trip starting tomorrow. We are stopping first in Fredericksburg, VA, where Mr. Taylor and I went to college (and a town rich in history), then heading up to another city rich in history, Philadelphia, PA, to visit a friend from college. After that, we are driving up to Maine to spend time exploring and camping in Baxter State Park and Acadia National Park. We get free admission to Acadia since we have a fourth grader in the family. Any families with fourth graders or soon-to-be fourth graders should check out a National Park for free this year. Just use this pass! I'll be posting throughout the summer to share what I'm up to. We're planning tons of adventures this summer. I bet all of you are, too! I'd love for you all to post about your adventures in the comments on my blog posts and/ or send me postcards (Sylvan Taylor, Schoolwide Enrichment Teacher, The Downtown School, 601 N Cherry St, Winston-Salem, NC 27101). |
AuthorI'm Sylvan Taylor, the Schoolwide Enrichment/ Academically Gifted teacher at The Downtown School. I love teaching, coffee, nature, road trips, and zombie films. This blog focuses primarily on my work at DTS, but will occasionally include other education-related topics. Archives
June 2020
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