Morning Meeting
12/7/2019
At PNA we use The Responsive Classroom Approach. It is a way of teaching that fosters safe, challenging and joyful classroom and school wide climates for all students. Using this approach we understand that all of a students' needs - academic, social, emotional and physical - are important. This is teaching to the whole child. At PNA we create an environment that responds to all of those needs using practical strategies for bringing together social and academic learning throughout the school day so that your child can do his or her best learning. Key responsive classroom practices include the following: - Morning Meeting - Guided Discovery - Creating Rules - Classroom Organization - Interactive Modeling - Academic Choice - Teacher Language - Collaborative Problem Solving - Logical Consequence - Working with Families The Morning Meeting is an integral part of Responsive Classroom and starts the day of in a positive, engaging and fun manner as well as bringing students together, building peer relations and developing social skills. Each and every morning meeting consists of:
At PNA, we strive to give students not only a voice but many opportunities to let those voices be heard. By taking part in the morning meeting, asking and answering questions, sharing news and conversing with peers. Students are not only revisiting new vocabulary and concepts, but they are able to state their opinion and respectfully disagree with the opinions of others. In just a short space of time the morning meeting welcomes students and conveys a sense of belonging, reminds students of key ideas and behaviors, as well as adding a challenge that gets their brains warmed up and ready to start the day. PNA performed their Christmas Concert on Thursday. It was a great show and 4th grade performed exceptionally! It is nerve wrecking performing in front of so many. Each student should be proud of themselves. Friday Fun
11/22/2019
Friday is a fun day for both students and teachers alike. Not only is it the end of a long and hard week of learning. It is also dress down day and a chance to get out of uniform! However, the big event on Friday is ACE! This time is great for students and teachers alike! For students they get to learn and try something new, that is not offered in regular academic lessons. For teachers it is also a chance to break away from regular academics and teach something new that they have a personal interest and passion for. You have probably already heard about ACE, about the fun things they did or who they worked with and perhaps have seen an ACE project or two make their way home. It may sound like students are just messing around and not doing anything academic however ACE provides students a vital opportunity. ACE stands for Academic and Character Enrichment. It is an elective based program where each students has their own freedom to choose what program they take part in based on their own personal preferences. Since it is own personal choice the groups that come together for ACE are multi aged. These groups collaborate together, learning and growing together alongside each other, sharing ideas and the older students often shouldering responsibility and mentoring the younger. This mimics real life situations. People interact with others of all ages and ability levels. With the more experienced guiding the new. Research indicates that in schools multi-age groupings actually improve social emotional learning and class bonding. While our model at PNA is not multi-age classrooms, we can reap the benefits of these learning environments through programs like ACE. Every three weeks, students are given the opportunity to try a new ACE offering. Students choose their top three personal preferences. It is important to encourage students to not just follow their friends and to try and find their own personal interest and expand their horizons even if that means leaving their friends and moving out of their comfort zone. They are then placed into groups based on these choices and the fun ensues... While they are having fun they are also practicing the very important 21st century skills such as collaboration, cooperation and creativity. They are using their critical thinking skills and expanding their content knowledge with the use of hands-on materials and technology. So ACE is not just a time to mess around and goof off. It is actually an important part of the school curriculum allowing for Academic Character Enrichment. Have a great Thanksgiving break! Here are a few snaps from the 2nd and 5th grades Thanksgiving Parade Project!
The Outside Community
11/15/2019
We often talk about the importance of community, and how vital it is to develop, create and foster a healthy and positive community in the class and school. Where everyone works together towards common goals. It is necessary however for students to realize and understand that community is not just confined to the classroom and actually extends out from the school into the wider area. Being a positive and contributing member of the wider community is function we strive to achieve as individuals and as a school. Recently we have been contributing to the wider community with our green bean and corn drive as part of our Thanksgiving celebrations. As well as contributing to the wider community it is vital to be welcoming of people from said community who come to PNA to share their own experiences, passions and teachings. These are great opportunities for us as learners to get an insight into the many different real life experiences there are out there. The people we welcome into school are often specialists or experts in their field who can share knowledge and lessons we might not be able to get anywhere else. For example having Su a NASA Engineer come to PNA for Space Week. This week we welcomed representatives from the NSAA who came to share their passions and experiences and provide students with an opportunity to try Ski Jumping! Also this week we had a chance to study a moose heart! A break from our current science topic of energy but it is not everyday that we get that chance!
The importance of computers in education
11/8/2019
At PNA, we often talk about the development of the child as a whole and to make students lifelong learners. Part of this is preparing students for life after PNA, for life after college and education. We do this through the development of 21st century skills. To prepare our students for every success in the future. Of these 21st century skills having literacy in information, the media and in technology is, and will only become, more prevalent. Computers play a vital role in every field. They aid industrial processes, they find application in medicine; they are the reason why software industries developed and flourished and they play an important role in education. This is also why the education system has made computer education a part of school curriculum. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is important in primary education because it enables students to search for the information they need and to organize what they have found. As students progress through the school system, they become increasingly responsible for their own learning. Being able to efficiently use a computer, its programs as well the effective use of the internet will play a role in their self efficacy. The Internet can play a huge and important role in education. As it is an enormous information base, it can be harnessed for retrieval of information on a variety of subjects. We might not be able to go into space but through the internet we can listen and learn from experts around the world who have. We can peer into the past thanks to images online from satellites. We can be amazed from video footage of rockets and alien moons, all from our classroom. Both teachers and students benefit from the Internet. Teachers can refer to it for additional information and references on the topics to be taught. Students can refer to web sources for additional information on subjects of their interest. However being able to use the internet effectively also means being able to use it safely. Teaching students how to stay safe online as well as being able to distinguish between truth, misinformation and to understand the way information can be manipulated by others is paramount. Today, a life without computers is unimaginable. This underlines the importance of computer education. To succeed in the Age of Technology students need these 21st century skills and computer learning gives students the opportunity to expand their horizons and to learn skills they would not have the opportunity to acquire in the traditional classroom. Parents and School
11/1/2019
Parent Lunches are a great way for students to share their learning with parents. Sometimes, the activities showcase the end results of what students have been learning,. Other times parents are thrown into the learning process itself and still other lunches are simply about engaging with class family members in a social setting. Thank you to all those who came and contributed food items and their time. As a teacher, I always become slightly nervous when parents come into class, however the students love it when their parents come into school and they have the opportunity to show off. Not only do students enjoy it but parental involvement in school has been shown to lead to better academic progress for students. Ongoing research shows that family engagement in schools improves student achievement, reduces absenteeism, and restores parents’ confidence in their children’s education. Students with involved parents or other caregivers earn higher grades and test scores, have better social skills, and show improved behavior. Becoming active in a school’s parent group is an important way to increase involvement. Involvement also encompasses:
"Parents are the ultimate role models for children. Every word, movement and action has an effect. No other person or outside force has a greater influence on a child than the parent." |
At PNA we use the Lucy Calkins Framework for our Reading and Writing Workshop, however to help us improve on the nitty gritty aspects and foundational skills of writing in 4th grade, this year we are trying something new! What is VCOP and Big Write? VCOP and Big Write is a teaching approach based on the research of Ros Wilson, an expert based in the UK. It focuses on four main aspects of the writing process (VCOP) and provides children with the skills to improve their own writing with a lot of emphases being put on self-assessment and self correction/improvement. Each letter of VCOP stands for an aspect of writing that will help them improve all writing in every subject. As you move down the pyramid the better your writing becomes! V = Vocabulary (the words they use in their writing) Some call them WOW words! For example: instead of using the word ‘nice’, we could other more interesting words such as ‘beautiful, stunning, fantastic’ etc. In 4th Grade we say "spice it up", "Can you spice up this word?" C = Connectives (we call them joining words) These are words we use to make our sentences longer. For example: ‘and, because, but, so, when, then’. The words come in the middle of sentences, e.g. ‘When I stared out of the window I felt angry because…’ Students use connectives (joining words) to change their simple sentences into a complex sentence. O = Openers (we use these words to open or begin our sentences) For example: ‘I…, My…, When…, First…, Suddenly…’ There are many more openers. We encourage the children to use a different opener to start each sentence in their writing. Using varied openers ensures their writing doesn’t appear ‘boring’ or 'repetative'. P = Punctuation (the marks we use to help our writing make sense!) Students are taught the names of the different types of punctuation and their use and they learn to use them in their writing. From periods to speech marks to ellipses. BIG WRITE: Big Write is a celebration of students’ learning. 4th Grade will be conducting the at the end of each Lucy Calkins unit as a kind of finishing piece. The biggest difference between Big Write and the ‘everyday’ writing session is the environment. The classroom has a different atmosphere. The lights are tuned off, and quiet music is playing. The room is silent as everyone writes at their own pace and focuses on their own individual writing goals. COLD WRITE: A Cold Write is where students are not given the opportunity to talk about the topic before writing and the learning aides are removed. This is an opportunity for students to display what they know without the assistance from external resources. 4th Grade will perform a cold write at the start of a unit to show of what they already know. We can then compare our cold write and big write to show the progress each student has made! | |
Outdoor School
9/27/2019
4th and 5th Grade had the great opportunity this week to attend the Fall Pilot Program for the new Anchorage Outdoor School down at Portage. This was a chance for students to get out of the classroom and get real hands on experience of science and nature in their own backyard. For the three days students were engaged in active experiential lessons and activities to develop their understanding of Portage Valley and the many natural systems and sciences that can be found there. As well as developing their STEM education students also developed their confidence and independence, being introduced to new instructors each day who lead our field study sessions, and thrown into groups with students from other schools whom they had to collaborate with to succeed. All students from PNA rose to each challenge that was presented to them and it was commented by the instructors from the Outdoor School how well our students performed. Luckily the weather held during our stay there and fantastic time was had by all!
A picture is worth a thousand words and we certainly took a lot of pictures! Can you spot your child and invite them to discuss what they were learning and doing during their stay in Portage Valley!
A picture is worth a thousand words and we certainly took a lot of pictures! Can you spot your child and invite them to discuss what they were learning and doing during their stay in Portage Valley!
Hunting for Macro-invertebrates and learning about the water cycle in the Amazing Aquatics Field Study.
Listening for soundscapes and discovering the history of Portage Valley.
Our Glaciers Galore Field study, finding out all about the 7 glaciers that surround Portage and other pictures from the trip.
Martina Henke
Martina Henke has been a K-8 educator for 30+ years. A life-long learner, she loves working with kids of all ages, new technology, great books, fiber arts, and her wonderful family!
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