The Value of Electives
2/15/2019
One of the best things to do with kids on a Friday afternoon after a science test is to engage with them in a fun activity of their choice. The offerings this “quarter” are: Snow, Relief Wood Carving, Set Design, and Mandala the Science Lab. At Pacific Northern Academy, these electives fit well within our standards. The following are a few we are currently assessing: PNA Electives Standards:
Enjoy the photos! It's All About Growth!
2/8/2019
Parent Lunches are a unique and wonderful benefit of being a part of the PNA community. Our goal is to come together as a middle school family to share a meal and allow parents to experience a little taste of a school day. This week we had a fun lunch together focused on mathematical mindset.
Since we are always looking for ways to get more "bang for the buck," the 6th/7th graders used our lunch as content for an English language arts lesson on writing a summary. In their words, our Parent Lunch went like this: At a recent Parent Lunch at PNA with the middle school students and parents, everyone learned about mathematical mindsets while eating delicious food. The parents brought in many dishes and desserts for the group to share. Everyone got their food downstairs, and then ate upstairs in the classrooms. Next, the group watched a video on mathematical mindsets while finishing their lunch. The video, by Dr. Jo Boaler of Stanford University, talked about how anyone can be good at math with the right mindset. Then the families worked on finding growth patterns with tile figures, resulting in many creative designs. The next step was to define equations or rules from the growth patterns they saw. After the activity and delicious food, the group was full - of knowledge AND food! - and happy. Overall, the parent lunch was a success, and the group realized that you can learn anything with the right mindset - even math! Our activity came together after Ms. Mariner and Mrs. Henke attended an Effective Instruction Conference, where they learned from some of the best minds in the field about math instruction, productive group work, and effective grading and assessment. The sessions on math instruction were particularly interesting: it turns out that the CPM curriculum we use aligns really well with what research is showing about effective math instruction. Working in groups; verbalizing thought processes; making conjectures and debating them; creating visual representations; struggling through complex problems: all of these are critical to building a mathematical brain. We learned that anyone can achieve to high levels in math, you don't have to be fast at math, and your brain grows when it makes mistakes - even if you don't know you made them! Most of all, we learned that having a growth mindset is critical: believing that you can learn, that you can grow, and that smart is something you BECOME, not something you ARE. Dr. Boaler laughingly says that if her child comes home and says, "I got every problem right," she say,s "Oh, I'm sorry, your brain didn't get a chance to grow today!" If you are interested in learning more about Dr. Boaler's work to revolutionize math learning, check out the video we watched and then explore her website filled with activities and resources. Constructing Presentations...
2/2/2019
When you teach more than one subject across a school day, as we are fortunate to do in our PNA middle school, it's always exciting to see how many of our standards for learning cut cut across all subject areas. Although the logistics of scheduling and organizing curriculum and resources somehow make us think that we teach and learn different subjects: science, social studies, math, language arts, art, music, health, physical education, in reality, that's an illusion. The skills, knowledge, and understandings that students need to learn cut across all disciplines. They interweave and repeat themselves in different contexts.
Students make claims (conjectures, hypotheses) in science, in social studies, in math. They analyze and synthesize literary and nonfiction texts throughout the school day. They look for evidence, share their reasoning, read closely. In social studies, they "Explain how cultural patterns and economic decisions influence environments and the daily lives of people in both nearby and distant places," while they use the speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills they learn in language arts, such as "Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant, accurate data and evidence that demonstrate an understanding of the topic or text, using credible sources." This past week students finished up our unit on the US Civil War by studying Reconstruction. Teams of 2-3 students read their assigned section of the textbook's chapter on this topic and conducted research to support their learning. Then they prepared an oral presentation to teach their classmates what they learned. When students must take their learning and present it to their classmates, they become active learners, moving out of the role of simply receiving information to the more rigorous role of making sure others can understand. Students created slideshow visuals to support their oral presentations, providing the chance for them to learn about effective presentation techniques. The resulting visual aids were engaging and supportive of the student speakers, and there wasn't a bullet point in sight! Students were quite professional, using their speaker notes and presentation clickers as they taught their classmates. Each presentation was followed by questions and answers. Because each team had a section on which they were experts, rich discussions and explanations were the order of the day. Everyone had information to bring to the table, and it showed! What could have been a dry reading of a chapter in the textbook instead became an opportunity to hone skills in inquiry, reading, writing, speaking, listening, social studies, and even visual arts. You can see the slideshows, complete with speaker notes, at this link. |
Sarah Mariner
Ms. Mariner earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Science from Colorado State University, and was awarded a teaching certificate through the University of Alaska, Southeast. Her varied background includes being an environmental education field instructor in Massachusetts, Colorado, and Baja, Mexico. She also served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. Archives
April 2021
Categories |