Skipping down the halls

It's April and it feels like most days come "in like a lion and out, um, like a lion."  State testing stress, tired staff members, the stomach flu (Really?  Again?) have all taken their toll.

And yet.  There are some things that send me practically skipping through the halls.  Last Friday was one of those "skipping through the halls" days.

I was looking for Mrs. Sedgwick, one of our first grade teachers, to ask her a question.  The class wasn't in their room.  They weren't in music class.  They weren't in the library.  You know where I found her?  She and her little people were all in Mrs. Schoonover's third grade room learning how to use KidBlog together.  All those little first graders were buddied up with an older and wiser third grader, learning how to blog.  And where were the teachers?  Standing at the back of the room, side by side, each with her laptop open, moderating the blog conversations.  Not a single kids was whining, complaining, avoiding, sleeping, or passive.  Engaged learning, indeed!

As if that weren't already enough to put an perma-educator-grin on my face, I went down the hall to Ms. Chandler's fourth grade class for a formal lesson observation.  You remember fourth grade, right?  Land of recorders and kickball and reading novels?  And Hot Wheel cars.

Recently, Ms. Chandler wrote away to the Mattel Corp. for a deal that they had called Speedometry.  Speedometry is a STEAM challenge using Hot Wheel Cars and tracks.  Children work in teams to design, build, and test their track designs.


It was amazing.  The kids were so focused and involved.  Once they built and tested their designs, they tried it out on other surfaces (changing just one variable of the experiment at a time).  I had so much fun watching them, I almost missed my next appointment!

I love seeing all the innovative, exciting teaching and learning that is happening at our school.  I love seeing the kids collaborating, being creative, using their critical thinking skills, and CARING!