A few weeks back, Brian C. Smith tagged me for the Passion Quilt Meme and I’ve finally completed my task. I took this image last fall when I was out with a group of 5th graders practicing several science process skills (communicating, measuring, observing, and classifying) while exploring the Hojack Trail right behind our school.
My passion is science, namely problem-based learning, and this requires students to be able to take the lead for their learning. They need to explore their world beyond the classroom, be up-front and active, work with others, problem-solve, and sometimes take the longer path to reach their destination. They need to develop the skills to become self-directed learners so they can continue to explore topics of interest throughout their lives.
Directions: Find or create an image that captures what you are most passionate for kids to learn about.
Post a picture from a source like Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn…and give your picture a short title.
Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.
From this past week’s RSS feeds coming into my Google Reader, here are two more posts I wanted to pass along to our faculty here at Klem Road South Elementary.
First, from Brian Crosby, is his post, Write It! Brian shares a writing strategy that he has found to be successful with his students. Any ideas on how you could modify this to meet the needs of your students?
Next, here’s a link to make you think about our society, environment, and the role we play. Read Will Richardson’s post, Our Individual Role. Just to think further about environmental issues, according to the Container Recycling Institute, three billion non-carbonated beverage containers are sold in New York State annually. The NYS DEC states that Americans purchased nearly 31 billion bottles of water in 2006 and spend $11 billion on bottled water. Imagine the images we’d see with these statistics.
Our wasteful use of our natural resources is actually the basis for a year-long problem-based learning experience, Going Green Globally, to begin next fall. Look for future posts seeking other schools worldwide to collaborate with on this important issue. If you already know you are interested in exploring this topic in-depth with your students and working with others to initiate changes, please let me know.
“The balance of nature is built of a series of interrelationships between living things. You can’t just step in with some brute force and change one thing without changing a good many others.”
~Rachel Carson
A group of 4th graders assumed the role of student environmentalists and create a public service announcement to make citizens and policy makers aware of the concerns regarding the early opening date of shipping on the St. Lawrence Seaway. Students synthesized information from the ecology unit and created a video to voice their opinions, concerns, and facts regarding shipping on the St. Lawrence River.
Shortly after posting the video on YouTube and sharing the link with the Save the River organization and biologist from the NYS DEC, I received this email.
Hello Ms. Smith,
I’m an old retired fishery biologist who worked for the NYSDEC. I used to work on the fisheries research vessel the R/V SETH GREEN. I spent many days and nights working nearby to Webster. In all I worked 35 years on LakeOntario and loved every minute of my work.
During that time, I saw many environmental presentations, and I made a number of presentations myself. I traveled throughout the Great Lakes and I was also lucky to get to know many very good scientists, both Canadian and American.
At this point you are probably wondering where I’m going with this little email. The point I want to make is that I’ve been around the “Lakes” and I’m familiar with most of the issues and I’ve seen many environmental presentations.
Given my background, it should mean more to your class when I say that in all those years I don’t think I’ve seen a better presentation of an environmental issue than what your class did with the seaway opening video.
Would you please, stand in front of your students and shout, “Class, you’ve got class!” Their video was eye-catching and appealing, their information was accurate and up-to-date, and your student’s presentations were passionate, professional and entertaining. If there is a grade better than A+, you need to give it to your students.
Please tell your class that they have done more than a super job. I hope all of them feel good about what they’ve done, and I also hope that some of them might think about a future career in environmental science — New York and other states and provinces will need good people, like your students, to work on the Great Lakes on vessels like the SETH GREEN.
As you know, Ms. Smith, your class did a classy job, because they had a very classy teacher. You should be very proud. Tell your superintendent to give you a raise immediately (I was also a school board member, too).
Best wishes to a great group of student environmentalists and a great teacher.
Warm Regards, Clif Schneider
Cape Vincent, NY
Much thanks to Clif for allowing me to share his kind words and acknowledgement of the hard work and effort these students put into their project. I have no doubt that each of these students will continue to be responsible stewards of our environment and perhaps one day pursue a career in the sciences. We’ll certainly need kids like this taking charge of the issues facing our Earth in the coming years.
