I love knowing that the lessons we learn in class stretch beyond our classroom walls! I love receiving emails from students’ parents that say, “Mikayla made me take this picture of the moon and send it to you,” or, “Jack saw all of these spider webs in our grass this morning and made me promise to send you an email about it.” I receive these emails from adults during that school year and also multiple years after I taught their students in 5th grade! I just adore watching the messy learning process unfold for my students, and one of my favorite things is instilling a growth mindset and opening up their desire to learn about the world around them (and within them!). I’ve attached a photo of a decaying plant among living plants…seems maybe gross and strange to include this photo, but it is one that I received from a student who saw it in their home life, thought it was interesting, and wanted to share it with me!
Do you have any fun facts about yourself that you’d like to share?
Fun facts about me….ummmmmm…..I’m pretty average…I’m always behind on my family’s laundry, I love filling online shopping carts and never pressing the “checkout” button, and my least favorite chore is putting clean dishes away from the dishwasher…but that makes me approachable and relatable, right?
How do use the science of learning in your classroom? Describe one activity in detail so other educators can use it too!
I. One of my favorite ways to incorporate spaced retrieval practice is by using content-specific language and concepts as my class attention grabbers. I used to say things like, “Class, Class?” And my class would reply with “Yes, Yes!” Or, “Ready set?” And the class reply, “You bet!” And all sorts of trending callbacks. However, I shifted these choral responses to be purposeful. When students are working together in groups or partners, or if things got a bit noisier than my liking, I’ll call something out like, “Whaaaaaaaaaaat is the definition of density?” And the class replies, “Density is how tightly packed matter is in an object.” Or, if we are reading a novel in reading class and we come across the word, “Whoosh!” Then I sing, “O-n-o——“ and the students chime in, “m-a-t-o——“ and we all finish together, “p-o-e-i-a….onomatopoeia!” Any definition or concept you need students to remember can be turned into a chant, just like the trending callbacks. Give them a rhythm, give them a tune, give them hand motions or dance moves, and use them as your class callbacks!
