passionately curious

Michael Poliza's Africa

Michael Poliza is an acclaimed photographer whose work has been widely published in many environmental and travel magazines, including National Geographic.  His book Africa captures the stunning beauty of an amazing continent.  I first discovered Michael's photographs on flickr where he includes the complete selection of images from his book (180 photos in all!).  I especially love the expression captured in this one, this one and this one. 

Using flickr's slideshow feature, I showed many of Michael's photos to the class as we learned about African animals.   It took a little while for children to identify these animals and it was a wonderful  "ah ha" moment when one child shouted, "Look at the shadows!"  Check this one out as well.  I invite you to explore all of Michael Poliza's photographs.  They will leave you longing to go on safari!

Photo used with permission from Michael Poliza
Come this way...from the Kenya set

Jambo Means Hello

On our quick tour of Africa, we introduced children to Swahili, the most widely spoken language of sub-Saharan Africa.  We read tales from Kenya and Tanzania, learned to count to ten and listened to a song in Swahili.  Here are some of our favorite resources:

We All Went on Safari: A Counting Journey Through Tanzania by Lori Krebs
Follow Massai children on a journey through the grasslands, count animals along the way and learn interesting facs about Tanzania and the Massai people. 

Mama Panya's Pancakes: A Village Tale From Kenya by Mary and Richard Chamberlin
Join a Adika and his mother as they visit a rural Kenyan market.  An eager Adika invites everyone along the way for pancakes while Mama Panya worries how she will feed so many people.  Beautiful illustrations by Julia Cairns bring this tale of giving and frienship to life.  Learn fun facts about Kenya and enjoy and easy recipe for Mama Panya's pancakes!

 

For You Are a Kenyan Child by Kelly Cunnane
Imagine yourself a young boy in Kenya - "What's it like to live in a place where monkeys scurry past and a tasty snack is a bug plucked from the sky?"
Ana Juan's (Frida) whimsical and inviting illustrations bring this lively tale to life.

Jambo Means Hello: Swahili Alphabet Book by Muriel Feelings

Moja Means One: Swahili Counting Book by Muriel Feelings

Putamayo Kids Presents African Playground
You will not be able to get these African songs out of your head!  Here's the song, Jambo Bwana,  which we used to see if the kids could recognize some Swahili.  You and your students may also recognize "hakuna matata" from The Lion King which means "no worries." This song is by Them Mushrooms, a popular group from Kenya. 

Habits of Success

I've been tagged!  My colleague, Lucy Gray, has invited my to participate in this thoughtful meme about daily habits for being successful.  I suppose it's about how you define success and if you narrow that definition to work, home, or include it all.  Since I focus here on my teaching, I will include the things I do to be successful in my professional life (although we all know our lives as teachers do not end when class is dismissed!).

Things I do almost everyday to be successful as a teacher:
1. Communicate with parents. On a daily basis, this sounds incredibly time-consuming (and it is), but it's made such a difference in my relationship with parents.  I am fortunate that all of my families use email regularly.  I email quick reminders or questions.  A few messages are more involved and describe something that was of particular challenge (academically or socially) for a child during the school day.  This may require a phone call instead. When I see parents at school, I try to share a positive comment about their child's progress or participation during the day. I also write a weekly newsletter and update the class webpage.

2. Touch base with my support team (assistant teacher, counselor, learning consultant, principal, reading specialist) to discuss concerns about students and get advice.

3. Plan and develop curriculum with my assistant teacher. One of the most important relationships in the Lower School is that of head teacher and assistant.  I am fortunate to have a wonderful assistant, Pam Maxey.  We have a similar approach to teaching and classroom management and most importantly, we have fun together.  I'm not the most organized person and, yes, my teacher's table is often stacked with piles of paper, mail and books. Open House, Parent Conferences, and special classroom events occur often enough that I'm forced to do some "house cleaning" every few weeks.  I've never been successul at keeping a lesson plan book and often plan from week to week with some lose ideas for the months ahead.  The wonderful thing about my school is that I have the flexibility to let curriculum emerge.  If something comes up or a lesson doesn't go as planned, I can make changes.  Pam is very organized and remembers all the things I seem to lose track of.  She even keeps a lesson plan book for me!  I truly consider her my co-teacher and the students see it that way too. I value Pam's insight and knowledge and we plan much of the curriculum together. I rely on her when I'm facing difficult issues with children or parents and her daily support is a big part of my success. 

4. Reflect on my own teaching. I am critical of my teaching (and sometimes too hard on myself) and I am constantly working to improve.  I buy more books on teaching than I have time to read, and attend 2-3 conferences each year.  I have more ideas than time to implement them.  This blog has provided a wonderful way for me to reflect on my teaching.  My goal is to post daily, but again, it's difficult to find the time.  I put a great deal of thought into each entry as I consider what's really important to me, what's been successful in my classroom or with my students, and how other teachers might benefit from this information.   

5. Read and respond to several blogs about teaching, technology, and children's literature every day. I've connected to some wonderful people and discovered great resources that I can use in the classroom.  It's hard to keep up with the trends in education and there are so many smart and talented people sharing their ideas and opinions.  Making these connections really informs my own teaching. 

6. Read children's literature.   I read several new books each week (in addition to the bedtime stories I read to my own kids).  Children's literature (fiction, non-fiction, and poetry) is such a vital part of my curriuclum and I learn as much from it as my students do.

7. Get enough sleep. While this isn't always a possibility with two young children at home, nothing's worse than a sleepy, grumpy teacher!

Here's the original post with all the details of how you can participate.  I'm never very good at doing the last (and most important) step in keeping a meme going  - tagging someone else.  I tag Susan Thomsen of Chicken Spaghetti. 

Africa Study

In two weeks, a giant floor map of Africa will be on display at our school (from National Geographic's Geography Action!).  We'll be able to walk across the equator, stand on the Nile River, sit on the Sahara Desert.  To make more of a connection to the map, we decided to study more about this amazing continent.  We also are fortunate to have a great resource - my assistant teacher, Pam, who spent 12 years in Cameroon!

In choosing to study something as large and rich as Africa, we have to be very selective and make sure that what the children learn is meaningful.  Of course, we cannot cover everything!  In beginning our conversation, children had several assumptions and misconceptions about Africa.  Here are a few that were striking:

Africa is  a poor country.
Africa is very dry.
Everyone in Africa is black.
No one has electricity.
Everyone lives in mud huts.

We left these as a list of questions or "what we think we know" about Africa and will revisit them as we learn more.  This is a variation of the tradiotional KWL strategy (what do we know, what do we want to know, what have we learned).   Over the years, I've discovered that children often have inaccurate facts or misconceptions.  They are often convinced that they know something and will argue at length with classmates who disagree with them.  Listing these facts as something "we think we know" allows us an opportunity to go back and validate or "change" their statements, without hurting anyone's feelings. 

We started our study with a geographical exploration of the continent.  One their own map, the children identified the major bodies of water that surround Africa (Altlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean Sea), the Nile River, Lake Victoria, Mt. Kilimanjaro, and the three major deserts (Sahara, Namib, Kalahari).  Other vocabulary included the cardinal directions, compass rose, equator, habitat, savannah, and rainforest. Here are a few of the introductory texts we used:

Africa is Not a Country by Margy Burns Knight

Learn about the daily life of children in many countries of modern Africa. See the differences in life at home, work and school as experienced by children.

Africa: A True Book by David Peterson

General information about the continent of Africa, including its most notable cultural and geographic features.  Beautiful pohotgraphs! Explore this land of many contrasts.

Africa (Continents) by Leila Merrell Foster

Explore the continent of Africa and learn some intersting and amazing facts!

Look What Came From Africa by Miles Harvey

Learn about all the things that have come from Africa (music, food, fashion, art, and games).

Poetry Window

In Awakening the Heart, Georgia Heard has a chapter entitled Making a Poetry Environment: A Place Where Your Life Really Matters. She describes many wonderful ideas for setting up a classroom environment "to nurture the poet inside all of our students."  One example, from a second grade teacher in New York, really caught our attention.  As Georgia Heard writes,  Fran Rosen "framed part of a window with crepe paper and called it the poetry window - where kids could look out, daydream, observe the world, and write down what they saw."  Here's our version (thanks to my assistant, Pam Maxey).  This window is not in our classroom.  Instead, it's in the stairwell and invites the entire community (parents, teachers, and children) to look outside.  The window looks out over the courtyard.  From this view you can see hundred year old walls climbing with ivy, young children playing and running,  high schoolers soaking up the sun on their lunch break, squirrels causing mischief and a mama crow resting in her nest in a giant old oak tree. Here are a couple of the poems we've added to the window so far:

The Common Crow

Frightening feet.
Likes to eat.
Harsh call.
Black and glossy.
Rude and bossy.
Common crow.
Go! Go!

©1996 Douglas Florian, on the wing
Voyager Books, Harcourt, Inc.


             If you stood with your feet in the earth
                    Up to your ankles in the grass
           And you arms had leaves running over them
       And every once in awhile one of your leafy fingers
                  Was nudged by a bird flying past.
             If the skin that covers you from top to tip
                       Wasn't skin at all, but bark
         And you never moved your feet from their place
                                In the earth
              But stood rooted in that one spot come
                                     Rain
                                     Wind
                                     Snow
                                     Sleet
                                     Thaw
                                     Spring
                                    Summer
                                     Winter
                                       Fall   
                                      Blight
                                       Bug
                                       Day       
                        Then you would be me:
                                     A tree.

© 1972 Karla Kuskin, Any Me I Want To Be: Poems
Harper Collins

Celebrating Adoption

I am very fortunate to teach at a school that truly embodies diversity.  Our students come from families rich in cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds that represent 65 countries!  Diversity comes in other forms as well, and last year an Adoptive Parents Discussion Group was created.  According to one of our school counselors, Linda Wax, this group had a goal this year to create a "display that fulfilled several purposes: to create a sense of pride in the children from adoptive families, to educate children and adults about some of the "sameness" but also "differences" in families who are formed through adoption, and as a way of celebrating and highlighting yet another form of diversity in our school."  After much brainstorming and collaboration, this is the result that now brightens our school lobby:

To give the children an active role this project, they were asked to think of something they'd like other people to know about being adopted.  They illustrated thier ideas through drawings, collage and poems. These are some of their images that surround the tree:

An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place or cicumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break.
                                                -Chinese Legend

Me, my mom, and my dad at the beach.

 

This is the house I lived in when I was adopted.

We all share the same sun.

Amazing Second Grade Poets

Whenever I teach poetry to my students, I am always delighted and amazed to see what they create.  Even the children who struggle with written expression or those who are uninspired by other genres of writing, seem to find new motivation and excitement in writing their own poems.  Here are just a few from our recent study of poetry.  Happy National Poetry Month!

Shark
By Grace

The ocean on
A stormy day
Is like a shark,
because it is gray
and scary.

The Earth
By Jacob

The earth is like a huge ball
that rolls around the sun.

I Love
By Danielle

I love kisses
The chocolate
Kind and
The
Real kind.

                          A Star
                        By Bailey

                    A star twinkles
                    As I gaze at it.
                  And we both stare
                    At each other.

 

Airplanes
By Jameel

Airplanes fly
Like white birds
In the sky.

Soccer
By William

A soccer ball
flies like a plane.
The goalie jumps
like a spring.
The player
runs like the wind.

The Book
By Charlie

I made a book,
A book that even the whole world would want to read.
They would give me gold, silver…anything.
But I say “no”. 
I made it.
I keep it.

My Big Family
By Gabriel

Like most kids, I have a mom.
I call her Mami.
Like most kids, I have a dad.
I call him Daddy.

My sister, Yasmin, is mean to me.
I just do not know why.
I have a brother, Julian,
who’s just a tiny baby.

I love to stay at Grandma’s house.
Again, I don’t know why.
I love to stay at Papa’s house.
He even has a basement.

As usual, we do things.
We eat and drink and sleep.
We drive to visit our family.
Sometimes we get excited.

We have our favorite colors,
Green, blue and even more.
When we get mad,
We are sorry.

Someone else is special.
Here’s some clues: He’s a boy.
He is very smart.
The person is… Me!