I think I've written about this every year since I've started working at SGS, but whenever March lurks around the corner, I am made aware of two important events. First, is International Women's Day, which is observed on March 8th. But around this time another event occurs though the specific date is a bit more difficult to pin down. After four years of observing this event, though, I've come to acquaint it with International Women's Day though I call it Irrational Teenager Day.
It looks like this...perhaps you've seen hints of it around your house:
Scenario One: Beginning of the year...Septemberish
Student 1: Oh no, I forgot my paper.
Student 2: No worries, I have some you can borrow.
Student 1: Oh, thank you so much. I'll pay you back tomorrow.
Scenario One: March 8thish
Student 1: I don't have paper. I can't do the assignment.
Student 2: Me either.
Student 1: So, did you read about Brittney in the paper today?
Student 2: Of course I did!
Scenario Two: Septemberish
Teacher 1: Can I get a volunteer to help rearrange the tables and pick up some garbage in the classroom? (Pause) My oh my, so many volunteers to choose from.
Student 1: Can't we all help?
The rest of the class: Yeah, it's more fair that way.
Teacher 1: Okay, thanks for your help!
All students: You're welcome!
Scenario Two: March 8ish
Teacher: Can I get a volunteer to help rearrange the tables and pick up some garbage in the classroom. (Very long pause) It doesn't have to be a lot of students, just a few. (long silence) Come on, don't make me "volunteer" you. (At this point the students start to look busy, but very few of them move tables or pick up garbage)
Okay, so maybe these are a bit extreme and certainly not every student behaves this way all the time, but more and more, as the girls age, what I call 6th grade behaviors begin to emerge. These behaviors generally take on the above qualities (no longer volunteering, no longer being helpful, demanding versus asking, etc.), but they can also show themselves as a moody silence or an outrageously hyperactive immaturity. It's at this point in the year when the students realize there are more of them than there is of us. While some are still very helpful and polite, others have temporary bouts of politeness amnesia -- they've forgotten their eager, cooperate selves and have instead "matured" into dual personalities -- love/hate, kind/mean-spirited, helpful/lazy, happy/unhappy, level/moody.
Once, I was explaining this to an 8th grade parent. "Remember," I said, "When your daughter loved you one minute and hated you the next?" The parent looked at me confused and said, "I remember the hate part, but not the love part!"
She was kidding of course, but Middle School is time of great fluctuations (remember?) and often, from one minute to the next, the hormones are playing pinball inside the girls and it's difficult to know which student will emerge at any given moment -- the gentle, helpful girl or the moody, perpetually irritated girl.
What do we do at these moments?
Breathe...it's the only cure as well as relishing the times that the sweetness overwhelms the irritability, the generosity overwhelms the selfishness.
Good luck!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Special Guests
While we take a lot of field trips in 5th grade (check out the Upcoming Field Trip link), we also get some wonderful guests into our classroom as well. This week we had two special guests -- Erin McGourty from King County Wastewater Treatment plant and Jeff Hogan of Killer Whale Tales.
Erin's presentation was about the impact of chemicals on our environment. In her presentation, Erin had the girls look at different household chemicals to check out the labeling. When those chemicals enter our habitat -- through sewers and and sewage systems -- we struggle removing them and into our Sound they go. Out of sight, out of mind? No, in actuality it enters the food chain and though it may not feel like it's our food chain, it is.
Jeff's presentation was not only informative, but entertaining. Jeff has a passion for the study of Orca Whales. His passion began in 1970 when he saw his first Orca in Denver. Denver? Well, it was actually at SeaWorld, but seeing that Orca changed his life. In fact today, Jeff is an Orca researcher spending his summers tracking local Orca and the rest of the year presenting his research (and his Orca passion) to schools all around the state.
Both presentations are part of of IMPACT unit, in which we are elbow deep, studying all the ways in which the environment struggles under the various impacts it must endure. This is not a happy unit, but not all learning is "happy" learning. Instead, we're exposing the girls to the reality of our impact hoping to inspire them to take ACTION (our final unit) or better, to become Stewards.
While this unit might be difficult emotionally, what we've found (and are even beginning to see now) is that the girls really take on the responsibility of gaining KNOWLEDGE, use that knowledge to feel COMPASSION, and with their compassion learning to take ACTION.
When we return from Mid-Winter break, we'll also begin our journey to become Beach Naturalists learning about the Marine Invertebrates of Puget Sound.
And yes, there are more field trips on the way...as the weather gets warmer, we'll be mucky around outside more and more.
Have a great vacation!
Ms. GreNini
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
We're Going!
Dear Families,
After we tallied the results of the NCI survey, we are happy to announce that we WILL BE GOING (March 24-26)! Thank you to everyone for taking the time to fill out the survey as well as dig deep in your pockets to fund this wonderful trip. In addition, thank you to families who provided more money for grants.
We're very excited about the trip for many reasons:
1. It's a beautiful location
2. This year they may even be snow left on the ground
3. It's a great bonding experience for the class
4. The folks at NCI are da bomb
5. The food is to die for
6. And we're super excited that the researchers from the UW may be going with us!
More details about the trip (packing lists, room assignments, etc.) will be coming soon. Also, Lee Whitford, the Naturalist from NCI will hopefully be coming to SGS to present a wonderful slideshow about Mountain School. Often they have a "parent night" as well, but we'll keep you informed as to the status of that event.
Finally, we've reserved a bus to take us to NCI so we won't need parent drivers (we're sure this is a relief as it is quite a drive...beautiful, but long!). Thanks to all of you who offered up your services.
And thanks again for making this trip possible. The girls are very excited (a bit nervous, too), but very excited. We are too!
Stay tuned,
Ms. GreNini
After we tallied the results of the NCI survey, we are happy to announce that we WILL BE GOING (March 24-26)! Thank you to everyone for taking the time to fill out the survey as well as dig deep in your pockets to fund this wonderful trip. In addition, thank you to families who provided more money for grants.
We're very excited about the trip for many reasons:
1. It's a beautiful location
2. This year they may even be snow left on the ground
3. It's a great bonding experience for the class
4. The folks at NCI are da bomb
5. The food is to die for
6. And we're super excited that the researchers from the UW may be going with us!
More details about the trip (packing lists, room assignments, etc.) will be coming soon. Also, Lee Whitford, the Naturalist from NCI will hopefully be coming to SGS to present a wonderful slideshow about Mountain School. Often they have a "parent night" as well, but we'll keep you informed as to the status of that event.
Finally, we've reserved a bus to take us to NCI so we won't need parent drivers (we're sure this is a relief as it is quite a drive...beautiful, but long!). Thanks to all of you who offered up your services.
And thanks again for making this trip possible. The girls are very excited (a bit nervous, too), but very excited. We are too!
Stay tuned,
Ms. GreNini
Monday, February 4, 2008
Processed Cheese by Ms. Gretchen
When I was a kid, I thought the word "process" had to do with cheese. My parents would say, "It's all part of the process" and in my head, I thought of huge blocks of Velveeta cheese...that rubbery, unnaturally orange cheese from which my parents made melted cheese sandwiches.
I was not a fan of Velveeta cheese and therefore, not a fan of the word "process." Not until I was in college did I truly understand the difference between process as in cheese and process as in "work to be done to complete a task or reach a goal." But even now, when I hear the word or say the word process, plastic cheese comes to mind.
Be that as it may, Term Two is all about the Writing Process -- the work needed to be done to complete an effective writing task and/or achieve a goal of a polished piece of writing. I know teachers across America teach the "writing process" of draft, edit, rewrite, draft, edit rewrite, but still students in 5th grade struggle with it. While they might be willing to write a draft of a writing assignment and perhaps even take the time to edit it and maybe just maybe rewrite it once, many of the young writers in our class are not willing to do more than one draft let alone three or four.
I try to tell the kids the story of writer Gary Paulson who's written many, many books, his most famous being "Hatchet." He claims to have rewritten "Hatchet" over 200 times, tweaking it again and again to get it just right (just write?). There's the quote from the writer Oscar Wilde who said, "I spent the whole afternoon rewriting my story. I took the word "the" out of one paragraph and hours later, put it back in."
Still, many of our students don't buy it. They don't understand that "process" means doing it again and again until the piece is exactly what you want it to be...though not exactly because there is no "exact" in terms of writing. One of my favorite writers, Terry Tempest Williams, says that you get a piece "to where you are and then you let it go." For Terry Tempest Williams this meant eight years of writing on her memoir "Refuge" and even then she claims she's not satisfied with it.
For many of the girls, getting it where they are is simply doing the writing assignment and then turning it in. They wipe their hands clean of it and give me quite the evil eye when I give them feedback and tell them to write it again. And the death looks increase if I give them even more feedback and tell them to write it one more time.
But this Term we're participating in a "Writers Workshop" that is set up to improve the girls' understanding of "process" as well as help them develop as writers. Writing Workshop works this way: The girls are given a topic (generally a broad one) and they have a week to write a short piece (1-5 pages in length). Then they bring their piece to a small group setting where they share it with their peers. They are given feedback from their classmates as well as from me, then I take the writing home and give it a more fine-toothed comb editing, circling misspelled words, adding and subtracting punctuation, and offering suggestions in the margins.
Once they receive their paper back from me, they rewrite the piece refining and expanding on their original ideas. Next, they read it again to the class and get final comments both from their classmates and from me. In between all of that, I assign another topic so they have two pieces they are working on -- one in its early stages and one in a more advanced stage. A writing coach once told me that if you want to get published, you need to have at least 13 pieces you've sent out to various publications. 13!!! Luckily for the girls, I'll only ask for perhaps 3 to be in the hopper.
The goal, of course, is that the girls will not only have produced some very good writing, but they will be very familiar with the "process" of writing. Not the cheese, mind you, but the bigger picture of process as in that hard work one must do in order to reach a goal or complete a task.
I was not a fan of Velveeta cheese and therefore, not a fan of the word "process." Not until I was in college did I truly understand the difference between process as in cheese and process as in "work to be done to complete a task or reach a goal." But even now, when I hear the word or say the word process, plastic cheese comes to mind.
Be that as it may, Term Two is all about the Writing Process -- the work needed to be done to complete an effective writing task and/or achieve a goal of a polished piece of writing. I know teachers across America teach the "writing process" of draft, edit, rewrite, draft, edit rewrite, but still students in 5th grade struggle with it. While they might be willing to write a draft of a writing assignment and perhaps even take the time to edit it and maybe just maybe rewrite it once, many of the young writers in our class are not willing to do more than one draft let alone three or four.
I try to tell the kids the story of writer Gary Paulson who's written many, many books, his most famous being "Hatchet." He claims to have rewritten "Hatchet" over 200 times, tweaking it again and again to get it just right (just write?). There's the quote from the writer Oscar Wilde who said, "I spent the whole afternoon rewriting my story. I took the word "the" out of one paragraph and hours later, put it back in."
Still, many of our students don't buy it. They don't understand that "process" means doing it again and again until the piece is exactly what you want it to be...though not exactly because there is no "exact" in terms of writing. One of my favorite writers, Terry Tempest Williams, says that you get a piece "to where you are and then you let it go." For Terry Tempest Williams this meant eight years of writing on her memoir "Refuge" and even then she claims she's not satisfied with it.
For many of the girls, getting it where they are is simply doing the writing assignment and then turning it in. They wipe their hands clean of it and give me quite the evil eye when I give them feedback and tell them to write it again. And the death looks increase if I give them even more feedback and tell them to write it one more time.
But this Term we're participating in a "Writers Workshop" that is set up to improve the girls' understanding of "process" as well as help them develop as writers. Writing Workshop works this way: The girls are given a topic (generally a broad one) and they have a week to write a short piece (1-5 pages in length). Then they bring their piece to a small group setting where they share it with their peers. They are given feedback from their classmates as well as from me, then I take the writing home and give it a more fine-toothed comb editing, circling misspelled words, adding and subtracting punctuation, and offering suggestions in the margins.
Once they receive their paper back from me, they rewrite the piece refining and expanding on their original ideas. Next, they read it again to the class and get final comments both from their classmates and from me. In between all of that, I assign another topic so they have two pieces they are working on -- one in its early stages and one in a more advanced stage. A writing coach once told me that if you want to get published, you need to have at least 13 pieces you've sent out to various publications. 13!!! Luckily for the girls, I'll only ask for perhaps 3 to be in the hopper.
The goal, of course, is that the girls will not only have produced some very good writing, but they will be very familiar with the "process" of writing. Not the cheese, mind you, but the bigger picture of process as in that hard work one must do in order to reach a goal or complete a task.
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