Class #24--Pilot Math Class

Monday, November 29, 10:55 A.M. Pilot Math Class. Class #24 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” voyage. As the cute students enter class, I receive several hugs, which is certainly a great way to come back from Thanksgiving break! Mrs. Chasney explains that the class will begin to explore all sorts of shapes. She has small cubes, cylinders, cones, spheres, and triangles to pass around. The seven students eagerly handle the objects, while making insightful comments about the objects. Mrs. Chasney patiently and skillfully describes the objects and answers questions (and a wide variety of remarks!) from the attentive pupils. The students then line up in front of Mrs. Chasney, who has small household objects in a brown paper bag. One by one, the boys and girls close their eyes, put their hands in the bag, take out an object, and then place it next to the objects the class had seen in the opening discussion. Some of the new objects include a Rubik’s Cube, a toilet paper cylinder, a tube of lip balm, a small plastic Christmas tree, and a marble, which keeps rolling away from the other objects! Mrs. Chasney explains, “These kinds of shapes are everywhere. You should look for them while driving, at home, in the kitchen, so keep an eye out for them.” After a quick number game, the students sit on the floor…and I have the pleasure of reading them a book aloud! The book was perfect for the occasion as it colorfully described a wide variety of shapes and how they interact with each other and with people on a daily basis. In what was a truly fitting end to class, one student noticed that I had small, multicolored squares on my tie. Congratulations to Mrs. Chasney and her bright, enthusiastic students for accomplishing so much today!

Class #23--9th Age French

Monday, November 22, 1:15 P.M. 9th Age French Class. Class #23 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” trek. Class has just begun as I walk into Madame Cooke’s bright, colorful French classroom. Eighteen attentive girls are already engrossed in the first activity, which is the sharing of homework. A number of girls walk to the front of the room and read aloud their homework, which was to cut out or draw a picture of a person and then describe, in French of course, what she is wearing. Madame encourages and praises the girls while correcting their pronunciation, when needed. For the second activity, the students come to the front and share items with French connections, such as cookies, books, and colored pencils. Quickly, the class is on to the next part of the lesson. Madame Cooke has six clothing items written on the board, in English. The girls attempt to translate the words into French; they each have a small white board at their desk and show the board to Madame Cooke after writing each term. For example, “red hat” is translated to “le chapeau rouge.” “White socks” becomes “les chaussettes blanches.” Madame reviews each phrase and makes sure the girls know the correct pronunciation. The students are soon working on a folder paper. Madame reminds the girls that “spelling counts” as they work to describe fully a picture of a woman. The students have to describe the subject’s name, nationality, place of residence, and clothing. The girls are working hard as Madame circulates through the rows answering questions and assisting students. I am impressed with how much the class has accomplished in 30 minutes. Bravo to Madame Cooke and her girls!

Class #22--6th Grade Spanish

Monday, November 22, 10:15 A.M. 6th Grade Spanish Class. Class #22 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” expedition. It has been almost two weeks since I have observed a class! It is amazing how busy the school day and my schedule can be, but, as the saying goes, “Busy is good.” I am going to attempt a rare two observations today, with both being foreign language classes. As I walk into Room 305, I hear the sounds of another language. Indeed, it is Senora Sachar giving opening instructions, I think, to her class. I say “I think” because I do not speak Spanish and do not understand the dialogue! Interestingly, the fact that I do not understand Spanish allows me to focus on the mechanics of the class rather than on the content being taught. I am impressed with how Senora Sachar orchestrates her class, which is conducted almost entirely in Spanish. She makes sure to involve every student on the class, by calling on them and/or having them come up to the SmartBoard and circle and then translate a verb in the story. “More hands up,” she exhorts in Spanish at one point, even though several hands are already in air. Senora wants all of the students to be engaged and actively participating, and they respond to her dynamic style. Frequently, Senora gesticulates to help explain her comments. About halfway through the period, the class listens to a Selena Gomez song (in Spanish), and the students have to write down all of the words they recognize. I am bouncing to the song’s upbeat tempo as I type this! At the end of the song, Senora states, "I don't expect you to recognize all of the words. She has a different accent than what you are used to. It is important that you hear different accents during the course of the year." In the final few minutes of class, the students take a quiz, which consists of 20 matching questions (verbs), and 10 English to Spanish vocabulary translations. For an enthusiastic, productive class, I say "Gracias" to Senora and her students!

The Power of Great Teachers

As my regular readers know, I am making a concerted effort to spend more time in classrooms and with students this year. To that end, in addition to my morning handshaking, monthly folder paper reviews, and 5th grade basketball coaching, I am attempting to observe 50 full-period classes, converse with all Middle School advisories (see November 3rd post about respect and effort), and meet individually with all members of the 8th grade. Although I have only conducted about five of the 8th grade "interviews," a theme is quickly emerging: the power of great teachers. I am asking each student a set of questions, and one of them is as follows: "What has made the Calvert experience special for you?" Thus far, all the 8th graders have immediately mentioned their teachers, all the way back to Pilot Class in some cases. While I am not surprised one bit at their assertion, it is certainly heartwarming to hear from the students what I already knew--that people make Calvert the special place that it is!

Class #21--5th Grade Math

Tuesday, November 9, 10:15 A.M. 5th Grade Math Class. Class #21 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. As I walk into room 314, Mr. Rossi is reviewing the schedule for the next few days of class. He then asks a student to uncover the first objective for the day by using the “eraser” mode on the SmartBoard: to round any decimal up or down to deal with estimates in real situations. Mr. Rossi is an avid user of technology in his math classes. Whenever I walk by his room, he is using the SmartBoard, which the students really enjoy. The class briefly reviews decimal estimation with multiplying and dividing. The key word to remember when estimating, a boy mentions and Mr. Ross affirms, is “about.” An estimate needs to be “about” the exact answer, but one can save time by not finding the exact answer. Estimation is a very important tool in the math toolbox. Another student uncovers the second objective for the day, which is hidden in a different corner : to use metric units of mass and capacity. Here is a question to shake the metric rust off my readers’ brains: when converting from meters to kilometers, do you divide or multiple? The answer is…divide. Although it seems counterintuitive, when you convert from a smaller unit to a bigger unit, you divide, because you end up with fewer of the bigger units, e.g. 2,000 meters = 2 kilometers. Throughout class, Mr. Rossi has the students working in three groups of four. They are tasked with figuring out questions to ask the other groups related to the topics being discussed at the moment. For example, “Tom and four friends each won lottery jackpot of $2.541M in a lottery. About how much was the total jackpot?” After rounding 2.54 to 3, the class decided that $15M was the estimation. The class then had a discussion of whether to round a number like 247 to 200 or to 250 when rounding, as in “About how much is 247 x 2?” Mr. Rossi explained that estimating should, ideally, be done in your head, so either 200 x 2 or 250 x 2 is appropriate, given what each student can do in his/her head. He stressed that the purpose of estimation is to find an approximate, not an exact, answer. Bravo to Mr. Rossi and his students for an enthusiastic, chock-full math class!

Class #20--6th Grade Photoshop

Monday, November 8, 10:15 A.M. 6th Grade Photoshop Class. Class #20 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” voyage. It is a crisp Monday morning, and with the time change, it just feels like we are starting school “late.” I must admit it feels good to be on class #20, with class #21 scheduled for tomorrow. I should be half-way done my goal of 50 classes within about a month. It has been such a pleasure—and so informative—for me to spend this “quality time” in classrooms across campus. Today in Ms. Cheston’s room, it is the first class of Photoshop, which is part of the 6th grade fine arts rotation, along with art, music, and art history. The purpose of Photoshop is to learn about some of the key elements of manipulating photographs, such as editing and resizing. Furthermore, the course allows students to explore their artistic side in a digital manner. Ms. Cheston, our Middle School Technology Coordinator and the 2004 winner of the Apgar Award for Excellence in Instruction, reviews some of the ground rules for the class before assigning the students to work in pairs on the computers in Room 201. The students log in and are quickly experimenting with Photoshop tools and shortcuts. For example, F12 will return the students to their original picture. In just this first class, they work on several activities, such as altering the brightness of a somewhat dark picture. The darkness of the classroom itself prevents me from taking any good photos of the students, but believe me when I say that they are learning a great deal and are truly enjoying themselves. I love the message Ms. Cheston tells her students: “I want you to make mistakes. I want you to play. I want you to look at the tools in Photoshop and figure our how they work. Play, make mistakes, and be creative. You will not crash the computer. Teach ME something in Photoshop this year.” I look forward to returning to Photoshop in a few weeks to see how far the students have progressed!

Class #19--6th Grade Art

Thursday, November 3, 10:15 A.M. 6th Grade Art Class. Class #19 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. On a rainy, chilly Thursday morning, I am in Mrs. Kamp’s art class. It is the final class of the quarter for 6th grade art, so the students are hustling to finish their projects. If they cannot finish by 11:00 A.M., they must wrap up their work during study hall later in the day. After reading about medieval gargoyles and grotesques, the students have been sculpting their own creature for the last three classes. Mrs. Kamp spent the first few minutes of class demonstrating how they might create wings and last-minute details, and then the class members eagerly started their independent work. It is evident that the students are producing high-quality pieces while thoroughly enjoying themselves. There is a great deal of variety among the pieces. You can enjoy a few pictures below. Did you know that I am actually an assistant art teacher? That is not really true, but I have turned on the kiln on the weekend on numerous occasions for Mrs. Kamp. Perhaps I should put “Assistant Kiln Operator” on my business card! During class, one of the boys said, “Mrs, Kamp is a very good art teacher.” I agree! I have to sign off—time to meet with an 8th grade boys’ advisory.

Respect + Effort in Middle School

As my readers know, I wanted to make a concerted effort to spend more time in classrooms this year. In addition to observing 50 full-period classes, I am aiming to meet with all of the Middle School advisories over the course of the next few months. Unless the advisor has a particular topic that he/she would like me to cover, I will have the students do some self-evaluation on the effort and respect they have displayed in school thus far in the year. Yesterday, I met with an 8th grade girls’ group, and today I talked with a 6th grade boys’ advisory. The students did some reflecting and writing about questions related to effort and respect, and then we discussed their responses. I am collecting all the worksheets and then will do some analysis of the responses once all my visits are completed. I will be interested to see, for example, how different grade levels judge their own effort and how students of varying ages and genders speak about respecting themselves, others, and Calvert.