Construction paper, glue, and twelve feet of butcher paper

Today brought out the artsy, glitter-covered side of me. I finished all my packages for students - I went for both the bribery (sweets) and for the sincere (personal letters). All in all, each student received a small pack of candies (I kept the leftovers of course) and I wrote a 1/2 page letter on nice water-marked paper to each kid commending them for spirited participation, diligent work ethic, inquisitiveness and more.

During class, I asked each kid to write a letter to a new student next year telling them a few things they liked and didn't like about the class. In reality, it was my sorta-deceptive way of getting an honest evaluation of the class. One of the top students in the class wrote a heart-warming letter that basically said I was his favorite and best teacher, I was fair, kind, and the material was exciting. What more could I want?! Another girl said I didn't give much homework but I send them to YO! (detention/homework make-up time).

After the typical day, we transitioned from our site at the Middle School to the Upper School (down the street) and we are setting up a series of exhibits to showcase top student work in each class. There are lots of tri-fold poster boards, lots of papers on the walls, and lots of middle school art projects. I came home (at the dorm!) to glitter, courtesy of my fellow Breakthrough Staff and basically, I'm sick of arts and crafts, yet I get to do my own now, for several hours. Hope I don't drown in paint... I'll post photos when I'm done.

Showing the love...

Special thanks to my recent commenters! I don't know how many of you are actually reading this, but I think it's around 10 -- hearing from you gives me strength (almost like we're in it together!).

Hope your summers and your adventures are as rewarding (and more restful!) than mine!

Charades, Art and Enthusiasm

Today we played brain charades, I had words including the brain lobes and actions like "walking" or "memory" or "posture" or "heart rate" and the kids in my second period had a blast! They were very competitive and had a great time. I was so thrilled to see how much they remembered! And I targeted different "intelligences" or learning styles than usual by letting them act it out.

Fourth period was an entirely different issue. How do you show up at school with no pencil, not paper, not even a purse or bookbag? She's been irritating me this summer, but all the rest of my kids are great. I think I got kids in the upper third of the cleverness spectrum, so it's been rewarding to see how a kid can drop "corpus callosum" or "reaction time" or "retina" in casual conversation at... age 12.

Today, after meetings, rehearsals, and art projects I left work around 7:15 and went supply shopping for my parting gifts for kids.

Tonight: I called all my students (which takes longer than you'd expect) to check in on their projects. About half have emailed final copies to me which is awesome. I have to make the little goody bags of sweets to say bye and also write 10 more letters (personalized for each kid with strengths and advice - I'm encouraging a few kids to consider running for student government because they are great leaders.) Oddly enough, I seem to remember someone doing that for me when I was in 9th grade... see how I turned out :-D.... And I have to format and create my newspaper template for the kids. It'll be a long night, but it's not about us. It's about the kids -- and they will appreciate the notes and tokens. Tomorrow is our last day in the classroom, which I didn't think I'd be sad about, but think I actually will be a bit.

Fun Classes, LONG day

I taught for half the class period, and I think it went really well. We started with a discussion of language in humans (sound-meaning connection) and compared it to animal communication (often a physical change). Then I discussed Broca's Area and Wernike's Area (parts of the temporal lobe that control speech production and comprehension). I barely skimmed the surface of the linguistics, psychology, and neurobiology involved. The lab I work in at Harvard researches the evolutionary aspects of animal communication, so I was excited to touch the topic with my kids.

I shared a bunch of awesome YouTube clips as a way to integrate technology. My projector didn't work, but I cannot complain. I had 6 and 4 kids, so my giant laptop screen was sufficient!

Here are links to the clips I used:

McGurk Effect (is speech JUST auditory or visual too?)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aFPtc8BVdJk

Lyre Bird imitating cameras and chainsaws
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y

Bee Waggle Dance
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-7ijI-g4jHg&mode=related&search=


The kids' projects are coming along well - ideally they will be done tomorrow, but that's quite possibly not going to happen. So, we can work tomorrow and turn in everything on Thursday, which is our last day of class. Estimating how long to spend on a project has been a challenge because with three grade levels and a varying levels of enthusiasm, some kids do a lot while others manage to spend a long time doing nothing.

The days are very long because with Celebration coming up on Saturday we have a lot of work to display, skits to rehearse, songs to learn, and all sorts of things. It's 3-4 hours long and includes an expo of all academic work (books written, collages created, posters, student essays all that jazz) as well as a recognition of every department and a 30-45 minute student-written play. It's a big deal, and the kids are psyched, but the Teachers are getting worn out.

"It's not about us. It's about the kids" is the motto continually chanted by our Admin team, but at the same time, we're just not used to this kind of demands on our time. We do it, almost always with a smile, but teaching alone is exhausting, and to add to that 3 hours of staff meeting, painting posters, training and professional development.... sigh. I got home before 6pm tonight, which was thrilling itself!!

Overachievers

My kids all wrote a ton this weekend - I was really excited. Apparently, I had underestimated their abilities. One of my kids had a full page, front and back written out about the brain lobes and their uses in football, another wrote very intelligently about the causes, symptoms and treatments for schizophrenia. I was truly amazed, and very proud!

Today has gone well - no real commitments except my letters to my kids.

We're in the midst of sun shower - it's bright and sunny and rain drops are fallin' on my head...

Monday's Lesson Plan

Because the last time I posted a sample lesson plan, I actually had to print it from this Blog because I forgot to email it to myself the night before. I have successfully emailed it, but here's another example of a lesson plan, but it's apportioning class time to work on our newspaper project.

Holly Metter / Neuroscience

Date: Week 6 / Day 1 / July 23
Subject: Class time to work on project

Lesson Objectives:
By the end of class, students will:

-complete a rough draft of full article and
brainstorm an idea for a picture

-choose a title for the class newspaper

Lesson Procedure:

Do Now: Match the following:

1. Parietal a. personality, social skills, planning, memory

2. Temporal b. spatial reasoning

3. Occipital c. sound and speech

4. Frontal d. connects right and left hemisphere

5. Cerebellum e. breathing, heart rate and connects to spinal cord

6. Brainstem f. vision

7. Corpus callosum g. coordination, walking, posture

Select Newspaper title (5 minutes)

We will brainstorm a list (Daily Dendrite, Brain Bulletin, The Brainiac)

We will vote, majority rules

Review Expectations (5 mins)

I will review with the class what I expect from their assignment:

* 4-5 paragraph essay

* Clever title for article

* an image

Student Work Time (30 mins)

* Students will spend the remainder of the time working on their essays.

* By the end of the class, I will personally check in with each student to answer any questions about their assignment or their work so far. I hope to proofread the work so far.

* By the end of class, each student will have a rough draft of their essay (4 to 5 paragraphs) and a title selected for it.

Homework: Complete rough draft and revise it – spellcheck it. Find image to include. If possible, type essay. Bring revised draft to class Tuesday.

Possible problems:

1. If students only have a soft copy of their document, I will send them to the library with a note asking a Teacher to please print and send the kid back to class

2. If students do not have sufficient information or an adequate outline, I will work with them to develop a better structure. I have given most students outside resources that are appropriate.

3. If necessary, I will pull a kid out of ALA Monday to continue working on this project.

Barbeque at the Beach... in the Rain!

It's been a slow and lazy weekend, and somewhat productive. I've done about 3 hours of work for a club at school, talked to Travis a lot, slept a lot, read a lot (HP #6), and even called all my kids to check in about their assignments this weekend and written personalized letters to several of my kids. On the last day of class, I'm going to give them each a letter and some photos of the class and the brain dissection too.

This afternoon, the Admins all hosted a BBQ at the beach at Key Biscayne today, but sadly it poured all day. We made do and enjoyed our food anyway. Burgers and hot dogs and soda and cookies... all courtesy of our Exec Director. Yum. Oh, and by car it's only 15 minutes away, in contrast to the hour and half by bus. Oh well.. it's always a fun trip. A bunch of folks played beach volleyball and several of us got in the water. It was placid and pleasant, despite the continuous drizzle.

We're back now, and dried off. Here are some photos to tell the tale. Gotta love free food and crazy companions and awesome alliterations!